Where to start ...

Where to stop, for that matter ...

Domination is maybe not a strong enough word to describe what USC did to Stanford on Saturday night in a 56-10 win before a large and loud crowd (announced at 67,213) inside the Coliseum.

The Trojans scored touchdowns on six of their seven first-half drives (plus a special teams score) to go up 49-3 before halftime, and they did it almost every way imaginable.

Afterward, coach Lincoln Riley was asked what message he felt that first-half display — the most points in a half for USC since 1974 — sent to the rest of college football.

"We're not into messages. We're trying to play the game on our own terms. We're not real concerned with what's going on on the outside," he said. "This team has really adopted that mentality. ... Everybody across the country whether they love 'SC or hate 'SC, everybody's checking their score, everybody wants to know what they're doing. So there's always going to be some type of buzz and attention around it, and we just decided we're going to play on our terms and we'll let the dust settle and see where we're at at the end of the day."

RELATED: Watch postgame video interviews with Lincoln Riley and players | Everything Lincoln Riley said after the win

The Trojans may not be focused on making statements, but that's what they did Saturday night -- there's no way around it.

Even against a rebuilding Stanford team that is expected to struggle this season, the reality of what this USC offense keeps doing week after week -- coupled with the potential that maybe, just maybe the defense could be ready to surprise people -- should indeed be reverberating around the college football world.

The Trojans gave a peek at their peak, a tease of what their collective talent can amount to when it all comes together.

Emphasis on "all" ...

There was quarterback Caleb Williams plowing through a Stanford defender at the goal line to finish off a 21-yard touchdown run with authority.

There was almost a defensive touchdown when Bear Alexander pressured QB Ashton Daniels into a bad throw right into the hands of Max Williams, who took it all the way to the Cardinal 4 before losing his balance. (A penalty during that play would push the Trojans back to the 19, but they scored three plays later on a 5-yard MarShawn Lloyd touchdown run.

There was a grind-it-out 12-play, 93-yard drive capped by a 1-yard Austin Jones TD run.

There was an electrifying 75-yard punt return for touchdown by freshman Zachariah Branch -- his second return touchdown (and fourth total TD) in three games to start his college career.

And then, of course, there was a whole lot of Williams -- the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and favorite to win the sport’s top honor again at the rate he's going.

Williams finished the first half 19-of-21 passing for 281 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INT plus that rushing TD.

Let's talk about those passing touchdowns ...

The first one was quintessential Williams, rolling to his right while patiently scanning downfield, moving comfortably outside the pocket without allowing a defender in his space, throwing across his body on the move and delivering an absolute bullseye dart to Dorian Singer in the back of the end zone for a 19-yard touchdown to make it 35-0 just 4:18 into the second quarter.

But Williams topped himself on the Trojans' next drive.

On the first play after Stanford had finally found the scoreboard with a field goal, Williams heaved a deep shot right on the money in stride to Brenden Rice for a 75-yard touchdown.

"We practiced it all week, and I saw him in a look that we kind of liked," Williams said. "I actually kind of heard coach yelling my name or saying something. I didn't want to get out of the look or have him check anything so I didn't look over and kept it and let it fly once I saw the safety come down."

"I was going to tell you to throw it to Brenden," Riley chimed in, drawing laughs in the postgame press conference.

Williams’ final touchdown came with 10 seconds left in the half on a simple 1-yard toss to tight end Lake McRee to make it 49-3, and with that his night was done.

McRee perhaps summed up Williams' brilliance best after another superlative performance that the star QB made look too easy.

"I feel like that's just kind of his game. It may not look like he's going crazy, but he's still out there doing plays that no one else in the country can do," McRee said.

How prolific was USC's offense Saturday night? Even Traveler the horse got tired of running the field after touchdowns, according to Trojans team reporter Keely Eure.

Lloyd likened it to a backyard football game ...

"Our practice is harder than any game, literally. It's crazy, the way we practice is insane. It actually helps, it makes things out here a lot easier. So it felt like practice, just having fun, playground football when you're young," he said.

USC finished with 573 offensive yards and now ranks fifth nationally in total offense through three games at 580.7 yards per game, and some of those programs higher on the list have skewed stats from playing FCS teams.

The case can certainly be made that the Trojans have the most offensive potential of any team in college football with Riley calling plays for a Williams-led offense loaded with so much depth at the skill positions that there aren't even enough touches to go around.

Lloyd finished with 77 yards and a TD on just 9 carries while having another would-be long touchdown run -- in which he turned on the jets to blow past Stanford's last line of defense -- called back for a holding penalty. Each of USC's top three running backs are averaging better than 7.5 yards per carry so far.

Behind Rice's 1 75-yard TD reception, Tahj Washington led the receivers with 4 catches for 74 yards while continuing his impressive start to the season. The Trojans have seven receivers (include McRee, the TE) with between 5-10 catches through three games and may have the deepest receiving corps in the country.

