Ryan Kartje (LA Times)  —  CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The loose ball tumbled through the end zone, slipping through one set of fingertips, then another, blue-and-orange bodies clawing desperately aside cardinal-and-gold ones. So much had gone poorly for No. 21 USC all afternoon, from its struggling secondary to its stifled pass rush to its inconsistent quarterback, but at the most critical moment in its season thus far, here was a particularly fortunate twist of fate, as linebacker Eric Gentry punched out a fumble, and somehow, some way safety Christian Pierce landed on top of it.

The late-game gift, with six minutes remaining, had come after a particularly frustrating afternoon. The deck had seemed stacked against the Trojans from the start of Saturday’s 34-32 loss to No. 23 Illinois. Not only were they playing without two starting offensive linemen and their top red-zone target, they lost Kamari Ramsey, their defensive leader, to a bout of food poisoning just before the game.

Though, by the fourth quarter, a ravaged roster felt like the least of USC’s concerns. The rushing attack couldn’t find room. Both lines were being blown off the ball, and the secondary was struggling to stop the bleeding. Then there were the self-inflicted mistakes, the same ones that have marred the season to date, and the clock management questions, ones that followed coach Lincoln Riley from last season.

But all those errors were seemingly erased in one fell swoop, as USC (4-1 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) recovered the goal-line fumble, marched the length of the field and found wideout Makai Lemon with a rope to the corner of the end zone.

After Lemon’s score, the Trojans led, 32-31, with less than two minutes to go. Then just as quickly, hope faded into familiar frustration as USC’s sometimes porous defense failed once again.

Illinois took over possession at its own 25-yard line with 1:55 remaining and ran eight offensive plays on its game-winning drive. Six of those were runs that covered 9, 8, 13, 6, 0 and 3 yards.

A pass interference call on USC cornerback DJ Harvey, the team’s eighth penalty, put the ball near midfield for Illinois (4-1, 1-1). On the next play, quarterback Luke Altmyer moved Illinois into field-goal range on a 13-yard run.

ILL QB Luke Altmyer (9) rushes for a TD during the first half in a win over USC. (Craig Pessman / AP)

Even though it took Illinois less than a minute to move into position to win, it would drain the last minute, too, before kicking their winning, 41-yard field goal.

The finish begged the question of whether Riley should have bled more clock before scoring. Riley defended his decision.

“In that moment,” Riley said, “it’s not like you can just sit there and be too cute with it. You’re playing a really good defense on the road. Scoring is not easy. So yeah, would it have worked out great if we were able to use more clock? Yeah. But if you bleed clock and don’t score, it doesn’t matter anyway.”

Riley instead chose to lean on his defense, which let him down again. Altmyer continued to pick them apart, on a day in which he threw for two touchdowns, ran for another and even caught a score on a trick play. In total, USC’s defense allowed over 500 yards for just the third time since D’Anton Lynn took over as defensive coordinator.

Nothing seemed to work on that side of the ball. USC came into the game leading the nation in sacks (16), but barely bothered Altmyer. Its run defense wasn’t all that much better, giving up 172 yards.

“We’ve gotta go out there and play better,” Riley said. “Fair to say we have high expectations for our defensive line and our defense. I fully expected us to affect them a little more.”

The Trojans, for the most part, had little trouble moving the ball. Jayden Maiava was inconsistent, but still threw for 364 yards and two scores. Waymond Jordan ran for 94 yards and two touchdowns and averaged 4.7 yards per carry, but gave up an early fumble.

Illinois, too, had given USC plenty of opportunities to take control. It fumbled on the goal line the first time just before halftime, and struggled to move the ball to start the third quarter.

Backbreaking mistakes continued to mar the Trojans. Driving with a chance to tie the score in the third quarter, Maiava threw an interception over the middle. It was his first turnover of the season.

Maiava had his fair share of impressive throws, but facing more pressure than he had faced all season, he sailed several passes and missed open receivers multiple times.

“The team rallied around me [after the interception],” Maiava said. “They just encouraged me to go out there and be fine.”

USC’s defense tried its best to find steady ground, too. It forced a rare three-and-out on the next drive, only for its offense to go three-and-out.

But Illinois wouldn’t waste its opportunity after that, as the 6-foot-3, 255-pound Kadin Feagin caught a third-quarter swing pass and sped past USC safety Bishop Fitzgerald, who took a bad angle in pursuit. As soon as Feagin turned the corner, there was nothing but open field in front of him for a 66-yard score that appeared to put USC away.

It had already been a difficult day for USC before it spent all afternoon climbing back from a deficit. Left tackle Elijah Paige was ruled out beforehand, only for center Kilian O’Connor to join him on the sideline early in the game. Wideout Ja’Kobi Lane tried to give it a go, but only played a few snaps in the red zone.

That secondary, once again, proved to be a thorn in USC’s side. It’s a huge team weakness.

“We’ve gotta get better,” Riley said. “It wasn’t good enough — obviously.”

It was a fitting refrain on a day when so much could’ve gone differently. There was the fumble on the opening drive or the trick-play touchdown called back by a penalty. Any number of things for USC could have turned the tide.

Instead, Riley was left trying to explain why things weren’t as bad as they seem.

“We continued to fight,” he said. “We made some big plays that gave ourselves chances, so this team’s gonna battle. There’s no doubt about that, so we’ve got something to work with here. We’ve just got to clean up a few things, we’ve got to polish them a little bit, but this team’s going to be tough to beat.

“I like this football team a lot,” Riley continued. “I like the fight that we show.  We had some just really huge, huge breakdowns, obviously on both sides. A few that just directly took points off, put points on, and obviously got to be better in a game like this.”

latimes.com

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