It was blackout night in Utah. It was knocked-out night for USC.
The stands at Rice-Eccles Stadium were a sea of black, the Utah players were draped in black, and USC’s Pac-12 conference championship hopes faded to black.
For the third time in their last six games, the Trojans were overcome by mistakes and missed opportunities, their athleticism not enough to compensate for their carelessness, their season typified Saturday night in a bruising 24-21 defeat to Utah.
And once again, it happened on the final, dreadful, disorganized ticks of the clock.
Utah won by simply passing the ball through the center of a weary Trojans heart, as quarterback Travis Wilson led the Utes on a 73-yard drive in the final 2 minute 8 seconds against a defense that seemed helpless to stop them. The game ended with Wilson throwing a scrambling one-yard touchdown pass to a diving Kaelin Clay with eight seconds remaining, causing one blackout of a party among the thousands of bouncing, screaming fans.
As the clocked ticked to zero, those fans rushed the field, creating a giant celebrating mob that swallowed up some of the straggling Trojans as they dragged themselves from the scene of yet another last-second devastation.
Yeah, they’ve been here before. One moment it’s Arizona State beating them with a Hail Mary. The next moment, it’s Utah beating them with a You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me. It’s not been a good year to be a Trojan in the final minutes, that missed Arizona field goal being the lone exception.
“We’ve seen it all I don’t know, maybe more stuff will come our way,” said Coach Steve Sarkisian. “But we’ll get back up.”
On a warm, windy evening in the Wasatch foothills, the Trojans fell to 5-3 and probably out of the Pac-12 South race while the largest crowd to watch a football game here — 47,619 — might still be jumping around this field come Sunday morning.
The Trojans not only blew the game in the final seconds, they blew a 21-17 lead with the ball deep in Utah territory in those final minutes. But they couldn’t convert a fourth-down play on which Nelson Agholor ran out of bounds one yard short of the first down.
The Trojans chose not to go for a field goal on fourth down, causing many raised eyebrows.
“We’re an aggressive team. We’re going to continue to be aggressive,” Sarkisian said.
Yet it reflected a game that has been like the Trojans’ season, both baffling and brilliant but ultimately reeking of disappointment in their direction under their first-year coach.
And to think it seemingly all came together at the start of the fourth quarter after the Trojans had fallen behind 17-14 after a rare and demoralizing interception by Cody Kessler led to a rumbling 24-yard touchdown run by Utah’s Devontae Booker.
The Trojans responded to the Utah score with a 12-play, 73-yard drive that ended in a four-yard touchdown pass from Kessler to Darreus Rogers. It took 5:25 and seemingly every big hit that Kessler could absorb, as he overcame pressure and body slams to go seven for seven on the drive for 47 yards.
Of course, the game couldn’t end that easily. Nothing for USC this season has come that easily. It was clear from the start of this eventual mess.
The Trojans trailed after two offensive plays after a fumble that every Trojan forgot to recover. On the Trojans’ second snap, Kessler’s backward pass ricocheted off receiver Rogers’ upper body and bounced to the ground. It looked like an incomplete pass, but it was actually a fumble. It’s a play that occurs dozens of times every weekend in football games across the land, and surely Trojans fans were screaming into their televisions, “Pick up the ball!”
The Trojans didn’t pick up the ball. They ignored it, with Rogers walking back toward Kessler patting his chest as if to say, “My bad” as the ball rolled around the grass and even bounced off the back of receiver Robby Kolanz’s legs.
Yes, many Utah players also ignored the live ball. But one didn’t. Davion Orphey picked it up and raced 53 yards for a touchdown that led to a 7-0 Utah advantage with the game not even a minute old.
The Trojans tied it on a 75-yard drive on which Kessler threw a touchdown pass just two plays after briefly leaving the game because of a bruising hit to the ribs. But they allowed Utah to drive right back down, 75 yards, with Booker pushing it down their jerseys. Only a Booker fumble in front of the goal line prevented a score as the Trojans recovered the ball on their one-yard line.
They allowed another Utah drive to their eight-yard line. But they held on three consecutive plays and forced the Utes to settle for a go-ahead field goal. And moments later, that field goal disappeared into a blinding 100-plus-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Adoree’ Jackson late in the second quarter.
All night, the Trojans won the glitz. But in the end, the Utes won the grind, and the fight, and those final, dreadful, disorganized ticks.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
