‘We Blew It,’ Trojans’ Robinson Says : College football: Coach acknowledges that decision to abandon rushing attack was costly in loss to Oregon.

Coach John Robinson took a major share of the blame for USC’s surprising loss to Oregon, saying Tuesday he blew the game.

Speaking at his weekly media luncheon, Robinson said he “probably panicked a little bit” in the third quarter of the 22-7 loss, “trying to get points on the board.”

He also said his quarterback, Rob Johnson, might not play at Oregon State on Saturday afternoon. Johnson suffered a sprained ankle against Oregon.

USC fans criticized the Trojans’ offense after Saturday’s defeat by the 19-point underdog Ducks. Many wondered why tailback Shawn Walters, who had carried 31 times and gained 207 yards the previous week against Baylor, had only 17 carries--and 78 yards--against Oregon.

“I made an error in getting away from the run,” Robinson said.

“We can’t do that--sustain a total commitment to the passing game. I think if we’d continued to run we’d have established a rhythm. But we went (totally) to the pass and we were ineffective.

“(The coaching staff) looked at the film Sunday, and we said, ‘Look, we screwed this game up.’

“We blew it. We had better players than they did. The reality is, we lost to a team we probably should have beaten.

“I was shocked (by the game). We had a good week of practice. We knew Oregon was a threat to us. But we misfired the whole game. We had 74 offensive plays and maybe 40 of them were good ones. Everything else was penalties, misconnections, sacks . . . “

Walters had almost nothing to do for most of the last quarter. He had 13 of his 17 carries in the first half, then only two each in the third and fourth quarters. After he had gained nine and seven yards in USC’s first fourth-quarter series, he never got the ball again. The Trojans passed on 12 consecutive downs to finish the game. Of their last 26 second-half plays--not counting punts--the Trojans passed 26 times and ran four.

USC trailed by 16-7 at the half and, 19-7, after three quarters.

Johnson indicated Tuesday that he isn’t as worried about his injury as Robinson is.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Straight ahead, straight back I’m OK. It’s just a little sore on the outside of the ankle. This type of sprain (high on the ankle) is slow to heal, but it feels great today. It improved a lot overnight.”

Earlier, Robinson had said he wouldn’t decide on Johnson’s availability until Saturday. He said he would take a long look at Johnson on Friday at 4 p.m., when the Trojans work out at the University of Oregon’s Autzen Stadium. Autzen has artificial turf, as does Oregon State’s Parker Stadium.

“It doesn’t appear to be a severe sprain, but if he’s not close to 100%, I won’t play him, not on artificial turf,” Robinson said. “If he’s still limping Friday or Saturday, he doesn’t play.”

Johnson was injured in the third quarter on the last of his seven sacks, when he was tackled while spread-eagled.

“After I watched the film, I’m lucky my right knee didn’t get blown out,” Johnson said.

“I was almost doing the splits when I got hit--my foot slipped on the turf--and on the film you can see my heel touching my hip (on the tackle). My knee was really at a bad angle.”

Johnson’s sacks continue to frustrate Robinson, and it showed Tuesday.

“We’ve got to work harder at getting the ball out of there,” Robinson said.

“We pride ourselves in the high-completion percentage (68%) and the low interception percentage (Johnson has thrown two in four games, and only 24 in his 28-game career), but the glitch in all that are the sacks.

“The sacks are killing us.”

Later, however, Johnson said only two of the seven sacks were preventable.

“I should’ve thrown it away on two of those sacks,” he said, indicating he couldn’t have on the other five.