Oregon's Justin Peelle catches a TD pass on fourth down to put away USC late in the fourth quarter.(AP)

"You have to take chances," said Ducks coach Mike Bellotti. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Obviously, our kids believed."

And they executed to perfection with 75 seconds remaining, when Oregon had driven down to USC's 18-yard line and faced fourth-and-3. Bellotti called for a timeout, and he immediately told his coaches he didn't want to go for a field goal.

Ahead 21-17, a field goal at that point for the Ducks would have meant the Trojans could still pull out a dramatic victory by driving down the field for a touchdown and getting a two-point conversion.

So Bellotti went for the jugular.

Junior quarterback Joey Harrington snapped the ball and faked an inside handoff to junior fullback Josh Line, occupying the attention of the Trojans' linebackers. That created some valuable space over the middle for tight end Justin Peelle, whom Harrington hit with the touchdown pass that knocked out USC.

"I just didn't want to overthrow him," Harrington said.

The overthrowing of USC coach Paul Hackett, in the third year of a five-year contract, figures to become an even hotter topic among Trojans faithful this week as the team dropped its third consecutive conference game. Athletic director Mike Garrett, who hired Hackett, won't escape mention, either.

"They got the win because they played smart at the end," Hackett said. "We played hard and well and were in the game until the end, but we did not play smart."

Most of a crowd of 54,031 exploded when Hackett, faced with a fourth-and-1 at the 50 with 6:21 remaining and the Trojans trailing 21-17, decided to punt the ball to the Ducks.

It would have been the most deafening sound of the day, if not for the boos that cascaded down upon Hackett after the Trojans tapped Mike MacGillivray's punt dead at the Oregon 17.

Oregon's drive petered out at the USC 44, and the Trojans took over at their own 12 with 2:46 left. Just 32 seconds later, Hackett had no choice but to go for a first down on a fourth-and-13 at his own 25.

It failed, as Oregon rover Steve Smith batted down a Carson Palmer attempt for receiver Matt Nickels on the left sideline, near the first-down marker.

Had Hackett gone for the earlier fourth-down challenge, he would have done so with much more time on the clock and twice the yardage behind his defense. Instead, he left Palmer with a much deeper hole to climb out of against a prickly passing defense.

In fact, Oregon, is the only Pac-10 defense rated among the country's top 25 against the pass. Palmer only completed 15 of 35 attempts, for 194 yards, one touchdown and an interception.

On the other side, Harrington did what his old man was unable to do, riddling USC by going 28-for-42 for a career-high 382 yards and four touchdowns.

As a sophomore starting quarterback for Oregon in 1967, John Harrington went 5-for-14 with 47 yards, in a 28-6 defeat to O.J. Simpson and the top-ranked Trojans at the Coliseum. Before the game, John told Joey to "have fun."

"That's a good team, and that quarterback looked awesome," said Orange Bowl vice president Al Cueto, in town to keep an eye on the Ducks. The Orange Bowl plays host to the national championship game this season, but Harrington didn't want to look at the two guys wearing the orange jackets immediately behind him.

"Hey," he said, "we have Arizona next week."

The last quarterback to throw four TDs against the Trojans was Notre Dame's Steve Beuerlein, in 1986.

"The Gods must have graced us," Harrington said. "We had some chances in the first half to really put it to them. But I think that loss at Wisconsin really taught us something about winning on the road. It gave us an edge. If we had won that game, I don't know how we would have handled it."

Oregon (5-1, 3-0 in the Pac-10) established itself as a Pac-10 elite team after back-to-back victories over UCLA and Washington at home, and its game against the Wildcats (4-1, 2-0 before their Saturday night game against Washington State) at cozy Autzen Stadium will be huge.

Saturday was also the Ducks' first game of the season on grass, and junior tailback Maurice Morris handled the ground duties in blue-collar fashion with 85 yards on 32 carries.

"Hey, those are fast defenders, very fast," Harrington said of USC's defense.

Maybe too fast, as Oregon twice used the Trojans' speed against them with nifty shovel passes. Thursday night, Bellotti and his staff changed that play from an overhead pass to the shovel. "Just to confuse them," Harrington said.

It worked midway through the first quarter, when Harrington faked a handoff to Morris on third-and-goal at the USC 9. Then Morris stopped after two steps, turned around and took the shovel from Harrington, tip-toeing into the end zone to tie it 7-7.

The shovel worked again late in the third quarter for 15 yards, although Oregon didn't score on that possession.

"I was very comfortable out there today, and I attribute that to the offensive line," said Harrington, who did not get sacked once by the Trojans. "And on that last touchdown, those defenders really jumped on Line."

That freed Peelle, who caught four passes for 48 yards but had opportunities to catch at least four or five more passes during the day. At the end of the second quarter, Peelle even turned it over to the Trojans -- who wound up giving it right back to the Ducks -- after catching an 8-yard pass from Harrington.

"A lot of times," Peelle said, "you don't get a second chance."

Hackett knows.