Welcome to an instant reaction episode of Andy and Ari on three presented by Bent MGM.

And Ari, we just watched Illinois walk off USC.

Illinois tried as hard as it could to give this game away because they were going

into win.

They fumble into the end zone.

USC gets it, comes back, scores.

Basically, Illinois choked away a two touchdown lead.

And then Illinois did kind of what Michigan did to USC last year,

just grind it down the field.

And Michigan had to get in the end zone.

Illinois only needed a field goal and they got it.

I know that USC got stops in that game.

I just don't remember any.

Like it's like, well, they got to stop when they got it. I know that USC got stops in that game. I just don't remember any. Like, it's like, well, they got a stop when they fumbled going into the end zone twice. And the first one probably wasn't actually a fumble because his elbow was down. Yeah, those were the stops. Illinois had a chance to kind of get control of the game before halftime, of course, going into the end zone they They fumble the ball, but it actually wasn't a fumble, but they didn't overturn the call on the field. So, and then they got that other one. The second one actually was a fumble. And credit to Jaden Maiava and Mackay Lemon and the USC offense, because they were awesome down the stretch. But Brett Bilema said it after the game. He's like, I knew we were going to get in field goal range because all you've got to do is run it right at USC and you're going to get where you want to go. Historically in the Lincoln Riley era. It kind of worked that way. And like we were talking during the game, but it feels like every single time USC plays a team that hits hard, they can't win or they struggle mightily. You know, and it's like you feel like this year's was, you know, shaping up to be different because I got to tell you, Andy, Mackay Lemon is one of the best receivers in the country. And Jade Maiava, I thought, played a pretty good game. You know, and it's like USC has the offense in order to do it. Now, you have to acknowledge that they were without their left tackle and their starting center got injured in the middle of the game. And if the starting center doesn't get hurt, they probably get another touchdown. Because remember, the backup center comes in and they run that trick play. And he just caught kind of drifting down field. I mean, it was like the third play he was in.

And so that one, that was a tough break for USC.

So maybe that evens out the Illinois thing that the fumble. It just felt like very reminiscent of the ways USC has come up short in the past a few years.

Now, it wasn't nearly as bad. Like USC's defense two years ago was laughably bad. Oh, this wouldn't even even close two years ago. But I also feel like, too, that Illinois is a very good football team that we, you know, that had a really, really rough night. Now, they're probably not as good as we thought they were, but it's not like that's like a walking terrible team now. That's still a team that can go out and win eight, nine games this year. You know, and it just, you have to be able to match the physicality. And like, I understand we were joking about that tweet that went viral, semi-viral earlier in the week when Lincoln Riley was complaining about how they had the latest kickoff last week and then the earliest kickoff this week. So soft. You created that. And then somebody was like, if only you could play a collection of 11 teams that are also on the West Coast. Like, how can we come up with that? Kevin Clark from ESPN said that. It was so funny.

But you do understand, like, it's a tricky spot. And Andy, to your credit, you must hate yourself right now because you did go against yourself. But like, Andy was walking around in my living room last Sunday. And we were looking at the, like, lines and the spreads of the game. And you're like, 11 a.m. And Champaign, Illinois, they're going to lose. And it was like so funny because that's exactly like what happened.

And I picked USC to cover because I'm an idiot. By the way,

on the first touchdown, Andy, that they gave up to Altmeyer on that run, like looked like

they were playing patty cake out there. And I was like, you remember that play?

It was like they were like this. And it was terrible. It was terrible. So, you know, I don't know that anybody's cooked or that any season's over with, but like,

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