When Northwestern graduate defensive lineman Najee Story picked off a pass at USC’s 25-yard line and began bolting it to the end zone with a chance to give the Wildcats their first lead of the game in the second quarter, redshirt junior quarterback Jayden Maiava had one goal in mind: Stop him from scoring, no matter what.

As the last Trojan standing between Story and the end zone, Maiava slammed into him at the 1-yard line, knocking the ball out of his hands and through the back of the end zone for a touchback.

“I thought I’d just go out there and sacrifice my body for my brothers,” Maiava said of the play in a postgame news conference.

83 seconds later, redshirt freshman running back King Miller took a 12-yard run into the end zone — after rushing for 55 yards just two plays prior — to put No. 17 USC (7-2, 5-1 Big Ten) up 21-14, a score that had seemed certain to go in favor of Northwestern (5-4, 3-3) just moments before. The Trojans wouldn’t relinquish that lead for the rest of the night, cruising through the second half to a 38-17 victory Friday night at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

“Honestly, I didn’t know what was going on,” Miller said of the sequence in a postgame news conference. “[Maiava] does everything. Superman, you know? Casual Jayden things.”

Usual suspects carry Trojan offense

Maiava came out with a much cleaner stat line than his season-worst performance against Nebraska (7-3, 4-3) last week, completing 24 of his 33 passes for a total of 299 yards and two touchdowns while adding a rushing touchdown on a scramble in the second quarter. As has often been the case this season, most of Maiava’s production came in tandem with his two favorite targets: junior wide receivers Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane.

Lemon kicked off the night’s scoring with a 7-yard reception in the first quarter to conclude a seven-minute opening drive, in which Maiava completed as many passes as he did in the entire game against Nebraska. Lemon ended up with a career-high 161 yards on 11 catches — bolstered by his third play of more than 50 yards this season — and added a rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter to put the Trojans up 35-17.

“He understands defenses, he understands our entire offense, not just running routes,” Head Coach Lincoln Riley said of Lemon in a postgame news conference. “He understands what we’re trying to accomplish, and I think that shows up.”

After making headlines with a show-stopping one-handed touchdown catch in USC’s dominant win over Georgia Southern (4-5, 2-3 Sun Belt) in September, Lane gave Trojan fans another clip for the highlight reels in the third quarter.

Despite being completely engulfed by Wildcat graduate defensive back Fred Davis II, Lane managed to haul in a 10-yard pass from Maiava with one hand, bobbling the ball slightly before securing it as he and Davis fell to the ground. Lane ended his night with 74 yards on a season-high seven catches.

“I’ve been seeing it in practice for the last two years,” redshirt junior safety Kamari Ramsey said of Lane’s catch in a postgame news conference. “It’s expected at this point. It’s gonna continue.”

Miller continued to be USC’s primary option on the ground in the absence of its two top running backs, running for 127 yards on 15 carries to go along with the touchdown after Maiava’s forced fumble. The former walk-on has recorded triple-digit yards and a score in three of the Trojans’ last four games, and his 7.9-yard average on 80 carries this season is the highest of any Big Ten running back with as many attempts.

Defense suffocates Wildcats in second half

After Northwestern’s first two drives of the game both ended in touchdowns, it looked like the USC defense was in for a long night. In particular, the Trojans had no answer for redshirt sophomore running back Caleb Komolafe, who totalled 97 yards on eight rushes and two receptions in those two drives alone — scarily reminiscent of Notre Dame (7-2) junior running back Jeremiyah Love’s dominant performance in USC’s earlier loss to the No. 9 Fighting Irish.

While Komolafe remained Northwestern’s go-to guy, leading the team in both rushing and receiving yards, the Trojans limited him to just one double-digit gain after the second drive and silenced the rest of the Wildcats’ offense, holding them to just one field goal in the final 37 minutes of the game.

“Three points the rest of the way out was huge,” Riley said. “We did a better job in the run game, but the third-down defense is what I really point towards. We settled in there a little bit.”

After converting all three of its third-down attempts in the first drive, Northwestern went just 1-for-9 the rest of the way, forcing the Wildcats to punt four times to USC’s two. The Trojans consistently put pressure on graduate quarterback Preston Stone, breaking up a season-high five passes and recording two sacks — including the first of freshman defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart’s career.

The other sack came courtesy of sophomore defensive tackle Jide Abasiri, who stifled Northwestern’s only significant drive of the second half at USC’s 10-yard line and forced the Wildcats to settle for a field goal. Abasiri broke out for a career-high five solo tackles — more than he had all season entering Friday night — and forced his first career fumble to end the first half.

Sneaky number swap leads to unbelievable trick play

Maiava’s interception-turned-fumble set the momentum for the rest of the game, but the wildest play of the night came earlier in the second quarter.

Facing fourth-and-6 on its own 46-yard line, USC went into punt formation for its second play of the quarter, led by a player wearing redshirt senior punter Sam Johnson’s No. 80. That player was not Johnson, however — it was redshirt senior quarterback Sam Huard.

Huard proceeded to throw a 10-yard pass to a wide-open freshman wide receiver Tanook Hines, giving the Trojans a first down and setting up an eventual touchdown to take a 14-7 lead.

“That’s been on [the roster] for three weeks,” Riley said of the number swap. “It was just a well-thought-out thing … We’ve got some creative guys on staff.”

When asked about the trick play, Lane had one word to say about Huard’s throw: “Dime.”

In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, the Big Ten wrote that it would “continue to review the situation with both institutions,” citing a rule that prevents two players with the same position from wearing the same number.

The Trojans are still very much alive in the College Football Playoff hunt and expect to improve on their initial No. 19 ranking when the second batch of CFP rankings is announced Tuesday. USC will likely need to win its final three games of the season to earn a bid, including a rapidly approaching bout with No. 7 Oregon (8-1, 5-1) in Eugene.

Before then, however, the Trojans will need to get through a dangerous Iowa (6-3, 4-2) team that nearly took down those same Ducks in an 18-16 battle over the weekend. USC will host the Hawkeyes at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.