Penn St. couldn’t shake USC

With Penn State gathering in the locker room after its 38-24 Rose Bowl loss to USC, Coach Joe Paterno quickly broke the ice.

“ ‘We were doing things that we hadn’t been doing all season,’ ” Nittany Lions quarterback Daryll Clark recalled Paterno telling the team.

All week, Paterno said he viewed No. 5 USC (12-1) as the nation’s best team. But in no way did he expect the Trojans to win their third consecutive Rose Bowl the way they did it.

Not when the first three drives resulted in three-and-outs, suggesting a defensive battle between USC’s top-ranked defense and Penn State’s fifth-ranked defense.

Not when the Nittany Lions (11-2) answered USC’s first touchdown drive with Clark running a quarterback draw for a touchdown -- a nine-yard play that ended a nine-play, 80-yard drive and suggested Penn State could showcase its own offensive playmakers.

Instead, Penn State’s touchdown marked the last offensive punch by the Nittany Lions until the second half when the game was all but out of reach.

By halftime, USC had 341 yards of total offense and led 31-7, the most the Trojans had scored in the first two quarters of any of their record 33 Rose Bowl games.

“The game certainly got away from us,” Paterno said. “You could see we were struggling. We weren’t playing well, and we were struggling with certain things. We may have started to get into a rhythm, but we couldn’t quite get them out of sync.”

Instead, the Trojans put Penn State out of sync, turning the Nittany Lions into another Big Ten representative devolving in a BCS bowl game.

The warning signs were on display even when Penn State thought the game was close. USC’s first touchdown could’ve been negated with Aaron Maybin sacking USC quarterback Mark Sanchez and forcing a fumble that Ollie Ogbu recovered at the USC 34-yard line.

But Maybin was called for being offside. Penn State finished with a season-high nine penalties for 72 yards.

“We shot ourselves in the foot with a bunch of penalties and mistakes,” Maybin said.

Those other mistakes included the Penn State secondary -- one that started four seniors -- allowing Sanchez to become the third player to pass for more than 400 yards in a Rose Bowl game. He connected with nine different receivers.

“A lot of the routes that [Sanchez] was throwing were before they were breaking on their routes,” senior cornerback Lydell Sargeant said. “They had the good connection.”

What kind of connection did a Penn State defense that gave up averages of 264 yards and 12.4 points in the regular season have?

“We absolutely fell asleep,” Paterno said.

“We weren’t aggressive when they threw it,” Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said.

Neither was Penn State’s offense aggressive. The Nittany Lions averaged 40.2 points a game in the regular season, including a 52.8% conversion rate on third down (85 of 161). Clark’s 290 yards of total offense set a Penn State bowl record, but the Nittany Lions were five for 12 on third down.

“Our offense did a great job moving the ball, but third-and-twos killed us,” Nittany Lions senior wide receiver Derrick Williams said.

Paterno, his assistant coaches and the players all laid out why Penn State couldn’t match up with USC.

But senior wide receiver Deon Butler probably provided the best reason, aside from the dysfunctional offense and undisciplined defense.

“We got beat by a better team today,” he said.

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mark.medina@latimes.com