Cal Sports Report

Pac-12 Bowls: USC Blows Late Lead in Cotton Bowl Loss

Tulane overcomes 15-point deficit in final 4:30 and scores winning TD with 9 seconds left

Jake Curtis

Somehow USC lost the Cotton Bowl game to Tulane 46-45 on Monday in Arlington, Texas.

With the loss, the Pac-12's record in bowl games this season slipped to 3-3, with one game remaining -- the Rose Bowl. (A list of the postseason records of all conferences appears at the bottom of this story.)

When the Trojans (11-3) converted a field goal with 4:30 left in the game, USC held a 15-point lead.   But a quick touchdown by the Green Wave (12-2), a safety when USC's Austin Jones was caught in the end zone and touchdown catch by Alex Bauman with nine seconds left gave Tulane its first and only lead of the game at 46-45.

The final touchdown reception, which came on a 6-yard pass from Michael Pratt, was initially ruled incomplete, but a replay showed that Bauman bobbled the ball as he went down but the ball never touched the ground before he gained control. The call was reversed and a touchdown was recorded.

Interesting note:

It ruined a great game by USC quarterback Caleb Williams, the Heisman Trophy winner who threw for 462 yards and five touchdowns with one interception, and Trojans wide receiver Brenden Rice (the son of Jerry Rice), who had six receptions for 174 yards and two touchdowns.

Here is Rice's second TD catch, which was ruled a touchdown after video review:

But once again it was USC's poor defensive play that led to the Trojans' defeat.

USC allowed Utah to score 23 fourth-quarter points in the Utes 47-24 victory in the Pac-12 championship game. And on Monday Tulane tallied 30 points in the second half, including 16 in the final 4:23, with all but two coming while the USC defense was on the field.

USC gained 594 yartds, but Trojans gave up 539 yards, including 305 rushing yards, to the team from the American Athletic Conference.

The Trojans controlled the game for the most part, collecting 29 first downs to Tulane's 16 and possessing the ball for nearly 40 minutes while the Green Wave had it for just a few seconds more than 20 minutes.

Tulane's Tyjae Spears ran for 205 yards and four touchdowns against the Trojans, who held a 28-14 lead at halftime took a 45-30 lead when Denis Lynch booted a 43-yard field goal witxh 4:30 to go.

But it took Tulane just 23 seconds and two plays to score a touchdown -- a 59-yard completion to Duece Watts and a 4-yard TD run by Spears -- and cut the lead to eight.

Two plays after USC's Mario Williams fumbled the ensuing kickoff out of bounds at the 1-yard line, Austin Jones was tackled in the end zone for a safety that reduced the USC lead to six.

Tulane received the free kick after the safety and drove 66 yards in 12 plays, including conversions on a fourth-and-6 play from the Green Wave 38-yard line and a fourth-and-10 play from the Tulane 46-yard line.

A 24-yard completion to Watts moved the ball to the USC 6-yard line, and two plays later Bauman caught the game-winning touchdown pass.

Here are the bowl records by conference (with the number of bowl teams in parentheses). Conferences are listed in the order of their winning percentage. Only Rose Bowl (today, Monday) and national champiopnship game (next Monday) remaining:

MAC: 4-2 (6) -- .667

Independents: 3-2 (5) -- .600

American: 4-3 (7) -- .571

ACC: 5-4 (9) -- .556

SEC: 6-5 (11) -- .546

Big Ten: 4-4 (9) -- .500

Pac-12: 3-3 (7) -- .500

Conference-USA: 3-3 (6) -- .500

Mountain West: 3-4 (7) -- .429

Sun Belt: 3-4 (7) -- .429

Big 12: 2-6 (8) -- .250

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Tulane head coach Willie Fritz during his playing days:

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Cover photo of Alex Bauman's game-winning touchdown catch was taken by Tim Heitman, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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