"It's just the beginning. ... Our goal is the best offense in the country, and I know we can definitely do it with the amount of weapons and our quarterback and our O-linemen and the running backs we have," Lloyd said.

But Saturday night was as much about the defensive performance.

The Trojans forced three turnovers -- the Max Williams interception, a Jamil Muhammad strip sack from behind that was recovered by Tackett Curtis and another fumble forced by Solomon Byrd -- and finished with 10 tackles for loss while holding Stanford to 349 yards (just 146 in the first half).

The Cardinal scored its first and only touchdown with 3:35 left in the fourth quarter against a collection of Trojans second and third-stringers.

"There's a gold standard we're trying to reach here at this program. We're trying to be known as a defensive program," safety Bryson Shaw said. "We respect Coach Riley, we respect that offense and we're happy as hell that offense plays like they do, but we want this team to be known as a defensive football team and I believe when the season's over it will be known as one."

It will take much more for the fan base to believe in that way, but it's hard to deny that the depth of talent across the front 7 is demonstrably improved. Not every offensive line USC goes up against will be as vulnerable as Nevada last week or Stanford on Saturday night, but the offensive lines still to come also aren't going up against the likes of Alexander every week either.

The former five-star prospect and Georgia transfer has somehow exceeded the hype that preceded his arrival in Los Angeles.

"It's a lot of fun for us. He wreaks havoc up there in the middle," Shaw said. "Fast. For as big as he is, he's fast, super fast in practice. I don't know if you guys have seen him do individual drills, but his feet, how do you move that fast?! You're big as hell moving that fast!"

Meanwhile, Shaw believes there's another broader change driving the defense, which has allowed just 24 points over the last two games.

"We have a lot of guys who want to fly around and make plays, great group of guys, hungry guys. I think that's the biggest difference from last year -- that you see the passion we're playing with. There's a certain edge to us," he said. "When we're doing our job, it shows how elite this defense can be, and when we're not doing our job it also shows. [It's about] just being more consistent, but I think we're making great leaps and it's very promising. We're all believing in ourself individually and we believe in ourself as a unit."

There was a notable moment in an otherwise inconsequential second half Saturday night that reflected what Shaw highlighted.

In the third quarter when it looked like Stanford might have scored its first touchdown before a replay review determined tight end Benjamin Yurosek went out of bounds at the 1, the Trojans didn't budge any further while a few plays later stopping the Cardinal on fourth down on a Calen Bullock pass breakup in the end zone as if the game hinged on it.

It didn't matter to the outcome, but it mattered to them.

When Stanford did finally score, on a 1-yard touchdown run by backup QB Justin Lamson in the final minutes, Riley challenged the ruling on the field -- perhaps as much to make a point to his team as anything.

"The score's irrelevant. I expect our defense, our special teams, our offense to continue to play at a high level no matter what the scoreboard says. That's like why we challenged that last touchdown. I mean, we don't want to give anybody an inch. I still don't think he was in," Riley said. "We don't want to give anybody an inch. We're just going to play hard until they say it's over and then we'll get up and go to the next one."

Again, this wasn't just a domination. It was a decimation, an evisceration and that shouldn't be dismissed because of the situation — an overmatched opponent in a rebuilding season.

No, the defensive questions aren't put to rest after three games against inferior foes, but it doesn't take a full-on optimist to see the groundwork for what could be a more dependable unit over the course of this fall.

Which is all it needs to be to complement an offense as loaded as this one.

Every game won't look like the first half against the overmatched Cardinal, but Saturday night will at least serve as a reference point for what it can look like for these Trojans.

USC, now up to No. 5 in the AP poll, gets a bye before playing nine straight weeks to close out the regular season. The tough matchups await, starting Sept. 30 at resurgent Colorado, with six of those final nine opponents presently ranked in the top 25.

It's too early to make most proclamations about any college football team, especially one that has played two Group of 5 opponents and this rebuilding Stanford program, let's acknowledge that.

But it doesn't feel too early to say that this Trojans team at least has all the pieces to make this a truly special season if the defense can build off the confidence it's found the last two weeks to complement the Caleb Williams and Friends show the rest of the way.

Those within the program have felt that all along, of course, so for Riley nothing changed Saturday night.

Just as he did after the first game, when he dismissed a question about whether he was concerned about the defense, Riley took the same tact in keeping the Trojans' best performance of the young season in perspective.

"It's one game. ... There's a lot good, but listen, these deals are always the same -- you play good and everybody thinks it's perfect and it's not. And if you play terrible, everybody thinks you can't get one yard, you're horrible, on either side, and it always gets blown out of proportion," he said. "I mean, we're doing some good things. The next game is going to be a totally different challenge. The next game after that is going to be a totally different challenge. It just resets. So I like what we're doing, but the bigger challenges are coming."

They are, but for every one of those teams, the Trojans are the bigger challenge.