Winless in four Big Ten Road Games

Nine games into the season, coach Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans have a losing record. The Trojans once again failed to control a winnable ball game and lost another lead in the fourth quarter Washington Huskies 26-21. Fourth quarter lead, fourth quarter bust. That’s been the theme of USC’s five unsurprising losses at this point.

“I don’t handle losing very well. It hasn’t happened much in my career. That part of it is unacceptable,” Lincoln Riley said after the game.

Last seasonWashington won the Pac-12 and played for a national championship. Their coach from last season, Kalen DeBoer, left to take over for Nick Saban at Alabama, and Jedd Fisch left Arizona to replace DeBoer. The lenses were adjusted for that program, because only two starters returned from the team that reached the national title game. 5-4 could almost be considered positive in their situation.

USC is in a very different situation. Riley, who never lost more than two games in a season during five years as program director at Oklahoma, has now lost at least three games in each of his first three seasons and at least five games in consecutive seasons. This was a team that was ranked in the top 25 and entered the season with serious expectations. At one point this season, the Trojans were ranked 11th. A 4-5 scoreline with so much talent is downright unacceptable.

Riley is 12-12 in last 24 games. The Trojans have blown a fourth-quarter lead in each of their five losses this season. USC has had a fourth-quarter lead in every ballgame they’ve played this year, and they’re 4-5 in every loss by single digits. There is a saying in the football world that teams learn how to win. The converse is also correct, and this USC Trojans team has learned how to lose.

“It’s not like we’re being fooled. It’s not like I’m going back to the drawing board like gah, we’re doing this terribly and people are wearing us down on this or that. That’s not it,” Riley said at the post-match press conference.

Riley is right. USC is not outclassed. USC is no less talented than its opponents. USC is clearly being outed. Riley’s poor plan to not establish the run on the second-to-last ranked run defense in the conference is, to put it mildly, baffling. However, it does follow the theme Riley has set for the Trojan offense, as they entered the game with the lowest run percentage in the FBS on the road at 31 percent.

To continue throwing the ball at the highest level of his coaching career, this time against the number one passing defense in college football led by Steve Belichick, in the rain, well, that’s how you go into a 20-7 halftime hole. The second-half adjustment is further confirmation that there is still some degree of competitive competence left, but the perplexing question remains: why does it take a double-digit deficit to do the obvious?

Why is the short defense constantly put in inopportune situations? Why did the offensive line, which has struggled in pass protection, suffer the slowdown on 50 pass attempts? Why do running backs, who both average over 5.6 yards per carry during the game and on the season, get nearly half as many rushing attempts as they do passing attempts? The questions fall directly on one man.

“We put ourselves right in position to win the game. Proud of the team that did it. Obviously, in the end, we didn’t make the play to do it. We came up one play short,” Riley finished .

When a team loses repeatedly in the same way, it is a reflection of preparation and leadership. Believe what is on display.