USC’s first season in the Big Ten was not a success.
The Trojans fell to 2-5 in the conference and 4-5 overall with a 26-21 loss at Washington Saturday night. All five of USC’s losses this season have come on one possession, and that was something Lincoln Riley alluded to in his post-game press conference when asked by a reporter what his team needed to do to get back on track .
“It’s not like we’re being fooled, you know? So it’s not like I’m going back to the drawing board and saying, ‘Gosh, we’re just doing a terrible job of this and people are just wearing us down on this or that.’ It’s not that,” Riley said. “And this team has shown that you can do all these things that you need to do. We just have to keep our nose to the grindstone, we have to continue to lean on these leaders, we have to continue to get better.”
On Saturday, USC had plenty of opportunities to beat a Washington team with a much different roster than the one that went to the national title game a year ago. USC’s second drive started in Washington territory, but ended on the first play when Miller Moss threw an interception. A missed field goal immediately followed.
The Huskies led by 13 at halftime, though USC rallied to take a 21-20 lead with two straight TDs in the third quarter. However, USC’s offense was unable to come through when it needed to on the final three drives. Another Moss interception put Washington in USC territory for the go-ahead TD in the fourth quarter, before a goal-line stand by the Huskies at the 1-yard line ended a 15-play drive for the Trojans.
USC’s final drive went 52 yards in just six plays, but ended on four straight incompletions from Washington’s 14-yard line when Moss’ final pass fell incomplete with 11 seconds left.
“We didn’t make it in the end and came up one play short,” Riley said. “…I think it’s important for all of us not to make this about other games, other games that we won or other games that we ultimately didn’t win. This game was about this game. You hate the missed opportunities on the road against a team that I don’t know the last time they lost here, but it’s been a while.”
The win is actually just the third straight home victory for Washington. The Huskies lost 24-19 at home to their rival Washington State earlier this season.
But Riley’s comment about USC’s inability to make plays late in games has been a consistent theme for the Trojans this season.
USC couldn’t get its first loss with less than five minutes to go while leading Michigan by four. USC surrendered a 12-play TD drive to Minnesota when the Gophers scored the winning TD with less than a minute left. The team’s overtime loss to Penn State went past the fourth quarter as USC was unable to score despite taking over the ball with less than three minutes left in a tied game. And the Trojans gave up 15 straight points against Maryland in a 29-28 loss to the Terrapins.
You get the idea.
To simply get to a bowl game, USC needs two wins against Nebraska, UCLA and Notre Dame. The Bruins defeated the Huskers on the road on Saturday while Notre Dame was 7-1.
