To “sort out” is Brit-speak, and it commonly is used when referring to soccer and describes the process by which good defenses deal with attacking players.

It implies a sort of impudent coming forward of small men with high-skill … for whom the antidote is a few hard men of limited finesse but grim countenance, and the service those men provide is “sorting out” opponents who believe they can bring their ticky-tacky attacking stuff into an opponent’s defense with impunity.

That is what USC did to the University of Oregon last night. Sorted them out.

This may have been the first college football game I saw from start to finish, in the UAE, since arriving here more than two years ago.  From 5-9 a.m. UAE time. And it was worth the wait.

Oregon as the best team in the Pac-10 (and now the Pac-12) is unnatural. Disturbing. I don’t mind the Ducks jumping up with a competent team now and then, but this ongoing superiority … it’s twisted.

This is a football conference that always should start with the Trojans, and then maybe Washington, Arizona State, maybe even UCLA. Stanford is expected to be good once a decade, at the least. Cal, now and then.

But Oregon? Not years at a stretch. Not 19-straight-conference-games good … not 21-straight-home-games reliable. Oregon is a basketball school, for crissakes.

I have been to Eugene a dozen times, winter, spring, summer and fall, and it’s a soggy, isolated, boring small town. It rains about 400 days a year there. Why should any competent football players commit to spending four years there?

The short answer is, “because Nike is pouring millions of bucks into that program, and the Ducks get to wear new and weird uniforms every week.”

That, apparently, is catnip to certain types of players. Oregon then hired a coach, Chip Kelly, who has a shtick, a distinctive style of offense, and it has taken the conference a while to deal with it.

The reality of this year’s Oregon team … is how amazingly small they are. Tiny. They have bitsy — but very fast — players all over the field. At receiver, at running back, and throughout the defensive backfield.

Kelly wants guys who can run. A good idea. But he is willing to give up size and strength to get it. And how do his little guys stand up to typical “football-sized” strongmen? Why don’t teams with big running backs and physical corners just beat the snot out of Oregon’s tiny tots?

Because Kelly’s scheme establishes a furiously high pace, on offense, with the clear goal of exhausting the bigger, heavier defenders from traditional football teams. And usually it works, with Oregon’s lithe and fast guys eventually running through exhausted big guys.

After the Ducks got to the national championship game last year, narrowly losing to Auburn, they started 9-1 this season, with their only loss to top-ranked LSU, on the road.

They were back up to No. 4 in the country, and once the SEC figured out its champion, the Ducks had a fairly good chance of being in the top two, and playing for the national title. Again.

Things were getting out of control.

Enter the Trojans, to “sort them out.”

USC coach Lane Kiffin, no fool, understood (after consecutive spankings by the Ducks) that the Trojans needed to get an early lead, so he didn’t open with an attempt to “establish the ground game.” But they also needed to hold the ball, which meant competent passing, which the Trojans can do, in Matt Barkley’s third year at quarterback.

And when Oregon’s offense was on the field, the USC defense needed to attack, take advantage of their superiority in the lines — and get the Ducks off the damn field. USC’s big defenders are not built to handle four plays per minute. The Ducks will score, once they get a drive up to 5-6 plays. Because the defenders are exhausted. People sitting on couches often forget that, or don’t notice. Oregon generally scores because the defenders are beat. And the Trojans are particularly susceptible to this because they have no depth, in part because the recruiting penalties handed out by the NCAA have really started to bite.

It worked perfectly for nearly three quarters. Barkley close to perfect, Oregon’s tiny corners couldn’t stick with USC’s big receivers, the Trojans got some three-and-outs — and it was 38-14 with 3:28 left in the third.

Then the Trojans let up a little, or maybe Oregon just started doing what the Ducks normally do, and a kickoff return for touchdown by a guy who weighs about 140 pounds … followed by USC mistakes like a Barkley interception and a horrible fumble as the Trojans were going in for a clinching touchdown … and Oregon had a chance to pull this out.

On the final drive, the Ducks’ own system killed them, which seemed appropriate. They wanted to speed up the game, even when they needed a touchdown to win, and let the clock run. Perversely, they couldn’t spend their timeouts, to get organized, throw deep — because the USC defenders would be able to catch their breath. Can’t have that. Oregon’s offense doesn’t work very well against defenses that have caught their breath. And the clock bled out.

Their drive petered out around the 20 — not because the Trojans stopped them, but because Oregon’s offense is not designed to flourish with stoppages in play, and they were out of time.

Then the Ducks ran out their kicker, a kid from Colton, and asked him to tie the game with a field goal as time expired, and he missed it, as you knew he would, a kicker being generally irrelevant to Kelly’s style of football and surely not prepared for a pressure kick … and USC had won.

The tough guys had beaten the slick guys. As they have for most of a century. This was fitting. It was correct. It put the college football world back on its proper axis. Oregon’s fans appeared shocked, and that in itself is just wrong. Oregon fans should never, ever be shocked when they lose to USC. Not in 2011. Not in 2111. Oregon is meant to lose to USC, two times out of three, minimum. (See the history of the rivalry, below.)

