The chances had been there all afternoon for USC as it tried to put No. 4 Penn State away. But one opportunity had slipped out of reach, then another, then another, until Lincoln Riley’s Trojans tiptoed along the brink, playing fast and loose with their College Football Playoff hopes hanging in the balance, driving late in search of one last opportunity after a painstaking succession of squandered ones.
So often have the Trojans found themselves in this position, within a few inches of redemption, within a few plays of a key win.