USC beats Penn state in Rose Bowl

The University of Southern California manhandled Penn State to win the Rose Bowl by a 38-24 margin in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score suggests.  The Trojans were led by a big game from QB Mark Sanchez and their dominating defense which shut down the Nittany Lions offense entirely holding Penn State to only a single TD until 4th quarter “garbage time”.

The game looked as if it might be a competitive contest in the first quarter—USC drew first blood on a Mark Sanchez TD pass to Damian Williams from 27 yards out, but Penn State answered in the waning seconds of the period with a 9 yard rushing TD from Darryl Clark.  The first quarter ended with a 7-7 deadlock.

In the second quarter, however, it was all USC as the Trojans scored 24 unanswered points on two TD passes from Sanchez, one to Ronald Johnson from 19 yards out and the other to CJ Gable from 20 yards.  Sanchez also added a 6 yard rushing TD, and David Buehler kicked a 30 yard FG as the Trojans overwhelmed their opponents en route to a 31-7 halftime advantage.

The game was essentially over at that point, though Penn State was able to make the margin more respectable late in the contest.  After a scoreless third quarter, the Nittany Lions put up 17 points in the final period on two Darryl Clark TD passes and a Kevin Kelly 25 yard FG.  Sanchez added yet another TD pass for the Trojans, this one to Ronald Johnson once again from 45 yards.

Sanchez finished with 413 yards on 28 of 35 passing, throwing 4 TD passes and no interceptions.  He also rushed for 16 yards and a TD in an impressive all around effort for the junior QB.  His Penn State counterpart Darryl Clark posted 273 yards passing with two TDs and two interceptions.

Trojan coach Pete Carroll praised his team after the game and suggested that he wished USC could “keep playing”, presumably in a playoff type system:

"With all due respect, those are two great programs, I don't think anybody can beat the Trojans. I just think we can beat anyone we played. That's happened a lot to us late in the season. This is a terrific finishing program. There are so many things we can do. We're just hard to beat right now.

"I just wish we could keep playing. Unfortunately, we don't get to. Maybe someday there will be a chance, but not now."

It may be hollow consolation compared to a playoff to determine a legitimate national champion, but USC will almost certainly rise from their #5 ranking when the final college football polls are released.