The first fifth of the vaunted UCLA vs. USC battle for Los Angeles was — dare we say — a little boring.

What was supposed to be a high-scoring affair got off to a slow start. Then UCLA scored. And then UCLA scored again. And then USC joined the fun.

A flurry of points ensued and, in the end, it was the Trojans who were left celebrating, picking off Dorian Thompson-Robinson with 1:26 remaining to seal a 48-45 win.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Jordan Addison re-announces his presence

After being injured in a 43-42 loss at Utah in Week 7, Jordan Addison finally made his return last Friday in a 55-17 USC win.

You would be forgiven if you missed his presence, though, as he finished with just 1 catch for 2 yards in the big win.

On Saturday against the Bruins, Addison regained his full form. The reigning Biletnikoff Award winner, who entered the game with just three 100-yard games this season, easily had his fourth, catching 11 passes for 178 yards and a score.

He had a beautiful touchdown out of the backfield after the USC offense caught UCLA’s defense off guard in the 3rd quarter. Somehow Addison found himself matched up with UCLA linebacker JonJon Vaughns and while Vaughns is fast, Addison is faster and easily out-ran him for the score. On that play, and others, Addison looked like the best player on the field, and it’s been a while since we could say that of Addison, who has had some real duds this year as well.

If he’s back to 100% alongside Mario Williams, Tahj Washington, and Brenden Rice, Caleb Williams has to feel pretty good heading into the last game of the regular season.

Kicking game fails Trojans early

USC intercepted Dorian Thompson-Robinson twice in the 1st half and out-gained the Bruins, 368-224, yet that was not enough to help them to a halftime lead.

A pair of missed field goals ultimately cost the Trojans greatly, though Denis Lynch redeemed himself with a last-minute, 49-yard field goal that cut UCLA’s lead to 21-20 at the half.

The missed field goals weren’t particularly difficult, either. Lynch was off from 32 yards and 33 yards, just the 2nd time this year he missed 2 field goals.

Caleb Williams adds to his Heisman pitch

OK, so he didn’t score five touchdowns for a fifth consecutive game, but Caleb Williams continued his terrific play for the Trojans against a much better team than he’s seen the last few weeks.

Williams had five passing touchdowns and 411 yards against Arizona in Week 9, then followed with four passing touchdowns and a rushing score in a Week 10 win over Cal. Last week against Colorado, he had three passing touchdowns and two rushing scores.

He had a pair of passing scores to go along with a rushing touchdown against the Bruins, all while setting a career-high with 470 passing yards as USC finished with 648 yards of total offense for the day.

Williams’ Heisman candidacy is in question because a more-than-questionable strength of schedule, but you can’t question his production. For the year, Williams is up to 33 passing touchdowns with just three interceptions.