makai lemon

EUGENE, Ore. — The last time he made it here, to the doorstep of the College Football Playoff, Lincoln Riley could only watch as USC’s hopes slipped away with a single hamstring tweak. Without its Heisman-winning quarterback healthy, USC fell painfully short, left to wonder over frustrating seasons that followed what might have been.

It would take Riley nearly three years — and plenty of ups and downs in between — to return to that same place with USC, only to have the door slammed shut once again, this time in a 42-27 loss to No. 7 Oregon.

With its playoff hopes dashed by a third defeat, barring an unlikely sequence of events, USC (9-3) appears to be heading to a second-tier bowl game, while the Ducks are one of three Big Ten teams likely to host a home playoff matchup. That’s an especially bitter pill to swallow, considering the progress Riley has trumpeted this season, four years into his tenure at USC.

“This is USC — the standard here is incredibly high,” Riley said. “We’ve won a bunch of games this year. The ones we haven’t won, we’re right there.”

It was a familiar refrain from Riley, who has lost all five of his games against top-10 teams as USC’s coach. But the Trojans’ losses this season each left little doubt about how and why they’d fallen short. At Illinois, it was penalties and costly mistakes. At Notre Dame, a bone-headed play call and ill-timed turnovers did them in.

Against Oregon (10-1), it was more of the same lapses in discipline. Except this time, the back-breaking mistakes came largely on special teams. The most glaring of which Riley would look back on as the turning point Saturday.

It was just a few minutes into the second quarter. Tied 14-14, USC had sputtered short of midfield. So the Trojans punted away to Oregon’s Malik Benson.

The punt flew on a line drive to Benson, who found the edge and flew past USC’s last line of defense, 85 yards untouched into the end zone. The return’s impact would only reverberate from there.

“Obviously, it was a huge, huge play in the game,” Riley said. “You definitely don’t want to give them something like that.”

You certainly wouldn’t want to let those missteps snowball either. But that’s precisely what happened as quarterback Jayden Maiava faced heavy pressure on a third down on USC’s ensuing possession and threw a prayer into traffic. Oregon intercepted the pass.

USC’s defense would hold initially, and Oregon sent a field-goal attempt off the goalpost. Had the Trojans taken over from there, what followed could have altered the path of USC’s season — and the college football season writ large.

But in trying to block the field goal, linebacker Desman Stephens leaped over the Ducks’ line and was flagged for a 15-yard penalty. Riley said that Stephens “just kind of panicked a little bit.” Three plays later, Oregon punched in a touchdown to take a lead it would never relinquish.

“We’re playing good enough right now that we’re a sequence like that [away] from beating anybody,” Riley said. “That’s just how it feels.”

USC wide receiver Makai Lemon attempts to hurdle Oregon defensive backs Dillon Thieneman (31) and Jadon Canady, right, during the first half Saturday.

(Lydia Ely / Associated Press)

The series of special teams mistakes ultimately sunk USC, yet it was hardly the only error the Trojans made in that aspect of the game. USC also missed a field goal, kicked a kickoff out of bounds and was called for catch interference.

Other mistakes made matters worse. The Trojans were called for eight penalties for 103 yards, the fourth time this season they’ve been penalized that much.

The Trojans’ defense certainly didn’t help matters, in spite of assurances that it had ironed out its issues over three standout, second-half performances. Against Oregon, though, that progress was tough to spot, as USC gave up 436 yards, just shy of a season-worst mark.

The loss wasn’t for a lack of effort from its passing attack. After a questionable performance on the road in each of USC’s first four trips, quarterback Jayden Maiava hit big throws to keep the Trojans alive. Seven of his 25 completions went for 15 yards or more. He finished with 306 yards and three touchdowns, while freshman Tanook Hines (141) and fellow wideout Ja’Kobi Lane (108) turned in standout performances.

With its rushing attack unable to move the ball, the passing game was all that really worked for USC.

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava looks toward the scoreboard in the second half of a 42-27 loss to Oregon on Saturday.

(Lydia Ely / Associated Press)

King Miller had been stellar in the five weeks since being thrust into the lead role in USC’s backfield. But the Trojan walk-on was totally neutralized by Oregon’s stout defensive front. He rushed for just 30 yards, the longest of his 15 carries going for just five yards. The Trojans managed just 52 yards on the ground total, their fewest since a November 2023 loss to UCLA.

“We didn’t run the ball nearly as well as we have or nearly as well as we expected to,” Riley said.

After USC coaches reiterated all week the importance of starting fast, USC did make an immediate statement. On its first drive, USC marched down the field, and Maiava found Makai Lemon on an eight-yard swing pass that he took into the end zone.

But while USC’s running game struggled, Oregon faced little resistance, racking up 179 rushing yards and three scores.

At the start of the second quarter, Maiava found Lemon again on a swing pass in the backfield, only for Lemon to throw the ball on a double pass. Waiting for the pass was Hines, who leaped for an acrobatic 24-yard touchdown in traffic.

The fireworks didn’t stop there. But the special teams gaffes would change the tenor of the game, as Oregon opened up a 28-14 lead by halftime.

