USC beat Oregon State, 31 - 14, and if you paid close attention, you would have noticed that a number of non-scholarship players made their way into the game, especially on kickoffs / special teams.
With just around 48 scholarship players making the trip up north (and with USC's inability to win on the road at Corvallis), most everyone expected USC to play tough but lose to the Beavers. But it turned out, USC's 48 scholarship players were better than OSU's 85.
Specifically, USC had two running backs who rushed for over 100 yards against the Beavers (Buck Allen and Silas Redd). Meanwhile USC's defense held the highest-yard passing quarterback in the FBS -- Sean Mannion -- to 277 yards (130 yards below his game average), with three interceptions. Those three interceptions matched all of Mannion's interceptions in the previous 8 games. Also, lowest QBR for Mannion this season.
Best total defense in the PAC-12? USC.
With four games left, USC travels to play two of the weakest teams in the PAC-12 (Cal and Colorado) while playing at home against the tougher competition (Stanford and UCLA). I'd say USC has a good chance of moving up into a better bowl game, and with a lot of luck, slides into the PAC-12 Championship.
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