I felt like things had gone back to normal, and breaking my “night” in half to see it happen … was worth it.

OREGON (37*-18-2)
1915 Nov. 8 …………………. L 0-34 H …. 2,300
1920 Nov. 25Th ………….. W 21- 0 N1…. 20,000
1931 Oct. 17 ……………….. W 53- 0 H …. 50,000
1932 Nov. 12 ……………… W 33- 0 H …. 40,000
1933 Nov. 18 ……………… W 26- 0 H …. 69,000
1934 Nov. 17 ………….(R) W 33- 0 H …. 20,000
1936 Oct. 3 ………………… W 26- 0 H …. 35,000
1937 Oct. 16 ………………. W 34-14 H …. 45,000
1938 Oct. 29 19- ..(Mud) W 31- 7 N2…. 18,000
1939 Sept. 30 …..(SC-7:00) T 7- 7 H …. 41,000
1940 Oct. 19 17- ………… W 13- 0 H …. 35,000
1941 Oct. 11 ……………….. L 6-20 H …. 40,000
1942 Nov. 14 …………….. W 40- 0 H …. 33,000
1946 Nov. 2 ……………… W 43- 0 H …. 45,885
1948 Oct. 16 ……………… L 7- 8 N2…. 32,600
1949 Oct. 22 19- ……….. W 40-13 H …. 47,098
1950 Oct. 28 …………….. W 30-21 H …. 27,008
1953 Oct. 31 .7- (U)(13:38) L 7-13 N2…. 17,772
1954 Oct. 16 …………….. W 24-14 N2…. 22,766
1955 Sept. 23 .9- ….(N) W 42-15 H …. 37,538
1956 Nov. 17 14- ……….. L 0- 7 N2…. 14,480
1957 Nov. 16 -16………… L 7-16 H …. 30,975
1958 Oct. 11 -15…………. L 0-25 N2…. 32,734
1967 Oct. 28 .1- ……….. W 28- 6 H …. 48,807
1968 Nov. 2 .1- (R)(1:12) W 20-13 A …. 33,500
1970 Oct. 24 10- (R)(U)(13:05) L 7-10 A …. 34,000
1971 Oct. 9 …(N)(U)(7:43) L 23-28 H …. 50,111
1972 Oct. 28 .1- ……(R) W 18- 0 A …. 32,000
1973 Oct. 20 .6- ………. W 31-10 H …. 53,155
1974 Oct. 19 .6- ………. W 16- 7 A …. 32,500
1975 Oct. 18 .3- ………. W 17- 3 H …. 50,542
1976 Sept. 18 ……..(N) W 53- 0 A …. c40,600
1977 Oct. 15 .6- ………. W 33-15 H …. 51,120
1978 Sept. 16 .8-…(N) W 37-10 A …. 31,000
1980 Oct. 18 .2- ……… T 7- 7 A …. c42,733
1982 Oct. 2 16- ……… W 38- 7 H …. 47,181
1984 Oct. 13 ………….. W 19- 9 A …. 29,581
1985 Nov. 30** ……… W 20- 6 N3…. c65,000
1986 Oct. 4 .9- ….(N) W 35-21 H …. 51,340
1987 Oct. 10 ………….. L 27-34 A …. c39,587
1988 Oct. 8 .3-18…… W 42-14 H …. 63,452
1991 Sept. 28 …..(N) W 30-14 A …. c45,948
1992 Oct. 10 20- ….. W 32-10 H …. 46,343
1993 Oct. 9 ………….. W 24-13 A …. 40,935
1994 Oct. 1 19- ….(U) L 7-22 H …. 44,232
1997 Oct. 1 ………(N) W 24-22 H …. 53,640
1998 Oct. 24 -12……. L 13-17 A …. c45,807
1999 Sept. 25 16- (N)(UO-0:30) L 30-33(3OT) A … c45,660
2000 Oct. 14 – 9……. L 17-28 H …. 54,031
2001 Sept. 22 – 7.(N)(0:12) L 22-24 A …. c45,765
2002 Oct. 26 15-14.. W 44-33 A …. c56,754
2005 Sept. 24 .1-24. W* 45-13 A …. c59,129
2006 Nov. 11 .7-21..(N) W 35-10 H …. c92,000
2007 Oct. 27 .9- 5….. L 17-24 A …. c59,277
2008 Oct. 4 .9-23.(N) W 44-10 H …. c82,765
2009 Oct. 31 .4-10.(N) L 20-47 A …. c59,592
2010 Oct. 30 24- 1.(N) L 32-53 H …. 88,726
N1-Tournament Park, Pasadena, California
N2-Multnomah Stadium, Portland, Oregon
N3-Tokyo Olympic Memorial Stadium, Tokyo, Japan
**-Mirage Bowl
*1 win later vacated due to NCAA penalty (revised record: 36-18-2) — 37-18-2, counting Saturday’s game.