MINNEAPOLIS -- Lincoln Riley was at times short and terse in the postgame press conference after USC's crushing 24-17 loss at Minnesota on Saturday night.

The Trojans (3-2, 1-2 Big Ten) led 17-10 early in the fourth quarter while driving into Gophers territory, only to have quarterback Miller Moss get hit on a pass and intercepted and Minnesota to score on its next two possessions to seize the game.

Afterward, Riley was asked if there were any decisions he lamented -- be it, perhaps, going away from a successful run game on the play from the Minnesota 35-yard line in which Moss was hit and intercepted, or throwing downfield into coverage on a subsequent third-and-4 -- he said no.

"Uhh, not off the top of my head right now," Riley said. "We got down to the third-and-medium -- obviously the play Miller got hit and the interception was a big play. And obviously had a chance to stop them, had multiple chances to stop them on the last drive, didn't get it done. Had a phenomenal goal-line stand. I'm sure you guys will ask me about that -- I don't really have a vantage point on if it was or if he had the ball. You know, I'll trust that the review hopefully made the right decision there."

USC was initially credited with a goal line stand and fourth-and-goal from the 1 inside the final minute, but a replay review awarded Minnesota the go-ahead touchdown.

Riley, Moss and defensive end Jamil Muhammad took part in the postgame press conference afterward. Watch the full interview below and scroll down for a complete transcript of their comments.

​FULL POSTGAME TRANSCRIPT

Lincoln Riley's opening comments ...

"Obviously, a disappointing ending to the game. It was a hard-fought game. We knew this would be, knew we'd be coming into a motivated team, a really good atmosphere and that we were going to need to play really good football. And the reality is we did a lot of good things on all sides, but we just didn't play good enough to win at the end of the day. We put ourselves in great position there at the end of the game, didn't get it done. Give credit to Minnesota. Those guys played well, played hard. It was a really close game and obviously came down to just inches right there at the end. We've had a couple of those. That's the frustrating thing for our team right now -- we're two plays away from probably being 5-0, but those plays happened and we've had opportunities to win those games. We've put ourselves in those positions, which is hard to do on the road against quality teams, but obviously we're frustrated that we haven't finished them off and we've got to close the gap, play a little bit better on any of the three sides, which we're going to hold all three sides accountable. Coaches, everybody, we need to be a little bit better because we've got the makings of a really good team."

From 17-10 and driving to the end, are there any decisions you lament or looking back on would want to do differently?

LR: "Uhh, not off the top of my head right now. We got down to the third-and-medium -- obviously the play Miller got hit and the interception was a big play. And obviously had a chance to stop them, had multiple chances to stop them on the last drive, didn't get it done. Had a phenomenal goal-line stand. I'm sure you guys will ask me about that -- I don't really have a vantage point on if it was or if he had the ball. You know, I'll trust that the review hopefully made the right decision there."

In both defeats, the offensive tackles have made some critical mistakes. What was your assessment of them and how do you get better play there?

LR: "Well, we averaged 7 yards a carry and honestly I would say, I felt like offensively, it's kind of strange looking at the scoreboard, but I thought our guys played a really good game up front. We gave up a couple pressures at untimely moments, but no, we took some steps. I mean, that was what number, whatever defense in the country. They're a good defense. We knew that they were. We controlled the ball a lot. We ran the ball extremely well. We just didn't make enough plays to win."

​You had eight penalties, including several pre-snap penalties, how can you eliminate those?

LR: "Uh, coach better."

Miller, what was Minnesota's defense able to do to stifle the passing game?

​MM: "Yeah, I don't know, I thought they did a really good job offensively of limiting our possessions. You know, seemed like it was pretty intentional. They played pretty soft all game, I thought we gashed them in the run game like Coach Riley said. So, stuff was there offensively, I felt we were moving the ball down the field. Just, you know, obviously didn't put the points up to reflect that."

​Jamil, do you feel that last touchdown got in for Minnesota?

LR: "Don't ask him that. Don't ask him that. Next question. Who cares what he says on that? [You] want a player's opinion? Let's ask a more professional question."

Going back to play-calling, the third-and-4 with about 7 minutes left, was the call to go downfield?

(Riley misinterprets the question and answers about the play call on the one where Moss was hit and intercepted instead)

​LR: "Yeah, we had a great one-on-one matchup with Duce that has been pretty good for us, so yeah, we called it and we got to execute it."

A few games in a row where the self-created mistakes have cost you guys, what do you look back on it as the theme and how do you correct it?

LR: "Yeah, I don't know if there's necessarily a theme. It's been all parties involved. Just the tough ones for us has been, just like the first half of Wisconsin, I think all three of our turnovers tonight were in plus territory where we had good drives going. And again, those are times, especially when you've got a kicker like we do, man, those are points every single time you feel like when you get over there. And we typically expect to score a bunch of touchdowns there as well. Three drives ended in plus territory in a game like this where there weren't many possessions, I mean, it was massive."

How did you iron the slow starts?

​LR: "Yeah, I don't know. We were 7-0 after the deal the other day, so I mean, what we define as a start I know we can call it all what we want. We had a good drive there to start the game. Yeah, we want to get off to a good start, but at the end of the day, like I tell you guys, we've got to keep playing, and still, this team every time we've gotten off to a slow start we've come back and taken the lead late in the game every single time. So we talked about it a lot with the guys, we've emphasized it like crazy. That's one of the several things that we've got to keep getting better at, and I'm confident that we will, but we're still putting ourselves in position to win these games and we need to make the one more play to push ourselves over the hump."

With the OL struggles, are you confident in the personnel you have?

LR: "Yeah, absolutely. We moved the ball at will tonight. Again, you can't have those turnovers down there. To run the ball like we did, we protected the quarterback well for a large, large part of the night. We got good enough play out of the O-line to win."

The last three games you've had the ball midway through the fourth quarter with the chance to maybe extend a lead and it's been three-and-out each time, have you seen similarities in those possessions?

​LR: "No, not really. You've just got to make those plays. We made some critical plays -- I mean, we ran out the clock last week against Wisconsin and had some good stuff in the fourth quarter. Nah, those are the big moments and we've got to go make those competitive plays in those moments. We've had some opportunities on all three sides to close it out, and like I said, we're two plays away right now."

Going into the Penn State matchup, how do you regroup?

​LR: "Shoot, we're ready to go. We're ready to go start preparing right now. So we're going to prepare like crazy, have a great week of practice, Coliseum is going to be rocking, we're going to be excited as hell to play. That's what we do."

Is there any clarity on a timeline for Eric Gentry's return?

LR: "No, not right now."

​Jamil, they mounted a 12-play drive late, what was lacking defensively on that drive?

​JM: "I just think, to start out, I think as a team we played a pretty good. Like coach said, there's definitely some plays out there that we could be better on on all sides, but especially defensively we need to be better at the pre-snap mistakes. And just even talking about that last drive, we just gotta be more locked in. But at the end of the day, I'm proud that we were able to fight the way we fought, and those plays that we missed today we're going to work as hard as we can to get them moving forward."

What was the explanation for the extra timeout they gave Minnesota?

LR: "The Minnesota linebacker called timeout, and the coach said he did not want a timeout, and the head referee made the decision that that wouldn't count. So that was his decision, and obviously it ended up being pretty important."

With Mason Murphy struggling on the right side, was there any thought to keep a tight end in there to chip or help?

LR: "I don't know."