#5 USC has no trouble in routine victory over rival UCLA

The USC Trojans gave UCLA fans a few moments of hope as they spotted the Bruins a 7-0 first quarter lead, then put their steamroller on “autopilot” and went on to earn a methodical 28-7 victory over their cross-town rivals.  The win gave USC the Pac 10 championship for the seventh straight year and a Rose Bowl date against Penn State. 

UCLA’s Dominique Johnson found Kahlil Bell for a 19 yard TD strike just four minutes into the game to give the Bruins a 7-0 lead.  They held that lead for the better part of the first quarter until the Trojans Joe McKnight tied the game on a 12 yard TD run with 3:34 to play.  USC would score again before the end of the quarter on a Mark Sanchez TD pass to Damian Williams to go up 14-7.  UCLA wouldn’t score again, while the Trojans would add a TD in the 2nd quarter on a Stafon Johnson two yard run and another in the third on a Sanchez TD pass to Patrick Turner.

Not surprisingly, USC also dominated the statistical battle gaining 478 total yards to 157 for UCLA.  The Trojans held a whopping 33-7 edge in first downs and a commanding 36:34 to 23:26 time of possession advantage.  USC had 269 yards passing to 110 for the Bruins, and an even more one sided 209-47 rushing yardage advantage.  The Trojan defense also limited UCLA to 2-13 on third down conversions.

USC linebacker Brian Cushing tried to put a positive spin on his team’s trip to the Rose Bowl:

"We did a good job. It's great to be Pac-10 champs again. It upsets me a little that two one-loss teams will go to the BCS championship game and we'll be left out. But we will just have to see what happens."

Head coach Pete Carroll echoed Cushing’s sentiments:

"I thought we had a terrific football season. I'm really proud of the consistency. I'm proud that we kept the program on top of the conference. Defense was the key today."

UCLA finished 4-8 in their first year under coach Rick Neuheisel.  The Trojans, meanwhile, simply added to their legacy of excellence.  They completed their seventh straight 11 win or better season, will play in their seventh straight BCS bowl game and fourth straight Rose Bowl.  The Trojan defense held nine of their twelve opponents to under 10 points this season and the team as a whole was downright dominant following an early season upset at Oregon State.  Following the loss to the Beavers the Trojans outscored their final nine opponents by a combined score of 342-56.