Trojan trouncing

LOS ANGELES – The No. 1 team in the nation really doesn’t need any help. But Saturday night the Washington State Cougars decided to supply some anyway.

The result was what could be expected, a 47-14 USC rout before 86,876 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, most of whom hit the freeway before the fourth quarter started.

“That was an old-fashioned butt-whipping,” WSU coach Bill Doba said, describing the Trojans’ 35th consecutive home win succinctly.

The Trojans were also succinct, putting this one away early in the second half. They dominated on both sides of the ball, but it was their defense that closed the door in the teams’ Pac-10 Conference opener.

After Washington State marched 84 yards on its first possession – tying the game at seven on an Alex Brink to Jed Collins’ 3-yard scoring pass – the USC defense was near-perfect for more than a quarter.

From their opening drive to their second drive of the second half, the Cougars (2-2, 0-1 in the Pac-10) had 1 yard of total offense in six possessions.

Those drives, if they can be called that, ended with a punt, a dropped punt snap by Darryl Blunt, a Brink interception and three consecutive Reid Forrest punts. When the stretch was over, USC (3-0, 1-0) led 34-7 and the game was over.

“We ran the same plays that were working earlier,” Doba said of the spell, but admitted he wasn’t sure what changed.

Brink, who was 17 of 31 for 165 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, had an idea.

“You start to press,” Brink said. “They go down and score, we score, they score and you’re down 14-7 knowing you have to go down and score. You realize real quick that the ball has to get in the end zone and when it doesn’t you start to press a little more.”

And the Trojans defense, which came in third in the conference statistics, started putting on the pressure. WSU finished with 247 yards of total offense – the Cougs came in averaging 476 – with all but 24 of them coming on two scoring drives and the game-ending possession against USC’s reserves.

“The mistakes are magnified by the team you are playing,” Doba said. “You make a mistake against them, you could see it, they were like piranhas going after a piece of meat there at the end of the half.”

“When the defensive ends are coming as hard as they were and the defensive tackles get good push, it speeds the game up,” Brink said. “You have to make quick decisions, get rid of the ball fast and, for the majority of the game, we did that.

“Against this team one mistake is enough to lose you the ballgame. You have to play as close to perfect as possible.”

The Cougars were not close to perfect – especially early on.

They had a chance to tie it at 14 when Charles Dillon broke free on the USC kickoff, but Trojans kicker David Buehler, who has played some safety, ran down the WSU wide receiver.

“That hurt,” Doba said. “It was good to see a return finally, we got some protection, some blocking.” But the Cougars’ longest kickoff return in four years, and the ensuing empty possession, just served to give USC a break of serve.

And quarterback John David Booty, the first-team All-Pac-10 quarterback last year who had been quiet in the Trojans’ first two games, proceeded to serve some aces.

Included in the 91-yard drive that resulted in the first of two Buehler field goals was Booty’s 25-yard hookup with tight end Fred Davis, one of his career-high nine receptions. Davis also had the Trojans’ first touchdown catch and another in the second quarter.

That came on the drive following the Cougars’ next big mistake, Blunt’s snap drop. The muff gave USC the ball on the Cougars 20 and led to Forrest becoming the new WSU punter.

“He dropped the ball twice, and the other kid is punting the ball pretty well,” Doba said of the punter change. “You can’t drop the ball if you’re going to punt that thing. The first thing you have to do is catch it.”

But Blunt wasn’t alone in drops, with the WSU receivers mishandling three Brink tosses and the defense missing more tackles than it had in the first three games combined.

“We missed too many tackles,” Doba said. “I think we had people there, I think the plan was good, but either their athletes were better than our athletes and made them miss, or we missed too many tackles.”

The Trojans took advantage, with Booty throwing short pass after short pass en route to a 28-of-35, 279-yard night. That included four touchdowns passes and one interception (the second in two weeks for Husain Abdullah).

“We really weren’t trying to force anything,” Carroll said of the passing emphasis. “We just really needed the work. We feel we have guys talented enough to really be special, but we just needed to execute.”

Besides Davis’ total, Patrick Turner, under fire this week from head coach Pete Carroll for three drops against Nebraska, and Vidal Hazelton split 14 catches for 111 yards.

USC, which put up 509 yards of total offense, also had five running backs in double figures, led by Chauncey Washington’s 84 on 11 carries.