USC defense holds off late Washington push, escapes with a win

The knives already were out. The boos already were ringing.

At the end of an already brutal week at USC, during which the nation was ready to dance on the graves of the Trojans and their coach, it seemed for much of Saturday that any last shreds of faith in coach Lincoln Riley might melt away in the beating Southern California sun. Not only had the aftermath of their Oregon loss gone as poorly as possible, but now the Trojans were tripping over themselves again, trailing Washington, a middling Big Ten team down to its fourth-string running back, and a chant began to rise above the fray in the Coliseum, from the USC student section.

“FIRE LINCOLN!” they roared.

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Sept. 22, 2026

No. 18 USC 25, Washington 21, end of fourth quarter

Washington started on its 25 after the punt.

Demond Williams Jr. tossed an incomplete pass intended for Rashid Williams. Brian Bonner ran for three yards. On third-and-seven, Washington was called for false start. On third-and-11, Demond Williams Jr. passed to Chris Lawson for 15 yards. Williams was sacked by Luke Wafle. On second-and-12 at the Washington 17, Bonner ran for three yards. On third-and-nine, Williams tossed passed Dezmen Roebuck for seven yards.

On fourth-and-two at the Washington 27, the Huskies called timeout. Williams stepped away from pressure and passed he was hit to Chris Lawson for 43 yards.

The two-minute timeout was triggered.

On first down at the USC 30, Williams was sacked for a one-yard loss by Wafle. On second-and-11, Williams ran for five yards. Jide Abasiri was injured on the play, giving Washington a free timeout without taking time off the clock. On third-and-six, at the USC 26, Williams passed to Roebuck for three yards. On fourth-and-three, Williams passed to Roebuck for five yards.

On first down at the USC 18, Williams ran for four yards. With 58 seconds left, Washington called timeout. On second-and-six, Williams passed to Bonner for two yards. USC called timeout with 50 seconds left. On third-and-four, Williams was sacked by Kameryn Crawford for an eight-yard loss.

Washington called timeout with 45 seconds left.

On fourth-and-10 at the USC 18, Williams’ pass intended for Roebuck in double coverage was incomplete and the Huskies turned the ball over.

USC ran out the clock on a win.

No. 18 USC 25, Washington 21, 5:33 left in the fourth quarter

Washington started on its USC 39.

Jayden Maiava passed to Ethan “Boobie” Feaster for 12 yards. King Miller ran for no gain. Miller ran for four yards. On third-and-six, Maiava tossed an incomplete pass intended for Tanook Hines.

USC appeared to down the punt on Washington’s 1-yard line, but officials said the ball reached the end zone for a touchback and the Trojans committed an illegal formation penalty on the play.

Washington will get the ball on its 25.

No. 18 USC 25, Washington 21, 7:40 left in the fourth quarter

Washington started on its 25 after the touchback.

Brian Bonner ran for 11 yards, but Washington was called for holding. Demond Williams Jr. tossed an incomplete pass and Washington was called for holding but USC declined it. On second-and-19, Williams passed to Chris Lawson for five yards. On third-and-14, Williams was sacked for a loss of four yards.

USC defensive coordinator Gary Patterson switched to calling plays from the box this game and the strategy seems to be paying off in the fourth quarter.

Washington punted to the USC 39.

No. 18 USC 25, Washington 21, 9:39 left in the fourth quarter

On first down at the USC 32, Jayden Maiava passed to Riley Wormley for 13 yards. Maiava ran for nine yards, but Tanook Hines was called for holding on the play. On first-and-16 at the USC 39, Maiava rolled away from pressure and then heaved the ball up field to Carson Tabaracci for a 31-yard gain.

Maiava passed to Tucker Ashcraft for nine yards. King Miller ran for a loss of two yards. On third-and-three, Waymond Jordan ran for two yards. On fourth-and-one, Jordan ran for two yards. Maiava’s pass intended for Riley Wormley fell incomplete. Maiava’s pass intended for Hines in the end zone sailed high and out of bounds.

On third-and-10 at the Washington 19, Maiava passed to Jordan for a loss of three yards.

Caden Chittenen hit the 39-yard field goal.

No. 18 USC 22, Washington 21, , end of third quarter

USC started on its on its one-yard line after the punt.

Jayden Maiava rolled out and threw the ball away. Maiava tossed an incomplete pass as Tanook Hines was leveled on his route, but officials only called Washington offsides.

On second-and-five, King Miller ran for no gain. On third down, Maiava tossed an incomplete pass intended for Hines but Washington was called for pass interference. A replay showed Hines committed offensive pass interference, but the official’s call stood.

Maiava passed to Ethan “Boobie” Feaster for nine yards. Maiava passed to Taniela Tupou for no gain. On third-and-one, Waymond Jordan ran for two yards as time expired in the third quarter.

