The USC Trojans lose their third game of the season 33-30 against the Penn State Nittany Lions in overtime at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It is the third time this season that the Trojans have lost in the final minute of regular time or in overtime.

“Really tough loss,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said. “There’s no way to sugarcoat that. Our guys fought from start to finish. As a coach, I can’t ask for anything more than the effort the guys put in on the field. There are two good football teams at it.” , it came down to the final play

“We’ve obviously had a few games like this where we had opportunities to win right at the end and not, you know, not make the plays, and not have some breaks bounce your way. No doubt about it, so we’re disappointed we didn’t finish it.”

After gaining just 15 yards on their opening possession, the Trojans’ offense exploded on their second thanks to a 75-yard run by running back Quinten Joyner. It was USC’s longest touchdown of the year so far. Joyner then scored his touchdown of the afternoon when he caught a nine-yard pass from quarterback Miller Moss.

It was a good day on the field for the Trojans, with senior running back Woody Marks reaching the century mark for the second week in a row, this time carrying the ball 20 times for 118 yards. USC finished the game with 200 yards on the ground against the No. 4 rushing defense in college football

USC had complete control in the first half and went into the locker room with a 20-6 lead. The second half was a different story.

The entire momentum began to shift to Penn State as they opened the half with two consecutive scoring drives of 75 and 90 yards to tie the game at 20. From that point on, like a great boxing match, the two blue bloods began exchanging jabs .

Moss connected with Kyron Hudson late in the fourth quarter to give the Trojans the lead, but on the ensuing possession, quarterback Drew Allar connected twice with receiver Julian Fleming on fourth down to extend the drive. Allar would then find a wide open Nick Singleton for a 9-yard touchdown to tie the game and send to overtime.

USC got the ball first, Michael Lantz missed his 45-yard field goal attempt, Penn State’s Ryan Barker scored his 36-yard field goal and Penn State walked away with their perfect record still intact.

“The reality is we played the toughest schedule in the country,” Riley said. “We’ve had the opportunity to win every game, and that’s hard to do… we have to do better at the end of the games. I have to do better, our coaches, our players, because we do too a lot of good things in situations where we have an advantage and can win and have to get paid for it.

USC will make their own coast-to-coast journey when they travel to College Park to face the Maryland Terrapins this Saturday, October 19. It will be the first ever match between the two programs. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 PM PT and will air on FS1.