LOS ANGELES – Forget about stopping USC.
Forget about containing the Trojans.
Forget about the Washington Huskies moving the ball against them.
And while you’re at it, forget about the Huskies’ nation-leading streak without a shutout. Top-ranked USC wiped that one out rather easily in a 38-0 Pacific-10 Conference football game Saturday before 72,855 at the hallowed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Dominant? Such an understatement. USC is a national-championship-caliber team, as good as advertised and maybe better.
“They are big and strong and skilled and well-coached,” UW coach Keith Gilbertson said. “They look the part and that’s what a No. 1 team looks like.”
Washington had gone 271 straight games avoiding a shutout, the longest current streak in the nation. Not since Nov. 7, 1981 had a Husky team finished a game without a point, when UCLA came up with a 31-0 pasting.
The Trojans (7-0, 4-0 Pac-10) broke open the game by taking advantage of UW mistakes and a shockingly hapless performance by the Husky offense.
“I’m stuck on offense,” Gilbertson said. “We can’t make a play. We couldn’t get the ball to receivers. We couldn’t get our running game going.”
How shocking was it?
* Washington (1-6, 0-4) finished with 113 yards, 50 on the ground.
* The Huskies managed six first downs and lost a pair of fumbles.
* UW quarterbacks Isaiah Stanback and Casey Paus completed 7 of 28 passes for 63 yards.
* Stanback, a sophomore making his first start at quarterback, completed 3 of 16 passes for 27 yards. The Trojans took care of his reputation as a big-play guy, hunting him down for minus-5 yards on nine carries. His longest run was 8 yards. The Trojans sacked him once.
* Washington was 0-for-14 converting third downs.
“We never got it going,” Stanback said. “We didn’t execute like we should have. Give credit to USC. They’ve got a great defense, but we didn’t do our jobs.”
Despite what the final score may indicate, the outmanned UW defense played courageously. Cursed by the turnovers of its offensive brethren, Husky defenders did what they could with the shadows of their own goal posts at their backs. Three times Husky turnovers led to Trojan drives that started inside the UW 30-yard line, twice inside the 20. Those faux pas led to 17 USC points.
And, as the top-ranked team in the nation, USC simply doesn’t need to be handed points to blow a team out. The Trojans’ offense may be devastating, but the defense is what makes USC nearly unbeatable.
“They don’t make mistakes,” Gilbertson said. “They just line up and play. Their secondary is never out of position. We’re just not a good match right now. We’re struggling.”
The Trojans’ offensive stars were as good as advertised.
Matt Leinart, USC’s Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback, threw for 217 yards and a pair of TDs on 24 of 43 passing. Reggie Bush, USC’s triple threat, totaled 126 yards, 55 on the ground and 41 through the air. He led the Trojans with six receptions. Tailback LenDale White finished with 93 yards on 17 carries and scored two touchdowns.
After a close first half – the Huskies trailed 10-0 at halftime and actually held USC scoreless in the first quarter – the Trojans blew the game open. As much as it can, USC struggled for the first 30 minutes.
“We were forced to deal with our first-half offensive frustration,” USC coach Pete Carroll said. “We had to regroup and put it together.”
The Trojans got their first points following a Stanback fumble. Manase Hopoi’s sack of Leinart on third-and-goal from the Washington 3 forced the Trojans to settle for a 29-yard field goal by Ryan Killeen early in the second quarter.
Leinart found Bush on a 15-yard lob over corner Derrick Johnson for USC’s first touchdown. The touchdown pass capped an 83-yard drive in eight plays, giving the Trojans a 10-0 lead with 6:35 remaining in the half.
The Huskies had a chance to score late in the half when Scott White forced the Trojans’ LenDale White to fumble. Evan Benjamin recovered on the USC 36, and the Huskies had the ball with 22 seconds left.
After a false start, Washington got to the Trojan 30-yard line. Stanback barely missed Bobby Whithorne with a pass in the end zone and Michael Braunstein missed his second field goal in as many tries, this one from 47 yards.
Gilbertson couldn’t complain about his defense in the first half. USC came up with only one extended drive and coughed up the ball twice. Although Leinart was 13 of 24 passing for 97 yards and a TD, he threw an interception to safety C.J. Wallace and didn’t complete a pass for more than 16 yards.
Washington got decent pressure on Leinart, especially from White and Hopoi, who came up with five tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including a sack. All six of Hopoi’s tackles for the game came behind the line of scrimmage.
“Defensively, I was really pleased with our effort and how the guys played for most of the game,” Gilbertson said.
The Huskies’ offense, however, was powerless against USC’s gang of all-stars in the front seven.
Stanback completed 3 of 12 passes for 27 yards in the first half. The Huskies managed 55 first-half yards and couldn’t take advantage of two turnovers.
Washington didn’t convert a third-down situation and had three first downs for the game.
“USC’s front four is the best I’ve ever faced,” UW center Brad Vanneman said. “They’ve got great penetration without needing to blitz. They’re tough to pass block. They’re the real deal. They took away what we wanted to do.”
UW’s Kenny James fumbled on the first play of the second half at his own 18-yard line. Four plays later, LenDale White scored from 3 yards out to give the Trojans a 17-0 lead.
Again, the UW offense couldn’t answer and punted on the next series.
Wideout Jason Mitchell scored the first TD of his career on a 29-yard pass from Leinart with 11:22 remaining in the third quarter. It was Mitchell’s fourth career catch. He is a senior. The Trojans led 24-0.
LenDale White scored again from 2 yards out with 1:38 minutes left in the third quarter for a 31-0 lead. By this time, the USC offensive line was pushing an exhausted UW defensive front all over the field.
Quarterback Casey Paus came in at the end of the third quarter for Stanback and fared little better. He threw a strike to Sonny Shackelford, only to see the ball bounce off Shackelford and into the hands of Trojans linebacker Keith Rivers.
It was that kind of day.
USC reserve tailback Desmond Reed completed an eight-play, 86-yard drive late in the game with a 28-yard TD run. The 38-0 score only was important because it meant the Trojans beat the 34-point spread.
Not that the Huskies are betting men.
At least, not anymore.
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