For USC, a 4th-and-2 to relish

It called for USC receiver Patrick Turner to brush a defender to allow Williams to squirt free.

Sanchez loved it when he heard the play that Sarkisian had in mind.

Sanchez didn't just want a first down, either.

"It was a big-time call in a big-time situation," Sanchez said.

Williams was wide open on the play but said he wasn't nervous because . . . ?

"Honestly, I didn't know it was fourth down," Williams confessed. "Now that I know it was fourth down, wow, it was gutsy."

Had the play failed, and Oregon had taken over and scored to make it 17-3, it might have been a different game -- and a different season.

Instead, Sanchez-to-Williams tied the score, 10-10, and sparked a landside in which the Trojans scored 41 unanswered points.

"Yeah," Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti said. "I thought that play took a certain amount of momentum away from us."

USC looked like a different team after the play.

Who knows, on Oct. 4, what it will mean on Dec. 7.

There are yards and yards of season left for slip-ups and hairpin turns.

To stay in the national title race, USC can't avoid a bad bounce, or a bobble, or a key injury.

The Trojans got a scare in the third quarter when Sanchez was yanked down from behind by defensive end Nick Reed, his former teammate at Mission Viejo High.

Sanchez lay on the field for a couple of minutes, the Coliseum crowd suddenly silent, before walking off the field under his own power.

The injury doesn't appear serious, and USC didn't hurt its national title cause, either.

It improved to 3-1 on a day it had to win to keep pace.

Unlike last week, when four schools in the top 10 lost, only No. 10 South Florida got sideswiped this week.

The seven schools ahead of the Trojans in the Associated Press media poll who played this week all won. No. 3 Louisiana State had a bye.

Fourth-and-two, it worked this time, and time will only tell what it means.

Maybe, three years later, USC put some down and distance between this fourth-down call and that one.

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chris.dufresne@latimes.com