Matthew Zemek FOX Sports
The USC Trojans entered Thursday night’s game against Arizona State with more health and rest than at any other point of their injury-plagued, multi-loss season. Unfortunately for the sixth-ranked and Rose Bowl-minded Sun Devils, it showed. Oh, did it ever.
In a performance as authoritative as anything the New England Patriots have dished out this season, the Trojan Empire of College Football — finally blessed with a reasonable degree of wholeness after a bye week and the healing of some long-term injuries — proved its worth to the nation in a shockingly easy second-half romp over a top ten team on the road.
In a collision of Pac-10 powers who both prided themselves on their ability to succeed after halftime, the Trojans used a 17-0 third quarter to pound the Sun Devils into submission. With one decisive display in high-stakes showdown, Pete Carroll’s program retained its place as an elite program.
The Thanksgiving throttling enabled USC to stay in the Pac-10 title chase while taking a big step toward punching a ticket to a BCS bowl game. In one night, a season’s worth of frustrations turned into the familiar and swaggering success that has defined the past six seasons of Southern California football.
Everything that had been missing from this USC team since mid-September returned against Arizona State. The last time the Trojans were appreciably healthy, they dismantled Nebraska with icy efficiency and brutal physicality behind a healthy offensive line.
On Thanksgiving night against Dennis Erickson’s Devils, the men of Troy — lacking 100 percent health but still much more intact up front — flexed their muscles in an offensive performance that was as ruthless as it was rhythmic.
Quarterback John David Booty received the best pass protection of the 2007 season, and the seasoned signal caller — with his throwing hand finally free of pain — played with the polish, poise and precision that everyone expected of him when this long, meandering season began. The result was a thermonuclear onslaught that easily topped 500 yards of offense for the night while rolling up 44 points before the third quarter had ended.
Yes, it really was that simple: USC finally healed, USC finally rested, and USC finally acted like the No. 1 team in the United States. Sure, the Trojans won’t play in the BCS title game, but after all the adversity they’ve experienced in 2007, the simple ability to attain yet another unbeaten November (Carroll is now 23-0 in November as USC’s head coach, a mark that will carry into 2008) marks a substantial accomplishment for the Trojans, who stand just one win away from another 10-win season and another BCS bowl.
There were a number of times this season when USC teetered on the brink of disaster. Following the devastating loss to Stanford in one of college football’s all-time great upsets, the Trojans narrowly averted what would have been a fatal setback against Arizona.
Then, after a loss to Oregon left them on life support, these Trojan troops managed to gut out a tense and terrifying turnover-trading tussle on the road in Berkeley against California. The ability of USC to withstand numerous injuries and mistakes enabled the Trojans to stay alive in a Pac-10 race where every contending team has seen its No. 1 quarterback sidelined for a portion of the season.
By persevering when short-handed, a team that had to endure an avalanche of criticism was able to stay afloat long enough to make this Arizona State encounter a significant one. Once the Trojans got their rest and focused their eyes on the prizes that were still waiting to be claimed, this ballclub flashed the fearsome forcefulness and peerless precision that everyone had been expecting all along.
When maximum results (such as a national championship) evade a team, satisfaction can still be achieved by playing letter-perfect football toward the tail-end of a season when pride and prestige are still on the line.
After this virtually flawless devouring of the Devils, the Trojans can know that when they finally regained health and rest, they played to the fullest extent of their considerable capabilities.
The historic upset loss to Stanford might haunt the 2007 edition of the USC Trojans, but this awesome assault in Arizona will enable a team, a coach, and a program to look back on a grueling campaign and realize that the journey was still worth it.
Source: They’re Back
