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Oregon Ducks vs USC Trojans Week 9 Recap

The king is dead. Long live the likely but not-yet-crowned king.

The Oregon Ducks still have to fight their way through four more Pac-10 games and stave off the advances of the second-place Arizona Wildcats, but just the same, one can't deny that after a 27-point trouncing of the West Coast's college football superpower, the Quack Attack is likely to descend on the Rose Bowl for a New Year's Day trip.

It was a consummate and cathartic conquest of USC that unfolded on Saturday night in Autzen Stadium. Chip Kelly's club--crisp on offense and confident up and down the roster--ran over, around, under, and through the Trojans' defense. By scoring 47 points on 613 total yards, 392 of them on the ground, Oregon left a first-rate defensive mind, Trojan head coach Pete Carroll, impotent and utterly bereft of answers. UO quarterback Jeremiah Masoli--a preseason Heisman candidate--played the way many pundits thought he would at the beginning of the season. LaMichael James, thrust into the role a man named LeGarrette Blount was supposed to occupy, dashed for 183 rushing yards against USC's befuddled and beaten front seven. Kelly--who looked so out of his element in the season-opening loss at Boise State--fashioned a flawless piece of coaching and, in so doing, put Oregon in position to win the Pac-10 for the first time since Mike Bellotti did the deed in 2001.

In every way imaginable, this nuclear knockdown of USC, the reigning king of the conference, chased away the idea that Oregon couldn't become a heavyweight in the college football world. By scoring more points than any other opponent in the Pete Carroll era at USC, and by handing Carroll the most lopsided loss of his storied career in Los Angeles, the Ducks made sure that the Trojans' run of dominance was interrupted not with a light stumble, but a full two-handed push off the precipice. Perhaps USC might regain a measure of mojo in 2010--the Trojans don't figure to fall off the map--but for now, the period of unquestioned Southern California supremacy is over. If USC is to regain control of the Pac-10, Carroll and Co. will have to radically elevate their game in order to match the team that just destroyed them.

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The mastery of this Oregon assault against USC's defense lay in the fact that Kelly made the game simple for Masoli, his star signal caller. Whenever Carroll loaded up the tackle box by bringing up a safety, Masoli made a read and a sight adjustment that enabled him to throw a quick hitch pass to an uncovered receiver, normally in the slot. When USC stayed back, Masoli normally executed the spread option with its zone-read principles. Oregon, thanks to Kelly's deceptively simple creativity, put the Trojans' defense on a pendulum all night, and even when plays broke down, Masoli's athletic ability was able to manufacture large quantities of yards.

In light of the way UO performed on offense, USC's own attack was going to have to be letter-perfect just to keep pace. Matt Barkley was very solid for the Men of Troy, but after an efficient first half in which the Trojans and Ducks dueled in a track meet, the USC quarterback couldn't engineer a single touchdown march in the second half, and the runaway was on in the Willamette Valley.

Oregon has a lot of season left. A ticket to Pasadena has not yet been punched. With those cautionary notes very much in mind, however, let's not kid ourselves: The Pac-10 is now Oregon's world, and it will take a mighty uprising from Arizona to change that reality in the weeks ahead. With one peerless performance against one of college football's biggest brand names, the Oregon Ducks, their first-year head coach, and their dynamic quarterback served notice that someone else can rule the roost in the Western United States.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Staff Writer