Visiting Trojans brutalize UVA

Even with lopsided blowouts of overmatched opponents being the rule rather than the exception this weekend, it’s hard not to be impressed with USC’s 52-7 rout of Virginia.  First of all, this isn’t a 1-AA/FCS team looking for a big payday here—Virginia is a decent ACC team that finished with a 9-3 record last season.  And unlike most of the opening week mismatches, USC played Virginia in Charlottesville necessitating a 3000 mile trip from Southern California.

The Trojans made it look frighteningly easy and raised questions about whether their #3 ranking might have them somewhat undervalued.  They’ll get a chance to address that next week at home when #2 Ohio State travels to SoCal but based on today’s performance they look as good as any team in the country.  With many of their offensive wrinkles being kept under wraps in advance of the Ohio State game, and with the reserves seeing a significant amount of playing time the Trojans shot out to a 21-0 lead in just over 10 minutes.

Despite playing on “autopilot” for the rest of the game the Trojans still amassed 555 yards while dominating in every statistical category on both sides of the ball.  The lone Virginia score came late in the first quarter and was aided as much by USC penalties as the Cavs offense.  Virginia didn’t come within a whiff of the end zone after that.

It was the first game for Mark Sanchez as the USC starting QB and he looked impressive throwing for 338 yards and 3 TD passes.  Sanchez had suffered a dislocated kneecap three weeks ago but showed no ill effects from the injury.

USC’s defense may have been even better than the offense, as they held a competent Virginia team to 32 yards rushing and 155 yards passing—much of that coming after the game had long been settled.  The physical and opportunistic Trojan stop unit forced three fumbles and an interception.  Perhaps no statistic underscores the utter dominance of the USC performance more than the 555-187 total yardage advantage for the visitors.

Most frightening of all was that the Trojans weren’t even trying to make a statement—they were in near scrimmage mode with arguably their biggest game of the season on deck.  The fact that they dominated a decent Division 1-A football team so completely while *not* trying to might make the biggest statement of all.