USC falls flat again; Riley says team affected by expectations - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — The sights and sounds were all too familiar for USC.

A slumping Caleb Williams mustered a slight wave to the Coliseum fans who couldn't hide their disappointment. A throng of Utah players jeered the home crowd as they ran off the field in victory. And Trojans coach Lincoln Riley sat alone at the podium trying to explain how, for the third time in three games, Utah had once again beaten USC — this time on a field goal in the final seconds that gave the Utes a 34-32 win.

«Two tough losses in a row and obviously not how any of us scripted this, but you can't script it. It's college football,» Riley said. «It comes down to little things here and there, and we haven't quite played clean enough here in the last couple of weeks to take advantage of it.»

Much like he did after the Trojans fell to Notre Dame last week, Riley defended his team's fight and chalked up the loss to Utah to a combination of mistakes and shortcomings by every USC unit against a tough opponent.

But the Utes have proved to be more than just a tough matchup. They have become a particularly impossible riddle for Riley & Co. to solve — an unofficial marker of how much work USC still has to do to become what it hopes to be.

On Saturday, despite having far less talent on the field than USC and being without starting quarterback Cameron Rising, the Utes' identity and collective force were once again too much for the Trojans to handle. Coach Kyle Whittingham's team didn't do any one thing spectacularly, instead wearing USC down with a steady offense and its customary stout defense.

USC, on the other hand, fell into some familiar traps. Even after making changes to the offensive line following the six-sack loss to Notre Dame — shifting Mason Murphy