USC controlled its own destiny — until it didn’t. 

On Saturday afternoon at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Trojans (3-3, 1-3 Big Ten) blew a double-digit lead against No. 3 Penn State (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) and lost 33-30 in overtime. USC has dropped three games to Big Ten opponents this season, and each of those defeats was determined on one of the final plays.

“We’ve had a chance to win every single game, and that’s hard to do,” said Head Coach Lincoln Riley in a post-game press conference after the Penn State loss. “To put yourself in a position to win these games is freaking hard to do to begin with. So we’re doing a lot of good.”

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

The week prior, Riley made a similar remark after a late interception near the red zone ended USC’s hopes for a road victory over Minnesota.

“We had opportunities to win those games,” Riley said at Huntington Bank Stadium. “We put ourselves in those positions which is hard to do on the road against quality teams, but obviously, we’re frustrated that we haven’t finished them off.”

And of course, in response to the Trojans’ surrender at the Big House when they allowed a 63-yard run in the fourth quarter to set up Michigan’s game-winning touchdown, Riley also pointed to the Trojans’ promising positioning.

“We gave ourselves an opportunity to win a football game,” Riley said in Ann Arbor Sept. 21. “I thought we put ourselves in position, but you got to finish it.”

As Riley communicated, each of the Trojans’ losses came down to the wire, but against Penn State, USC had a plethora of opportunities for victory. 

Two-possession halftime lead aside, USC was in a prime position for a game-winning drive toward the end of regulation. It was every coach’s dream scenario: The game was tied with 1:27 minutes to go and the Trojans had the ball at about midfield. But instead, Riley called a rush, which resulted in a two-yard loss. Then on second down, he opted to drain the clock rather than call a timeout to lengthen the drive. 

“With how well [redshirt senior kicker Michael Lantz] was kicking, it was the biggest reason I wanted to make sure it was the last possession,” Riley said.

Unfortunately for the Trojans, Lantz’s leg was never put to use to close out the fourth quarter. With 14 seconds left, redshirt junior quarterback Miller Moss had to get USC within field goal range, but his effort was picked off, sending the game to overtime shortly thereafter.

USC had possession first in extra time, but it was only able to move the ball backward. When Lantz attempted his fourth field goal of the afternoon, he missed it wide left. 

As a result, all the Nittany Lions had to do to clinch the comeback was not intentionally lose. They gained a whopping six yards to set up a 36-yard field goal, and the rest is history. Well, not history, because nothing out of the ordinary occurred. The then-No. 4 team in the nation hopped on the road and defeated an unranked team — no surprise there.

The Trojans’ trend of losing games during the final frame begs the question: Are they truly in position to win, if they hardly do? If there’s always a turnover to be had or a tackle to be missed, was the opportunity for victory simply an illusion?

That is a question for the second half of the season to answer. For now, USC will look back on how it built a double-digit lead against the country’s No. 3 team and then found a way to fold. 

USC first found success on the ground. It attained its first lead when redshirt freshman running back Quinten Joyner embarked on a 75-yard rush to the end zone and the Trojans finished the first half with 145 yards on the ground, averaging 13.18 yards per carry. 

The Trojan backfield was quieter in the second half, with an average of 3.75 yards on 12 carries, but it still found more success than the Nittany Lions’ previous opponents. Penn State entered the game as the No. 4 rushing defense, permitting 2.47 yards per rush.

Penn State senior tight end Tyler Warren counteracted the Trojans’ ground game from the get-go. On the Nittany Lions’ first drive, he caught five passes for 46 yards and took a handoff for four yards. Warren completed the afternoon with 17 receptions — the most ever by a USC opponent — 224 yards and a touchdown.

“We had a good game plan. We should have made plays to stop [Warren] too, but he made great plays himself,” said redshirt sophomore safety Kamari Ramsey. “Tip your hat off to him.”

Although Penn State junior quarterback Drew Allar racked up three interceptions, Warren’s career game gave him a boost, and he completed 69.77% of his passes for 391 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Trojans’ pass defense was spotty; On some drives, Allar looked disheveled and optionless, whereas on others, he could connect with an array of receivers — each for double-digit yardage — into the endzone.

Looking at this game holistically, it is clear the Trojans are not short on talent. They tallied 200 rushing yards, forced three turnovers and used eight different receivers against one of the best teams in the Big Ten.

“That’s the [then-]No. 4 team in the country,” Moss said. “So what does that make us?”

Right now, that still makes USC a .500 team, the No. 15 ranked member of the Big Ten and a spectator of the AP Top 25 Poll. The Trojans will head to College Park, Maryland this week where they will try to break their game-blowing rut against the Terrapins on Saturday at SECU Stadium at 1 p.m.