Usually, Livingstone rocks against Johnson C. Smith. Instead, in Saturday evening’s miserable 35-12 loss at Alumni Stadium, the Blue Bears hit rock bottom.

There were a pair of unlucky sevens involved for the Bears, who lost for the first time in seven years to the usually docile Golden Bulls and simultaneously fell to 0-7 for the first time since 1993.

The rivalry between the Bears and Golden Bulls goes back to 1892. History books say that first meeting was buried by a snowy blizzard. Yesterday’s meeting was marred by a blizzard of Livingstone turnovers. The Bears had two punts blocked, tossed two interceptions and fumbled the ball away four times. All that bad news buried a pretty solid effort by the Livingstone defense, which limited Bull rushes to 92 yards.

The Bears actually scored first for a 6-0 lead, but then things steadily disintegrated against a herd of Bulls, who recorded only their fifth win over the last two seasons. As one Livingstone fan in the pressbox put it colorfully, “We ain’t nothin’ today but a pack of Newports. Gettin’ smoked.” Said another pained Bear supporter: “Never thought I’d live long enough to see us lose at home to Smith.”

The Bears were obviously hamstrung by the absence of starting quarterback/punter D’andre Hopper, who was suspended earlier this week for unspecified disciplinary reasons by head coach Greg Richardson.

Smith coach Tim Harkness, said he had no idea that Hopper, whom his team had prepared hard to stop all week, wouldn’t be playing, and admitted that he had come to town expecting a donnybrook with a team hungry for its first win.

“We felt Livingstone would be a well-coached team with strong kids,” said Harkness. “Not having Hopper hurt them. But I understand Greg’s decision. Discipline always has to come first.”

Asked about Livingstone’s ruinous special team woes in the absence of Hopper, Harkness shook his head.

“I’ve been there and that’s rough,” he said. “You can coach the kicking game all you want to, but the kids still have to execute. Today, Livingstone didn’t.”

The comedy of kicking errors led to the Bears being humiliated in their own house by at team that’s been annihilated this season by outrageous scores like 48-0 and 57-12.

“The coaches put it in our heads all week that we hadn’t beaten Livingstone in seven years,” said Bull linebacker Abram Reed, who had the game of his life with two interceptions, a sack and a fumble recovery. “We just came down here today to play some football, and looking at Livingstone on film, we expected to win.”

But didn’t he expect it to be a lot tougher than it was?

“No, not really,” Reed said.

Ouch.

To their credit, even after a performance that belonged in the Hall of Shame, the Bears that did point fingers — pointed them directly at themselves.

“The special teams had a bad day and so did the young guys on offense, but when that happens, the defense — that’s where the old guys on this team are — have to pick everyone else up,” said senior lineman O’Brian Scott. “No, we didn’t have D’andre and that was big because he’s such a leader for us. But when he’s not here, we have to find a way to go on. We didn’t do that.”

Jason Ocean, an undersized but overachieving inside linebacker who was in on 15 tackles and threw his body all over the field, was equally distraught.

“The losing hurts,” he said. “We wanted this game badly for our coaching staff (Richardson used to coach at J.C. Smith). I mean, we really wanted it. But we’re never gonna win if we don’t all get some mental discipline out there. Focus is the key. If you don’t focus, you can’t win.”

Shannon Gainey, the speedy receiver who grabbed a touchdown pass from Antonio Kirkpatrick, was also shaking his head in disbelief.

“I thought the teams were exactly even in talent today,” he said. “It shoulda been maybe 12-6 and gone either way. I’m upset with what happened.”

But Gainey, Scott and Ocean all agreed that the fans who are criticizing the coaching staff for the struggling season are way off base.

“The coaches prepared me for everything Smith did today,” said Ocean. “Everything Smith did was exactly what the coaches said they would.”

“The coaches did an excellent job this week,” said Gainey. “It comes down to execution. You wanna blame someone? OK, blame the players. We’re not getting it done.”

One thing’s for sure, the Bears are quickly running out of time to salvage something from this season. They’ve got just three more chances to avoid their first winless campaign since 1980.

Assistant sports editor Mike London covers college football for the Post.