SEATTLE – Washington had nearly as many yards and held the ball longer than the nation’s best team. Quarterback Isaiah Stanback had just four incomplete passes and USC didn’t have an offensive play longer than 31 yards.
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
So how, then, did No. 1 USC defeat the Huskies 51-24? Simple. Combine a few Washington mistakes with a hint of Reggie Bush and a touch of Matt Leinart, and voila!
Leinart became the Pacific-10 Conference’s career leader in touchdown passes, Bush had an 84-yard punt return and the Huskies lost two key fumbles to send USC to its 29th victory in a row in front of 64,096 fans Saturday at Husky Stadium.
The victory improves the two-time defending national champions to 4-0 in the Pac-10 and 7-0 overall. Washington fell to 0-4 and 1-6.
”For much of the game, I was proud of our guys,” Washington coach Tyrone Willingham said. ”But mistakes killed us. It is not just the obvious ones like the blocked punt, the fumble and the lateral. There were others there that we cannot be making and we shouldn’t be making.”
A week after being thoroughly taken apart by Oregon, the Huskies actually were competitive with USC for the first quarter, leading 3-0, then 10-7 when Stanback lobbed an 8-yard touchdown pass to Craig Chambers with 1:28 to play in the quarter. It was the sixth time in seven games this season that the Huskies scored first.
But in the span of the next six minutes, 20 seconds, the game went from being competitive to what everyone expected. In that time, the Trojans ran just eight plays but scored four times, aided by two big returns and two Husky turnovers. USC began four of its six drives of the first half in UW territory.
”It’s the same thing every week,” said Stanback, who was 14-for-18 for 201 yards. ”Regardless of who we’re playing, we have the same result every week because of the turnovers.”
Darnell Bing answered Washington’s touchdown with a 68-yard kickoff return, and one play later Leinart, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, lobbed a 24-yard pass to 6-foot-5 receiver Dwayne Jarrett for a touchdown, giving USC the lead for good.
Then came the first turnover. Stanback threw a pass behind Cody Ellis, who couldn’t handle the throw, which was ruled a lateral and a fumble that USC cornerback Justin Wyatt recovered. Two plays later, Bush ran in from six yards out for a 20-10 lead.
”It was a designed play, it was just bad ball-placement,” Stanback said. ”I made a bad throw.”
Bush then had the play of the game, fielding a 54-yard Sean Douglas punt, running right, spinning out of Ty Eriks’ attempt at an ankle tackle and sprinting 84 yards down the sideline for his first punt return touchdown of the year and third of his career.
”They punted the ball deep,” said Bush, who had 51 yards rushing and 18 receiving. ”There were a lot of great blocks provided by my teammates. I made about two or three people miss, and it was off to the races.”
Willingham said his assistants called down from the press box that Bush had called a fair catch, but that is no excuse.
”You’ve got to play the game,” Willingham said. ”We had him wrapped up and we didn’t make the tackle.”
Washington followed with a big play, a 53-yard pass from Stanback to Sonny Shackelford, only to see the play called back because of an illegal shift. On the next play, USC recovered a Kenny James fumble, leading to a 7-yard touchdown pass from Leinart to Jarrett for a 34-10 lead.
”You can’t spot them the ball in their half of the field,” UW offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said. ”We were playing pretty good and you look up and see it’s 27-7 and you say ‘Wow.’ It took some energy from us.”
Washington battled to stay close, scoring on a 1-yard leap by Stanback to close to within 17, then forced a three-and-out. Unable to move the ball, the Huskies brought quarterback Casey Paus on the field to put the potential of a fake punt in USC’s mind. But the Trojans blocked the punt with under a minute to go and kicked a field goal for a 37-17 halftime lead.
”We just didn’t execute,” Willingham said. ”It wasn’t the scheme, it was the execution.”
Three injuries and a suspension hurt Washington’s chances. Marlon Wood fractured his left ankle after returning the game’s opening kickoff 92 yards; the Huskies’ top two running backs, Louis Rankin (turf toe) and James (shoulder) left in the first half; and starting cornerback Matt Fountaine was suspended for disciplinary reasons.
Lappano said he had about three plays designed to go to Wood at receiver that he could no longer run. At running back, replacement James Sims had 24 yards on 10 carries, and the Huskies had no run longer than 11 yards. And the already thin and struggling secondary was picked apart by Leinart, who was 20-for-26 for 201 yards and four touchdowns, passing Arizona State’s Andrew Walter for the Pac-10’s career lead with 87.
”We had a bad start with allowing that kick return, but we responded and made some things happen,” USC coach Pete Carroll said.
”Our focus was we had to stop the run,” Washington safety C.J. Wallace said. ”It wasn’t a fluke by us bottling them up. We came out there and played with these guys. We’ve just got to eliminate mistakes and tighten up the passing game.”
Now Washington heads back to the road to meet an Arizona State team that has lost three games in a row, including a 45-35 loss Saturday to Stanford.
”I’m still very excited about our football team and about the effort that we gave, even though effort is not enough,” Willingham said. ”It’s about getting wins and playing the game the right way. We fell short and they did some good things in order to get the win.”
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