The winning streak continued on to 31 straight games for USC this weekend after the Trojans beat the Stanford Cardinal 51-21.

The game wasn't even as close as the 30-point victory shows. After the first quarter, the Trojans were up 24-0, and they were up 44-7 at the half. Two Stanford touchdowns in the second half against the Trojans second and third-string defenses kept the final score within thirty points.

Within the first four minutes of the game, Reggie Bush and LenDale White both already had rushing touchdowns. LenDale pushed the ball into the endzone from two yards out with 11 minutes, 54 seconds still left in the first quarter. A mere fifty-four seconds later, Bush broke away from the pack and sprinted down the sideline for a forty-two yard touchdown run.

The true star of the game was last year's Heisman winner, Matt Leinart, as he completed twenty out of his twenty-five passes in the first half for 245 yards. Four of those passes in the first half went for touchdowns to White, Dwayne Jarrett, Fred Davis, and Jimmy Miller. Leinart only played during the first drive of the second half, however, as the game was far out of reach.

Bush racked up 113 yards on the ground to go with his rushing touchdown, while Jarrett caught eight passes for 101 yards to go with his touchdown.

The game was over as soon as the Trojans stepped on the field. In the first quarter, USC gained 216 yards to the mere eleven yards the Cardinal picked up. Halfway through the second quarter, the score was 37-0 and many of Stanford's fans had already hit the exits.

The halftime show was almost as enjoyable as the game this week as the bands of the two schools did a little battle themselves.

Before the game, the Stanford band was allowed to play for about five to 10 minutes where their announcer consistently made fun of everything USC. As the USC band, The Spirit of Troy, took the field at halftime, they decided to have a little fun with the Stanford band and made the Stanford band look foolish. The Stanford band followed with their halftime performance, which attempted to make fun of a football team who was beating them 44-7. The Stanford fans weren't even enjoying the performance of their own band.

The Stanford band probably should have just run on the field while the game was being played.

Oh, wait, that didn't work out too well last time they tried that either.

Making fun of a team that you are beating is one thing, but making fun of a team who is handling you by thirty-seven points at halftime is a bit ridiculous.

I apologize if I am talking about the bands too much, but the game was really pretty boring after the Trojans ran all over the Cardinal in the opening 22 minutes.

Here comes the history lesson in the media this week once again. If you don't know already, you will definitely be hearing about it. The last time the Trojans lost was in 2003 at Cal.

Cal may have the talent and the crowd to keep the game close, but don't look for the Bears to pull the upset again. The Trojans are back to where they were at the beginning of the season, and they should be able to win convincingly this Saturday against Cal.

The Trojans will then head back down to Los Angeles to finish up the regular season with their final two games at home. On November 19, the Fresno State Bulldogs visit the Coliseum to test their luck against the best team in the nation. Two weeks later, the Trojans battle their cross-town rivals, UCLA, in the battle of the unbeatens...

The dream is over... the most overrated undefeated team in recent years showed exactly that this past weekend when they were hammered 52-14 by the University of Arizona. This is the same University of Arizona team who had lost nineteen of their last twenty-one PAC-10 games...at home!

I'm sorry UCLA, but this town just isn't big enough for the both of us. On second thought, I'm not sorry and neither will any of the Trojans when you're sitting at home watching us play for the national championship in your stadium.

-SFM-

Shane Carney is a writer for SportsFan Magazine and a student at USC.