COLUMN: USC's dual-personality defense getting the job done in its own way

For a USC performance that included two 100-yard rushers, more Jordan Addison highlights, some big plays from his dual-threat QB Caleb Williams, 517 yards of offense and two defensive turnovers, coach Lincoln Riley had an interesting choice for his favorite moment of the game Saturday night.

"I just told the team in there probably my favorite play of the game or sequence of the game was the goal line stop there at the end. That's what we're about," Riley said. "No matter who thinks the game's over or this doesn't matter, it all matters to us, and if you're going to be a champion it's got to all matter. For our guys to get that stop right there at the end to close the game was as meaningful as anything that happened tonight."

Even though it came with the starters out and the outcome well in hand, in the final minute of a 45-17 win over Fresno State inside the Coliseum.

It make sense, though. As much as anything Riley has tried to do since taking the job here has been to install a new culture and a new set of standards for the program, an identity of what he wants the No. 7-ranked Trojans to be about.

That final goal line stand was symbolic of all of that for Riley, as USC's backups stuffed Fresno State running back Malik Sherrod on back-to-back plays from the 1 to keep the Bulldogs out of the end zone, with Ralen Goforth making the stop on third down and Raesjon Davis and Anthony Beavers combining for the tackle on fourth down.

Not just for Riley, though.

"I told the team, championship teams finish. We finish," said linebacker Eric Gentry, who was cheering on from the sideline at that point. "Championship teams, the starters cheer on their players to show that we went out there and they was locked in like the game was on the line. I was really, really happy to see [that], because like I said, the standard is -- we're still trying to find the standard. ... [To] be able to stop them fourth-and-goal, end of the game, half of the stadium is gone and you think nobody is interested, but it means a lot. 24 vs. 17 means a lot."

Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch thought so too, but what it symbolized and reflected for him was a little different and broader overall for what he's trying to fix on that side of the ball.

"I think we make a big point about finishing -- we talk about finishing a winter workout in January when no one's around, we talk about finishing in spring ball, finishing in the summer, all that stuff. You get so many Saturdays -- OK, we say finish, and I don't know that we finished at an elite level, but in that moment the guys did. So that means something, it does," Grinch said. "Call it a meaningless score, but it's only meaningless if you attach that moniker to it. It obviously did mean something. It might be a bigger thing than any of us realized. ...

"We play single-gap defense. On the goal line we each had an individual gap, each guy took an individual gap and all of a sudden they couldn't get one yard. Now, our guys made a decision in that moment that they were going to play a certain way. My argument would be, we could play that way on the 40-yard line. We could play that way on the 35-yard line. We could play that first-and-10 with 80 yards behind us. So somewhere there's a disconnect where there's decisions being made as to how we're going to play based on situational things. So we've got to get the message across that way. ... But all these things, it's coaching. That's what's fixable -- we've got to coach better."