Lincoln Riley had a rough week of explaining USC’s loss to Wisconsin, and the quotes he put in front of reporters only made the whole thing look stranger.
After the Badgers handed USC a three-score defeat, Riley tried to frame the defensive performance in a way that would make the loss sound less severe. In his weekly press conference, he said, "I thought defensively we dominated maybe 90 percent of the plays in the game."
That was a hard sell for a team that lost by three scores. Wisconsin’s offense did not light it up, and Colton Joseph finished with 58 passing yards, but Riley’s description of USC as dominating “90 percent” of the game defensively landed as a wildly optimistic read on what actually happened.
He didn’t stop there.
Riley also told reporters, "We did some really good things in the run game."
That’s a tougher statement to square with the box score. USC finished with negative rushing yards, ending the game at -17 on the ground.
The Trojans managed only 40 rushing yards on 20 attempts, which works out to 2.0 yards per carry. Their longest run of the day went for seven yards.
There was also the quarterback run game to factor in. Jayden Maiva finished with -57 rushing yards, further dragging down USC’s numbers on the ground.
Riley did acknowledge Wisconsin in part, saying, "You can't play this way and still expect to win against a good team."
Even so, the overall message from his comments was hard to miss: he saw a lot more encouragement in the performance than the final score suggested. The Badgers also recorded nine tackles for loss, repeatedly knocking USC backward before the offense could get going.
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