SEATTLE -- Lincoln Riley seemed to know how it was going to land, but he had to say it anyway -- had to remind everyone that his 4-5 team is the result of an "anomaly" for all the tight games it continues to lose and how close his Trojans are to a dramatically different season.

"I've told you guys this before, it's like, all right, yeah, how many weeks we gotta say this? I understand," Riley said Saturday night after a 26-21 loss at Washington, in which USC surrendered a fourth quarter lead in defeat for the fifth time in seven games.

"But you go change five, six plays this season and then everybody's like, 'Oh my God, they're fricking unbelievable.' And the other 99.9 percent of the plays that we've played would all be exactly the same. So, you still gotta win at the end of the day and it's about winning, and trust me, I get that as good as anybody. But I've also got to pay attention to the other 99.9 percent too. I can't ignore that as well. And within that, I see massive progress that will pay dividends for this program and will pay dividends soon."

Riley is both right and wrong, but the concerning part for Trojans fans is that it's not clear he can see or accept where he's wrong.

Yes, in the most literal way, five or six plays with a different outcome would significantly change USC's season.

Yes, if the Trojans don't give up the 63-yard run to Michigan's Kalel Mullings on the decisive drive (or the fourth-and-goal touchdown from the 1), they win that game in Ann Arbor. Yes, if they get the goal line stop at Minnesota that was initially ruled before being overturned on review, they win that game. Yes, if they don't give up one of the fourth-and-long conversions to Penn State on its game-tying drive late in the fourth quarter, or maybe if Miller Moss hadn't overthrown an open Duce Robinson at the end or regulation that would have set up a game-winning field goal try, or perhaps if the Trojans avoid the missed field goal in overtime they could have scored a big win there. Yes, if they don't have the field goal blocked in the final minutes at Maryland, they avoid that ignominy of a 14-point fourth quarter collapse against the lowly Terrapins who haven't won another Big Ten game this year. Or Moss doesn't throw one of his costly interceptions at Washington, or there isn't an assignment bust on fourth-and-goal from the 1 on USC's penultimate drive where Woody Marks got swallowed up immediately for a 3-yard loss instead of punching in a late go-ahead touchdown. Etc. Sure.

"We've kind of had the anomaly of a year. Normally, these things end up over time going about 50-50 on these games that come down to one play, and we've happened to have the year that not too many of them have went our way," Riley said. "So I think the biggest thing you look at is we've been a good enough team. I know I've said it, but it's still the truth, it's just as true as it was last week against Rutgers and the wins and the losses and everything -- we've been a good enough team to win every game. ...

"Obviously, you want to continue to get better in the end and finish these off, which we certainly need to do a better job -- we own that -- but the biggest key for us growing both this year and in the future is when you get the ability, or the opportunity I should say, to separate in these games that's what you gotta do. And then it doesn't come down to a coin flip or hoping you make a play or they don't, or this call goes your way or that one doesn't. That's just kind of been the story of this stretch for us."

That's only part of the story.

Then there's the part that Riley seems blinded to -- that he has as much ability to affect that change as anyone on the field.

A clear reality has emerged over the last month-plus of this season. USC's offensive identity should be to lean heavily on the ground game and let the passing attack play off and benefit from that -- not the other way around.

This is clear to the majority of fans watching the games who vent on social media or message boards and implore Riley to commit to the run. This is clear to media who continue to ask him about it weekly, including three times after the loss Saturday night.

It's clear to former USC players like Matt Leinart who took to Twitter during the game to echo the same point seemingly everyone outside the program is trying to get through to Riley.

Everyone -- everyone! -- seems to realize this except Riley.

USC dialed up 29 passing attempts vs. 8 running back carries in the first half Saturday against a Washington team that entered the night ranked 15 out of 18 Big Ten teams in rush defense and that had allowed an average of 191.5 rushing yards over its past four games to teams that clearly realized its very apparent vulnerability. (Not for nothing, Washington also entered the night with the No. 1-ranked pass defense in the country, even if that is partly a product of the teams the Huskies had played.)

This has been a gripe among the aforementioned parties all season -- and really, much of Riley's entire USC tenure.

USC ranks 18th nationally in rushing yards per attempt (5.36) but just 79th (146.6) in rushing yards per game. Of the 17 teams in the country that run the ball at a better clip than the Trojans, 15 of them average at least 209 rushing yards per game (and all of them significantly more than USC). It only makes sense, after all -- teams that run the ball well maximizing their strength ...

And yet in a matchup that is screaming for the Trojans to come out with a ground-heavy attack, Riley's offense gives it to Woody Marks 8 times in the first half, Quinten Joyner 0 times (you know, the guy averaging 8.4 yards per carry this season) and has Moss toss it around the field 29 times.

Not surprisingly, USC trailed 20-7 at halftime and squandered prime field position on its first two drives -- from midfield after a 50-yard Makai Lemon return on the opening kickoff, and from the Washington 37 after a bad punt -- and came away with 0 points due to a Trojans punt following two unsuccessful pass plays and then the next time a Moss interception off the fingertips of Kyle Ford.

So, once again, Riley was asked after the game why he waited until the second half to embrace the run game?

"We called some stuff in the first half that we felt was there, but we didn't really execute it well," he said.

True, those eight running plays (plus one designed keeper for Moss) didn't muster much, but that's not a reason to chuck it 29 times instead against a team with good pass defense and bad run defense.

He was asked again if in hindsight he wished he had committed more to the run early?

