California Creamin': USC drills Ohio State in long awaited matchup

LOS ANGELES - Ohio State didn't lose this one by a foot.  It was more like a mile.

No. 1 Southern California dominated No. 5 Ohio State 35-3 in a long-awaited matchup at the Los Angeles Coliseum that did nothing to repair Ohio State's tattered reputation in big football games.

Ever since junior tailback Chris "Beanie" Wells injured his right foot two weeks ago, it became the biggest worry about Ohio State for many people.

It turned out OSU had much more to be apprehensive about than just Wells' foot, which kept him out of a second straight game.

The worries started with things like USC's fast and deep group of running backs and receivers. And like the Trojans' quarterback Mark Sanchez (17 of 28 for 172 yards, 4 touchdowns), who rarely had to search long for an open receiver and was mostly a stranger to OSU's pass rushers.

Finally, there were the defenses. Ohio State's highly rated defenders couldn't contain a USC offense that returned only four starters from last season, but put 52 points on the scoreboard against Virginia in its opener.

USC's veteran defense, after starting slowly, turned up the heat dramatically, and destructively. The Trojans's forced three turnovers (two interceptions and a fumble) and scored a touchdown on a 48-yard interception return by linebacker Rey Maualuga.   "USC is a team to be reckoned with, but the important thing for us is to roll up our sleeves and go back to work and see if we can become a good football team," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. 

Unfortunately for Ohio State (2-1) this game produced a result painfully similar to a 38-24 loss to LSU in last year's BCS national championship game and a 41-14 hammering by Florida in the 2006 national title game.

It also continued a string of embarrassing results for the Big Ten against Southern California. Since Pete Carroll took over as USC's coach in 2001, the Trojans have gone 7-0 against the Big Ten and have won those games by an average of 29 points.

In its last two games against Big Ten teams before Saturday night, the Trojans beat Illinois 49-17 in January's Rose Bowl and took a 32-18 win over Michigan in the Rose Bowl the year before that.

It was the worst loss of the Tressel era, surpassing the 27-point defeat by Florida and the biggest margin of defeat for an Ohio State team since a 63-14 loss against Penn State in 1994.

USC jumped out to a 21-3 lead at halftime and added two second-half touchdowns to make a third straight trip to a BCS championship game very, very unlikely for Ohio State.

Ohio State had 207 yards total offense but got 177 of those in the first half.   Wells' replacement Dan Herron ran for 51 yards on 11 carries.  Boeckman was 14 of 21 for 84 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions.  Terrelle Pryor was 7 of 9 for 52 yards and rushed for 40 yards on 11 carries.

Joe McKnight was USC's leading rusher with 106 yards on 12 carries.

Like it had in the last two BCS national championship games, Ohio State jumped out to the lead first when Ryan Pretorius kicked a 29-yard field goal with 3:06 left in the first quarter.

Sanchez, making only his fifth career start, was shaky on the Trojans' first series, badly missing on two passes.  But after that the junior QB had few problems against an Ohio State defense that was supposed to be the Buckeyes' strength.

But for much of the first half OSU's defense was a step behind the Trojans' offense.

Right after  Pretorius' field goal, USC went 74 yards in just over two minutes for the go-ahead touchdown.  The TD came on a 35-yard pass from Sanchez to fullback Stanley Havili, who outran a slight overthrow by Sanchez and ran past linebacker Marcus Freeman on his way to the end zone.

USC pushed the lead to 14-3 with 11 minutes left in the first half when Sanchez hit tight end Blake Ayles for a 1-yard scoring pass at the end of a 63-yard drive.

The Trojans went up 21-3 with 2:49 left in the first half when Maualuga stepped in front of Boeckman's throw for Brian Hartline and took it back 48 yards for a touchdown on the interception return.

Ohio State's offense had few bright spots other than Pretorius' field goal in the first half, and even that was a consolation prize after the Buckeyes had a first down at the Trojans' 5-yard line and had to settle for three points.

Later in the half, they had a first down at USC's 19-yard line, but a holding call wiped out a touchdown throw to Brian Robiskie and forced OSU to settle for another field goal try.  This time Pretorius missed from 47 yards.

"When you're playing a team as good as USC, you have to go down there and score touchdowns," Tressel said.