LOS ANGELES — On a night when Mark Sanchez highlights dominated No. 9 USC's 44-10 victory against No. 23 Oregon on Saturday, the play that really took the Coliseum's breath away found the Trojans' quarterback on his back.

In pain.

Clutching his left knee.

Talk about a mood killer.

Sanchez's knee, already in a brace because of an August dislocation, buckled as he was sacked late in the third quarter.

After being attended to by USC trainers for several minutes, Sanchez limped off the field, eventually returning briefly two series later with an initial diagnosis of a slight aggravation.

"Looks like another best-case scenario," Sanchez said later.

Thanks to Sanchez and a Trojans defense that smothered the Pac-10's leading offense, USC's best-case scenario's still includes the BCS championship game and a seventh consecutive Pac-10 title.

USC rebounded from an upset loss at Oregon State that knocked the Trojans from the top spot in the national polls and threw this college football season into chaos by scoring 41 consecutive points against the Ducks and rolling up 598 yards in total offense.

"I guess they answered the wake-up call after Oregon State," Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said.

"This is exactly what we needed," USC coach Pete Carroll said. "This was exactly the game we were looking for."

And leading the way was Sanchez with a performance the USC faithful had been waiting for since the Trojans recruited him out of Mission Viejo High, Calif. He completed 19 of 28 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns.

"He was awesome," Trojans running back Stafon Johnson said. "Just awesome."

The Trojans' defense was nearly as impressive. A week after giving up 343 yards to Oregon State, USC held an Oregon offense that led the Pac-10 in total, scoring and rushing offense, averaging 308.6 yards rushing a game, to just 60 yards on the ground.

"We knew we had to prove something," Trojans cornerback Josh Pinkard said. "We were embarrassed after last week."

Even so early Saturday the Trojans looked more like the team that played Goliath to Oregon State's David than the squad that rolled over Virginia and Ohio State.

Oregon marched 70 yards on 14 plays on the opening drive to take a 7-0 lead on Jeremiah Johnson's 1-yard touchdown run.

USC had to settle for a 21-yard David Buehler field goal on its first drive when the offense sputtered after a first and goal on the Oregon 6.

Oregon stretched its lead to 10-3 with 9:41 remaining in the first half after Sanchez fumbled on the first play of the second quarter before the

Trojans finally kicked into gear.

At one point in the second quarter, Sanchez completed five consecutive passes for 150 yards, including 34-yard strike to Damian

Williams that tied the score at 10-10 with 7:47 remaining in the second quarter, and a 63-yard bomb to Ronald Johnson that put the Trojans up for good, 17-10, with 4:29 left in half.

A pair of back-to-back Sanchez completions for first downs — an 18-yard connection with Joe McKnight and a 19-yard pick up with Williams —set up David Buehler's 36-yard field goal 40 seconds before halftime.

Then on a call that is likely to be the subject of widespread second-guessing in the Willamette Valley, Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti decided not to run out the clock.

Instead on second-and-10 from the Oregon 20, Jaison Williams fumbled in front of the USC bench after catching a pass from Jeremiah Masoli.

Trojans cornerback Josh Pinkard returned the ball to the Oregon 11.

One play later, Sanchez found Patrick Turner to send USC into the locker room up, 27-10.

"Early on we were just pounding the ball," Johnson said, "and they had to put eight men in the box. After that Sanchez was just killing them."

Johnson did his own number on the Ducks, capping USC's first second half drive with a 22-yard TD dash.

"We were just showing them a show," Johnson said.

But the Sanchez Show took a dramatic turn with 3:38 remaining in the third quarter. Sanchez was thrown down by the back of his jersey collar by Ducks linebacker Nick Reed, a teammate of Sanchez's at Mission Viejo, the left knee buckling.

"It just kind of bent a little funny," Sanchez said. "Nothing popped.

It was more scary than anything."

NOTES

USC tailback Allen Bradford was a late scratch because of a sore hip. . ..... Linebacker Michael Morgan had to leave his first career start early because of a concussion and missed the second half. ... Receiver Vidal Hazelton did not play after missing practice Thursday because of an illness. ... Linebacker Rey Maualuga (knee), guard Zack Heberer (toe) and cornerback Shareece Wright (neck) did not dress. ... The game was sold out, but the actual attendance was 82,765, about 11,000 short of capacity.