USC vs. Colorado: Score, Highlights and Twitter Reaction

David Zalubowski/Associated Press

USC quarterback Cody Kessler threw for 204 yards and three touchdowns as the USC Trojans (7-3, 5-2 Pac-12) won their fourth game in a row by beating the Colorado Buffaloes (4-7, 1-6 Pac-12) 27-24 in Boulder, Colorado on Friday night.

Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau was knocked out of the game with a left leg injury in the first quarter. He returned to the sidelines with crutches, per Lionel Bienvenu of ABC-7 in Denver. With the Buffaloes down their junior quarterback and coming into Friday losers of five of their last six, general consensus would show that USC should've been in control throughout.

That wasn't the case. Freshman quarterback Cade Apsay worked the short game very well and limited his mistakes. That's about all you can ask for a young quarterback going against a scorching hot Trojans team, and he did a terrific job.

Apsay only threw for 128 yards and two touchdowns, but completed 78 percent of his passes and didn't turn the ball over. It was about as perfect a display of football that a freshman quarterback could put on, given the situation, and Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post took notice:

Colorado jumped out to a 17-3 lead with 3:14 remaining in the first half, scoring 17 unanswered points before USC tacked on a field goal to end the half. It had been awhile since Colorado actually held a lead over the usually-dominant Trojans, per Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times:

But USC would not go away easily. The Trojans scored two touchdowns in the span of three minutes and two seconds, capped off by a Taylor McNamara 2-yard touchdown catch with 2:32 left in the third for USC's first lead since 3-0.

Kessler put on another good performance, completing 17-of-27 passes including a 36-yard bomb to star receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster with 13:55 left in the game, one play after the Trojans blocked a Colorado field goal, to give USC a 27-17 lead and essentially putting the game away.

That blocked field goal would prove costly to the Buffaloes. Apsay found George Frazier with 6:13 to go to make it a 27-24 ballgame. Unfortunately for Colorado, Apsay's inability to stretch the field would prove costly. Aspay missed receiver Devin Ross on 4th and 5 with 1:59 to go to ice the game and give USC its seventh win.

Once left for dead, USC has found new life and is well alive in the Pac-12 title game picture. The Trojans are now a half-game back of the Utah Utes for the top spot in the Pac-12 South. A loss to the Arizona Wildcats on Saturday would put Utah in a tie with USC, but the Trojans own the tiebreaker after the 42-24 win over the Utes on Oct. 24.

Just when you thought it was safe to start throwing the dirt on USC, interim head coach Clay Helton has turned his team around and in position to believe they can contend for a conference championship.

Postgame Reaction

It was just one month ago where the future of USC Football was uncertain.

Steve Sarkisian was fired. Clay Helton took over. The Trojans were a .500 football team that was fighting just to make a bowl game.

Four weeks later, here is USC – a team that can clinch a spot in the Pac-12 championship game if they win their final two games. One of those won’t be easy, going on the road to take on an Oregon Ducks team who, while struggling, can still be a threat at home at any time. After that, it’s a home game against the UCLA Bruins.

That’s all that’s left. Two wins away from one of the more improbable mid-season turnarounds in recent college football memory. The best word to describe this team is how Helton described his Trojans, per Scott Wolf from the Los Angeles Daily News:

Even against a lackluster opponent on Friday night, Colorado played its best game with a freshman quarterback at the helm. Down by 14 points, USC scored 24 straight points and completed a comeback in frigid temperatures when all the momentum was with the Buffaloes.

"I told them that in 21 years of football, I've never been more proud of a group," Helton said, per the Associated Press. "They'll never forget this moment, what we've been through this season ... That's what is really cool — kids who refused to fail."

Even though USC has fought its way back to relevancy, Kessler hasn't been too impressive. 

He's done enough to win games, just like he did Friday night. Kessler threw one interception, but he went 14-for-20 passing the rest of the way. He also completed six of his last nine passes, with three of them as the touchdowns he threw in the second half.

"It was obviously not the start we wanted,"Kessler said, per the AP. "We were down going into halftime, but coach Helton came in and got the guys pumped up. We talked about it and figured out what we were going to do."

When the Trojans beat Utah on Oct. 24, that was an unexpected win (from everyone but the sportsbooks) and was only supposed to catapult USC back into the college football limelight for one week.

That one week has turned into an entire month. That month has been a roller coaster that has somehow become enjoyable for a USC team that had no business being in this position. The Trojans are two wins away from setting up a rematch with the Stanford Cardinal, the team that beat them in Memorial Coliseum on Sept. 19. Of course, USC needs some help, preferably one more loss from Utah.

That might be easier said than done, seeing how Utah has two more home games to close out the year, against UCLA and Colorado. But all USC needs to continue to do is win.

Luck has been on their side, so far. The Trojans just need a little more to complete this improbable 2015 journey.