It’s Ugly, but USC Wins It Anyway : College football: Penalties, sloppy play mar 26-16 victory over Cal. Johnson’s streak of 100-yard games ends.

When it was finally over, and his football team had groped its way through a morass of poorly executed plays and enough penalties for three games, USC Coach John Robinson showed that he still has a keen eye for the obvious.

“That was a sloppy game on our part,” he said. “We were poorly prepared to play.”

The best part of USC’s 26-16 victory over California was that the Trojans managed to keep their unbeaten streak alive at five, but they didn’t preserve much of anything else, including their dignity.

USC had scored 103 points against the Golden Bears in the previous two meetings.

As expected, the Trojans (5-0) outplayed Cal (1-4), but they were unable to put the Golden Bears away as they had four previous opponents this season.

The reasons?

--The Trojans committed 15 penalties that cost them 145 yards, and no one seemed to know why.

--USC’s quarterbacks managed to keep alive their streak of attempts-without-interceptions, but couldn’t keep Keyshawn Johnson’s streak of 100-yard games going. Johnson caught only five passes for 57 yards, ending his NCAA-record streak at 12 100-yard games.

And for the first time this season, USC trailed. Cal held a 7-6 lead early in the second quarter.

You had to wonder what might have happened had the Trojan offense not worked out Saturday morning in its hotel parking lot.

USC “walked through” some plays, including the bootleg pass play Kyle Wachholtz used to create two first-half touchdowns, to tight ends John Allred and Tyler Cashman.

Johnson was there when USC needed him the most, however.

He made two remarkable catches in USC’s 62-yard third-quarter scoring drive that seemed at the time to put Cal away, 19-7. But as it turned out, his most important catch of the day--on a Cal onside-kick attempt--came with about three minutes left.

First, the scoring drive.

On first down from USC’s 38, Johnson made a leaping sideline catch of Brad Otton’s pass for a 26-yard gain. He repeated the feat two plays later for a 25-yard gain, this time set up the Trojans at the Cal 11.

All of this prompted a question afterward: Should the 6-4 Johnson be considered open when he’s covered by a 5-foot-10 cornerback who’s running downfield stride-for-stride with him? Yes, coaches and players agreed afterward.

Offensive coordinator Mike Riley said Otton and Wachholtz will be told to throw the ball to Johnson from now on.

“When Keyshawn is in single coverage, he’s open,” Riley said. “You go for it. You put a ball up in the air he can go up and get it.”

Unable to find Johnson for most of the rest of the game, however, USC relied on tailbacks Delon Washington (29 carries, 135 yards) and LaVale Woods (nine for 62 yards and a pair of touchdowns).

After the game, the Trojans had no explanation for their poor execution.

Linebacker Scott Fields called the team’s 145 penalty yards “silly stuff.” Defensive tackle Matt Keneley called them “stupid.”

Certainly the strangest mistake was committed by Johnson. Woods broke through Cal’s line early in the final quarter and went all the way for an apparent 39-yard touchdown, but Johnson was flagged for “aiding the runner.”

He pulled Woods through Cal tacklers.

Unbelievably, USC staggered to the finish line--despite having a 16-minute edge in time of possession.

The Trojans had a 26-10 lead with 3:09 left, but Cal’s Na’il Benjamin ran a punt back 55 yards to make it 26-16 and discourage those in the crowd of 49,000 from trying to beat the traffic by leaving early.

USC promptly ran out of downs, but Cal quarterback Pat Barnes soon ended Golden Bear hopes when he threw an interception with 54 seconds left. It was his second pick of the day (both caught by Jesse Davis). Until Saturday, he had thrown 132 passes in a row without an interception.

While Robinson and his staff were unhappy afterward, embattled Cal Coach Keith Gilbertson could claim a moral victory. This was a long way back from 61-0 last year at the Coliseum.

But Cal wasn’t exactly razor-sharp, either. It lined up with 10, 11 and 12 players at various points in the game.

“I thought our guys played courageously,” Gilbertson said. “A lot of guys did a lot of good things.”

USC’s Otton/Wachholtz quarterback tandem was 21 for 33. Otton seemed as mystified by the game as anyone else.

“The penalties really hurt us,” he said. “We just weren’t prepared to play.

“We definitely weren’t in focus. . . . We were out of sync the whole game. We need to figure out how to start a game in rhythm. They played well, they disguised their coverages well, but didn’t surprise us with anything.

“I overthrew Keyshawn in the end zone once, the ball just slipped out of my hand.”

Said Wachholtz: “Coach [Robinson] told us to think of it as our bad game for the year, to put it behind us. Everyone seemed kind of distracted this weekend.”

Washington, starting in place of suspended tailback Shawn Walters, had his second 100-yard game in a row.

Defensive coordinator Keith Burns, whose unit really allowed only 10 points (one Cal touchdown was Benjamin’s punt return), called the penalties “foolish.”

“It was foolish stuff, stuff we never do,” he said. “Sammy Knight got a late-hit call and he never does that. It was ugly. I hope that’s our ugly game for the year.”

Robinson could only shake his head, looking at the stat sheet.

“We gained 421 yards . . . and almost committed suicide with penalties,” he said.