Cal can’t make crucial stop

BERKELEY -- Being wet and miserable and cold wasn’t enough for California in its annual football showdown with USC, but getting pushed back nearly the length of the field to give up the game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter?

Middle linebacker Worrell Williams didn’t even want to think about what level of bowl game the 24th-ranked Golden Bears would go to after losing to USC, 24-17, in front of 72,516 on Saturday night in a steady rain at Memorial Stadium.

What happened on the 10-play, 96-yard drive by the Trojans that ended with Stafon Johnson’s three-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter is a memory that isn’t going away any time soon.

“I’m waiting to get chewed out tomorrow for missing assignments,” Williams said.

It took the Trojans less than five minutes to put together the drive that won the game, but it seemed a lot longer than that.

Tailback Chauncey Washington picked a good time to come up with the game of his career -- a 29-carry, 220-yard performance that even earned the grudging admiration of Cal Coach Jeff Tedford.

“Chauncey is big, he runs hard, he doesn’t go down with arm tackles. You saw how he carried the pile,” Tedford said. “Obviously, those were big plays on the run game.”

The drive began as a Washington production.

On first down at the four, Washington ran to the left side for six yards. On second down, he changed directions, rounded right end and got 18 yards. On the next play, Washington took a pitch to the left and got five more.

All of a sudden, the Trojans were at their 46-yard line, and the Golden Bears were backpedaling.

“They can pound you,” Tedford said. “They really relied on being physical.”

From tackle to tackle, the Trojans would win most weigh-ins. The right side of the line averages 308 pounds, a statistic that did not go unnoticed by Williams.

“That was a real heavyweight fight right there,” he said.

Free safety Thomas DeCoud knew the feeling, all because of that game-winning USC drive.

“It was hard, man,” DeCoud said. “We knew we had to come up with something to get that drive stopped, but we were always a step behind. We weren’t quite where we should have been, like off an inch here, a step late there.”

And losing to the Trojans the fourth consecutive year isn’t a situation DeCoud holds near and dear.

“They’ve been at the top of the totem pole for so long, it’s kind of like your measuring test on how you’re doing in the Pac-10 season,” he said.

For Cal, the answer isn’t so good. After starting 5-0, the Golden Bears are now 6-4 and have won one game since September.

At least Tedford had an explanation for the latest setback to the Trojans: “They just ran the ball like they can do.”

Washington, all 220 pounds of him, was the leader. Besides Washington’s carries, the only other USC rushing plays were from Johnson, Joe McKnight and quarterback John David Booty, a total of 16 carries combined.

But Williams wasn’t as quick to praise Washington, saying instead that the slick field conditions helped the running back get loose.

“I don’t want to say he’s too tough, sure, he’s a hefty back, but we’ve faced tougher,” Williams said. “The rain made it a little slippery, but he found the gaps.

“We had too many guys out of place. This is the way it’s been all season. And they can gash you for it. He was the biggest gasher this time, I guess.”

The rest of USC’s monstrous drive included a 33-yard pass from Booty to tight end Fred Davis, a 22-yard run up the middle to the Cal three by Washington, and then Johnson’s scoring run around right end.

The Golden Bears still had 7 minutes 38 seconds left, but as it turned out, time had already run out on them. They had only had 96 yards of backing up to think about it.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com