Upset Brought to Bear on USC

In the despair and shock of USC’s Coliseum locker room late Saturday afternoon, there was no way to minimize the Trojans’ 22-15 loss to Cal.

In fact, some wondered, what was ever worse than this?

The 24-7 loss to Fresno State in the 1992 Freedom Bowl?

Any of the last five losses to UCLA?

The 38-7 spanking at Arizona in 1993?

Under new Coach Steve Mariucci--a former USC assistant-- the Bears ignored recent USC-Cal history, which included no Cal wins in the Coliseum since 1970.

In fact, the last time Cal visited the Coliseum, USC won, 61-0. The Trojans had won the last four in a row, 15 of the last 18 and 30 of the last 37.

But this season Cal is 5-0, its best start since Coach Pappy Waldorf’s day.

USC, meanwhile, has fallen to 3-2 going into its game against Arizona at the Coliseum next weekend. And with Arizona State, a winner over Nebraska, the opponent in two weeks’ time, the Trojans suddenly don’t look much like a Rose Bowl team.

On Saturday, they looked like a team that will be lucky to reach New Zealand’s Haka Bowl, which gets the Pacific 10 Conference’s third-place team in December.

The jubilant Cal players have much loftier expectations. They ran, laughing and cheering, up the Coliseum tunnel to their locker room, where Mariucci put the victory in perspective.

“This is very special for the kids,” he said. “Cal beating SC at the Coliseum hasn’t happened in their lifetime. Cal has waited for this for a long time.”

John Robinson’s USC players could not do anything right. They couldn’t:

--Pass block.

--Avoid holding penalties.

--Cover kickoffs.

--Avoid jumping offsides near the finish when the Cal quarterback fooled them with a stutter-count.

--Cover Cal tight end Tony Gonzalez, who the Trojans knew would be a key player in the game.

The Trojans even fell victim to an apparent bad call.

Officials ruled USC tailback Delon Washington fumbled the ball away on Cal’s one-yard line after a four-yard run in the third quarter. The video-board replay showed Washington on the ground and in possession when the ball popped loose.

Many in the crowd of 51,511 booed when the replay was shown.

Cal held a 16-0 lead at the time and the disputed call quickly produced a possible 10-point turnaround. Cal senior quarterback Pat Barnes, taking over at his 20, drove the Bears 59 yards in seven minutes before Ryan Longwell kicked a field goal to make it 19-0.

During the drive, USC cornerback Daylon McCutcheon dropped a potential interception.

“I took my eyes off the ball just before it got to my hands to look downfield, and I dropped it,” McCutcheon said.

Most disappointing to Robinson and his staff was the pass protection provided for quarterback Brad Otton. It was virtually nonexistent.

Afterward, offensive line coach Mike Barry was so furious that he would not discuss it.

The low point for USC came with 1:46 to go, and the Trojans needing a touchdown and conversion to perhaps force overtime. In seven plays, Otton tried to throw six times. He was sacked once and was under a heavy rush on all but one pass . . . and on that occasion all his receivers were covered.

Barnes, on the other hand, was sharp and ran screen and draw plays well. He completed 19 of 31 passes for 229 yards and two touchdowns. USC sacked him once. Cal got to Otton six times.

The 6-foot-6 Otton is slow, and Robinson might think of turning to freshman Quincy Woods, who is not. Cal got to Otton on plays where Woods might have scrambled for gains.

“Brad is far and away our best quarterback, and our best chance to win the game today,” said offensive coordinator Mike Riley.

Robinson agreed, saying Otton was not responsible for all the USC holding penalties, setting up too many third-and-15 and third-and-20 downs.

“We had a good week of practice, we defended against screen passes all week and did it to perfection,” said linebacker Sammy Knight. “But today, we either didn’t get to the ball or we didn’t tackle well.”

Said defensive end Willie Lowery: “We expected all week that Cal would give us a tough game. They ran more draws and screens that we expected, but we worked against that stuff. We should have stopped it.”

Added safety Grant Pearsall: “It seemed to me Cal played the best game it could and we were way short of playing our best.”

“There’s just no explanation,” defensive tackle Matt Keneley said.

“We let big plays happen. We let their tight end catch passes [Gonzalez, five catches, 74 yards and a touchdown] when we knew they’d go to him a lot.”

Barnes drove Cal on two long scoring marches, and Longwell’s 27-yard field goal gave the Bears a 16-0 halftime lead. USC’s longest first-half drive was a nine-play, 47-yard trip in the first quarter that ended at Cal’s five when LaVale Woods was stopped on a fourth-and-one run.

The Trojans were booed when they left the field at halftime.

Barnes took his team 59 yards and got another field goal for a 19-0 lead midway through the third quarter.

* ‘WHY NOT NOW?’

Cal players take to heart Coach Steve Mariucci’s belief that they would beat USC, and a losing streak dating to 1970 ends for the Golden Bears. C8