#1 Oregon
LOS ANGELES — Just before Saturday’s showdown between No. 1 Oregon and No. 24 USC began, team captains assembled for the coin toss, with the Ducks represented by four players who all hailed from Southern California.
It was as if the Oregon football team were saying, this is our turf, too. And if the Trojans didn’t get the message then, they sure did by the time the game ended a few hours later.
Oregon continued its unbeaten season with a crescendoing performance that climaxed in a 53-32 victory at Memorial Coliseum, for the Ducks’ first win at USC since 2000. The Ducks matched the best start in school history, improving to 8-0 for the first time since 1933, and are now one of just five undefeated teams left in the country after Michigan State and Missouri fell from the ranks Saturday.
“It’s exciting,” UO linebacker Casey Matthews said. “But we’ve still got four more games left. Let’s keep this thing rolling.”
Today, the polls should still show Oregon at No. 1, and while Auburn won at Mississippi to more than likely protect its top spot in the BCS standings, the Ducks should remain firmly in the second spot and in line for a spot in the national championship game.
The win was as dramatic as any Oregon (5-0 Pac-10) has posted this season. In a game preceded by reams of trash talk from the Trojans, the two teams went back and forth for most of the first three quarters before the Ducks — predictably, it must be said at this point in the season — ran away in the final period.
For all intents and purposes, the game turned in the second quarter. USC (5-3, 2-3 Pac-10) was in the lead and driving into UO territory when a fumbled snap was recovered by the Ducks’ Boseko Lokombo; one play later, Jeff Maehl provided the biggest highlight of a career day, jumping too early to collect a Darron Thomas pass but recovering to bring the ball in as he fell into the end zone.
“He made a difficult catch — even though it could have been easier,” Thomas said with a sly smile.
Oregon’s budding star cornerback, Cliff Harris, set up another UO touchdown with a 41-yard punt return later in the quarter, then helped protect the Ducks’ 29-17 lead with an interception of USC passer Matt Barkley just before halftime. Just like Oregon’s strong fourth-quarter play, the game-changing moments from Harris are starting to seem routine.
“Every play, I feel like I’ve got to make the play that’s going to help us win,” Harris said.
Things briefly got away from the Ducks just after halftime, when a goofy interception of a tipped pass by a USC defensive tackle set up one Trojans touchdown, and a quick Oregon punt preceded another. But the Ducks answered with their best weapon, giving the ball to tailback LaMichael James 13 times on the next two possessions to mount two impressive, time-consuming touchdown drives and spark a 24-0 run to end the game.
Oregon’s team captains might have symbolically claimed the Coliseum turf as their own before the game, but it was James who actually took a bunch home, or at least the grass that left dark stains on his uniform following a 36-carry, 239-yard performance.
James kept pace with fellow Heisman Trophy contenders Cam Newton of Auburn and Kellen Moore of Boise State by accounting for three touchdowns, and surpassing 1,000 rushing yards in just his seventh game of the season. James broke Jonathan Stewart’s school record by posting his 15th career 100-yard rushing performance, and is just the third UO running back to run for 1,000 yards in two different seasons.
Asked what more he could possibly expect from his tailback, UO coach Chip Kelly was matter of fact.
“We’ve got four more games left,” Kelly said. “He can’t retire right now.”
Thomas followed up his career game against UCLA by completing 19-of-32 passes for 288 yards and four touchdowns, with the odd interception. Big games by Maehl and Lavasier Tuinei proved the Ducks are more than just Thomas and James — as trash-talking Trojans tackle Jurrell Casey had said prior to the game — but even if Oregon is more than a two-man show, those two men remained the production’s stars Saturday.
Barkley and standout receivers Robert Woods and Ronald Johnson lived up to their billing, too, as the Trojans passed for 264 yards. But, fueled by USC’s bravado leading up to the game, the Ducks proved that the balance of power in the Pac-10 has indeed shifted to the Northwest.
“Coaches, they try to say we don’t listen to it, but obviously we hear it eventually,” Matthews said of the trash talk. “We knew we had to shut them up. And we feel we did a good job doing that.”