From opposite ends, a tale of two city teams

What's the first thing that crossed your mind after watching the way USC manhandled Ohio State?

Yeah, poor UCLA.

I wanted to know what Uncle Pete had thought after catching the outcome of the UCLA game?

"That was a big score," he said with a grin while stumbling for what to say next. "That's a hard place to play, but that's a big score. A big number."

Yeah, but if Kai Forbath hits both field-goal attempts earlier Saturday, Rick Neuheisel's gutty little Bruins lose only 59-6 to BYU and it's not the worst loss since the Depression.

No question Neuheisel is going to have an impact on UCLA football history.

Upon reflection, though, maybe that preseason newspaper advertisement should have read: "UCLA's monopoly on embarrassing losses in L.A. still stands."

Twelve weeks to go for Neuheisel to dream up some story about maybe losing an early round NCAA game only to bounce back and win the whole pool in the hopes of firing up his charges for the game with USC.

At the very least, here's hoping Forbath gets back on target, maybe even scoring twice as many points against USC as Ohio State, who already has the national monopoly on embarrassing losses.

It no longer matters if it's a national championship game, or the biggest regular-season game in a decade, the Buckeyes are party-poopers.

Uncle Pete, meanwhile, loves these big encounters, these so-called challenges, and after demolishing Ohio State, 35-3, he said, "We didn't do anything special; we didn't try hard . . ."

Whoa there, big guy. If USC didn't try hard against the likes of Ohio State, what does that say about the chances of bottom feeders like UCLA and the rest of the Pac 10?

"We didn't try too hard," Uncle Pete said. "There was a 't-o-o' in there."

If USC didn't try "too" hard to beat Ohio State, poor, poor UCLA. At least when Karl Dullard coached the Bruins, UCLA managed to score in every game.

"We had a nice night," is all that Uncle Pete would concede after opening the season with two smashing victories. "We're not through the first quarter of the season yet."

But who gives the Trojans a game the rest of the way?

"Pac 10, Pac 10," Uncle Pete said, and at least he didn't say Notre Dame.

USC gets two weeks to prepare for Oregon State before back-to-back home games, and that's home games against Oregon and Arizona State. They also get Cal at home.