The 59,592 college football fans in Autzen Stadium and the millions of television viewers around the country believed they were getting football’s equivalent of a heavyweight boxing match.
No. 4 USC against No. 10 Oregon: a perennial power against a perennial flash in the pan.
The powerful, traditional standard bearer against the potential-laden challenger.
What they got was football’s equivalent of a three-dimensional chess match, with young Bobby Fischer facing off against Boris Spassky for the champion of the world. The Ducks’ Chip Kelly’s East Coast, no-nonsense personality clashed brilliantly with Pete Carroll’s Southern California, laid-back demeanor.
With the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party occurring in Gainesville, Fla., fans expected the World’s Largest Outdoor Halloween Party in Eugene. And the world’s longest – from 4 a.m. and the taping of ESPN’s College GameDay, held in the Casanova Center parking lot, to 10 p.m. when the last of the fans finally wandered off the Autzen turf.
They came dressed in green and yellow, black and white, steel and carbon, in all manner of costume, and fans received, ultimately, an exorcism. Oregon racked up 613 yards of total offense while limiting USC to 327 total yards, handing Carroll his worst loss as Trojans head coach in a 47-20 defeat.
“Offensively, we definitely stepped up,” Ducks quarterback Jeremiah Masoli said. “When we get in a rhythm and when we get moving, nobody can really hang with us in the league and across the nation.”
No team had beaten USC by more than a touchdown since Carroll’s hiring. The Trojans’ chances at a conference title, along with their national ranking, have faded fast. The Pacific-10 Conference is now more than just USC and the eight dwarves … and Washington State. One win removes a lot of demons.
“It was a combination of things,” Carroll said of the moves that haunted the Trojans on Halloween night. “It wasn’t any one thing.”
The Ducks (7-1, 4-0 Pac-10) and Trojans (6-2, 3-2) began their chess match by trading pieces. First, a pair of field goals by Morgan Flint and Jordan Congdon. Next, three-yard touchdowns – Masoli’s three-yard first-quarter run was negated by USC quarterback Matt Barkley’s pass to Ronald Johnson.
More red-zone scoring followed: Andre Crenshaw’s one-yard rushing touchdown was immediately negated by a Barkley touchdown pass to Damian Williams, from four yards out.
Kelly and the Ducks slowly began to outmaneuver the Trojans. In control of the ball with 3:17 remaining in the second half, Masoli engineered a four-play drive that ended in a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jamere Holland in the very back of the west end zone. Coming out of the half, Oregon received the opening kickoff – and went 62 yards in 13 plays, setting up a second field goal from Flint.
The Trojans responded with a 39-yard field goal from Congdon, but the game was to be had. USC had kept pace with the Ducks in yardage; at halftime, Oregon had 251 yards to USC’s 193. However, 158 of the Ducks’ yardage came on the ground, compared to 55 for the Trojans. USC’s strategy was failing.
“After half, you could see it on their faces,” Masoli said. “They weren’t talking as much, they weren’t communicating as much on defense.”
Just after Congdon’s field goal, Masoli engineered the drive that slowly broke the Trojans’ backs, confidence shaken and options off the table.
LaMichael James ended up in the end zone on a five-yard run, the shortest of the seven plays from scrimmage for the Ducks. Oregon had four consecutive first-down situations and six overall.
The Ducks would go on to score their final 17 points, beating the Trojans 23-6 in the second half. USC was treading water, moving pieces and waiting for Oregon to snatch them up.
“Chip did a great job. He and the offensive coaches really put together a heck of a plan,” Carroll said. “It really wasn’t that hard for them.”
Masoli performed brilliantly, taking advantage of any open field and working short and intermediate passes into longer ones. He accounted for 222 yards passing (19 of 31 with a touchdown pass) and 164 yards rushing (one touchdown), but James effectively stole the show. His 183 yards on 24 carries, with one touchdown, give him five consecutive hundred-yard rushing games, tying Sean Burwell’s freshman record.
“He’s a small back, but he has a big heart,” Masoli said of his backfield mate. “He’s grown so much (as a player) in so little time.”
As the chess match hit its fever pitches, Autzen remained consistently loud, and ear-piercingly so on USC’s two possessions. Most of USC’s six penalties were on false starts, and each Trojan miscue was celebrated throughout the crowd.
The exclamation point on the monumental victory was also USC’s first turnover, a Matt Barkley pass intercepted by T.J. Ward. As he slid into the nine-yard line, the clock hit zero and the fans began swarming the field, celebrating the demise of demons that defined a program, a conference and a nation.
Checkmate.
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