By Josh Dubow, AP
BERKELEY, Calif. -- With
every punishing run, defensive stop or other big play in Southern
California's latest dominating victory, the Trojans sent a message back
home to Stafon Johnson on his hospital bed.
"We were talking about him, before and after. He was a big motivator
for us, and we might go see him later tonight, I'm not sure," freshman
quarterback Matt Barkley said. "Stafon knew we were on a mission
tonight. I'm proud of our guys and how we played."
Joe McKnight ran for 119 yards and two scores, Taylor Mays and the
defense shut down Jahvid Best and No. 7 USC re-established itself as a
national contender with a 30-3 victory over No. 24 California on
Saturday night.
The win capped an emotional
week for the Trojans (4-1, 2-1 Pac-10) that started with a frightening
weight-room accident that sent Johnson to the emergency room with a
crushed larynx and throat after a weight bar fell on his neck. With
Johnson watching from his hospital room, his teammates delivered
against Cal.
"Stafon is a leader and a big
brother in the (locker) room, so I wanted to come out and win the game
for him," McKnight said. "We were thinking about him the whole time
tonight, and we know he was liking what he saw back home."
Damian Williams caught eight passes for 101 yards and also returned a
punt 66 yards for a score, and Jordan Congdon kicked three field goals
to give USC its second straight win following a 16-13 loss at
Washington two weeks ago.
Mays set the tone
with an interception on the first drive of the game for Cal (3-2, 0-2),
and the defense kept it up all game, not allowing a point until the
fourth quarter for the second straight week.
"That's how we play," Mays said. "We know what we have in the locker
room, and we've been playing close to our potential for the last few
weeks."
With the defense playing this well,
the Trojans are making it easy on freshman quarterback Matt Barkley.
Barkley was inconsistent in this game, completing 20 of 35 passes for
283 yards and an interception. He moved the ball down the field with
ease but struggled to punch the ball into the end zone.
"If our defense is playing like that, then we don't need a whole lot of
offense," Barkley said. "I thought we executed well when we had to."
The Trojans had the answer for whatever trick Cal coach Jeff Tedford
tried. Best had five runs off direct snaps in Cal's version of the
wildcat and the Bears went for it twice on fourth down. But with a
passing game that can't click, there is no room to run for Best and no
production for a Cal team that was held out of the end zone at home for
the first time since 1998.
"We had a
chance to make plays in the passing game and didn't do a good job of
it," Tedford said. "We can't be one-dimensional. We're going to have to
be able to throw the football to be successful. We were
zero-dimensional today because we couldn't run it and we couldn't throw
it."
Even trick plays didn't work. In the
third quarter, Cal came out of a timeout with Shane Vereen standing
next to its sideline, just on the field of play. With no defender near
him, Vereen went out for a pass, but instead of a big play, Kevin Riley
threw high for an incompletion. The next play was a screen pass that
left tackle Mike Tepper caught for an illegal touch penalty.
That was the kind of day it was for Riley, who was 15 for 40 for 199
yards and an interception in his second straight sub-par performance.
He was just 12 for 31 for 123 yards in last week's 42-3 loss at Oregon.
Riley's interception in the end zone on the opening drive was his first
of the year. Six plays later, McKnight dived into the end zone at the
end of his long run. Williams' 66-yard punt return made it 17-0 in the
second quarter and the rout was on. Williams caught eight passes for
101 yards.
After scoring 146 points in its
first three games, Cal has just six the past two weeks. Cal has failed
to score a touchdown just three times in eight years under Tedford,
with two of them coming the past two weeks. The other was against USC
in 2007, the last time Cal lost at home before Saturday.
"We have athletes all over the field. That's the hardest part is how
we're not getting the ball in the end zone with everyone we have,"
Riley said.
Even the speedy Best couldn't
get going against the Trojans. On one play in the first half, he was
chased down by Mays for no gain on a third-and-2 run.