No. 18 USC 22, Washington 21, 2:35 left in the third quarter

Washington returns the kickoff to the Huskies’ 32.

Demond Williams Jr. passed to Chris Lawson for 12 yards and to Decker DeGraaf for seven yards. Brian Bonner ran for one yard. Williams tossed an incomplete pass.

Washington punted to the USC 1.

No. 18 USC 22, Washington 21, , 4:40 left in the third quarter

Washington started on its 25 after the touchback.

Brian Bonner ran for six yards. Bonner ran for 16 yards. Demond Williams Jr. tossed an incomplete pass. Bonner ran for two yards. On third-and-eight at the Washington 49, Williams was trying to spin out of a collapsing pocket and was hit by Elijah Newby as he passed the ball. Jahkeem Stewart recovered the ball and ran it back 48-yards for a touchdown.

USC went for two again, but Ethan “Boobie” Feaster ran laterally and could not turn the corner, failing to convert on the play.

Washington 21, No. 18 USC 16, 6:34 left in the third quarter

USC started on its 25.

King Miller ran for four yards. Kayden Dixon-Wyatt ran for a loss of five yards. Jayden Maiava passed to Zacharyus Williams for 23 yards. Waymond Jordan ran for four yards and Washington was called for illegal hands to the face on the play. Maiava’s pass intended to Dixon-Wyatt falls short. Miller ran for four yards. On third-and-six at the Washington 32, Maiava tossed an incomplete pass intended for Terrell Anderson after the Huskies were called offsides. On third-and-one, Jordan was stuffed for no gain.

On fourth-and-one at the Washington 26, Jordan ran for four yards. Miller ran for four yards, four yards and three yards.

On first down at the Washington 11, Jordan ran for one yard. Maiava passed to Tanook Hines for a 10-yard touchdown. USC went for two, but Jonas Williams was stuffed one yard short of the conversion.

Washington 21, No. 18 USC 10, 14:29 left in the third quarter

Washington started on its 40 after the punt.

Washington pulled off a flea flicker, with Demond Williams Jr. handing off, taking the ball back on a pitch and passing to Baron Naone for 18 yards. Williams then passed to Decker DeGraaf for a 42-yard touchdown. The Trojans missed a lot of tackles on the play.

Washington hit the extra point.

Washington 14, No. 18 USC 10, 14:29 left in the third quarter

USC started on its 25 after a touchback.

Jayden Maiava tossed an incomplete pass intended for Kayden Dixon-Wyatt. King Miller ran for two yards, but Dixon-Wyatt was called for unsportsmanlike conduct. On third-and-22, Maiava tossed an incomplete pass intended for Tucker Ashcraft.

USC punted to the Washington 40.

Washington 14, No. 18 USC 10, end of second quarter

USC started on its 25 after a touchback.

Jayden Maiava passed to Tanook Hines for 12 yards. Maiava passed to King Miller for 12 yards. Maiava passed to Zacharyus Williams for four yards. Maiava tossed an incomplete pass intended for Waymond Jordan. Maiava passed to Ethan “Boobie” Feaster for five yards and a flag was thrown on the play. USC’s Alani Noa was called for unsportsmanlike conduct after the play. Washington declined the 10-second runoff with the clock at 1:08.

On fourth-and-16 at the USC 43, USC punted and the Trojans downed the ball at the Huskies’ one-yard line.

Brian Bonner ran for two yards and then another seven yards to run out the clock at the end of the second quarter.

Washington 14, No. 18 USC 10, 1:50 left in the second quarter

Washington started on its 20 after the USC punt.

Brian Bonner ran for eight yards. Washington was called for false start. Bonner ran for 13 yards. Williams passed to Dezmen Roebuck for 14 yards. Williams fumbled a snap and appeared to be sacked for a loss of 12 yards but Luke Wafle was called for a face mask penalty on the play.

On first down at the USC 35, Williams passed to Baron Naone for 17 yards. Williams ran for six yards. Bonner ran for nine yards. Jahkeem Stewart was down on the field and clutching one of his feet, but he eventually jogged off the field during the two-minute timeout.

Bonner ran for two yards. USC called timeout. Kade Eldridge ran for a one-yard touchdown on a surprise direct snap and Washington hit the extra point.

No. 18 USC 10, Washington 7, 5:15 left in the second quarter

USC started on its 43 after the punt return.

King Miller ran for two yards. Jayden Maiava passed to Tanook Hines, but USC was called for illegal formation. Maiava passed to Zacharyus Williams for 11 yards. Miller ran for four yards. Maiava tossed an incomplete pass.

Shahn Alston ran for eight yards. Maiava’s deep touchdown pass to Kaden Wyatt-Dixon was erased by another USC illegal formation penalty.

Maiava was sacked for a loss of nine yards. Washington was called offsides.

USC’s Lachlan Carrigan punted into the end zone.

