What turned out during the course of the match was an absolute anti-climax? It seemed as if there was only one team playing the game, and the other was made to do all the running. At least this seemed to be the pattern of play after the USC Trojans were a touch nervous at the start. Maybe playing in front of their home crowd got to them!



Or maybe, the Trojans were thinking of the beating they received from UCLA a couple of years back. Whatever be the reasons, the Trojans found their bearings quickly after they were jolted by an early Bruins? touchdown. What followed later was absolute carnage! Defensive tackle Fili Meola puts things in right perspective, ?Maybe for the first few exchanges, the Bruins were on top. But once we had the ball, we felt the score should be reading 100 something.?

Trojans fell back on their tried and tested combination of having a strong defense. Traditionally, the USC were known to be teams with some exceptional defensemen and after the Bruins touchdown, they knuckled up big time. The offensive lines could move up freely without worrying about what would happen to their citadel. Once the USC offensive line scored their first touchdown, they knew that it would be a matter of time before they take a big lead.

And it happened so. In the next half an hour, the offensive line of the USC ran UCLA defense ragged. Quarterback Sanchez was at the center of things all this while, and played right until the fag end of the game. In fact, he was replaced with just a few minutes to go before the final whistle. Being a quarterback, he did receive his fair share of thumps and hits, but all that for a later date.

For today though, the USC Trojans could be proud of the way they played. For a lot of people, their game was so Trojan-like. You would never feel with them playing that they would get flamboyant. With their rugged determination, USC broke UCLA Bruins down bit by bit finally culminating into a score line of 28-7.

Coming to think of it, this would certainly not be rated as one of the best NFL Games. But for the Trojans, they would rate it simply the best. Two reasons are given ? 1) They were able to beat an opponent who beat them couple of years back, and 2) They could overcome the physical game of the UCLA Bruins.

Coming back from a 0-7 lag and beating a team 28-7 is no mean achievement. The USC did this and in process, showed to the UCLA Bruins, who is the boss out here? And in the game itself, each USC player played as if he was the boss indeed.