They Make Sure It's Not Over-Time

TEMPE, Ariz. — Game over. Streak over. History over.

Checking the timer, peering in on the oven that was Sun Devil Stadium, I thought the USC football team was finally, unquestionably, thoroughly cooked.

And I wasn't the only one.

"It was over with, no doubt in my mind," Arizona State end Jamaal Lewis said. "We walked into the locker room at halftime and thought we had won."

The Trojans trailed by 18 points. Their quarterback was loopy. Their defense was wasted. Their shine was sunburned.

"Looking into their eyes, I could tell, they were scared," Sun Devil linebacker Dale Robinson said. "Their quarterback looked woozy. I was talking to them and they weren't talking back. They had none of that pizazz."

It was over.

And then, of course, it wasn't.

When will I learn? When will everyone learn?

On a Saturday they will remember with the sharpness of a leg cramp, in a game that will forever catch in throats like a gasp, the Trojans taught another lesson that resounded.

It pounded like a running back to the mouth. It crunched like a linebacker to the ribs.

It was a lesson best explained afterward by linebacker Oscar Lua as he stood in a gray T-shirt that sweat had stained black.

"This team will go through hell and back before it takes a loss," he said.

Thus was their journey Saturday, a trip like none other in the Pete Carroll era, through humility and past mortality and ending in a 38-28 victory that even taught the Trojans.

"It's amazing to me how mentally strong we are," guard Fred Matua said. "It's incredible."

It was their biggest comeback in 31 seasons.

It was, after 26 consecutive classroom sessions, a lesson finally learned.

"They're not losing this year, not now," ASU's Robinson said, shrugging. "After what they got through today, they're going unbeaten."

He will have no argument from me, or, clearly, anybody in that Trojan locker room.

"It's a beautiful thing," said Matua, staring at the hundreds of paper cups and piles of chilled towels that littered the sidelines. "It shows it's going to take a lot more than this to beat us."

On this day, it took more than Matt Leinart failing to complete a touchdown pass for only the second time in 30 games as a starter.

"I don't know if I was all there the whole game," said Leinart, who was knocked to the sidelines for two plays after absorbing a late hit.