USC Doesn’t Wake Up in Time : College football: After three quarters of lethargy, Trojans score two late touchdowns. But two-point conversion attempt fails in a 21-20 loss to Penn State.

For three quarters, USC-Penn State was like watching two fat, slow heavyweights grasp and clutch each other.

The Nittany Lions were ahead, 21-7, and in danger of putting many in the crowd of 95,992 at Beaver Stadium to sleep.

Then, Penn State suddenly began caving in as USC quarterback Rob Johnson got “that look” in his eye that Coach John Robinson said he has been looking for.

Result: USC came all the way back to 21-20, losing when Johnson short-hopped a two-point conversion pass to tight end Johnny McWilliams with 37 seconds to play.

After almost four quarters of the most uninteresting college football game you ever saw, the Trojans pulled to 21-14 with 5:11 to play on a 30-yard touchdown pass play from Johnson to Ken Grace.

Then, when Penn State couldn’t make a first down for one of the few times in the game, Johnson took over at USC’s 41. In the next 2:34, Johnson completed eight consecutive passes. The seventh was a 20-yard completion to Johnnie Morton that put the Trojans at the two-yard line, and the eighth was the scoring pass to McWilliams, a 265-pound sophomore.

The two-point conversion play was the same play as the touchdown. Said Johnson: “It was like a basketball play. I was tossing it into the low post. It worked the first time, but not the second time. It looked like a catch to me, but it doesn’t matter now.”

Said McWilliams, when asked if he had caught the ball: “I’m not sure. It was real low. . . . (the call) could have gone either way.”

Even if McWilliams had caught the ball, it wouldn’t have counted. USC was called for illegal procedure on the play.

Said Robinson: “Comebacks don’t count unless you win. Penn State did a great job in the first half, and we didn’t. Their defense overwhelmed us a little. Our running game never did come around, and we will not win championships unless it does.”

Morton, he said, was the primary receiver on the last touchdown and two-point conversion plays.

“The play has three receivers, and Morton is the first one, McWilliams the second,” Robinson said. “Rob went to him first, then didn’t quite get it high enough on the second one.”

USC, a 31-9 loser to North Carolina and a 49-7 winner a week ago over Houston, seemed to revert to its North Carolina effort for three quarters.

“We’ve played two spotty games now, but one of the things that’s been hanging over this team--that it lacks fight--I think has been put to rest,” Robinson said.

“We need to get better, and I’m sure Joe (Paterno, Penn State coach) feels the same about his team. We came here to win, not to screw up the game in the first half and lose. I was happy we contained them late in the game.”

Robinson said last week that he wanted to see how his quarterback would play after a bad first half. He got his chance.

Penn State’s aggressive, quick defensive line and outside linebackers put far more pressure on Johnson than he had faced in his first two games.

Johnson completed five of 14 passes for 68 yards in the first half, with one interception; he finished with 25 completions in a career-high 43 attempts, for 295 yards and two touchdowns.

“I really like him,” Robinson said. “He had a tough day and he came back. . . . I liked the look in his eye. He has the potential to be truly outstanding.

“This football team is going to start winning now.”

All-American offensive tackle Tony Boselli had a simple explanation when asked to compare Saturday’s game with the first two on USC’s schedule.

“Penn State has better players and they played harder than North Carolina or Houston,” he said. “One block didn’t do it with these guys today, you had to stay on them.”

USC was lucky the halftime score was only 21-7.

Penn State had 13 first downs to the Trojans’ four, and 157 rushing yards to USC’s 11. The Trojans finished with 34. Robinson had played three tailbacks in the first two games, but went with freshman David Dotson all the way Saturday.

Dotson had 26 yards in 16 carries.

Penn State used three tailbacks as it rushed for 282 yards, but Penn State’s quarterback, John Sacca, had only 65 passing yards.

He passed four yards to Mike Archie for a touchdown on the first series of the second quarter, but cornerback Mike Salmon put USC back in it with a 30-yard interception return. Salmon was tackled at the Penn State one.

Three plays later, Johnson carried it in.

Penn State made the score 14-7 on a 12-play march, then 21-7 with 44 seconds left in the half. Those two drives consumed almost eight minutes.

The Trojans seemed on their way to a third-quarter touchdown, but Strother fumbled at the Penn State 10 after gaining 14 yards on a draw.

At that point, Robinson gave up on running plays.

Of USC’s next 36 plays, to the final conversion attempt, 30 were passes.

Robinson credited 270-pound Penn State defensive tackle Lou Benfatti for much of USC’s offensive difficulties.

“Number 55 was outstanding,” he said. “We had an inexperienced young guy in there on our offensive line, (sophomore) Kyle Ramsay, and he got a real initiation today.”

Standout USC offensive guard Joel Crisman didn’t play because of a foot sprain.

Morton, who caught a school-record 15 passes last week, caught six for 109 yards on Saturday.

Said Johnson: “This put us out of the hunt for the national championship, obviously, but now we hope to make it to the Rose Bowl.”