BCS Rankings: Oregon's Title Hopes Crushed by USC

The No. 4 Oregon Ducks had a chance to enter the title game discussion on Saturday against USC after No. 2 Oklahoma State fell to Iowa State.

Instead, the Ducks were shocked by USC 38-35 and saw their title hopes vanish before their eyes.

This must have been a heartbreaker for the Ducks, who had lost their first game of the season against No. 1 LSU only to rattle off nine straight victories headed into Saturday.

But it was not to be. USC quarterback Matt Barkley committed both of the Trojans' turnovers on Saturday, but he proved in so many ways why he is rising up NFL draft boards by going 26-of-35 for 323 yards and four touchdowns in the signature win of his spectacular season.

His top option in the receiving crops, Robert Woods, was held to 53 yards, but Barkley used freshman Marqise Lee beautifully, connecting with him eight times for 187 yards and a touchdown.

This was against a Ducks defense that had just held Andrew Luck in check, a quarterback some are comparing to Peyton Manning when he came out of Tennessee.

Barkley's passing attack was explosive from the start, getting off to a 38-14 lead with just over three minutes to play in the third quarter.

And it was needed.

Oregon stormed back the way a championship contender should, rattling off 21 unanswered points after Barkley's fourth touchdown pass of the evening.

Sometimes we forget that the players on the field now had nothing to do with USC's transgressions in the past, the transgressions that led to a two-year bowl ban and the denial of the chance to compete in the Pac-12 championship game.

For these players, wins like these are everything they have.

They deserved every bit of it on Saturday.