A Ute Hostile for Trojans

There weren’t a lot of answers going around the USC locker room afterward, mostly coaches shaking their heads and players openly wondering what hit them.

Maybe the best clue came in the form of a dark red lump on the bridge of safety Troy Polamalu’s nose. Or the shiner under receiver Kareem Kelly’s right eye.

“We just got outplayed,” Kelly said. “Bottom line.”

Bottom line, the Trojans lost a physical, ego-bruising game, 10-6, to underdog Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl.

It was another disappointing notch in a history of losing to teams from smaller conferences in less-glamorous postseason games. It also hung a sour note on an otherwise uplifting fall, a season in which the Trojans scrambled back from 1-4, winning five of their last six, looking like a team on a Vegas-style roll.

Utah won by dictating the action for all but a few minutes of this Christmas Day game before an announced crowd of 22,385 at Sam Boyd Stadium.

The Utes came advertised as a ball-control team and did not disappoint. Their big running backs, Dameon Hunter and Adam Tate, combined for 197 yards. Their offense stayed on the field for an astonishing 38 minutes, almost twice as long as USC had the ball.

Utah Coach Ron McBride gave a simple explanation for a simple game plan: “We controlled the line of scrimmage well today.”

That translated into more than offense. Possessing the 17th-ranked defense in the nation, the Utes held USC to 151 yards on the day, only one yard rushing.

“Sluggish?” USC Coach Pete Carroll said. “We had nothing going on.”

Looking at film of Utah’s previous games this season, Carroll hadn’t expected to see much of the blitz. He could not have been more wrong.

The Utes blitzed early and often, especially on first and second down. The Trojans tried to throw the ball, but every time quarterback Carson Palmer looked up, he had a rusher in his face. The result? Big losses on sacks, big yardage to make up on third down. The offense totaled minus-30 yards in the first quarter.

“It was very frustrating because they were bringing so many guys,” Palmer said. “They stormed the house.”

While Palmer and his teammates stuttered, the Utes calmly established themselves on the ground.

This was no surprise for a team that had lived by the run. But USC had hoped to make a few big plays on third down and force the Utes off the field. No such luck.

Utah converted on 10 of 17 third downs. In the first quarter, Tate pounded away at the line, finding a hole here and there, pushing for extra yardage. Ten minutes into the game, he bounced off a tackler and ran three yards into the end zone for a 7-0 lead.

It happened again in the second quarter when Hunter broke free for 11 yards to put his team in position for a short field goal.

What else could go wrong for USC?

David Davis, the Pacific 10 Conference leader in field-goal accuracy, missed a 47-yarder in the second quarter and would later send an extra point wide. “I just didn’t show up,” he said.

The best thing the Trojans had going for them was tenacity on defense, especially from their All-American safety, Polamalu, who time and again threw himself into the line for a game-high 20 tackles. That helped keep the score to 10-0 at halftime.

And that gave USC a glimmer of hope in the third quarter, when offensive coordinator Norm Chow finally adjusted to the blitz by calling for more runs and quicker passes on first down. Palmer, who would complete 15 of 26 for 150 yards, got things started with a couple of passes to Kelly. Tailback Sunny Byrd ran the final two yards of the 80-yard drive to close the gap to 10-6.

Then the defense got into the act.

Safety DeShaun Hill forced Utah’s Devin Houston to fumble and cornerback Kris Richard recovered. On the next possession, linebacker John Cousins dropped into zone coverage and intercepted a pass along the sideline.

But as quickly as the offense had emerged, it went back into hiding. After that touchdown, the Trojans managed only three more first downs. They went nowhere on their final three possessions.

“You kept thinking, who’s gonna make a play?” Carroll said. “But it wasn’t happening.”

Utah (8-4) put an end to the suspense, taking possession with 5:43 remaining. On third and 14, quarterback Lance Rice threw a 20-yard pass to tight end Michael Richardson. On third and four, Tate busted through a tackle by linebacker Frank Strong and rumbled for 16 more of his game-high 103 yards.

For all the progress USC had made this season--certainly improving on penalties and turnovers--this game was eerily reminiscent of a loss to Kansas State--even the same score--in early September.

Carroll insisted the defeat was not a step backward in his first-year effort to rebuild the program. But there were so many similarities, especially in the way his frustrated and weary players struggled to find a 100 small reasons for losing.

“I couldn’t have predicted us coming out like that,” said fullback Charlie Landrigan, a senior playing in his final game.

“I don’t know what it was.”

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BY THE NUMBERS

1: Yard rushing for USC. Not as bad as the minus-23 yards Trojans had in the 1998 Sun Bowl loss to TCU.

222: Yards rushing for Utah. Let’s call them Tailback Ute. Adam Tate had 103 yards and Dameon Hunter had 94.

6: Number of times Carson Palmer was sacked, for minus-51 yards, partially explaining rushing total.

5-7: USC’s record in bowl games other than the Rose Bowl. Las Vegas and El Paso are not Pasadena.

8-3: Record of USC coaches in their first bowl game. This includes a 2-0 mark for John Robinson.