Walters Has a Field Day as USC Wins : College football: Tailback rushes for 207 yards, three touchdowns; Johnson passes for 364 yards as Trojans hold off Baylor, 37-27.

The way Rob Johnson and his USC offense moved the ball up and down the field Saturday night, you’d have thought they were gunning for a Nebraska-like score--60 or 70 points, say.

But despite gaining almost 600 yards in total offense, more than 350 of them on Johnson passes, the Trojans won, 37-27, over a Baylor team that didn’t go down for the count until the final four minutes.

On a night the Trojans (2-1) couldn’t put Baylor (3-1) away early, USC needed every one of Cole Ford’s three field goals. In fact, the Trojans could have used the two he missed.

Shawn Walters, the Trojans’ 225-pound power runner at tailback, had a career game on a night the Trojans’ needed his best.

Walters, a sophomore from Arlington, Tex., carried 31 times for 207 yards, the most by a Trojan since Marcus Allen gained 219 against UCLA in 1981.

USC had announced Friday that a question over freshman tailback Delon Washington’s eligibility had forced the Trojans to hold him out of Saturday’s game.

That forced Coach John Robinson to turn Walters into the Trojan workhorse.

Johnson, who had been battling a sore lower back in his first two games and had had a meager offensive output, was back on track Saturday, before 45,762 at the Coliseum.

He completed 27 of 39 passes for 364 yards and one touchdown before bowing out late in the game in favor of sophomore Brad Otton.

Baylor made it a game with easily the most electrifying play of the night--a 98-yard, third-quarter kickoff return by Ben Bronson that cut USC’s lead to 24-20.

The Trojans had just gone ahead, 24-13, on a 25-yard field goal by Ford and seemed ready to pull away from Baylor.

Bronson simply blew through the Trojans’ kickoff coverage team, with Scott Fields and Ryan Tyiska missing Bronson early in the runback.

USC increased its advantage to 27-20 on another Ford field goal, this one a 34-yarder, with 6:25 to go in the third quarter.

Almost incredibly, however, USC still was in danger of losing after three quarters, despite having 497 yards in total offense, including 337 passing yards by Johnson.

USC wasted a chance to put Baylor away early in the final quarter, when the Trojans had Baylor operating out of its end zone, on second down at the Bears’ one.

But Jeff Watson, Baylor’s pudgy-looking, slow-footed freshman quarterback, connected with Brad Lewis on a 42-yard play.

The Trojans’ bailed themselves out two plays later when senior linebacker Jeff Kopp made the first interception of his career and returned it 41 yards to the Baylor 21.

From there, Walters gained five yards, Johnson hit tight end John Allred at the eight. He missed Keyshawn Johnson in the end zone and Walters lost a yard. The drive had run out of steam, and USC needed Ford’s third field goal, a 26-yarder, for a 30-20 lead with 10:29 left.

USC never really seemed safely in command until its Nigerian linebacker, Israel Ifeanyi, a transfer from Orange Coast College, intercepted a pass by Watson with 9:28 left.

Again Rob Johnson drove the ball easily on Baylor, reaching the two-yard line on a six-yard run by freshman Rodney Sermons. Terry Barnum, who started at fullback, reached the one.

And from there, USC finally put the game away. Walters, with 5:32 to play, scored his third touchdown and Ford’s conversion made it 37-20.

Johnson, throwing comfortably behind his untroubled offensive line, had passed USC to a 21-13 halftime lead. And when he wasn’t dissecting Baylor with his accurate short- and medium-range passes, Walters was having a career game in one half.

Along with two touchdowns, Walters had 127 yards in 17 carries by the half. He finished the half with a 39-yard run down the USC sideline, diving across the goal line with 46 seconds left.

Johnson and Walters were so productive in the first half that the Trojans’ point production seemed feeble by comparison. Ford missed two field-goal attempts, of 47 and 31 yards.

The only other drive on which the Trojans’ failed to score ended with a Walters fumble when USC had a 14-10 lead.

Watson had taken Baylor to a 3-0 record and looked sharp in the team’s first possession. He took the Bears 80 yards in six plays, including a 36-yard pass play, 23 yards on a keeper and a 22-yard pass to the Trojan one.

USC tied the score on its first drive, moving 76 yards in nine plays. Included were a a 44-yard pass-run to H-back Johnny McWilliams and a 14-yarder to Ken Grace. From the Baylor 17, Walters got the call four straight times, finally scoring untouched from the eight.

Baylor regained the lead, 10-7, on a 25-yard Jarvis Van Dyke field goal, but a big second-and-nine pass play from Johnson to Barnum covering 52 yards put the Trojans at Baylor’s 22 late in the first quarter.

Three plays later, Grace made made a sliding catch of a Johnson pass in the end zone.

At that point, with USC leading 14-10, Johnson was six of six for 132 yards. He didn’t throw an incomplete pass until 12:40 remained in the second quarter, and that was a block.

Johnson was 13 for 17 at the break, for 221 yards, and the Trojans had 354 total yards.