No. 18 USC 10, Washington 7, 9:24 left in the second quarter

Washingtons tarted on its 25 after the touchback.

Demond Williams Jr. tossed an incomplete pass. Williams passed to Rashid Williams, but the receiver caught the ball after stepping out of bounds without re-establishing himself in the field of play first and it was an incomplete pass. Williams was nearly sacked near his end zone, but he evaded pressure long enough to heave the ball out of bounds.

Washington punted and Terrell Anderson returned it 18 yards to the USC 43.

No. 18 USC 10, Washington 7, 9:58 left in the second quarter

USC started on its 39 after a punt return.

King Miller ran for two yards. Jayden Maiava passed to Zacharyus Williams for 40 yards. Maiava passed to Riley Wormley for seven yards. King Miller ran for four yards. And Waymond Jordan ran for an eight-yard touchdown.

Caden Chittenden hit the extra point.

Washington 7, No. 18 USC 3, 12:45 left in the second quarter

On first down at the Washington 45, Jayden Maiava passed to Tanook Hines for four yards. Maiava then tried to evade pressure and heaved the ball up field. It was intercepted by Rylon Dillard-Allen at the Washington 19.

Demond Williams Jr. tossed an incomplete pass and then ran for five yards. Brian Bonner ran for four yards and Williams tossed an incomplete pass. Washington was called for false start before punting.

USC’s Terrell Anderson returned the punt 11 yards to the Trojans’ 39.

Washington 7, No. 18 USC 3, end of first quarter

USC started on its 25 after the touchback.

Jayden Maiava tossed an incomplete pass. Waymond Jordan ran for nine yards and another two yards.

Maiava passed to Riley Wormley for 19 yards as time expired in the first quarter.

Washington 7, No. 18 USC 3, 1:46 left in the first quarter

Washington started on USC’s 41 after the punt return.

Demond Williams Jr. passed to Dezmen Roebuck for one yard and then was sacked for a loss of five yards. Williams then passed Chris Lawson for seven yards.

On fourth-and-seven at the USC 38, Washington called timeout. Williams then ran for 11 yards and a first down.

Brian Bonner ran for three yards. Williams ran for eight yards. Bonner ran for one yard.

On second-and-goal at the USC 5, Williams pitched to Roebuck, who passed Baron Naone for a five-yard touchdown.

Washington hit the extra point.

No. 18 USC 3, Washington 0, 6:07 left in the first quarter

USC started on its 1-yard line after the muffed punt.

King Miller ran for three yards, Jayden Maiava tossed two incomplete passes and Lachlan Carrigan punted 51 yards to the Washington 45. The Huskies returned the punt 14 yards to the USC 41.

No. 18 USC 3, Washington 0, 7:06 left in the first quarter

Washington started on its 25-yard line after a touchback.

Brian Bonner ran for six yards and another yard. On third-and-three, Demond Williams Jr. tossed an incomplete pass intended for Dezmen Roebuck under pressure. Elbert “Rock” Hill IV broke up the pass.

USC’s Terrell Anderson muffed the 63-yard punt. It appeared the Trojans’ Trestin Castro gathered the ball before it was taken away on the ground by Washington’s Dylan Robinson. The ball was initially awarded to Washington at USC’s 1-yard line. After a review, USC was awarded the ball on its 1-yard line.

No. 18 USC 3, Washington 0, 8:35 left in the first quarter

USC started on its 16 after the punt.

King Miller ran for five yards. Jayden Maiava passed to Tanook Hines for 11 yards. Miller ran for six yards. Maiava passed to Hines 14 yards. Miller ran for up the middle for 35 yards to the Washington 13. Miller ran for no gain. Maiaiva passed to Carson Tabaracci for four yards. Maiava ran for no gain.

Caden Chittenden hit a 26-yard field goal.

No. 18 USC 0, Washington 0, 13:51 left in the first quarter

Washington started on its 25 after the touchback.

Quarterback Demond Williams Jr. ran for six yards, Brian Bonner ran for one yard and Williams tossed an incomplete pass.

On fourth-and-three, Washington punted to the USC 16.

No. 18 USC 0, Washington 0, 15:00 left in the first quarter

Washington won the coin toss and elected to receive.

USC kicked the ball into the end zone and Washington will start on its 25.

When USC standout sophomore defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart was ruled out for the Trojans’ season opener in late August with a foot injury, coach Lincoln Riley suggested he could be back on the field as soon as the next week.

Two weeks later, Stewart was dressed and warmed up for USC’s matchup with Louisiana, but he was a late scratch from the game.

Stewart waited another two weeks to get back onto the field for the Trojans, making his season debut count during Saturday’s loss to Oregon. He recorded two of USC’s four tackles for a loss during the game.

“It felt great,” Stewart said of playing college football again. “Been playing football since I was 3 years old, so I don’t like the game being taken away from me.”

Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where the window is closing, the magic wand is waving like a white flag, and untrained eyes across the Trojan family are now all glaring at a man they once viewed as the savior of USC football.

They’d put every ounce of their confidence — and over $100 million — behind Lincoln Riley in 2021, when Riley promised to turn the Coliseum into the mecca of college football. They found a way to give even more that fall, after he brought in Caleb Williams and brought USC to the brink of the Playoff. And they gave him the benefit of the doubt, in 2023, when it all fell apart. “We will play great defense here,” Riley promised that offseason, and so they fell in line behind D’Anton Lynn, and then, two years later, with Gary Patterson, convincing themselves that on the third go-round, of course, it would be different.

USC suspended linebacker Desman Stephens II for one game and issued apologies after he celebrated delivering a late hit that injured Oregon quarterback Dante Moore Saturday at the Coliseum, the school announced Sunday.

Stephens charged forward to tackle Moore on a run play. Moore slid late and Stephens didn’t change course, lowering his shoulder and running into Moore’s head. Oregon players and fans were more offended after Stephens celebrated the play that nearly triggered a fight among the two teams and was captured by NBC cameras smiling on the sideline while Moore was treated on the field before being transported to the hospital by ambulance. Stephens was ejected for targeting, but new NCAA rules allowed him to remain on the sideline and try to fire up his team during the second half.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning called the hit “disgusting.” USC coach Lincoln Riley and Lanning both said they did not see Stephens reaction after the play.

Lincoln Riley said he didn’t notice Desman Stephens II celebrating after his hit on Dante Moore appeared to seriously injure the Ducks’ quarterback in the second quarter of USC’s 41-27 loss to Oregon on Saturday at the Coliseum.

“I did not see it. No,” Riley said.

Riley missed Stephens exulting as Moore lay on his back, the linebacker delighting while most everyone else in the Coliseum held their collective breath after seeing Moore exhibit a fencing response — as we all know, an involuntary physical reaction to a brain injury.

Riley didn’t catch his player taunting the Oregon sideline as the Ducks watched their teammate lay prone at the USC 12-yard line. Didn’t think to correct or coach up Stephens, because he didn’t notice how the junior’s reaction fueled the melee between the teams.

It was nearly a half decade ago that Lincoln Riley, dressed in a slick blue suit and glossy cardinal tie, stood atop the Coliseum’s rooftop deck, grinning as he gazed out across the field below. He’d just been introduced as USC’s new head coach, and in that moment, anything felt possible for the future of Trojan football. Riley, at the time, was one of the most renowned young coaches in college football. And as he surveyed the scene, he painted the picture of a day when the Trojans were back on top and the Coliseum was hallowed ground once again.

“This place,” Riley said that day, “is going to be the mecca of college football.”

But less than five years later, as final seconds ticked away on a 41-27 loss to Oregon on Saturday, fans trudged toward the exits, many of them surely wondering how much longer they’d accept the current state of USC football.

After 72 particularly miserable hours for his football program, Lincoln Riley took his place behind a lectern Tuesday and tried to assure everyone that things at USC weren’t as bad as they looked.

“There’s a lot of things to be proud of in this football program right now,” Riley said. “Those that really look into it and look at what’s happening here will see that and understand that. There’s people on the outside that just don’t.”

But the optics at USC, since Saturday’s 41-27 home loss to Oregon, certainly couldn’t have been much worse for Riley. Because it wasn’t just that his Trojans lost a critical game to a bitter rival, one framed for weeks — months, even — as a must-win. Or that in its wake, Ducks coach Dan Lanning had savaged him and his program multiple times.

It was what happened in the midst of that loss, as well as the reactions after, that made matters much worse for USC.

Why has it been so hard for USC football to compete for a national title after setting the standard in college football during Pete Carroll’s tenure?

(Harrison Freeman / Los Angeles Times Studios )

Times USC beat reporter Ryan Kartje spent the past four years conducting more than 100 interviews, gaining new insight into the football program’s dramatic rise, fall and difficult push to return to national relevance.

Today, we begin sharing that story with you in “House of Troy,” a new narrative podcast from L.A. Times Studios available now on Spotify and Apple.

Check out Episode 1: “Win Now.”

When Lincoln Riley hired Gary Patterson to be his third defensive coordinator in five seasons, the USC head coach naturally pointed to Patterson’s impressive track record.

His reputation, after all, was as one of the great defensive minds in the modern history of college football, a coach who, at Texas Christian, knew how to get more out of lesser talent. It stood to reason that he could do the same at USC, where they’d just signed the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class. And through the spring and summer, that appeared to be the case, as coaches and players alike raved about their new coordinator, who earlier this year was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.

But as the Trojans approach the midway point of an increasingly tense campaign, Patterson and his defense have fallen drastically short of those expectations.