USC fans who watched a pair of defenders play two-hand touch on Washington’s final touchdown Saturday weren’t the only incredulous observers.
Count Trojans coach Lincoln Riley in that same group.
“It was just, I think, two really just poor attempts at a tackle,” Riley said Tuesday evening after having several days to digest the indignity.
It started when Huskies tight end Decker DeGraaf caught a short pass from Demond Williams Jr. early n in the third quarter and turned upfield.
USC safety Brian Urlacher had a chance to stop DeGraaf around the 30-yard line, but his two-handed shove attempting to move the receiver out of bounds had zero impact as DeGraaf continued to run up the sideline.
Cornerback Elbert “Rock” Hill IV had one last chance inside the 20, but his two-handed push had the same negligible effect as his teammate’s.
“He got face masked like crazy,” Riley said of Hill, “but it’s still zero excuse to not get the guy out of bounds. I mean just, it really wasn’t representative of the way we played the entire game. It was kind of weird that our two worst attempts at a tackle happened on the same exact play.
“You can’t play for us and play like that.”
Did Riley speak with Urlacher and Hill afterward?
“Oh, yeah,” Riley said. “Message received loud and clear and it was a bad play by our standards. Those guys have been two pretty good football players for us. That hasn’t been representative of how KU and Rock have played this year, how they’ve tackled or hit or competed. So out of character for both of them and I bet we won’t see it again.”
On the plus side, DeGraaf’s touchdown represented Washington’s final score before the Trojans rallied for a 25-21 victory while allowing their fewest points in a month.
Students who chanted “Fire Riley!” after USC fell behind 21-10 were silenced by what happened the rest of the game.
USC’s defense was bolstered in part by the strong play of linebacker Ta’Mere Robinson, subbing for Desman Stephens II after Stephens was suspended for celebrating his big hit on Oregon’s Dante Moore the previous week.
Might that impact the team’s linebacker rotation against Penn State (3-2 overall, 0-2 Big Ten) on Saturday given it received some of its best play of the season at the position?
“It’s gonna create more opportunities for some of those guys, there’s no question about it,” said Riley, whose No. 19 Trojans (5-1 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) will face a Nittany Lions offense averaging 32 points per game. “Des is a good player and an important part of this football team.
“I think what we learned this week is we’ve got a handful of guys in there that can go out there and play really, really well. [So] whether it’s somebody else getting more reps or it’s just the ability to just simply rotate guys to keep them fresh, we’re using guys different from a package standpoint. We certainly look at it as a positive and feel like we know a little bit more, have developed some more depth in that room than maybe we felt 10 days ago.”
