USC can’t wear Washington down in disappointing 26-21 loss

SEATTLE — They had survived the rain, pouring in sheets in the second quarter on slick turf. They had survived the bitter winds, threatening to turn fingers the same shade of purple that adorned Husky Stadium. They had survived the tremors from Washington faithful, conjuring a wall of noise that shook the very concrete infrastructure of their home off Union Bay.

USC had survived, again, down just a score and fighting another fourth-quarter battle in waning minutes. They controlled their own destiny, again, against a Washington program where they’d flipped their own script and been the team to recapture second-half momentum. And quarterback Miller Moss, shrugging off the three picks on his ledger and a day struggling to move the ball through the air, pushed USC downfield on a two-minute drill.

But in the red zone, second down passed. Third down passed. Time slipped away. And on a fourth-and-4, Moss took a snap from the shotgun for a play that never had a chance.

The weight of a blitzing heap of Huskies crushed him, and USC, as his last-gasp fling to nowhere hit the turf to seal a 26-21 loss.

As the offense came on, an oncoming Husky player accidentally kicked Moss. A USC receiver barked at a handful of Washington players. Some light shoving ensued. Perhaps USC won that battle. After a gruesome first half resulted in a 20-7 deficit at the break, they won plenty of second-half battles, certainly: coordinator D’Anton Lynn’s defense was nails, and head coach Lincoln Riley suddenly flipped his Air Raid into smashmouth football, and Woody Marks freewheeled his way to 123 yards on 22 carries.

But they lost the war.

And Moss, this program’s man in the arena and a man who called for critics to “keep that same energy” a couple weeks earlier, was nowhere to be found at his program’s postgame presser.

“Obviously, didn’t make the plays in the end to do it,” Riley said postgame, “and came up one play short.”

The pattern repeats. The clock resets. The script flipped, ever-so-slightly, in this clash in Seattle, USC punched in the mouth en route to a two-score halftime deficit before finding a sudden surge. And yet the rising action contained so many familiar elements — an early inability to establish the run, a poorly-timed Moss pick, a string of defensive stands that simply couldn’t hold with the weight placed on their shoulders — and the climax finished exactly the same.

The maddening similarity struck even Riley himself, in a brief flash of self-awareness sitting at the postgame podium, before stitching the same message together he’s largely preached for two seasons.

“It’s like, all right, yeah – how many weeks we gotta say this?” Riley affirmed. “I understand.”

“But, like, you go change five, six plays this season, and then everybody’s like, ‘Oh my God, they’re frickin’ unbelievable,’” he continued. “And then the other 99.9% of the plays that we’ve played would all be exactly the same.”

It’s true, in one respect. There was the failed goal-line stand at Michigan, and a Moss interception at Minnesota, and a blocked field-goal against Maryland. Riley called it an “anomaly of a year” postgame Saturday night, noting games that came down to a single play usually went 50-50.

“I watch a team, like – it’s not like we’re getting our ass kicked, you know?” Riley said, postgame. “So, it’s not like I go back to the drawing board and it’s just, like, ‘Gah, we’re just doing this terrible, and people are just wearing us out on this or that.’ I mean, like, it’s not, it’s not that.”

But for all USC’s attempts to establish an identity, they currently carry the standard of a losing program, a program that can’t escape the cycle it continues to be dragged into. Yes, their losses have come one play away, at times — but there were plenty of back-breaking moments against Washington.

There was the sheer trend of USC refusing or failing to run the ball early in downs in the first half, entrusting Moss to 28 first-half pass attempts with eight carries for Marks, a distribution that resulted in seven points and Riley admitting he needed to “do a better job” postgame.

There was Moss’s interception in the third quarter, stalling all momentum he’d built in piloting USC to a third-quarter lead and two touchdown drives, firing a ball over the middle into the hands of Washington’s Carson Bruener and clapping his hands in disgust on the sidelines.

There was a fourth-and-1 play from the goal line down a score with five minutes remaining, Riley adjusting and placing his offense in the hands of Marks and Quinten Joyner to suddenly run the ball 10 times in 11 plays, only for Marks to be stuffed for a 3-yard loss and emerge with no points.

And there was a USC team that could not escape the narrative, again, of a team that could not separate, an identity that only heightens scrutiny on Riley as his third season in a Trojans visor is slipping away.

“I don’t handle losing very well,” he said postgame. “Hasn’t happened much in my career. Our team – that part of it is unacceptable. Now, through that, when you really look at it – is there progress, is there push, have we had a chance to win every game? The answer to all those is undoubtedly yes.”

“But at the end of the day, whether you separate, or whether it comes down to the end, we expect to win,” he continued. “And we haven’t done that enough.”