Finished in a flash

LOS ANGELES – Matt Leinart got his three touchdown passes and 232 yards in the air. Dwayne Jarrett caught six passes for 114 yards. Southern California converted on all five of its third-down chances and scored 28 points on Washington State.

Then the second quarter started.

In a thrashing that reinforced both how good the Trojans are and how bad the Cougars have been against Pac-10 Conference football foes this season, the Trojans thrilled a homecoming crowd of 92,021 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum by drilling WSU 55-13.

“We got our butt kicked, period. They beat us fair and square,” head coach Bill Doba said after his school’s worst loss since a 51-3 defeat in the 2000 Apple Cup.

The Cougars (3-5, 0-5 Pac-10) managed to match USC’s first touchdown with a 13-yard score by Jerome Harrison, but after Loren Langley had the extra point blocked the Trojans offense kicked into gear and left WSU gasping.

USC (8-0, 5-0) scored the next 41 points, shutting the Cougars out until the fourth quarter, well after the competition had ended.

Leinart sparkled even though he didn’t have to throw much after the first-quarter explosion. Last season’s Heisman Trophy winner finished with 364 yards in the air, and as USC poured it on the ground game became dominant as well. LenDale White, usually overshadowed in his own backfield by Reggie Bush, had 155 yards on 20 carries with two more scores on the ground.

“In the first quarter I think their speed was something we hadn’t seen,” Doba said. “It just took us a while to get adjusted to making plays. … We just were trying to survive, I think, basically.”

The USC skill-position players spent the first half making the Cougars look as slow as the block of stone from Rome’s Coliseum that sits outside the facility, going over, through and around the defense as the points rolled up.

Offensively, WSU struggled as well, which was somewhat surprising given their prowess of late couple and weaknesses in the Trojans defense.

But the Cougars were 2 of 13 on third-down conversions, the area that Doba had cited during the week as particularly important to his team’s chances. Quarterback Alex Brink finished with 64 yards passing, 300 fewer than his counterpart, and was also on the sideline by the time the third quarter was done.

“I thought we’d move the ball better than we did, plain and simple,” offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller said. “We didn’t execute well (Saturday); offensively we’ve been executing very well. When you don’t execute, you don’t keep the ball in your own hands, keep your rhythm going.”

Outside of Jason Hill’s six catches for 49 yards, not one Cougars receiver had more than one catch, and not one pass went for more 9 yards.

“They’re a quality football team, they don’t make a lot of mistakes,” Brink said. “When they do you have to take advantage and we really didn’t take advantage.”

Up 38-6 at the half, USC dramatically slowed the pace in the third quarter, opting to gobble up time rather than yardage. The Trojans’ opening drive of the third quarter took 7 minutes and 12 seconds even though it didn’t result in any points.

By game’s end it was clear that the only force capable of stopping the No. 1 team in the nation, especially its star-studded offense, resided on USC’s sideline.

“I’ve only been in college football for about 30 years. They’re as good as I’ve seen,” said Doba, going on to explain the feeling on the sideline.

“Shock, I guess, as much as anything. We thought we could compete better than that.”

A number of Cougars said they still feel optimistic about the season, but another loss will guarantee that the 2005 football slate will end Nov. 19 in the Apple Cup.

And after losing four games by a total of 21 points, this 42-point loss makes winning three in a row against Arizona State, Oregon and Washington seem unlikely at best.

“It’s a three-game season,” Harrison said. “Self-explanatory.”