The USC Trojans had preseason goals that included making it to the College Football Playoff this season. When the Trojans entered the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, home to a Big Ten conference game against No. 4 Penn State, their backs were against the wall. There was no way around it, the game absolutely had to be won.

At the end of a shaky game in which USC was in control for most of the game, the Trojans suffered arguably the most crushing defeat of Lincoln Riley's tenure with a 33-30 home overtime loss. Lincoln Riley has a record of 11-10 in his last 21 games as manager. The Trojans are now 3-3 overall and 1-3 in Big Ten conference play. The playoff dream is officially dead.

“The reality is we played the toughest schedule in the country. The first six games. We had the chance to win every single game and that's hard to do. Putting yourself in a position to win these games is damn difficult from the start. So we're doing a lot of good, and I understand that that good won't be seen from the outside at the moment because they'll be focused on the record and the fact that we lost three games in the last game.”

At first glance, Riley's post-game comments sound good. It's great coaching speak, but lacks accountability and context. The USC Trojans had the best first half of the Lincoln-Riley era. The Trojans finished the first half rushing for 147 yards. They came into the game averaging 149 rushing yards per game.

The defense held Penn State to six points in the first half and had a 20-6 lead at halftime. You couldn't have asked for a better start. Once again, it looked like the Trojans had turned things around and were finally playing to their capabilities. They showed they could do it in spurts, but it was never sustained.

History repeated itself in the second half in the worst way possible for this USC team and Lincoln Riley. In less than three minutes, Penn State scored a touchdown. It was a game of 20-20 balls in less than ten minutes. Suddenly the lead was gone.

It happened again. For the second week in a row, USC had control of a game with a chance to stop any opposing momentum and started to fall apart. After the 17-point lead evaporated, the Trojans showed some determination to fight back and take a lead of 23-20 and then 30-23.

There were 5:56 minutes left to play and USC led 30-23. A stop essentially ends the game. Not only did Penn State rush for 75 yards in 12 plays, they also converted game-winning fourth downs. 4th and 7 and again on 4th and 10. Penn State scored to tie the game at 30-30. As good as the defense has been for most of the season, this is the third game in which they have given up a game-winning or game-winning try in regulation time.

Lincoln Riley's late-game time management was once again questionable as the Trojans inexplicably mismanaged their timeouts and handcuffed themselves as time ticked down. The Trojans, who had repeated opportunities to finish the game, were now in overtime.

The Trojans offense got the ball first and went out of bounds three times. Then kicker Michael Lantz missed a 45-yard field goal. Penn State set up their kicker Ryan Barker for a 36-yard field goal and he made it. The Trojans once again found a way to lose a ballgame they had complete control over.

“You have to keep perspective… This year, if you change two plays, we're 5-0, and we feel like we're world champions, and we're afraid of being overconfident.”

That was the message from Lincoln Riley on Monday after another fourth-quarter collapse against Minnesota.

“Yeah, shoot, they, you know, they all hurt. You know, this one was particularly distressing just because of the way it happened. I think, you know, the flip side of that is that we have a really, really good locker room of really great people and really great coaches that are going to continue to stick together, go out and run the second half of the season. That's number four in the country. What does that mean to us? Miller Moss said after the game.

At some point, the spirit expressed by the coaches and team must translate into victories. There are no more playoff talks. There are no more championship talks. This team might be lucky to make a bowl game. At USC, it's not enough to be anywhere near a good team.

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