Here’s how we reacted to the USC-Colorado game on Saturday:
“This felt a lot like the Cotton Bowl. This brought back memories of the Cotton Bowl. This created Cotton Bowl vibes. This was Tulane all over again. This was the Tulane game. On and on and on. Fans and reporters and bloggers found it impossible to avoid thinking about the Cotton Bowl against Tulane when USC watched a 48-21 lead turn into a 48-41 final score on Saturday against Colorado.
“USC won this time, unlike the Cotton Bowl, but the defense losing the plot in the fourth quarter felt very much the same. USC blew a 15-point lead in the final 4:30 of the Cotton Bowl. USC won this game only because its lead was bigger — 48-21 — and Colorado ran out of time.”
No one can say USC’s defense has made real progress compared to 2022. Now we have Lincoln Riley saying the kinds of mistakes being made by the 2023 defense are different from the mistakes he saw on film in 2022.
Is that true? Many will debate it.
The larger point: No one cares. What matters is that there’s no real improvement.
Let’s see how USC fans and national commentators are reacting to the latest soap opera involving Riley and Grinch: