LOS ANGELES — The upset was there, staring from the end zone 50 yards away, a world of clock left and a Lincoln Riley mind and Miller Moss arm to vanquish Penn State.
And then time ran out.
Clock-management issues had bitten USC in the heel, at times, for five games, not enough to raise massive red flags but enough to scratch heads. And in the biggest spot of the Trojans’ season, on Saturday afternoon in a tied barnburner of a ballgame against the undefeated and fourth-ranked Nittany Lions, it reared its ugly head at the worst timing possible as a 14-point halftime lead slipped away into a 33-30 overtime defeat.
After a 14-yard hit from Moss to Makai Lemon, USC had the ball at Penn State’s 49-yard-line with 1:47 left and two timeouts. But Moss handed the ball to Woody Marks for a two-yard-loss, and found Jay Fair for a six-yard gain and Riley didn’t call a single timeout.
No Trojan moved with urgency. Offensive linemen were substituted. And suddenly, 14 seconds remained, Penn State – not USC – took a timeout, and Moss’ subsequent deep-ball toss to Duce Robinson was tipped away and intercepted.
In the span of 1:33 of game clock, and two plays, a USC chance to win had vanished into overtime. And with a Trojans offense struggling to manufacture any momentum, three straight plays ended in no avail from the 25-yard line before a 45-yard field-goal attempt by Michael Lantz, who had nailed three field goals of at least 39 yards on the day, drifted wide left..
A few moments later, a Ryan Barker’s 36-yard kick sailed through the uprights, and Nittany Lions leapt in joy to the Southern California sky.
Wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane threw off his helmet and tugged off his jersey onto the Coliseum turf. Players for USC (3-3, 1-3 Big Ten) stood, shell-shocked, before slumping away. They’d led 20-6 at half, in a beautiful display of complementary football, and watched it all slip away as a game sat snugly in their hands for the taking – only to lose their final shot at a College Football Playoff.
Moss finished 20 of 34 for 220 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Marks was again a workhorse, recording 111 yards on 20 carries. But Penn State tight end Tyler Warren gashed the Trojans’ defense time and time again in the second half, racking up 224 yards on an opposing-player record 17 catches, a mind-boggling effort in which USC’s unit had simply no answer and too often gave Warren an extensive cushion.
From the Nittany Lions’ first drive, this was a game of wits, no Big Ten brawn-against-brawn but a mental jockeying from some of the best schemers in college football. USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn anticipated Penn State’s offensive pre-snap movement could pose problems, but Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki threw the entire kitchen sink at a Trojans defense rotating rapidly to keep up. In the span of the Nittany Lions’ first two drives, Warren ran for a first down, threw for another, and caught a screen pass on a play where Kotelnicki schemed an offensive lineman to split out wide.
Penn State took a quick 3-0 lead, USC’s defense holding firm in the red zone. On USC’s first play of the subsequent drive, redshirt freshman tailback Quinten Joyner trotted out in the backfield next to Moss. In a sheer beauty of a play call, Joyner came in motion from the right side, Moss pitching it to him on a jet sweep. Sophomore Zachariah Branch careened in the opposite direction, seemingly set for an end-around. But Joyner pump-faked the pitch, found a wide-open crease, and raced downfield for a rollicking 75-yard touchdown.
And against a mighty Penn State run defense that came in yielding a paltry 2.5 yards a carry, USC racked up 148 first-half rush yards on 11 carries. Lynn’s defense, in turn, made a number of late-down tackles on Penn State ball carriers and came up with a huge interception courtesy of true freshman Desman Stephens, buoying USC’s halftime lead.
Related Articles
USC DC D’Anton Lynn goes toe-to-toe with alma mater Penn State
Minnesota gave defenses a blueprint to beat USC. Can the offense adjust against Penn State?
USC vs. No. 4 Penn State: Who has the edge?
How RB Woody Marks, a ‘once-in-a-lifetime kid,’ has become the heartbeat of USC’s offense
USC needs linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold to keep playing ‘mean’ against Penn State
But Riley’s complementary genius stalled in the second half, USC going cold on their first three second-half possessions, not running the ball once in six plays on a late third-quarter drive. A potential game-changing interception, tipped by Kamari Ramsey and picked by Easton Mascarenas-Arnold, couldn’t get USC’s offense going, settling for a field goal and a 23-20 lead entering the fourth.
USC took the lead on a go-ahead slant from Moss to Kyron Hudson with a few minutes left, but Penn State answered on a gutsy drive with two fourth-down conversions to set up a touchdown pass from quarterback Drew Allar, and the Trojans collapsed as regulation ended.
Here’s Lincoln Riley’s rationale for not stopping the clock on USC’s final drive at end of regulation. Basically amounted to not wanting to give the ball back to Penn State and having faith in how Michael Lantz was kicking pic.twitter.com/0q7yfETHlW
— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) October 13, 2024
