Lincoln Riley explains recent two-point conversion decisions
A struggling defense has received a majority of the headlines over the past few weeks concerning the USC Trojans. But a somewhat surprising area of concern has been USC’s inability to connect on two-point conversions. USC is 0-for-4 on two-point conversions the past two weeks and the decisions to go for at least one of them and probably two appeared questionable at best. USC head coach Lincoln Riley spoke following Tuesday’s practice about his decisions to go for two.
The first came against Utah following a Calen Bullock interception return to cut the Utah lead to five points with 13:28 remaining. The Trojans went for two to try to make it a three-point deficit and came up short. USC went for two again when it took a one-point lead with 1:46 remaining and again failed. It wasn’t hard to notice that Utah’s game-winning kick gave the Utes a two-point win in a game where USC declined to kick two extra points.
Againt Cal, USC’s first two-point conversion attempt came with 11:59 remaining in the third quarter and USC facing that same five-point deficit it did against Cal. The pass from Caleb Williams bounced out of the hands of Dorian Singer. The second two-point conversion came a few minutes later, with 8:12 remaining in the third quarter. Williams completed a pass to Mario Williams, but USC was called for holding. The Trojans then elected to kick but Denis Lynch missed the longer extra point after the penalty.
Riley said the Trojans use a two-point conversion chart that is analytics-based. But that’s not the only thing he relies on to make those decisions.
“I’ve always said I don’t want to be the coach [that says] well I just made this decision solely based on analytics,” Riley said. “I think that’s at times a cop-out. There’s feel and flow of the game, and confidence to execute and confidence to stop it. How many possessions are left in the game?”
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Riley said the chart was “pretty strong” to go for the two-point conversions against Cal. He added that he was only “lukewarm” on going for the first one.
“It was so early in the half and the nature of the game, it was such a heavy-possession game,” Riley said. “I knew there was a lot left to unfold.”
Riley said it was 50/50 in his mind but he decided to go for it. And then, as has been an issue at times in all three phases, USC’s execution let it down.
“We had exactly what we wanted and just didn’t catch the ball,” Riley said.
