On Saturday night, the USC football team upset No. 2 Ohio State 30-18. With the victory, the Trojans improved to 7-2 on the season and 4-2 in Big Ten play.

One of the more notable aspects of the game was that, unlike so many other times in the past under head coach Lincoln Riley, the Trojans did not beat themselves. In one of the biggest games of Riley's tenure, USC played clean, relatively mistake-free football.

Ohio State, on the other hand, committed many of the mistakes that USC has made so often in the past. It was the Buckeyes who had 11 penalties for 71 yards—including several at extremely inopportune times. It was the Buckeyes who dropped multiple passes. It was the Buckeyes who made mistakes on special teams.

This is by no means to take away from what the Trojans did in the game. Plain and simple, USC was the better football team on the field Saturday night.

So many times in the past under Riley, however the Trojans have hurt themselves with self-inflicted errors. This time, however, it was USC's opponent doing so, while the Trojans themselves played relatively clean football. That was certainly nice to see for a change.