LOS ANGELES — USC coach Lincoln Riley had yet another terse postgame press conference following his team’s 33-30 overtime loss to No. 4 Penn State on Saturday.
“It always falls to me,” Riley said when a reporter asked which party deserved the blame Saturday after another blown lead. “I always take it. I’m the head coach. It’s all my job. Believe me, there is nobody taking more responsibility than I am, so I don’t know where that line of questioning comes from.
“The reality is we have played the toughest schedule in the country the first six games and we had a chance to win every single one of them.”
It was still a more cordial postgame presser than last week’s, when Riley was roundly criticized for intercepting a benign question intended for one of his players. But if losing to Minnesota made Riley boiling-mad, losing to Penn State — and blowing a chance for a signature win in Year 3 in Los Angles — was more of a downer. A true missed opportunity for a signature win.
For the third time in four weeks, USC lost a game it led deep into the fourth quarter (the Trojans were up 20-6 at halftime). In the Trojans’ first game as a member of the Big Ten against Michigan last month, the defense allowed a game-winning touchdown on fourth-and-goal with 37 seconds remaining. Last week against Minnesota, USC. yielded two touchdowns in the final eight minutes — including a go-ahead one-yard score on fourth-and-goal with 56 seconds remaining.
If you sense a theme here, your intuition is correct. With 3:48 remaining in regulation against Penn State, USC once again couldn’t get the stop it needed to potentially ice the game. Penn State quarterback Drew Allar connected with wide receiver Julian Fleming for a 16-yard gain on fourth-and-10 to move the…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/usc-blows-another-late-lead-and-lincoln-rileys-frustration-is-clear-as-day-it-always-falls-to-me/
Author : Cameron Salerno
Publish date : 2024-10-13 02:05:08
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