ROSE BOWL: USC 41, Northwestern 32 : Davis’ Interception Is Dreamy

Jesse Davis stood at the 35-yard line, only a few steps from where he had made the biggest play of his career.

The senior safety was cradling the ball he had intercepted in the fourth quarter of Monday’s Rose Bowl, holding it “like my [3-year-old] daughter Jessica,” he said, smiling.

It was almost as precious, particularly in the jubilant moments after USC’s 41-32 victory over Northwestern.

Davis’ interception of a Steve Schnur pass with 6:35 left in the game ended a comeback bid by the Wildcats.

Starting at their 12-yard line with 9:09 left and the score 34-32, the Wildcats moved to the USC 44-yard line on Schnur’s completions of 11 yards to D’Wayne Bates and 16 yards to Dave Beazley and three Darnell Autry runs.

With the Northwestern faithful sensing a go-ahead score, Schnur dropped back, moved to his right, and lofted a ball toward fullback Matt Hartl, who had two steps on the nearest defender.

But instead of a catch and first down, the ball drifted over Hartl and into the waiting arms of Davis, who returned it to the Northwestern 31.

“We were in a defense called ‘red,’ where we are in tight man, but I am free in the middle,” Davis said. “I just watched the quarterback’s eyes and he threw it right into my arms.”

It was the play that broke Northwestern’s spirit and set up Delon Washington’s two-yard touchdown run that sealed USC’s victory.

It was also a play Davis had scripted in his mind the night before the game, during the sleepless hours he kept till after 2 a.m.

“It was a long night. I was just wishing I could move the clock forward myself,” he said. “I just kept daydreaming over and over about making plays like that one, about the ball flying right into my arms.

“When a ball is in the air I think of it like it’s my daughter. I can’t let it fall.”

Davis’ interception made up for a mistake in the third quarter that led to a Wildcat score.

With a little more than two minutes left in the quarter, Bates came back for a ball and caught it in front of Davis for a 46-yard gain, which, added to a roughing-the-passer penalty, put the ball at the USC 13.

Northwestern scored five plays later to pull within five, 31-26.

But Davis atoned for that by making the second big play of the game by the USC secondary.

In the second quarter, freshman cornerback Daylon McCutcheon scooped up a fumble by Northwestern’s Brian Musso and returned it 53 yards to give the Trojans their biggest lead at 24-7.

“Those are the plays that Daylon and I are supposed to make,” Davis said.

They were also the plays that beat Northwestern.

“We made two errors that resulted in scores,” Northwestern Coach Gary Barnett said. “You do that and you’re not going to win in a bowl game.”

Said Musso: “That kind of stuff just killed us in a close game like this.”

Both McCutcheon and Davis can credit some of their success to a new scheme implemented by the USC coaching staff. After struggling most of the season with a five-man front minus a dominant nose guard, the coaching staff switched to a 4-4, giving freshman linebacker Mark Cusano his first start.

“We knew they weren’t going to run up the middle, so we didn’t really need a nose guard,” Davis said. “They were running a lot of stretch plays, and between the tackle and guard. We were able to play a tight man and it gave us the chance to make some plays.”

Schnur was despondent after the game, admitting his mistake and the role it played in the game.

Meanwhile, Davis, a former standout at Mt. San Antonio College, was already thinking of a place for his newest game ball. He has keepsakes from two fumble recoveries and four other interceptions.

“This is number seven and it is going where all the other ones have,” he said. “It’s going to my daughter. She gets them all.”