"Yeah, I mean, we did try. We just, we didn't run it great," he reiterated. "That's always easy to say when you're not running it very good and you feel obviously the need to run the ball. But, yeah, we needed to do it better, I needed to do a better job -- I mean, none of it was good enough in the first half."

But they didn't try. Not really. They ran the ball two times in the entire first quarter (out of 10 plays).

So Riley was asked a third time, in a different way, that shouldn't the run game be the identity of the offense moving forward, given that whenever they do commit to it, for whatever stretches, it works?

"Yeah, it's exciting to see. I think that's something that's grown as the year's gone on, and so we've got to continue to be able to do it. It's really, really important. Yeah, we all want to do a better job of it," Riley said. "I've got to continue to stick with it more. It's obviously the way that you can control and win games, and we've got to be able to do it more consistently. We've had moments this year, but it's got to be a four quarter thing for us."

Eureka! That was at least some self-acknowledgement there that he's playing a role in the run game not consistently helping this team, but if it's "obviously" the way to control and win games then why don't the Trojans commit to it when it's the one thing they consistently do well on offense?

Look no further than the start of the second half for what could have been ...

In a span of five plays on USC's first drive of the third quarter, Marks rushed it for 4, 15, 14 and 13 yards. Eventually, Moss threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Lemon on fourth down -- after back-to-back incompletions made it a fourth down, mind you.

The next USC drive, Marks got it going again with a 16-yard run on the first play and the pass game started to open up with a 42-yard completion to Zachariah Branch and eventually a 9-yard touchdown pass to Ford. Just like that, USC took a 21-20 lead.

So what do the Trojans do on their next possession? Continue to feed a run game that is rolling?

Well, Marks started it with a 5-yard rush and then ... Moss threw an incompletion followed by an interception as he didn't see linebacker Carson Bruener sitting in his passing lane, and just like that Washington seized the momentum shift with the ball at the USC 39 and went back on top a handful of plays later on a 4-yard Keith Reynolds run for what would ultimately stand as the decisive touchdown.

Marks had been ripping off long runs. It's second-and-5 -- why not keep feeding him? Without fully evaluating the defensive alignment and what look USC was getting, it's possible this specific criticism is unfair. But it's not about this one example -- it's about the trend.

And even if USC punted there instead of the interception, it could be an entirely different outcome. Or maybe Marks would have kept moving the chains like he'd do on the next series when, hey now, they gave it to him on third-and-4 as he rumbled for 19 yards ... and again on third-and-6 as he ran for 9 ... and then another third-and-4 on which he rushed for 6 and yet another first down.

In fact, the Trojans kept running it there with Joyner and Marks -- running on 10 of 11 plays in that stretch as they got all the way to the 1 before Marks was stuffed in the backfield on fourth-and-goal on what Riley called "a blown assignment up front at the wrong time."

But why can't that be USC's offensive identity more often? Only Riley can answer that ...

The reality is this USC passing game has too many ways things go wrong too often -- either a bad read or throw by Moss like on that costly second-half interception, or a protection breakdown and sack, or a protection breakdown leading to an interception (like the one that doomed USC at Minnesota when it was up 7 and driving deep in Gophers territory in the fourth quarter).

The less they have to ask of Moss and the passing game, the better.

That doesn't mean Moss isn't capable. He is -- that fourth-down touchdown pass to Lemon in the third quarter was a beauty. He ultimately passed for 293 yards and 2 touchdowns, but he doesn't need to be throwing it 50 times like he did Saturday night. Not when it comes with 3 interceptions -- sure, one was off Ford's hands and one was a no-risk heave at the end of the first half, but he also had another pass thrown straight to a Washington defensive lineman that was dropped instead of making it 4 picks on the day.

Moss is a capable quarterback who on his best days can string together a highlight reel of big throws and will the offense to success. But he's not Caleb Williams or Kyler Murray or Baker Mayfield -- the Heisman-winning quarterbacks Riley has coached.

Moss is not the problem for USC, but asking him to throw it 50 times -- which he did both in the losses at Michigan and Maryland and again Saturday night -- is a problem.

Especially when the Trojans have a clear different strength to their offense -- clear to everyone, it seems, but Riley.

As it is, USC keeps finding itself coming down to that one (or more) pivotal play a game that ultimately doesn't go its way. Yes, that's probably an anomaly that the Trojans have been on the wrong end of all of those.

That Riley chooses to keep emphasizing how close the Trojans have been is fine. Honestly, there aren't many teams in the country that have legitimately had a chance in the final minute to win every single game this season. That is notable -- it is.

What is concerning is the other part of Riley's comment -- that aside from those five or six plays this season that swung those games, in his eyes, he wouldn't change the other 99.9 percent.

"It's kind of like I've told you guys. I watch a team, it's not like we're getting our ass kicked, so it's not like I go back to the drawing board like 'God, we're just doing this terrible and people are just wearing us out on this or that.' I mean, like, it's not that," Riley said. "And this team has shown capability to do kind of all these things that you need to do. We just got to continue to keep our nose to the grindstone, we've got to continue to lean on these leaders, we've got to continue to get better.”

That's not all they need to do. Riley needs to take a fresh look at his offensive tendencies and, frankly, stubbornness.

On some level, it's probably and understandably subconscious. He has made his career on coordinating high-scoring offenses that pile up points and yards largely on the strength of the passing attack. It's worked very well for him for a long time.

This is not those teams, though.

And until he accepts that, it will continue to not be a surprise if the Trojans keep finding themselves in the same situation week after week with few exceptions.

Which is unfortunate because Riley isn't wrong about what this season could have been.