Trojans Lose by Decision

Mike MacGillivray pulled his baseball cap low over his forehead. His eyelids were heavy. His neck was hunched deep into his shoulders and this made the USC senior seem 5 feet 5 instead of 5-10.

The Trojan punter had goofed. MacGillivray thought he had it, thought he had nothing but green grass and a big gain ahead of him, nothing but hugs and back pats waiting on the sideline, nothing but glory and a magnificent triumph for USC right under the nose of Touchdown Jesus.

With less than five minutes left in the second quarter and USC leading Notre Dame, 13-3, with the Trojans having kept Carlyle Holiday, the scrambling Irish quarterback, contained and confused, MacGillivray was set to punt. It was fourth down and four yards to go on the USC 28. Notre Dame had shown no ability to move the ball regularly on the USC defense.

And MacGillivray took the snap, rolled to his right and ran.

“I didn’t see anybody anywhere,” MacGillivray said. “It’s a play we work on. I have the option to run if it’s wide open. It has to be wide open. I thought it was wide open.”

It wasn’t wide open. Notre Dame cornerback Shane Walton, a quick, smart senior, came from nowhere to somewhere, came from MacGillivray’s blind side, came hard and fast.

“My stomach kind of leapfrogged when I saw him,” MacGillivray said. “I had no idea.”

Walton slammed MacGillivray to the ground for no gain.

With 4:34 left in the second quarter, the Irish got the ball on the USC 28. In four plays Notre Dame scored its first touchdown. For the first time, the Irish had set the Trojans on their heels.

USC went on to lose the game, 27-16.

In this battle between two less-than-mediocre teams, Notre Dame became mediocre, became a .500 team at 3-3, became the team clinging to that bowl dream. USC became 2-5 and morose. Mediocrity is only a dream now.

And MacGillivray stood against a locker and took the blame.

Good thing too, because his coaches were also giving MacGillivray the blame.

“There is a choice on that play,” Pete Carroll said. “But he’s supposed to kick it unless [the field] is wide open. He does have the option and he has to read it. That was a pretty important point in the game. That could be seen as the turning point.”

One might hope that Carroll, the man who is paid more than $1 million to coach the Trojans, would have thought to whisper to his punter that at this point in the game, at this spot in the field, against a team that didn’t seem able to figure out the USC defense, that his punter did not have a choice, that the punter should punt even if he saw 100 yards of field and the entire Notre Dame team in the stands.

“I don’t know,” offensive coordinator Norm Chow said in answer to the question of what happened on that punt. Then Chow rolled his eyes. Chow is paid about $300,000 to run the offense and he offered another answer USC fans shouldn’t be happy to hear.

After USC forced Notre Dame into a fumble on its first possession of the second half, the Trojans went 48 yards. Quarterback Carson Palmer connected with flanker Keary Colbert for 29 yards, to the Notre Dame one-yard line. Fullback Charlie Landrigan lost a yard. Tailback Sunny Byrd gained it back, then ran again for not an inch. Still, with a 13-10 lead and a Notre Dame team that hadn’t moved the ball well, it seemed a good place to take a chance. To go for that touchdown, to try to make the score 20-10.

Even if the fourth try at that yard didn’t work, USC still would have had a 13-10 lead and Notre Dame would have had the ball with 99 yards to go.

But the Trojans kicked the field goal.

“We needed some points,” Carroll said.

No. The Trojans needed some oomph, a big finish after the turnover, a huge payoff for the Palmer-to-Colbert throw and catch. And 16-10 isn’t much better than 13-10. If the USC coaches want to blame MacGillivray for the fake punt, they should blame themselves for not being confident, not offering their team, which is still searching for its confidence, the chance to make that yard one more time.

“It was the right thing to do,” Palmer said. He stood up for his coaches in a way that his coaches had not stood up for him a couple of weeks ago. Remember? Carroll made a point of illustrating all of Palmer’s failings.

MacGillivray also stood up for his coaches. “I made the wrong call,” he said. “It’s on my shoulders.”

MacGillivray showed some guts. He took the chance his coaches wouldn’t take in the next quarter.

On the next Notre Dame possession after that USC field goal, Holiday scored on a 35-yard run. With 5:07 left in the third quarter, the Irish took the lead for good.

“I’ve got a three-hour plane ride ahead of me to think about the consequences of that run,” MacGillivray said. “Then I’ve got to forget it.”

It would be nice to think that Carroll will sit next to his punter on that plane ride, tell his punter that the blame belongs to the coach, that the punter shouldn’t have had a choice to make.

After the game, someone mentioned to Carroll that in the NFL, where Carroll came from, a punter could be fired for making the decision MacGillivray made. Carroll could have said that in the NFL that punter is paid to make that decision and that on this field, on this day, it was Carroll who was being paid to make the decision.

But Carroll nodded to the man and said, “Talk to me later.”

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com