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Sanchez, USC steamroll Oregon

Oct 5, 2008 - 5:21 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The wrath of Southern California had Oregon rattled ... so badly that the Ducks were called for delay of game on the opening kickoff of the second half.

Ninth-ranked Southern California used a 24-point explosion over less than eight minutes in the second quarter en route to a 44-10 victory over No. 20 Oregon in a Pac-10 Conference clash Saturday.

The victory came in the first game since the then-top ranked Trojans were shocked by Oregon State nine days ago.

"This is exactly what we were looking to do. This is the game we were hoping for," USC coach Pete Carroll said. "Everybody responded and played like we know how to play.

"But it's an accomplishment we need to learn and grow from. These seasons are challenging and long. This was a big moment for us. We have a chance to be an excellent football team and we have to do this properly each week and we understand what happens when you don't."

The Ducks' reluctance to kick to USC to open the second half proved prudent, as the Trojans marched 74 yards in 3:18. Stafon Johnson capped the drive with a 22-yard run to make it 34-10.

Mark Sanchez, who was 20-of-30 passing for 341 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, came out of the game with an apparent left knee injury after being sacked by high school teammate Nick Reed in the third quarter.

It was the same knee that Sanchez dislocated in summer practice on August 8. He returned to action, but was later taken out for precautionary reasons and iced the knee with the game well in hand.

"It's fine. I think I just hyperextended it a bit," Sanchez said. "I was just more scared than anything. The knee's just fine.

"It just got bent a little funny. Nothing popped, ya' know. It was a good thing I was wearing the brace and the patella stabilizer brace."

The coincidence of Reed being involved in the play wasn't lost on Sanchez.

"Yeah, someone asked me, 'How can your boy from Mission Viejo do that to ya'?' But I talked to him after the game, and he was just playing hard," the quarterack said. "It was an accident. No hard feelings."

Mitch Mustain came on and iced the rout with a 59-yard touchdown pass to David Ausberry with 1:50 left. In all, USC scored the final 41 points of the game as the defense smothered the Ducks.

"There were so many things that worked out well. You know, this was an offense that had been killing it lately with 300-plus yards rushing and almost 550 yards a game of offense," Carroll said. "But as the game wore on we got better and I think the numbers bear that out. To hold those guys to 60 yards rushing, that ain't happening very many times to that team because that's an extraordinary offense."

The USC defense rebounded from a sluggish effort in the loss in Corvallis. The unit accounted for nine tackles for losses, two sacks and an interception.

"It was just a matter of us doing things right," senior safety Kevin Ellison said. "We had 11 guys on the same page. I think you saw that last week we obviously didn't have that and it showed.

"Last week, they were gashing us for nine and 10 yards at a time. This week we were just making our plays. And coach did a good job of adjusting to the counters they were running early on."

The Trojans (3-1, 1-1 Pac-10) battled back after Oregon (4-2, 2-1) jumped to a 10-3 lead.

Sanchez found Damian Williams for 34 yards and then hooked up with Ronald Johnson on a 63-yard post pattern to take a 17-10 lead. David Buehler kicked a 36-yard field goal in the final minute of the half to make it 20-10.

An Oregon turnover gave the Trojans the ball back and Sanchez struck again, connecting with Patrick Turner from 11 yards. Sanchez finished the first half 13-of-18 for 233 yards.

Oregon had taken a 7-0 lead on Jeremiah Johnson's 1-yard run that capped a 14-play, 70-yard drive. The teams then traded field goals to leave Oregon with a 10-3 advantage.

"You know, we really just had to see the plays they were running," Carroll said. "We really played a simple game plan tonight. Our guys executed beautifully. It was just a matter of talking to our guys on the sidelines. After a while it was really pretty easy."

USC has not lost back-to-back games under Carroll since 2001.