A long, cold night for USC had led here, to the threshold of Washington’s goal line. For most of this football game, through the rain and icy lake winds, Lincoln Riley stubbornly stuck to his approach, regularly throwing into the pouring rain and testing the nation’s No. 1 pass defense with his struggling quarterback.
But after climbing back despite those conditions, after taking the lead and then giving it back, the USC coach turned back to the ground and grinded into Washington’s defense until his Trojans were just a few yards away from scoring. steal back from a match.
Eleven runs on a single drive had led to this moment at the one-yard line. But by the time the ball reached Woody Marks on that crucial fourth down, he was immediately stopped in the backfield. And soon, Washington would slam the door for good, handing USC a 26-21 loss for the fourth straight time.
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USC (4-5, 2-5) was so often the team that blew a late lead and lost all four games despite leading early in the fourth quarter. This time it was the Trojans who threatened to inflict a devastating defeat on a Big Ten opponent.
After denying the Trojans once at the goal line, Washington (5-4, 3-3) would make another stop to seal the deal. After clearing most of the field in less than a minute, USC was in fourth place.
But when Miller Moss dropped back, the Huskies’ front broke through the USC line again and pursued the Trojan quarterback, who threw up a desperation punch as Washington’s pass rush dragged him to the ground, ending the comeback.
All night long, Riley had kept coming back to his quarterback, even as Moss struggled to move the offense. He threw 50 passes (the third time he reached that threshold this season), but managed just 293 yards, along with two interceptions, on all those attempts.
The pass-happy approach seemed destined to doom the Trojans until midway through the third quarter, when Moss dropped back on fourth-and-9, desperate for a spark.
He found it in a streaking Makai Lemon, who caught a perfect pass for a 37-yard score.
The touchdown would turn the game on its head, as USC’s defense forced an immediate punt and gave the ball back to Moss, who needed just three plays to move the length of the field before finding a wide-open Kyle Ford for the go-ahead . score.
But that lead would not last. Not when Washington turned a Moss interception into a lead.
It’s not that USC didn’t have opportunities.
The Trojans had every opportunity to open quickly on Saturday, with two of their first three drives starting in Washington territory and the other opening on their 40-yard line. But the Trojans advanced just three yards on their opening possession, had a tipped ball intercepted on their second possession and then watched as a 52-yard field goal attempt hit the crossbar on the third possession.
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By the time they got the ball again, the Trojans were already in a 10-point hole.
Nothing came easy from there. With its back already against the wall, USC mounted a 12-play drive that required two third-and-long conversions, one of which was the result of a pass interference call. Marks eventually punched in a one-yard touchdown, giving the Trojans some semblance of offense to build on.
USC would have to wait to actually capitalize on that momentum. As the rain continued to fall, Washington had little trouble scoring on four of five drives in the first half, with only one of USC’s drives traveling more than 34 yards.
That would all change after halftime, when USC jumped back into the game. But in the end it wasn’t enough, as the Trojans returned home with another defeat.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
