BERKELEY — USC’s 2021 football season mercifully came to an end on Saturday with a 24-14 loss to Cal.
The defeat, which dropped USC to a final record of 4-8 and 3-6 in the Pac-12, had all the hallmarks of this iteration of the Trojans, and which led to Clay Helton’s termination and the this week’s hiring of Lincoln Riley.
There were penalties that killed USC drives deep in Cal territory, like a holding and intentional grounding sequence that took USC from first-and-10 at the Cal 38 to punting at the Cal 45.
There were special teams gaffes, like Parker Lewis’ two missed field goals in the first half.
There was a costly turnover, a fumble by running back Darwin Barlow on a third-down conversion that Cal scooped up and returned 55 yards for a touchdown.
And there was the purely inexplicable, like tight end Erik Krommenhoek fumbling a direct snap on a fourth-down, goal-line trick play that had no chance of going anywhere, one of two turnovers in red-zone trips for USC.
Perhaps this wasn’t surprising. The USC team that arrived to California Memorial Stadium was decimated by injuries. Only 65 Trojans traveled for the game instead of 74, the maximum allowed. And it’s not like USC was a well-functioning machine when at full strength this season.
TE Michael Trigg, TE Jude Wolfe, OL Courtland Ford, OLB Drake Jackson, LB Tuasivi Nomura, CB Chris Steele, CB Jayden Williams, CB Ceyair Wright, DB Jaylin Smith and OLB Hunter Echols all did not travel, while QB Kedon Slovis, WR Gary Bryant, RB Keaontay Ingram, TE Lake McRee and S Xavion Alford did not dress for the game.
The sheer magnitude of USC’s injury woes left the Trojans with four cornerbacks warming up for the game, and USC only played one — freshman Prophet Brown — for much of the opening drive. Cal, naturally, attacked Brown on fourth-and-two and converted to set up a field goal.
A field goal that would have not happened, if not for a USC off-sides penalty that allowed Cal another chance after its first attempted ricocheted off the post.
USC’s injured list got even longer toward the end of the third quarter, when promising freshman quarterback Jaxson Dart was leveled on scrambled, taking a shot to his head. He looked unsteady on his feet before draping his arms around two trainers’ shoulders and being escorted to the medical tent.
When he emerged, his helmet had been taken away, leaving what was left of the game in the hands of third-string QB Miller Moss. The freshman did as well as could be expected, completing 8 of 12 passes for 74 yards and leading an 87-yard touchdown drive, finding K.D. Nixon from 16 yards out of the end zone when the game was already out of reach.
But he wasn’t immune from the madness of this performance. After moving USC 47 yards to the Cal 8, Moss was strip-sacked and, after a delayed reaction and some batting of the ball, the Bears recovered at their own 32.
It was the fifth drive in a row in which USC reached Cal territory but failed to come up with points. The Trojans actually out-gained the Bears 409-260 in the loss, USC’s eighth in a season for the first time since 1991.
