Trojans Know the Way to a Win Over San Jose State

When all else fails--and just about everything did for USC on Saturday--it sure is nice to have talent.

That’s why the Trojans can still maintain their national ranking and lofty aspirations instead of gathering for group therapy sessions today.

In the end, speed and size won out, trumping the Trojans’ mistakes, sideline disorganization and a worthy San Jose State team for a 34-24 USC victory.

If “the great equalizer in college football is the turnover,” as USC Coach Paul Hackett said, the great decider is talent.

So in a game in which the Trojans had four “equalizers,” all it took was a solid 12-minute stretch for the Trojans to stop self-destructing and let their players take over.

They dominated the fourth quarter. They started moving the ball down field with the receivers running the right routes and Carson Palmer getting them the ball. They rolled with the rushing game. They stopped the Spartans on defense and they overcame a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

And they did what a team expected to contend for the Pacific 10 championship is supposed to do against a team from the Western Athletic Conference.

“You have to let [the younger players] know it’s a long game, but we’re going to be OK because we’re superior,” senior tailback Petros Papadakis said.

Superior players, without question. But the San Jose State players didn’t leave the Coliseum feeling as if they lost to the superior team.

“You’re weak,” Spartan linebacker Demitris Starks said to some USC fans who were razzing him as he sat on the bench in the final minute. “Y’all didn’t show me [anything].”

“This was our game, and we kind of blew it,” San Jose State running back Deonce Whitaker said.

The Spartans were in control after three quarters that were marked by horrendous special teams play by USC, a few bad decisions by Palmer and dropped passes.

The only thing that brought pleasure to the USC fans were the out-of-town scores: Oregon over UCLA, 29-10, and Michigan State over Notre Dame, 27-21.

From big plays to little plays, the Trojans weren’t getting it done. A fumble on the opening kickoff return. A blocked punt returned for a touchdown after their first offensive series. A fumble on their third possession. A bobbled snap that wrecked their first extra-point attempt, and a kick that hit the upright on their second try.

One sequence in the second half pretty much sums it up. On a Spartan fourth down from their own 15-yard line, USC pressured San Jose State punter Michael Carr and he lofted a high, short kick that landed on his own 43-yard line.

But the Trojans were flagged for running into the kicker. Given a second shot after the five-yard penalty, Carr punted again and it was returned to the USC 45. But the Trojans were penalized for clipping, moving the ball back to their own 27. After four plays--including a first-down pass that was nullified by a holding penalty--the Trojans punted to the San Jose State 42. In other words, the ball finished in about same place it should have started.

Those are the type of field-position details that can undo a team in a close game against tougher opponents. It’s not that San Jose State is a soft squad. The Spartans beat Stanford a couple of weeks ago (which, come to think of it, gives them a better record against Pac-10 competition than UCLA).

The Spartans moved the ball well and with confidence for most of the game. But they’re still a group of players who don’t look very big without their shoulder pads, and they were further weakened by injuries over the course of the game.

And in the fourth quarter they seemed to lock up when they realized they were on the verge of beating the ninth-ranked team on the road. They started making the kind of mental errors they did not commit for most of the game. For example, after going the safe route with a running play with their 12-point lead on third and nine from the USC 12, they inexcusably received a delay-of-game penalty before they could kick a field goal. Every yard counts with a kicker who had missed three of his previous four field-goal attempts this season, and Nick Gilliam’s 35-yard attempt went wide right.

That meant the Trojans needed only two touchdowns instead of three scores to take the lead, and it seemed to fire them up. They went down and scored a TD on a 12-play, 80-yard drive. The defense allowed only 24 yards the rest of the way, and USC scored another 15 points.

The Trojans were filled with confidence, even after Sultan McCullough fumbled while USC appeared to be on the way to scoring the go-ahead touchdown.

“With the receivers we have, the quarterback, the athletes on this team, I knew we’d pull it out,” wide receiver Kareem Kelly said.

It turned out that all McCullough’s fumble did was delay the inevitable results.

It didn’t deter the inescapable questions, however.

Such as, what’s going on in practices that could produce such a sloppy first half following a bye week?

Why have the Trojans had two punts blocked in the first three games?

And why is the Olympic flame lit at the Coliseum when the Games are a jillion miles away? Don’t they realize how expensive gas is these days?

“There’s enough firepower that if we can eliminate the mistakes we can be a pretty good team,” said Hackett, who presumably was referring to the Trojans’ talent and not the Olympic flame.

None of USC’s three victories has come against a team with a winning record. Of course, it’s the Trojans’ job to contribute to those losing records, and so far they haven’t failed.

This time their talent got them out of a hole their lack of execution created.

It’s a wonderful asset, but only if you don’t have to rely on it every week.