PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Carson Palmer continued his late push into the Heisman Trophy race by throwing four touchdown passes Saturday night as ninth-ranked USC coasted to a 49-17 Pac-10 Conference victory over Stanford.
The Trojans (7-2, 5-1 Pac-10) had lost four straight games to Oregon before racing past the Ducks two weeks ago at Autzen Stadium. After a week off, USC made amends Saturday against the Cardinal, who had defeated the Trojans three straight times by a combined 11 points.
The most frustrating of those losses came last season, when Chris Lewis threw a game-winning 20-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the game.
USC prevented any chance of some late-game heroics by scoring 14 points in both the third and fourth quarters to turn the game into a rout.
Keary Colbert caught touchdown passes of 17 yards in the first quarter and 13 yards in the third for USC.
The other touchdown passes for Palmer came on an eight-yarder to Mike Williams in the first quarter and a 22-yarder to Alex Holmes in the third that gave the Trojans a 35-10 lead.
Palmer completed 22 of 32 passes for 317 yards and was not intercepted. In his last three games, Palmer has thrown for 1,113 yards and 13 touchdowns.
USC never has lost four straight games to Stanford in a series that dates to 1905. The Trojans hold a 54-24-3 record against their oldest rival.
Stanford (2-7, 1-5) has lost six of its last seven games.
Kyle Matter started in place of the injured Lewis on Saturday and threw touchdown passes of six yards to Ryan Wells in the first quarter and 11 yards to Teyo Johnson in the fourth.
