d was heading for a departure fro | Forum

LOS ANGELES -- Ronald Jones just needed an opportunity to show he was still the running back that became Southern Californias most prolific freshman rusher a season ago. Custom Cleveland Indians Jerseys .With starter Justin Davis sidelined because of injury and the Pac-12s worst run defense trying to stop him, coach Clay Helton knew that the sophomore was ready to explode.Jones rushed for a career-high 223 yards, Sam Darnold threw five touchdowns passes and USC downed California 45-24 on Thursday night.Darnold threw for 231 yards, with Darreus Rogers making six catches for a career-high 97 yards, as the Trojans rolled up a season-high 629 yards of total offense. AcaCedric Ware contributed a career-high 130 yards rushing to USCs total of 398, the fourth time this season the Golden Bears have allowed more than 300 yards on the ground.We looked like a tired, beat-up football team and we were, Cal coach Sonny Dykes said.USC (5-3, 4-2 Pac-12) scored on three of its first four possessions, with Darnold finding Rogers, Jones and Deontay Burnett for touchdowns. Rogers added a second touchdown catch with 28 seconds left, but two fumbles by Darnold allowed Cal (4-4, 2-3) to maintain a modicum of hope despite allowing 451 yards on 46 plays in the first half.Defensive tackle James Looney returned a fumble to the USC 22, where Tre Watson took a screen pass into the end zone. Webb, the Texas Tech transfer, found his rhythm on Cals next drive, with throws of 23 and 32 yards to set up Matt Andersons field goal.Webb threw for 331 yards and two touchdowns, throwing a ball up for grabs that was intercepted by safety Marvell Tell in the first quarter. Webb also rushed for a touchdown in the third quarter that cut USCs lead to 28-17 before Jones had a 37-yard touchdown run and Daniel Imatorbhebhe caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from Darnold.Melquise Stovall, a freshman who originally committed to attend USC as a recruit, had nine receptions for 87 yards and a touchdown.Cals best chance to take the lead came on its fourth play from scrimmage, but freshman Demetris Robertson dropped a potential 64-yard touchdown that hit him in the hands. After Webb quick kicked on fourth-and-1 from the Cal 45, Jones ripped off a 61-yard run on the next play and the Cal defense was on its heels for the rest of the half.I think we were prepared when we got here, Webb said. Its on us. Thats how it should be. Its a players game.Jones had 149 yards on eight first-half carries.RECORD RETURNSUSC cornerback Adoree Jackson set a new school record for career kick return yardage, breaking the previous mark of 1,723 yards held by Curtis Conway.Jackson had 56 yards on two kick returns, giving him 1,779 yards in his three seasons at USC. The electric Jackson also had two spectacular punt returns, though one was called back because of a holding penalty.THE TAKEAWAYCal: The Bears have now lost 13 in a row to the Trojans since handing Pete Carrolls 2003 national championship team its only loss in triple overtime that season. Cal was always going to have trouble defending Darnold and USCs plethora of skill players, and that task was even tougher with a short week to prepare and mounting injuries. But with three home games left, Cal has a good chance at becoming bowl eligible if it can maintain its strong play in Strawberry Canyon.USC: The Trojans are white-hot, with Darnold leading the way. The freshman quarterback has now thrown 16 touchdown passes in leading USC to four consecutive wins, playing with a fearlessness and fire that the team was missing at the start of the season, though his ball security must improve. They need help to win the Pac-12 South, but the Trojans are more than capable of turning the conference race upside down when they travels to No. 4 Washington on Nov. 12.UP NEXTCal: The Bears host the Huskies on Nov. 5, a potential trap game for Washington while completing its only back-to-back road games this season.USC: The Trojans host faltering Oregon on Nov. 5, seeking their first five-game winning streak since interim coach Ed Orgeron won five straight in 2013. Dennis Martinez Jersey . -- Brandon Jennings made the most of his first game with the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. Jason Kipnis Jersey . Rousey will put her perfect 8-0 record and hardware on the line against another undefeated fighter, 7-0 Sara McMann in the main event of UFC 170, which will be held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas Nevada on February 22nd. https://www.cheapindiansonline.com/ . A knee to the thigh might have stung him the most, but his sixth straight double-double made up for the brief burst of pain. At arguably the lowest point in Englands recent Test history, with the Ashes lost, his retirement announced, and his elbow feeling about as flexible as a trapped bicycle chain, Graeme Swann attempted to sprinkle a little stardust on a demoralising situation.Personally, I hope little Scotty Borthwick gets the chance before long, Swann said. Hes a legspinner, hes got a bit of X factor as well.Borthwick, who had been playing grade cricket in Sydney, was about to return home in time for Christmas before then heading off on a Lions tour to Sri Lanka. Swanns namecheck felt nice, but not exactly pressing.But within days Borthwick was playing in the Sydney Test, not as much a planned selection as a pipe dream in desperate times. In the blur of a Test debut, he managed to take four wickets in the match and went at more than six an over, as England lost in three days on the way to a 5-0 whitewash and a cricketing civil war over the banishment of Kevin Pietersen. Borthwick looked like a promising county cricketer blown in by a strengthening tornado and deposited onto the wreckage.It was all a bit of a quick turnaround, getting the phone call: Cancel your flight home, youre coming to Melbourne, he recalls. I was massively excited to be part of the Ashes. But 3-0 down - it was a bizarre time to go into a squad.A lot of talk came out of that series. I was only there for two weeks, happy to be with a Test side touring Australia. I was having a bit of a buzz. I was on my first Test tour, I was with Ben Stokes, my mate, and a couple of other lads I knew, and for me it was a case of Im on a high here. It wasnt until everything was said that I thought there must have been a lot of stuff going on.Two and a half years on, with Englands unity restored, Borthwicks name is being endorsed again, although now in strikingly different circumstances. He is presented as a favoured option to replace Nick Compton at the top of the order for the first Test against Pakistan at Lords in July.The romantic notion of an influential England legspinner has now been supplanted - if not quite banished - by Borthwicks dominant reputation as a flinty No. 3 batsman at Durham, a considered strokemaker rather than a daredevil, his reputation forged in Chester-le-Street on what until this season have been the most exacting pitches in county cricket.The mood surrounding his potential call-up is very different. If exhilaration surrounded the potential advent of Borthwick the leggie, Trevor Bayliss, Englands coach, is determined to give the impression that selection must be earned. He named him, off the top of his head, during the recent second Test against Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street, as one of five possible Test candidates - the list completed by his Durham team-mate Mark Stoneman, Middlesexs Sam Robson, and two second-division batsmen Bayliss admitted he hadnt seen: Tom Westley at Essex, and Kents Daniel Bell-Drummond. To do well by Compton, he even remarked at the time: Hopefully it doesnt get to that.But it has got to that. Compton has indicated that his dropping is inevitable by taking an indefinite break from the game: as someone whose involvement in county cricket has been largely based on an ambition to win England caps, his retirement cannot be ruled out. Borthwick has one more Championship outing to underline his claims for Lords - against Hampshire at Chester-le-Street, beginning June 3.Zoom in on Borthwicks career and the tempting notion of a world-class England legspinner is replaced by something more grounded. Since his first-class debut at the end of the 2009 season, he has collected 183 first-class wickets at 35, and his batting average now stands at 38. Since Durham shunted him up the order from No. 8 to No. 3 three years ago, he has rivalled Stoneman as the most consistent county batsman in the country.In his career progression, there is more than a hint of Steven Smith, the Australian captain, who also started his career as a legspinner who batted at eight, but who now has a Test average above 60 and only 16 wickets in 41 Tests. Allowing for a bit of hedging of bets, Borthwick has come to terms with that realisation.I was hoping that my legspin would get good, he says. I was probably hoping to be the next Warne. I think most leggies think like that. You always remember your good days, but in the last three or four years I have had a lot more good days with the bat than with the ball. You just have to look at the facts: I am a No. 3 batsman who plays first-division cricket for Durham.I still enjoy my bowling - I think most leggies do - but I think probably as a batsman who bowls. Whatever I do, Ive got a passion for it and I want to do well. But in terms of legspin its hard, and it has been a frustrating three or four seasons really, because I havent got the overs in. I know my batting has overtaken my legspin.And yet England are in no mood to abandon his legspin potential. He regularly chats to Englands spin bowling coach Peter Such, and he has been sponsored on overseas trips to Sri Lanka and New Zealand to learn more about slow bowling on different surfaces. In Wellington last winter, the hope was that he would learn about spin bowling from Jeetan Patel: Borthwick attracted attention instead by getting a hundred in his first game.In a way, he has simply reverted to type. Irrespective of that England debut, he was an opening batsman in his initial matches for Durhams academy side. Only when he broke into Durhams 2nd XI was he picked as a legspinner, batting between No. 7 and 9. It is a drug that easily takes hold.It was on a coach to a Durham away game against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 2013 when Paul Collingwood, who had been made Durhams captain the previous season, his England career by then spent, caused the shift in Borthwicks career by asking him if he wanted to bat at three. Duane Kuiper Jersey. Collingwood had batted alongside Borthwick when he made a century at No. 8 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. It was typical that his runs came from the parlous position of 50 for 6. I often used to get runs when we were struggling, Borthwick said. I used to hate coming in at 400 for 6 and would just want to play the shots everyone else was playing.With injuries around, his batting potential could not be ignored. It was a shrewd call, an example of how those like Collingwood, who feel psychologically able to continue their county careers after their England days are over, can bring immense value to the game.It was a jump from eight to three, but I thought I had to take it, Borthwick said. Id had a hundred at No. 8 at Edgbaston, but after the first couple of games, the routine of getting to the ground and getting your pads on felt pretty natural. I remember Geoff Cook [Durhams coach] saying to me at Durham after 2013, Youve gone from a bowling allrounder to a genuine batter who bowls legspin. It felt like a second career.But Englands needs - and dreams - still lay elsewhere, and when the Ashes tour imploded that winter, it was his legspin in which they set store. After that series, with Peter Moores replacing Andy Flower as head coach, England opted for Moeen Ali in the role of the spin-bowling allrounder. The Borthwick vision had been short-lived. But he understood the reasons why he was immediately jettisoned.If they had picked me as a front-line spinner, it would have been the wrong call because I wasnt bowling well enough and just didnt have the overs to go into a Test Match as a bowler, he said. They picked Moeen and hes done brilliantly well hasnt he? So I wouldnt say I was frustrated because I probably didnt earn the right to be picked as legspinner.But what Ali has done really well the last couple of seasons is once he has got in he has found a way to stay in. He has either got wickets or got runs. He has floated around the order a couple of times, which is tough on him because he is a top batsman, but he has found a way to stay.Borthwick, like Collingwood, has deep north-east roots. He is only the second England cricketer to be born in Sunderland, the working-class town that by virtue of its early vote announcement gave the first juddering indication on June 23 that England was heading for a departure from the European Union. Im told Bob Willis was the other but he only lived there for about six weeks, he says. His family is steeped in cricket, and that includes his grandma, Nana Borthwick, who rarely misses a match at Emirates Riverside and who habitually brings some home cooking along to help the BBC radio commentary team get through the day. Borthwick smiles at the habit. For me and my sister growing up, it was a case of, if you want a good feed you go there, he says