'Hiccup' might cause USC to cough over spot in title race

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Here's a scene you don't see every day, or at all in the last three years: USC pleading for love from the pollsters.

"We're not a bad team," defensive end Lawrence Jackson said at the end of his team's first regular-season loss since 2003.

Southern Cal can't pull off a late comeback this time. (AP)

Not a bad team, just a significantly diminished one after only its third loss in the last 54 games. Whether the No. 3 Trojans are still in the national championship race is up for the debate. But that's kind of the point.

It's up for debate.

The team that was playing the nation's toughest schedule -- five ranked teams, six bowl teams -- lost to unranked, hell, unknown Oregon State 33-31.

The team that crowed about playing 15 true freshmen and with only one senior on defense, looked like it.

"I'm not going to ever admit to that as a reason why," coach Pete Carroll said. "We should be getting better with our young guys."

The team that had won three straight by a touchdown or less played it close once too often.

"It's not the end of a great run," linebacker Rey Maualuga said.

"People say it's the end of our legacy," receiver Dwayne Jarrett said. "It's definitely a hiccup."

Tell it to the BCS. It's now in the voters' hands and computers' circuits. A key break the contenders needed is a reality.

At first glance, all is lost for the Trojans in terms of a third national championship in four years. In fact, it took a stirring comeback to put some lipstick on this pig for USC. Oregon State led 33-10 late in the third quarter and did just about everything it could to give it away.

For the moment, let the party begin in Morgantown, Auburn, Austin, Gainesville, pretty much the entire BCS top 10. Congratulations boys, you're back inside the velvet rope.

"I'm just glad for my homies," said Keenan Lewis, an Oregon State cornerback from New Orleans. "Hoping for the best of luck down there in the SEC. Just tell them to keep on."

Upon further review, though, the system itself gives USC hope. When the day started there was the possibility of five head-to-head matchups in the current BCS top 10 before the season ends. USC could play in two -- against Cal and Notre Dame.

Heck, Nebraska (2001) and Oklahoma (2003) both played in BCS title games without winning the Big 12. Losing this late doesn't mean certain death, either. The Sooners were routed by Kansas State in the Big 12 title game on Dec. 6, 2003, and played for it all a month later.

Nebraska didn't even play in the Big 12 title game five years ago and still played for the national championship.

And don't forget how this USC dynasty started, after an overtime loss to Cal in late September 2003. USC was able to move back up the AP poll and grab a share of a national championship.

"I guess the system liked us ..." Jackson said. "Logic is, if teams lose we get back up to the top."

Somehow, after the end of a 27-game Pac-10 winning streak, logic doesn't seem to figure into it. Whether the loss is enough to knock the Trojans out of the minds of the voters is a TBD -- to be determined.

That the USC program has slumped, even slightly, is a given. It has lost something besides Matt, Reggie and LenDale. It has lost its precision, its timing, part of its swagger. Its discipline.

The troubled Maualuga slept through a Friday morning special teams meeting. His penalty? Playing only special teams in the first half Saturday.

"The alarm didn't go off," said Maualuga, who somehow couldn't make it for the crack-of-brunch 9:15 a.m. meeting.

The big-play ability on both sides of the ball is missing. USC committed four turnovers (to none for Oregon State) and allowed a punt return for a touchdown.

Quarterback John David Booty seemed almost pleased that he'd thrown for a career-high 406 yards, ignoring two game-changing gaffes: A first-half interception in the Oregon State end zone and a knocked-down pass on the two-point conversion that would have tied the game with seven seconds left.

"I had the guy on my back hip," Jarrett said, "It's unfortunate."

Unfortunate because Jarrett was running a fade and Booty threw a bullet, low enough for the defensive end to deflect. Strange.

The receivers are the only consistent unit on the team, now that they are healthy. Steve Smith was spectacular, catching 11 balls for 258 yards and two touchdowns. Jarrett returned from a bum shoulder to catch four passes.

But Booty, despite his gaudy numbers, doesn't have the required touch at times.

"It's been five years or so of beating people up and taking the ball," Jackson said. "At some point in time it's going to start getting hard. (Oregon State) probably just woke up and started practicing more."

It's more than that. While the rest of the Pac-10 has closed the gap, USC has done its part to meet the conference halfway. That makes more sense if you forget that Oregon State was missing Yvenson Bernard, the Pac-10's second-leading rusher. That, and the Beavers had lost a pair of games already by four touchdowns.

It's not like Oregon State makes a habit of these things either. This was the school's biggest win since 1967, when it beat No. 1 USC 3-0.

For a while there on Saturday, the USC product on the field had a Paul Hackett-era stench to it. Oregon State's Sammie Stroughter returned a punt 70 yards for a touchdown to make it 30-10. It was suddenly a long way from two years ago when the opposite happened. Reggie Bush returned a punt in the fog to break open a 28-20 victory.

Sorry to gross you out there with the Hackett reference, but there is a happy ending to this elsewhere. The state university of New Jersey right now might have more to look forward to in the BCS than mighty USC.

"I thought about it. That's my hometown," said Jarrett, who grew up five minutes from undefeated Rutgers. "I couldn't be more happy for them."