USC’s first season in the Big Ten has not been a success.
The Trojans dropped to 2-5 in the conference and 4-5 overall with a 26-21 loss at Washington on Saturday night. All five of USC’s losses this season have come by one possession, and that was something that Lincoln Riley alluded to in his postgame news conference when he was asked by a reporter what his team needed to do to get back on track.
“It’s not like we’re getting our ass kicked, you know? So it’s not like I go back to the drawing board and it’s like, ‘Gosh, we’re just doing this terrible and people are just wearing us out on this or that.’ It’s not that,” Riley said. “And this team has shown capability of all these things that you need to do. We just gotta keep our nose to the grindstone, we’ve gotta continue to lean on these leaders, we’ve got to continue to get better.”
Saturday, USC had plenty of opportunities to beat a Washington team with a roster far different 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 were up 13 at the half, though USC rallied to take a 21-20 lead with two straight TDs in the third quarter. However, USC’s offense couldn’t come through when it needed to over the final three drives. Another Moss interception set up 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 the Washington 14-yard-line as Moss’ final pass fell incomplete with 11 seconds to go.
“We obviously didn’t make the plays at the end to do it and came up one play short,” Riley said. “ … I think it’s important for all of us not to make this about any of the other games, other games we’ve won or other games that we haven’t won in the end, this game was about this game. You hate the missed opportunities on the road against a team that, I don’t know when the last time they lost here, but it’s been a little bit.”
The win is actually just Washington’s third straight home victory. The Huskies lost 24-19 at home to in-state rival Washington State earlier in the season.
But Riley’s comment about USC’s inability to make plays at the end of games has been a consistent theme for the Trojans this season.
USC couldn’t get a first down with less than five minutes to go while leading Michigan by four. USC gave up a 12-play TD drive to Minnesota as the Gophers scored the game-winning TD with less than a minute to go. The team’s overtime loss to Penn State went past the fourth quarter as USC couldn’t score despite taking over the ball with less than three minutes to go in a tied game. And the Trojans gave up 15 straight points to 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 beat the Huskers on the road Saturday while Notre Dame is 7-1.