Their effort is flagging

It’s not a lack of discipline, USC safety Will Harris said. It’s just an excess of exuberance. Harris committed an obvious takedown of a California receiver that resulted in a pass-interference call against USC that even the Trojans’ fans at the Coliseum couldn’t boo.

It’s not from ill intentions, USC linebacker Brian Cushing said. It’s just an excess of aggressive focus on making a play. Cushing committed a personal foul, a hit deemed late on California quarterback Nate Longshore in the second quarter of the Trojans’ 17-3 win over the Bears on Saturday.

It’s not the story line, USC Coach Pete Carroll said after his team committed 10 penalties that resulted in 105 extra yards for California. The Trojans have committed 10 penalties in three of their last four games, so at least they’re consistent.

And it wasn’t as if the numbers of 10 and 105 were a season high or anything. They committed 12 for 114 yards against Oregon.

And there seemed to be a collective shrug from USC players and coaches of those numbers, an acceptance that the Trojans try to make Coliseum-rattling hits on every play, that they try to make a statement with every tackle and that if an occasional line is crossed, the style of play is a winning one.

“It’s controlled chaos, but there are rules to it too,” Cushing said.

He was trying to describe how a player coached to make a tackle quick and hard should also walk away from the quarterback at the last minute or gauge when to slam into a receiver an instant after a pass is delivered and not an instant before.

Cushing said he was willing to argue that he did not hit Longshore late on his second-quarter hit that negated a Kevin Thomas interception.

“Personally I didn’t think it was,” Cushing said. “But I guess they are just trying to do whatever they can to protect the quarterback.”

On the same California offensive series, Kaluka Maiava was called for pass interference that canceled a Taylor Mays interception. Eventually the Bears scored their only three points of the game on a drive marked more by USC’s uncontrolled aggression than their own offensive ability.

“What a horrible sequence that was,” Carroll said. “But you’ve got to love that we didn’t give up anything. They were fortunate to get a field goal. In the midst of it I was [angry], but on the other side I loved the challenge and what a great accomplishment by our defense.”

On California’s first drive of the second half, Harris gave the Bears a first down when, on a third and 13, he committed his obvious pass interference.

“You know, you just try to time yourself but you’re all fired up and you see the receiver and that’s all you see,” Harris said. “But we play hard every play, practice or games, and sometimes you just go too hard.”

While the most noticeable penalties were committed by the defense, quarterback Mark Sanchez said mistakes such as the holding call against Jeff Byers on USC’s second drive and the occasional false starts (Ronald Johnson, Charles Brown) were also annoying.

“The first drive when we scored we didn’t have any penalties,” Sanchez said. “On the [final] touchdown drive, more than anything, we didn’t have any penalties.”

So the Trojans can do it. Just not all the time.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com