USC Football: Lincoln Riley Excuses Another Terrible Defensive Showing

Things need to change quickly for this Trojans team moving forward.

The USC Trojans dropped another game this past weekend, this time to the Oregon Ducks. This marks the fourth loss in their last five games, and things have gotten very frustrating for USC. 

It was another sloppy game from the Trojans defense, and once again, they didn't come to play. Head coach Lincoln Riley gave his thoughts about the defense but seemed to look over the issues at hand.

It has seemed like a common theme all year long, with Riley looking over the real issues on this team. He doesn’t care about the defensive side of the ball, and he made that clear with his postgame quotes.

“I thought the staff did a good job. Guys played hard defensively. We got some key stops there. The first two long ones that get out. I mean, again, you got guys playing in there that are probably about 70% right now. And that’s just kind of what you had. And so I thought the coaches did a good job rallying the guys. Guys fought all night. It’s admittedly not the easiest of situations, but I wouldn’t have changed anything about our guys handled it.”

Per Lincoln Riley via WeAreSC

It was always going to be a tough task to take down Oregon on the road, but these type of excuses have become standard from Riley. The defense played alright against Oregon, especially in the second half, but it’s been a problem all season.

Poor defenses have followed Riley over his career, and at this point, we can assume that he only focuses on scoring the football. It took him far too long to fire former defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, despite the issues that were right in front of him,

Yes, the Trojans season has been over pretty much since they lost to Utah a few weeks back, but pride does become a factor. The defensive unit hasn’t been good all season long, but Riley has refused to acknowledge the issue.

It’s been two years under Riley for the Trojans, and they are no closer to winning a National Championship than before he joined the program. Things need to change here quickly, otherwise, it could get up for him in Southern California.