Thuc Nhi Nguyen (LA Times) — BERKELEY — Safety Jaylin Smith broke up a two-point conversion attempt with 58 seconds remaining to seal USC’s 14-point fourth-quarter comeback against California as the No. 24 Trojans temporarily halted their mid-season slump with a 50-49 victory on Saturday at California Memorial Coliseum.
USC (7-2, 5-1 Pac-12) scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, forced four takeaways, and saved their Pac-12 championship hopes after a two-game skid.
MarShawn Lloyd led the Trojans with 115 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries and set up USC’s game-winning drive with a 56-yard rush in the fourth quarter. Fellow running back Austin Jones finished the drive with a seven yard rush with 3:33 remaining.
Quarterback Caleb Williams threw for 369 yards and two touchdowns and added two more scores on the ground as the Trojans clawed back from an 11-point halftime deficit.
Halftime was delayed by 10 minutes while Riley argued with referees that the Trojans had one second remaining when Lake McRee was tackled at the 16-yard line. Both teams were already in the locker room. Cal’s marching band was in the middle of its halftime performance. But officials called Cal head coach Justin Wilcox back from the locker room and announced the Trojans would get one more play from the first half after halftime.
After players returned to the field for warmups, USC kicker Denis Lynch practiced 23-yard field goals toward the north end zone for several minutes before retreating to the other side of the field, where the rest of his teammates were warming up. If the almost 30-minute break in game action wasn’t long enough, Wilcox added more pressure by calling a timeout when USC lined up for the kick.
Lynch missed it wide.
The comedy of errors was a suitable official end to a nightmare first half for the Trojans.
Jaydn Ott, the Pac-12’s leading rusher, feasted on the Pac-12’s worst rushing defense and rushed for three touchdowns. Led by 145 yards on 13 carries from Ott, Cal ran for 177 yards in the first half, easily eclipsing USC’s average of 164.3 rushing yards allowed entering the game.
The Norco alumnus scored touchdowns on runs of 43 and 61 yards in the first quarter. After the second long run, he 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.
USC bottled up Ott in the second half and jumped ahead by scoring two touchdowns on its first three drives of the third quarter, but for the second consecutive week, a backup quarterback stepped up against the Trojans. Fernando Mendoza, a redshirt freshman making his third career start after starting the season third on Cal’s depth chart, threw for 292 yards and two touchdowns on 25-of-39 passing.
After giving up a back-breaking quarterback scramble to Utah’s Bryson Barnes in the fourth quarter last week, USC failed to contain Mendoza’s scrambling ability on critical downs. He wiggled past linebacker Mason Cobb on a 13-yard rush on fourth-and-four in the third quarter and finished the drive with a two-yard touchdown that put the Bears back in front by seven with a successful two-point conversion.
He doubled the lead with a one-yard touchdown run on Cal’s first drive of the fourth quarter.
Mendoza put the Trojans in position to tie with 58 seconds remaining after a 13-yard screen pass to Jaivian Thomas, but the Bears opted for the go-ahead two-point try instead of the extra point. Smith soared through the end zone to bat the pass away.
