That Ohio State drive I mentioned below in an item below? The one for the field goal?

Turns out that was the Buckeyes’ high-water mark.

After that it was all USC. With extreme prejudice.

The Trojans handled Ohio State like Florida and LSU did in the last two national-title games. Except even more decisively.

It was Florida 41, OSU 14; LSU 38, OSU 24.

This one was USC 35, OSU 3, and it could have been bigger.

USC allowed the Buckeyes to cross midfield only twice. OK, maybe that wasn’t amazing, considering Ohio State has a fifth-year senior quarterback (Todd Boeckman) who has no real talent and a true freshman QB (Terrelle Pryor) who has serious talent but almost no experience. And the Buckeyes were playing without top tailback Beanie Wells.

What got my attention was the Trojans’ efficiency on offense.

Against an Ohio State defense that was No. 1 in the nation, statistically, last season, and returned all 11 starters, USC rolled up 348 yards and four touchdowns. (The fifth TD came on a 48-yard interception return by Rey Maualuga.)

Mark Sanchez was poised and strong in the pocket, again, throwing for 172 yards and four (!) touchdowns on 17-of-28 accuracy.

But USC also had 164 yards on the ground, including 105 from Joe McKnight on only 12 carries.

McKnight may be taking over the tailback slot, previously run as a sort of five- or six-man committee.  He was on the field for nearly every significant snap until well in the third quarter, when USC coach Pete Carroll began working in some of the odler guys — and McKnight apparently came down with a migraine headache.

Sanchez, on how he works with McKnight: “I just want to get him the ball as soon as possible, so he can get into space.”

USC’s offensive line kept OSU’s highly regarded front seven off Sanchez’s back (one sack), and Sanchez was able to get the ball down the field more than once.

Jim Tressel, OSU coach, on USC: “I’ve been impressed with USC. They are not fancy but their protection is very good and their run game is solid and ther are balanced, always 50-50 run and pass. Their quarterback has pretty good feet and kept plays alive. He’s a good, fourth-year guy. He knew when to throw the ball away, a few times.

“They were good across the board.”

Summing up?

“We played a great team tonight,” Tressel said.

As it turns out, USC may be the only great team — perhaps the only good team — in the Pac-10.

UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Arizona and Arizona state all lost Saturday, and only the Bruins can claim to have played a serious team (BYU), but that one finished 59-zip.

Washington State is horrible, Oregon State is 1-2 (and the “1” is against Hawaii, which is terrible.)

Also, USC gets the best of what appears to be a sorry lot — Oregon, Cal, Arizona State, Cal and Notre Dame — at home, where they have lost only once since 2001.

If the Trojans can simply pay attention, they have a very good chance to be 12-0 heading into the BCS title game. That may be asking a bit much of college kids, but at this exact moment, it’s never seemed easier than at any time since Carroll returned this team to prominence in 2002.