LOS ANGELES —

The final score looks like a blowout: USC 35, Oregon State 10.

And by the end of Saturday night’s game, that’s exactly what it was.

While many of OSU’s losses in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum by similar scores were the result of a trampling by the Trojans’ offense, fingers can’t really be pointed at the Beavers’ defense after this defeat.

Two first-half scores came on an interception return and a Hail Mary at the end of the second quarter.

It wasn’t until the fourth that the Beavers broke on defense and gave up two long touchdown drives. No, if fingers are to be pointed, they should be directed at the OSU offense.

“We went quite a few times without keeping the ball very long,” coach Mike Riley said. “And when you keep putting your defense out there against good people like that, they’re going to eventually make some plays.”

The Beavers really couldn’t mount any sort of threat on offense.

Quarterback Sean Mannion and his wide receivers struggled to find rhythm in the passing game. Mannion never could get on a roll and finished 15 of 35 for 123 yards and two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown by USC strong safety Su’a Cravens.

With Victor Bolden and Rahmel Dockery both out, the Beavers had to go with inexperienced players in Hunter Jarmon and Jordan Villamin.

“It was disruptive,” Riley said. “We lost, kind of uniquely, two players at the same position for this game. Richard Mullaney stepped in and of course, Richard made some plays. We basically activated Xavier Hawkins and he came in and competed.

“It’s not an ideal thing, but it’s football and you have to adjust. So we got some new kids some more time.”

Making matters worse was the lack of a run game. The Beavers went to the ground early but didn’t stick with it and wound up with 58 total yards, counting sacks.

Storm Woods finished with 61 rushing yards and Terron Ward had 29, but Woods had 45 of those yards at the half and Ward had 26.

Riley said the Beavers never found a run-pass rhythm.

“It had the makings of a good, balanced football game at the start,” he said. “We hit some runs and looked good, got some first downs, threw a couple of passes, but never could complement it with anything. We missed a couple opportunities. One of them is when we threw the interception, we actually had Storm Woods wide open on the other boundary.”

USC’s defense also rose to the challenge after getting shredded by Boston College’s run game.

The Trojans attacked Mannion, put pressure on him and sacked him twice and did not let the OSU receivers roam free.

“Coverage was tight and good and the pressure was other times pretty good,” Riley said. “I would say we were disrupted, that’s probably the best way to put our offensive performance.”

Some teams would be shaken by the setback. The Beavers intend to watch the game film, work on the rough spots and move on to Colorado.

That includes Mannion, who had his worst statistical performance as a starter.

“Sean will be fine,” Riley said. “We’ll come back and we’ll go to work on Monday and we’ll get ready for the next game and get the people around him prepared so he can play well.”