Instant Analysis: USC-UCLA

When cross-town rival UCLA cashed a turnover into seven points on a trick play less than four minutes into Saturday's game at the Rose Bowl, the USC Trojans had to wonder if their 2006 loss to the Bruins would be repeated in 2008. Mark Sanchez stood up to dispel the gloom, by insisting that this day would be different.

UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker limited the Trojans to just one touchdown in that earthquake of an upset two years ago. Standing inside the same stadium where they hoped to play on New Year’s Day of 2009, as the outright Pac-10 champions, the Men of Troy couldn’t assume that UCLA would fold the tent. Down 7-0 before they could barely blink, Pete Carroll’s kids had to tie the Bruins and then get ahead of them without wasting any time. Otherwise, USC risked the prospect of another tense four-quarter fistfight, the very scenario it received in 2006… and hoped to avoid on this picture-perfect Pasadena afternoon.

In this hour of need, Sanchez—the not-so-steady signal caller who made his fans sweat in ugly wins over Cal and Arizona—redeemed himself with the most complete performance in the Pac-10 portion of his season. Excellent against Virginia and solid against Ohio State, Sanchez created an in-conference masterpiece in one of college football’s most beautiful settings, made even more artistic by Carroll’s decision to have his players wear home red jerseys on UCLA soil.

USC might have scored more points in other Pac-10 games this season, but rarely has Sanchez been so sharp from a game’s first moment to its last. On a day when USC’s running game took time to develop, it was Sanchez who enabled the Trojans’ passing game to flourish, in what was a fitting sendoff to offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, likely to be announced as Washington’s new head coach before very long.

By throwing a variety of routes with zip, precision, and—most importantly—intelligence, Sanchez exploited UCLA’s secondary. On the many occasions when the Bruins still maintained appreciably tight coverage on SC receivers, Sanchez—while suffering one interception in the second quarter—was usually able to stick the ball into a tight window and get a completion. This was the case on a crucial fourth-and-4 conversion to tight end Anthony McCoy in the first quarter. That play—more than any other snap—released the pressure valve for the Trojan Empire of College Football and enabled USC to impose its will on the Bruins. Once the visitors survived a fourth-down test in the early going, they immediately relaxed and began to showcase their talents against Rick Neuheisel’s club.

Sanchez basically held his team together while the Trojans’ offensive linemen and running backs got into the flow of the contest. Because SC was indeed able to tie the score at 7-all before the end of the first quarter, UCLA—a 30-point underdog feeling full of itself after the early start—was not able to sustain any kind of momentum. In the second quarter, every Trojan got his teeth into this L.A. affair, and as a result, the men in red were able to take a 21-7 lead to the locker room at halftime. Given the quality of USC’s defense, and given the toothless nature of UCLA’s woeful offense, that 14-point spread represented a hammer-lock grip on the proceedings. The second half ran its course without a single bit of drama, as the Trojans cruised to their 21-point victory on a day when a classic football rivalry returned to its home-jersey roots.

Mark Sanchez has received his fair share of criticism in 2008, while USC’s defense had to do almost all the heavy lifting. But in the game that Angelinos covet more than any other, the Trojan trigger man offered his A-game to lift his team to the top of the Pac-10 for yet another year. As a result, Pete Carroll—now the bearer of a sixth straight conference crown (seven if one were to technically count the 2002 tie with Washington State, a tie not good enough to give USC a Rose Bowl bid)—will meet a man named Joe Paterno on the first day of 2009. If Sanchez plays anything close to what he showed today, Penn State is in for a long night in the shadows of the San Gabriel Mountains.