SEATTLE, Wash. -- Jerome Pathon caught eight passes for 120 yards and one touchdown, as seventh-ranked Washington whipped Southern California, 27-0, at Husky Stadium.
The Huskies have won five straight since losing to Nebraska and improve to 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the Pac-10. They have won 12 straight in the conference.
The Trojans fell to 4-4 and 2-3 in league play.
The Huskies assumed the lead for good midway through the first quarter when Nick Lentz kicked a 45-yard field goal.
The hosts pushed their advantage to 10-0 on Brock Huard's 35-yard touchdown pass to Fred Coleman with 4:44 remaining in the second quarter, and built a 17-point halftime bulge, when Huard and Pathon hooked up on a 22-yard touchdown aerial.
Washington star running back Rashaan Shehee left the game in the second quarter with sprained ligaments in his left knee.
The Huskies put the game out of reach in the third quarter, when Lentz booted a 34-yard field goal and Maurice Shaw scored from eight yards away for the 27-0 rout.
Huard threw for 194 yards and the two touchdowns on 13-of-19 passing. He left the game in the third quarter with a ankle injury, but could have returned if needed.
Washington won despite rushing for only 31 net yards on 37 carries, but Pathon set a new Washington record with his fifth 100-yard receiving game of the season.
USC was held to 71 net yards on 35 rushes, and 86 yards on 10 receptions. The Trojans settled for 157 net yards and had won four-of-five before Saturday's setback.
The Huskies are 3-1 at home this season, while USC dropped to 2-2 as the visitor. Washington has won 42 of its last 48 games at Husky Stadium (42-5-1).
The Trojans still lead the all-time series, 41-25-4, but Washington has won two straight. The Huskies travel to Oregon next week, while the Trojans will host Stanford.
Post Game Quotes:
Washington Head Coach Jim Lambright
General Remarks
"You can't say enough for a defense that shuts out a team like USC. To keep us in field position in the first half allowed us to make some mistakes and with the combination of punt returns and having a field goal team we can count on now. We now have the balance in our special teams that will give us more success because it balances up our offense and defense so nicely. The big plays are the difference between struggling to put points on the board from a greater lead. Field position was the difference in the first half. Jabari Issa's block punt was a big bonus, it shows that if you have a big athlete that can rushes well they can't make a mistake or they pay for it. Any time you play USC it's a great challenge and to shut them out 27-0 with their people I can't compliment our entire team enough. The ability of Maurice Shaw and Marques Tuiasosopo to come in and keep us rolling is the showing of a good team with depth. Whenever we gave up a big play, we shut them down. We knew going into this game that with the tight coverages that they were going to use that our tightends should have a big game and that was a big part of our game plan."
On Second Half Rushing TD
"It certainly helps your pride, points however you get them. When your playing a good defensive team like that and they are committed to jamming a lot of people inside you go over the top and take points however you can get them. The good thing is that they weren't getting any points so we could afford to be one dimensional. We will always try to come out and develop the run."
On Defense
"The character of this football team on the defensive side is a tremendous bonus for us and they are getting better. This team is getting better on the inside, they're getting stronger amongst themselves. Then as a coach you have good things happen because the players go out and make something positive. Defensively we did things today that challenged our corners. They have outstanding receivers with speed and we just matched them up. They tried to pick us a bunch. We didn't let them get the ball off consistently. We didn't give them things they were used to getting from other teams. Randy Hart did a great job of mixing up the coverage and giving our defense tools to work with."
On Special Teams
"Our field goal kicking is now a strength, you can count on 40 yarders. You can count on things points. It's what we needed in the Nebraska game, you need sparks that compliment you offense and your defense in field position and all of a sudden your whole team is playing together and being rewarded for it."
On Rushing Van Raaphorst
"Whenever you get a first time starter you want to confuse him as much as possible and you want to go after him as much as you can. You don't want him standing in that pocket thinking he has time. You hope that it will show in the third or forth quarter that he doesn't feel comfortable."
Washington Player Quotes
Brock Huard (Quotes from Pool Reporter)
What happened on the play that injured your left ankle?
"It was a deep dig route to Jerome (Pathon) which takes a little bit of time. He just completely got grabbed as I was ready to throw it. I tried to dump it down to my back and he was covered. Just as I was starting to make a decision the guy hit me. I really don't know what happened. The ankle snapped, and I think I got landed on. It's one of those things that happen so fast you don't really have any control over it."
