Lincoln Riley responds to critics after close call against Rutgers

Same old USC defense.Here we go again.Lincoln Riley will never get it done.Go ahead, pick your gripe about the Trojans — they’ve all been floating around.What else could one objectively say after USC barely held on for a victory over Rutgers on the same field where the Scarlet Knights had been trampled by UMass two weeks earlier?Fan and media crosshairs were squarely fixed on Riley after his team had to sweat out what was supposed to be a final warmup before the schedule stiffened.Most of the criticism has been aimed at a defense that gave up 460 yards and 35 points — only a touchdown less than Rutgers managed in its first two games combined.One-third of the way through the regular season, Gary Patterson’s arrival hasn’t appreciably changed the fortunes of a defense that now ranks No.60 nationally in yards allowed per game (317.5) and No.

73 in average points allowed (22.8) — and that’s after facing Louisiana, Fresno State, San Jose State and arguably the Big Ten’s worst team.So, what does Riley have to say for himself and a defense that’s been panned as no better than what came before it under Alex Grinch and D’Anton Lynn?“Yeah, I base my opinions on what I see on tape, I base my opinions on what I see in the thousands of hours that we put into this and that’s kind of where my opinions stay, so I really don’t have a response to that,” Riley said Tuesday when asked by the California Post about widespread criticism.“Our job is to win, our job is to continue to battle and continue to improve.We need to play a lot better on third down and fourth down than we did the other night, and that’s the biggest thing that we took away from that.

So, we made a lot of big plays, but we’ve got to play steadier, and we’ve got to get off the field when we get the opportunities.”Riley was referencing the Scarlet Knights converting on 6 of 11 third downs and 3 of 4 fourth downs —something that might be understandable against Ohio State but not ...