USC's 24-17 loss at Minnesota was a mixed bag for the Trojans' offensive line, which did objectively perform much better in the run game (6.2 yards per carry overall) and got an encouraging season-best performance from young right guard Alani Noa.

Even the PFF stats were favorable with the Trojans being logged for a season-low 5 pressures allowed -- down from 21 vs. Michigan and 15 vs. Wisconsin -- while most of the starting linemen graded out decently.

But it's hard to shake the two moments that led to the fourth-quarter collapse.

First, there was right tackle Mason Murphy getting beat so quickly around the edge that the Minnesota defender hit Miller Moss as he was throwing (despite a relatively fast release on a quick-timing route) leading to a back-breaking interception in Gophers territory. And then the intentional grounding call on the next series when left tackle Elijah Paige was beaten quickly to the inside, leaving Moss nowhere to escape and ultimately setting up a pivotal three-and-out.

Each of those empty possessions were followed by Minnesota touchdown drives as the Trojans blew a fourth quarter lead.

Even immediately afterward, though, coach Lincoln Riley was staunch in his favorable assessment of the offensive line.

"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," he said.

He's not wrong -- it should have been enough to win against Minnesota. But the Trojans play No. 4-ranked Penn State this week, which has four defensive linemen with at least 12 pressures already this season (USC has no defensive player with more than 9, for comparison), including a dynamic pair of defensive ends in Dani Dennis-Sutton (18 QB pressures) and Abdul Carter (16), who rank tied for third and tied for eighth in that category, respectively, among Big Ten edge rushers.

"I think we just got to continue to build on [it]," Riley said of the pass protection. "I think we've had a few weeks here -- we didn't play good against Michigan and again I own a lot of that, I screwed us up in our silent count. Our linemen had some things working against them in that game -- and obviously they weren't perfect -- they had some things working against them in the game that were not their fault, that were mine. We didn't play good in that game.

"We were better against Wisconsin, we were better against Minnesota. We've got to stay on that trend. If we keep doing that, these young dudes are going to get better and their cohesion is going to grow. There's a lot of good things on that tape from the other night, and I think we'll continue to build on it."

We took our own deep dive into the film and here were our assessments of USC's offensive linemen, including their best and worst moments vs. Minnesota.

Breaking down USC's offensive line performance by player

(Game grades per PFF on 0-100 scale where grades in the upper 70s and 80s are above average and the 90s are rare.)

58.6 overall, 54.9 run-blocking, 63.4 pass-blocking, 3 pressures allowed (0 sacks**), 0 penalties

**The intentional grounding call counted as a sack, officially, and Paige was definitely at fault**

Another tough game for Elijah Paige. The problem is the issues he has been having are the same ones over and over again. I understand that the potential is there, but something needs to change at the blindspot position. I don’t know if the answer is Tobias Raymond or something more dramatic like moving Jonah Monheim back to tackle. But if USC truly has playoff aspirations, that position needs to be fixed and I don’t think Paige is the answer. If that causes him to decide to leave and enter the transfer portal after the year is over so be it.

The Good:

12:09 left in the second quarter, Paige pulled to the right and made a phenomenal block on the linebacker, leading Woody Marks to rush for a 13-yard gain.

2:00 left in the second quarter, Paige does a great job of pulling to the right, going upfield and making a crucial block on a linebacker, allowing Quinten Joyner to gain about 15 yards. Unfortunately, he fumbles the ball and the defense ends up recovering.

The Bad:

14:32 left in the first quarter, Paige and Emmanuel Pregnon pull to the left, but no one blocks the first immediate defender, who tackles Marks for no gain.

13:34 left in the second quarter, Paige gets beat by the linebacker by basically juking him out, which allows the defender to get a hit off on Moss, who throws an incomplete pass.

11:35 left in the second quarter, Paige gets driven back into Moss, but the defender gets rid of Paige and hits Moss. It didn’t affect the incomplete pass but he was down after the hit.

3:29 left in the second quarter, Paige gets beat to the outside but the defender ends up not affecting the play. He does however hit Moss.

10:28 left in the third quarter, Paige gets beat to the inside, which in turns runs into the pulling Murphy. With Murphy getting hit, he isn’t able to pull all the way to block the designated linebacker, who tackles Marks for a 3-yard gain.

7:07 left in the fourth quarter, Paige gets beat to the inside once again, giving the defender a clear pass to Moss. Moss rolls out to the right, tries to get rid of the ball before he gets hit, but unfortunately he gets penalized for intentional grounding while putting USC in a second-and-19 hole on an important drive with the game tied. The Trojans would eventually go three-and-out.