It was announced after the injury that you were available to return. Is that correct?
"Probably not. It was probably more pain than the Nebraska game. We will just have to see what happens."
Lester Towns
"I told everybody last night at the hotel that this is like the Apple Cup for me. I get to go home and brag to everybody that we beat them. Having a shutout really makes it exciting for me to go home and talk about it."
How were you able to shut out the USC offense?
"I don't know. I think everyone was just more excited. We were fired up, ready to go. We were determined to keep them out of the end zone today. I don't even know what happened. It showed out there that we were more excited than ever. They seemed kind of timid. I don't really know what happened to them. It was fun to go out there and dominate the game."
Jabari Issa
What happened on the blocked punt?
"We were in our standard defense. We were supposed to just make sure they don't fake the ball. I just got so far upfield, they didn't really block me that well. The guy was so small, I just pushed him aside. I just put my hand up really. I didn't really try to block the punt, I just put my hand up and got surprised. I never blocked a punt in high school, but I did block a couple field goals."
How were you able to shut out the USC offense?
"We were expecting to battle a good team. Not that they just fell over and died. They are still a good team, but we played better."
Jason Chorak
General comments
"It's a great feeling. Last time we were up 21-0 at halftime when we played up here and they came back and tied and we couldn't go to the Rose Bowl and we had to go to El Paso instead. You just always love to beat Southern Cal. We've got a lot of guys from L.A. on the team and they talk a lot about it. It's just a big emotional game for us."
On posting a shut out
"It was pretty good for a mediocre defense. Most of the papers gave all of the favors to USC and we just took it upon ourselves to play the game. It's a great feeling, especially against a team like Southern Cal, a team that has a lot of talent and a lot of great players. For us defensively to come off with a shutout and 100 and some yards total offense, it's just a great feeling."
"When you read about it in the papers that your defense isn't as good as theirs, it fires you up a little bit. Most of the players read the paper before the game and they read about it and we talked about it as players and we said, ÔHey we've got to go out there and play better than USC's defense.' They're rated number one in rushing defense and up there in scoring also, so we just wanted to go out and outplay their defense."
"As a defense, we were so confident. We were out there having fun. We wanted to go out there as much as possible because we knew that this team couldn't do anything on us."
When did you know they couldn't do anything on you?
"They started single-teaming me with a tight end. He's a true freshman and he's going to be a great tight end in the future. I just figured that if they were going to single-team me on this guy that I was going to take advantage of it."
On the Washington offense struggling early
"We know our offense is going to score points. Sometimes it might take a little more time. We can just go out and shut teams out, keep the ball, go three-and-outs and get the ball back to our offense. We know that they are going to put up points."
How much influence did the crowd noise have?
"The crowd noise always helps us out. Their players were jumping and false-starting and doing all kind of things out there. You've got to give a lot of credit to the crowd."
What was your reaction to Rashaan Shehee's injury?
"I didn't know he was even hurt until halftime when I saw him on crutches. Maurice Shaw and Jason Harris are tremendous backs. It's up to them to pick it up now. I heard Rashaan might be out two-to-six weeks so it's up to them to pick it up and do the job that Rashaan does."
Jerome Pathon
What were your thoughts entering this game?
"My thoughts last night, along with the rest of the team at the team meetings, were about what happened a couple years ago. Up 21-0 in the fourth quarter, we tied USC and USC went on to the Rose Bowl. We thought we can't let this happen again. I'm tired of getting so close and not making it."
What was your reaction to Rashaan Shehee's injury?
"I was disappointed. He's a big key in our offense and we hope he can get back real soon."
What did you want to do against their cornerbacks?
"As far as offense is concerned that was the key matchup for us. That's what gave us the edge in the second half of the game. We came out kind of rusty in the first half and in the second half we had to throw the ball. We made the big plays when we had to."
