On this episode of the Peristyle Podcasts hosts Ryan Abraham and Coach Harvey Hyde are back together and sounding like a broken record, with USC once again losing a very winnable game in the final seconds, this time in overtime 33-30 at the hands of No. 4 Penn State in the Coliseum. It was another exciting weekend of college football with two games on the West Coast that felt like the Rose Bowl, USC hosting Penn State and Oregon hosting Ohio State in Eugene. The Ducks got their signature win for the season, taking down the Buckeyes and the Trojans had their opportunity to take down a top-5 team and make a statement in the Big Ten, but fell short in the end.

Coach Harvey Hyde liked the way the team came out and ran the ball and played good defense against Penn State, allowing only a pair of field goals in the first 30 minutes of the game. But he wasn't sure why head coach Lincoln Riley got away from what was working after halftime, throwing 8 passes through the first 9 plays and allowing the Nittany Lions to come back and tie the game fairly quickly. In a game with two great traditions going at it, USC was not just in a position to win but had a chance to blow PSU out, but the Trojans helped out the Lions by getting away from what was working and helping the Lions in their comeback bid.

At the end of the day, Riley is one of the highest paid coaches in the country and Coach Hyde thinks that losing three of your last four games is not acceptable, whether they were all close at the end or not. This team has had many opportunities for someone to make a play down the stretch and in the three losses no one was able to break through and do so. Saturday the players played hard, Coach Hyde could tell they wanted to win, but when it came down to it they just were not able to execute. Coach Hyde was glad to see Riley take responsibility after the game, he just now wants to see them take the next step and figure out how to walk away from winnable games with a victory.

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