USC pulled off an improbable comeback against Penn State in the Rose Bowl Monday night, and many Trojan fans may have missed it after giving up too early.
When Penn State outscored USC 28-8 in the third quarter and took a 49-35 lead into the fourth, many USC fans gave up hope. And we’re not just talking about people turning off their television sets. Some left the stadium early, too.
There actually are a fair number of USC fans leaving right now. I'm stunned.
— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) January 3, 2017
You might find this hard to believe but I see people leaving the Rose Bowl #USCvsPSU
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) January 3, 2017
The Trojans scored 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and won on a 46-yard field goal from Matt Boermeester as time expired.
Believe it or not, fans leaving early in a game of that magnitude is not unprecedented. In fact, we saw something similar happen with one of the most rabid fan bases in sports during last year’s NFL playoffs.
You can understand why USC fans were discouraged, but a 14-point deficit certainly didn’t seem impossible to overcome with the lack of defense being played by both teams. If the fans who left stuck around for another half of a quarter or so, they would have realized the game was far from over.
