No. 24 USC rallies late to beat Cal and snap losing streak

USC defensive end Jamil Muhammad, left, celebrates with safety Bryson Shaw.

Staff Writer

Oct. 28, 2023 Updated 9:09 PM PT

BERKELEY — Lincoln Riley was arguing with referees on the sideline. Cal’s marching band was performing on the field. In the locker room during a comically extended halftime, USC’s players took control.

Instead of discussing the many schematic breakdowns that led USC to an 11-point deficit, team leaders grabbed the room’s attention. It wasn’t about what Cal was doing. This game needed to be all about USC.

The No. 24 Trojans responded by scoring 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, forcing four takeaways and saving their Pac-12 championship hopes with a nailbiting, 50-49 win Saturday at California Memorial Stadium.

Safety Jaylin Smith capped the chaotic game with a game-sealing pass breakup on Cal’s two-point conversion attempt with 58 seconds remaining, after USC (7-2, 5-1 Pac-12) battled back from a 14-point, fourth-quarter deficit.

“It’s been creeping out, but today was a great step forward for us being a player-led team,” center Justin Dedich said.

USC was licking its wounds from back-to-back losses that knocked the Trojans out of College Football Playoff contention. Staring at a two-score hole in the fourth quarter, they “could’ve folded,” Riley said. Instead they clawed back with grit and a little bit of luck.

“I’m really, really damn proud of the group,” said Riley, who was back on the sideline after missing two days of practice with pneumonia this week.

Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza is tackled by USC linebacker Tackett Curtis during the first half Saturday.

Running back MarShawn Lloyd led the Trojans with 115 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries. He tied the game with a nine-yard run with 6:11 remaining and set up USC’s game-winning drive with a 56-yard rush in the fourth quarter. Austin Jones finished the drive with a seven-yard scoring run with 3:33 remaining. Quarterback Caleb Williams passed for 369 yards and two touchdowns while adding two rushing touchdowns, including one early in the fourth that sparked the comeback.

A defense that was lamenting its lack of takeaways delivered two fumble recoveries in the fourth quarter from linebackers Tackett Curtis and Eric Gentry to erase the painful first-half memories of Cal running back Jaydn Ott scoring three touchdowns, including runs of 43 and 61 yards.

“We made plays when we needed to,” rush end Jamil Muhammad said. “Obviously we want to just dominate from the jump all the way to the end; that’s what we’re going to continue to strive for.”

The game was off-kilter from the start. A student protest at midfield delayed kickoff by about seven minutes. The last play of the first half came after a 30-minute halftime because officials prematurely sent the teams to the locker room despite the Trojans still having one second on the clock.

Players were alerted in the locker room that they would have one more first-half play, and USC kicker Denis Lynch practiced 33-yard field goals toward the north end zone when he returned to the field for warmups. If the almost half-hour break wasn’t long enough, Cal coach Justin Wilcox added to it by calling a timeout when USC lined up to kick.

Lynch missed it wide.

The comedy of errors was a suitable official end to a nightmare first half for the Trojans.

Ott, the Pac-12’s leading rusher, feasted on the conference’s worst rushing defense for 145 yards on 13 first-half carries. Cal ran for 177 yards in the half, easily eclipsing USC’s average of 164.3 rushing yards given up.

After Ott’s 61-yard touchdown in the first quarter, the Norco alum held up USC’s victory sign to the crowd and turned his fingers upside down. Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch gathered the defense on the sideline and tore into the embattled group, yelling and waving his arms.

“Do our job, it was that simple,” safety Calen Bullock said of Grinch’s message.

They did the job on Ott in the second half, holding him to eight yards, but quarterback Fernando Mendoza helped the Bears build a 14-point lead with a one-yard touchdown run with 14:06 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Mendoza, a 6-foot-5 freshman, finished with career highs of 25-for-39 passing and 292 yards, throwing for two touchdowns and an interception and scoring the first two rushing touchdowns of his career. After USC rallied to regain the lead, he led his seventh touchdown drive of the day and put the Bears in position to tie or take the lead with 58 seconds remaining after scoring on a 13-yard screen pass to Jaivian Thomas.

Having moved the ball steadily, Cal opted for the go-ahead two-point try instead of the extra point. Smith stretched to bat the pass away. In front of the USC fans, Smith celebrated by motioning as if putting a sword in its sheath.

Avoiding disaster against the only unranked team remaining on USC’s schedule won’t inspire confidence from critics. But as ugly as the win was, it kept the Trojans in position for a conference title shot with games against Washington, Oregon and rival UCLA remaining.

“I believe this team can win this league,” Riley said. “Hell yeah, I do. I know we can.”