Southern California head coach John Robinson
General Comments
"We were ineffective on offense. We could have gotten started OK but we began to make errors and we drowned in our own errors. On the other side of the ball, they had two big plays to their wide receivers, but other than that I thought we played good defense. We certainly stopped their running game. We felt like that's what we had to do, and we had to match up in the corner. The offense just kept giving them opportunities and they kept taking them. When you play out there that happens to you, especially when you're not functioning on the other side of the ball. It was an excellent defensive performance. They lost their runner (Rashaan Shehee), but I think we would have stopped the run regardless. It was our offense. We probably asked too much of Mike Van Raaphorst. We had a conflict with the officials about them moving their defense just before the ball was snapped, and we couldn't resolve that. Mike Van Raaphorst did everything he could. He didn't have much help from his receivers, with dropped balls. When you play against a man-to-man defense, you've got to make some catches and we did not do that. John Fox gave us some more mobility in the second half. They realized we were not going to beat them from a receiver standpoint. They came after us and we felt like we needed the mobility that John gives us. Late in the second quarter the two turnovers and the blocked punt pretty much sealed our doom. Right now we're not functioning on offense, and you can't win that way. Not only were we not functioning on offense, but we were giving the ball away. We were a detriment to us."
On the Play of USC Receivers
"I don't think we got anything from our wide receivers. They did not make plays. We knew all week that's what we had to do. You can attribute it to the coverage or you can attribute it to the fact that we dropped the ball, but that was what happened."
On the Conflict with the Officials
"What we felt was that they were changing their front, and when they changed their front they would yell, "Move!" And it was just a fraction before our starting count. I just couldn't persuade them (the officials). I was eloquent and wonderful, but I couldn't persuade them."
On Getting Shut Out
"We just lost the game. By how much doesn't matter. We just lost."
On the Significance of the Blocked Punt
"It did not help. It obviously gave them a chance. They were in such good attacking position all game. We punted lousy, we caught the ball lousy. There wasn't anything on offense we did well. We just played a lousy game and got beat."
USC Player Quotes
Daylon McCutcheon
General Comments
"It was a disappointment. It is just a sign that we didn't come out and compete like we are capable of. It's not going to make me want to fight any less. I don't know about anyone else. I don't think our team is made out of quitters. I don't think anyone is going to give up. I am expect everyone to come back next week and fight."
On the Defense Not Stopping UW
"You can sit there and complain about where they had the ball, how much time they had the ball, and all that. The whole point is you play defense, and have to go out there under any circumstance. If they have the ball on the one, if they have the ball on the fifty, your job is to go out there and stop them."
On Big Plays
"They were able to come up with some big plays throwing the ball. Throughout the season they have been able to hit some passes and come up with some big plays. Us as a secondary we have to look at ourselves and figure out what we're doing wrong so we'll be able to make those plays."
On UW Losing Shehee
"We knew he was a big part of their offense, so we knew maybe they'd throw the ball a little more because he was their main runner."
Mike Van Raaphorst
The False Starts
"I guess they couldn't hear me. I wasn't loud enough, crowd noise. It's something we have to take care of and deal with."
The UW Pass Rush
"They were in my face. There really isn't any excuses or anything. They flushed me out a couple of times. We just didn't make plays."
Dropped Passes
"It's a part of football. You drop passes. I threw a horrible interception. We just didn't execute on offense."
The Interception
"I thought R.J. was going to cut free, but he got pushed out of bounds, and the free safety came over. I should have actually gone to the other side, because he was cheating so much, but I didn't do it."
Being Pulled at the Half
"It's tough, but it's the coach's decision. You live with those."
General Comments
"There was stuff that was there that I missed and things that we could have done better. We just didn't play well."
The Offense Not Executing
"It has nothing to do with the coaches. It was just us making mistakes. We didn't execute today. We haven't executed sometimes in the past."
The Noise
"They were a little loud, but that was about it. We knew that they were going to blitz. They blitz everyone. We knew what to expect. The frustrating thing is that we knew what to expect coming into this game. It's not like they gave us any surprises, but we didn't execute like we should."
Billy Miller
UW Defensive Backs
"They got two real good db's out there. I played against one of them in high school, Jermaine. I got a lot of respect for him. He's good. Mel played with me in the summer, working out at SC. We knew what to expect. They weren't out there doing anything that we haven't seen before, but they won the game 27-0, so evidently their doing something right."
The USC Passing Game
"I have to watch the film, but I know I dropped the ball. The receivers had a bad game, as a whole. I dropped one, and they got an interception off of that. I think they were doing some things we could take advantage of and maybe they [qbs] were getting pressure. I really don't know."
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