USC coach Lincoln Riley walks off the field after a 42-27 loss to ORE on Saturday that all but eliminated the Trojans from College Football Playoff contention. (Lydia Ely / AP)Bill Plaschke (LA Times) — Another big game, another big stink.
Another loaded season, another lost season.
Four years after Lincoln Riley arrived at USC amid gaudy promises to return the football program to national prominence, well, two words.
Still waiting.
Needing a win at Oregon’s Autzen Stadium on Saturday to have a chance at their first College Football Playoff berth, the Trojans once again fell short, fell deep and basically fell on their faces.
Still waiting.
In front of its jubilant fans roaring like USC fans once roared, Oregon used an 85-yard punt return, a terrible Trojans penalty and awful USC play calls to roll to a 42-27 victory.
Still waiting.
With the win, the seventh-ranked Ducks almost certainly earned a playoff spot.
With the loss, the 15th-ranked Trojans definitely have been eliminated for the fourth time in Riley’s four seasons while hanging an equally damning number on the embattled coach.
Under Riley’s leadership, the Trojans are 0-5 against top-10 teams.
Nearly as bad, in four years the Trojans have won just three road games against teams that finished the season with records better than .500. Before beating Nebraska this year, Riley’s Trojans had not recorded a quality road win since his first season.
If USC beats UCLA next weekend as expected, the Trojans will finish with a 9-3 record and a nice vacation in some anonymous bowl game.
And that will not be enough. That cannot be enough.
One wonders how long the deep-pocketed USC people will endure such failed expectations, such fruitless autumns, such … mediocrity.
Heck, if UCLA can buy its way out of the Rose Bowl, one imagines that USC could buy its way out of a football coach.
Just saying. Just saying, because at this point, there really isn’t anything more to say.
Lincoln Riley could smile early Saturday as the Trojans forged a tie, but by then end of a 42-27 loss to Oregon there was little to feel good about. (Lydia Ely / AP)
“We’re right there,” Riley said afterward. “This has been an inspiring team to watch all year. It’s just gonna keep getting better and better.”
It indeed has been inspiring watching the Trojans battle back from countless injuries to field a battling team Saturday that was gutted at several positions.
But that still didn’t make it much fun to watch Oregon gain more than three times as many rushing yards while the Trojans hurt themselves with an unacceptable 103 yards of penalties.
When it came time to make a big stop, the Trojans couldn’t. When it came time to complete a big play, they often were flagged.
Oregon is good, but Oregon shouldn’t be able to control the game against a deep and gifted USC team … and yet for long stretches, the Ducks did.
“They made more plays than us,” Riley acknowledged.
The rest of the time, the Trojans just tripped over themselves.
USC began Saturday’s game with strength and style, forging a 14-all tie on the first play of the second quarter on a trick play that didn’t work against Notre Dame, receiver Makai Lemon throwing 24 yards to Tanook Hines to tie the game.
If only the swaggering Trojans weren’t also so sloppy.
On their next possession, a line-drive punt was returned 85 yards for a touchdown by Malik Benson to give Oregon a 21-14 lead.
“Obviously a huge, huge play in the game,” Riley said.
Then at the end of the first half, everything fell apart for USC, just like everything always seems to fall apart in big games.
The breakdown began when USC seemed to regain momentum on a missed 44-yard field goal by the Ducks’ Atticus Sappington. But on the play, the Trojans’ Desman Stephens II leaped over the line for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
“Panicked a little bit,” Riley said. “Did something that we don’t teach.”
Given new life, the Ducks quickly took advantage with a one-yard touchdown run by linebacker Bryce Boettcher to give them a 28-14 lead with 1:52 remaining in the half.
Then USC looked even worse on its ensuing drive when, on first and goal from the Oregon eight-yard line, Riley inexplicably called two running plays by Lemon that were stuffed. The Trojans eventually were forced to attempt a field goal, but, in the final ticks of the half, Ryon Sayeri bounced it off the right upright and the Trojans ended up with zilch.
“The defining sequence in a lot of ways,” Riley said.
At halftime, the Ducks’ 14-point lead seemed a lot larger, and it turned out to be insurmountable.
At the start of the second half, the Trojans held Oregon on fourth and one from around midfield, stole the Ducks’ next possession on an interception by Kennedy Urlacher, converted their own fourth down and eventually scored on a four-yard pass from Jayden Maiava to Lemon to make it 28-21.
But then Oregon used several bruising runs to set up a 28-yard touchdown pass to Kenyon Sadiq to make it 35-21 late in the third quarter.
The Trojans made it a one-possession game again on a nine-yard touchdown pass to Lake McRee early in the fourth quarter, but Oregon drove 79 yards and scored on another bruising run by Noah Whittington to clinch it.
End of game. End of season.
Still waiting.
latimes.com
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We have a Qb that threw 2 pics, an O line that cannot open a hole, a D line that cannot hold its ground, rushers that do not pressure the Qb, linebackers watching runners go by, D backs turning the wrong way or not turning at all, with 2 WR going to the nfl and tight ends other teams would love to have. We have players making stupid mistakes all the time. Our depth at most positions is exhausted. Other than that we are in pretty good shape to beat ucla next week. Fight On.
Tidy Bowl, here we come, again.
Last August it was “how improved our secondary” would be, how strong the running game and the return of smash mouth linebackers.
The secondary was pure hype, the run game sputtered with injuries and the linebackers…..MIA.
Oregon is what USC used to be. Bigger, faster, smarter and three deep at most positions.
Enough palaver about CFP. We were exposed again on national television, as predicted.
LR had the Trojans jumping up and down on the sideline like pogos on Viagra. Guess it tired us out?
Big truck runs over little truck, again.
Bill Plaschke seems to not realize that in the current NIL time it takes time to build a program.
We are 8-3 and this team is better than last year and have been in all the games they lost.
Finish 9-3, win a bowl game, and keep building with Lincoln Riley.
Let’s be proactive and fire Lincoln Riley. he will not get us to a championship game. Every year it’s the same hype around a new recruiting class, how well Fall camp is going, then we are down to three losses. This is quite similar to HC Franklin at PSU. He does OK,. but can’t win against the top teams. That’s just not what we want and LR has demonstrated time and time again that he is top a NC level HC.
Who would you hire to replace him and do you reallly think they would be an NC team with that change?