Just before the half, USC drove to the 10-yard line with seconds remaining, only for kicker Ryon Sayeri to clank a 27-yard field goal attempt off the goalpost.

A third-quarter interception from Kennedy Urlacher, one of two USC reserves starting at safety, gave the Trojans some life. But there would be no stalwart second-half stand from USC’s defense, like it managed the last three weeks. Nor could its electric offense climb back in time.

As the final seconds ticked away, there was only the realization that, once again, its hopes of a special season had been dashed right on the doorstep.

They were battered, they were bruised, they were soaking wet and covered in stereotypes.

They’re not tough enough. They’re not resilient enough. They’re not Big Ten-enough.

Late in the second quarter Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum, a USC football team fighting for a playoff berth was crumbling beneath the weight of its worst national perception.

It was wilting under the weather and the weight of a team from Iowa.

Then, with big swings from a deep strength that few thought a Lincoln Riley team possessed, everything changed.

It’s raining wins, hallelujah.

Trailing 21-7, the Trojans got muddy and chilly and just plain mean, winning the line of scrimmage, winning the battle of skill, and eventually winning the game 26-21.

Yeah, afterward, that was Riley dancing in a downpour.

And, yes, USC is still in the national championship hunt, needing wins in its final two games at Oregon and against UCLA to qualify for the College Football Playoff.

Few will believe they can beat sixth-ranked and one-loss Oregon in Eugene. But then again, few believed they would survive Iowa after the Hawkeyes took that big second-quarter lead.

During the last 10 years, Iowa had an 83-5 record when leading by eight points or more. Translated, this is a program that knows how to protect a lead, and the Trojans were seemingly cooked.

But Makai Lemon made 153 yards worth of spectacular catches, King Miller ran for 83 bruising clock-killing yards, Jahkeem Stewart made a game-changing interception, Jayden Maiava held it together with a touchdown pass and no turnovers, and the game essentially appropriately ended with USC just being stronger.

On a fourth-down pass in the final minute, Kennedy Urlacher shoved Kaden Wetjen out of bounds as he was making a grab deep in Trojan territory.

No catch, game over, and in the end, the Trojans were as hearty as that section of fans that witnessed the game shirtless.

The afternoon started with groundskeepers drying the field with leaf blowers, the first rainy game at the Coliseum in nine years.

USC coach Lincoln Riley celebrates with wide receiver Prince Strachan during the second half of a 26-21 comeback win over Iowa at the Coliseum on Saturday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

But for USC under Riley, it felt the same, a late-season game requiring the sort of grimy toughness that his Trojans had yet to show.

Blew five fourth-quarter leads last season. Blew four of their last five games two seasons ago. Blew the Pac-12 championship game and a shot at the playoffs three seasons ago.

It looked like they were going to blow it again.

Iowa took the opening kickoff and drove 69 yards in seven plays in a bruising drive punctuated by a fourth-down, two-yard touchdown pass from Mark Gronowski to Dayton Howard in the back of the end zone.

Yes, the FBS’s 133rd ranked passing offense — out of 136 teams — had just scored on a pass play.

And Iowa was just getting started.

After stopping the Trojans’ Miller on a fourth-down run around just inside Iowa territory — a terrible Riley call against the nation’s best fourth-down defense — the Hawkeyes drove 45 yards in nine plays to score on a Gronowski one-yard push to take a 14-0 lead.

The Trojans came back while finally finding their groove, driving 74 yards on 11 plays featuring a leaping catch by Ja’Kobi Lane and ending with a one-yard touchdown run out of the wildcat formation by Bryan Jackson.

So USC had the momentum? Not so fast.

USC defensive tackle Jide Abasiri holds up the ball while celebrating with cornerback Decarlos Nicholson during the second half of the Trojans’ win Saturday over Iowa.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Iowa took the possession and pounded and pounded and nine plays and 75 yards later scored on a five-yard, trick-play pass from receiver Reece Vander Zee to Gronowski.

That gave Iowa a 21-7 lead that was shortened only by a Ryon Sayeri 40-yard field goal after a dropped pass and penalty stopped the Trojans.

USC took the ball at the start of the third quarter and seemed to be destined for a touchdown after a leaping sideline catch by Lemon. But a holding call against Lane ruined a long run by Miller, two failed pass plays stalled the drive, and the Trojans had to settle for a 29-yard field goal by Sayeri to close the gap to 21-13.

After the Trojans defense stiffened, the offense went back on a roll, using another leaping grab by Lemon — this one for 35 yards — to set up a 12-yard TD pass between three defenders to Lemon. Maiava overthrew Lemon on the two-point conversion attempt, but this time, the Trojans didn’t blow the momentum.

On Iowa’s next possession, with 1:52 left in the period, the powerful freshman Stewart grabbed a deflected pass for an interception to give the Trojans the ball on the Iowa 40-yard line.

From there, Maiava drove them 40 yards in six plays on a possession that was assisted by a pass interference penalty and gave them an eventual 26-21 lead after Jackson’s one-yard touchdown run.

It was a lead they never lost.

It is a season that still matters.