USC falls in grueling Big Ten battle with Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS – The sun crept beneath the city-line, a natural glow painting a gold-coated crowd of thousands, the Minnesota fans taking up their rallying cry a half-mile from the roar of the Mississippi.

Row! Row! Row! 

And the Golden Gophers swayed to P.J. Fleck’s anthem, took the field stocky and patient, and the pace of USC’s Saturday night Big Ten road battle promptly slowed to a paddle. There were no downfield shots as the clock ticked into the second half, the wind sharp and brittle, USC quarterback Miller Moss sensing a deliberate Minnesota plan to limit his program’s possessions. The days of a freewheeling Pac-12 After Dark were long gone: this was Big Ten Nightmare Hours, a clock-drain-slog in the same type of game USC lost to Michigan two weeks ago.

Of course, if Riley made one thing clear last week after a win over Wisconsin — there was never a day he didn’t feel his program could buck up in the Big Ten.

“Like, we knew we could compete,” Riley said, then. “Now, you gotta go win.”

They lost. Again.

They lost, 24-17, in a brutal late collapse where a much-improved defense was simply run into the ground by the patience of Minnesota running back Darius Taylor. They lost, as Riley, Moss and USC’s offense shot themselves in the foot repeatedly, three drives into opposing territory coming up fruitless. And they lost, just the same as they’d fallen to Michigan, on another late-down stand where a push came just shy and hearts broke on USC’s sideline.

“Came down to just inches, right there at the end,” Riley said postgame. “We’ve had a couple of those. And that’s the frustrating thing for our team right now. I mean, we’re two plays away from probably being 5-0.”

With 57 seconds left in a grueling ballgame tied 17-17, Fleck dumped his chips on the table, sending his offense back onto the field from the 1-yard line on a fourth down rather than opt for a field goal. Quarterback Max Brosmer, who’d snuck his way in for two rushing touchdowns already, took a snap and dove in with a Tush Push behind him, bodies of Minnesota brown and USC white collapsing upon each other.

The ballgame – and, potentially, USC’s (3-2, 1-2 Big Ten) College Football Playoff hopes – froze in time. As referees reviewed the call, two sidelines dueled in body-language.

Minnesota, and a vibrating Fleck, held their hands skywards in a T.

USC, and furiously-gesturing linebackers coach Matt Entz, pointed arms toward the other end zone, far away from doom.

The loudspeaker boomed.

“After review,” a referee proclaimed, “it is a touchdown.”

And the night sky ripped open with red fireworks, and Huntington Bank Stadium shook, and a minute and a last-gasp USC drive later a sea of yellow rushed the Minnesota turf in a massive upset of 11th-ranked USC.

In the postgame presser, a reporter attempted to ask defensive lineman Jamil Muhammad if he felt Minnesota had crossed the plane. As Muhammad scoffed, slightly, Riley threw up his hand, telling the reporter “Don’t ask him that” and “next question.”

“Who cares what he says on that,” Riley continued, throwing up his hands in the middle of said next question. “Like, what, player’s opinion? Let’s ask a more professional question.”

He continued on to shrug, largely, at a later question about how USC would move on to next week against seventh-ranked Penn State, saying, “This is what we do.” But Saturday night will haunt USC, much more deeply than a valiant effort that came up short against Michigan, falling to a now-3-3 Minnesota program (1-2 Big Ten) as the Trojans’ pathway to a College Football Playoff gets squeezed.

Their own mistakes – again, the theme of a season regardless of win or loss – did them in. First came another slow offensive start, USC moving on their first drive only for a Moss third-down ball to hit off wide-open sophomore Zachariah Branch’s helmet. Second came a loose fumble at the end of a 21-yard Quinten Joyner run in the second quarter, USC down 10-7 to Minnesota and moving. Third, and most costly, came in one momentum-killing third-quarter brutality as Miller Moss hit the turf again with another turnover not of his own accord.

USC’s offensive line has seemed a problem area for months, ever since the program did little to add to a thin tackle group after Riley admitted in the spring that USC’s depth there was a slight “concern.” Left tackle Elijah Paige had struggled through growing pains for weeks, and Mason Murphy had shown flashes but was beaten a few too many times by Big Ten defensive ends. And in the fourth quarter up 17-10, with a chance to virtually put the game away on a third-and-four from Minnesota’s 35, Moss dropped back to pass in an another attempt to orchestrate an offense that had converted gutsy third down after gutsy third down.

He cocked. And just as he fired, Minnesota’s Jah Joyner –who’d dusted Murphy off the edge – walloped him, the ball flying from Moss’s hands directly into the arms of Golden Gophers linebacker Devon Williams.

After the game, Riley was asked directly if he still had confidence in the personnel on USC’s offensive line.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Riley responded. “Like, we moved the ball at will tonight. I mean, it was, again, you just can’t have those turnovers down there.”

It gave Minnesota life, and killed USC. Three minutes later, a bending USC defense broke to the continued behind-his-blockers patience of Minnesota’s Darius Taylor, and Brosmer finished off a drive on a keeper to tie the game. USC could manage but a feeble three-and-out to respond. And then came the backbreaker, a second chance at fourth-down redemption ending in a second heartbreak, and USC’s players slunk into the tunnel a few minutes later with a mucky road ahead.

Taylor finished with 144 yards on 25 carries for Minnesota. Marks had 134 yards on 20 carries for USC. Moss finished 23-of-38 for 200 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, one a deep shot to the end zone with 15 seconds left that sealed the game.