USC vs Notre Dame: Top Matchups to Watch in Tonight's Showdown

The USC Trojans and Notre Dame Fighting Irish will meet for the 85th time under the bright lights in South Bend in perhaps one of the less intriguing matchups between the two sides with both teams struggling in 2013.

While the overall impact of the matchup may not have huge implications outside of Trojans' interim head coach Ed Orgeron and his job in place of Lane Kiffin, there are plenty of high-quality positional and individual battles worth the price of admission.

With both teams at 4-2 and not clicking on all cylinders, the following matchups will ultimately decide the game. That, and they make for some entertaining football.

USC's Defense vs. Fighting Irish's Rushing Attack

Notre Dame's offense relies on a stout rushing attack to take the pressure off quarterback Tommy Rees (who we'll touch on here in a bit), but the talented trio of backs has been nothing short of a disappointment so far this year.

George Atkinson III leads the way with 323 yards and two touchdowns on an impressive 5.8 yards per carry average. Both Cam McDaniel and Amir Carlisle have been disappointments, although the latter has only seen 38 carries on the year.

As a whole, the unit averages just 137 yards per game, so if the USC front seven can come to play, it will force Notre Dame to take to the air. Arizona State quarterback Taylor Kelly went for over 350 against the Trojans recently, but Rees is far from being in the same league.

Overall the Trojans defense ranks 19th in yards allowed per game. An ability to contain Atkinson, who is more than capable of carrying a game on his own as he showed against Oklahoma with 14 carries for 148 yards, will give the Trojans a better chance with Notre Dame forced into a one-dimensional attack.

Notre Dame's Star-Studded Defensive Line vs. Trojan's Offensive Line

For those unaware, the Fighting Irish defensive line has two stars ready to take the NFL by storm. One is the 340 pound Louis Nix, the other is star defensive end Stephon Tuitt. As Bleacher Report's Matt Miller points out, both are top prospects in this year's draft:

Nix is the most dominant of the two, which was on full display in the BCS Championship Game last year as Chris Brown of Smart Football illustrates:

The duo has struggled through injuries this year, but through six games it is more than clear teams would rather take to the air than deal with Nix and Tuitt on the ground.

Fortunately for USC, paving the way on the ground has not been an issue this year thanks to the duo of Tre Madden (611 yards, three touchdowns and 5.3 yards per) and Justin Davis (349, six scores, 6.8 per), as USC has averaged nearly five years on the ground per carry.

Last week, USC's offensive line played outstanding en route to 249 rushing yards against Arizona. Unfortunately for the Trojans, the aforementioned Madden will miss the contest courtesy of a hamstring injury per the team's Twitter account:

Down a running back and against two of the nation's top linemen, the USC offensive line has some serious work to do on Saturday.

The Quarterback Duel

Should the game come down to a duel between the quarterbacks, it's hard to discern which team would actually have an edge.

USC sophomore Cody Kessler has played better under the guidance of Orgeron as witnessed last week with his 297 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. While he completed just 50 percent of his throws, Kessler seems to mesh better with what Orgeron runs.

Notre Dame's senior Rees has been the target of much scrutiny, especially for his propensity to turn the ball over in manners such as this:

Rees has already thrown six interceptions this year and been wildly inconsistent at best. Rees has hardly completed over 50 percent of his passes this season, and there is really no excuse with elite targets to throw to and his only being sacked four times.

In predictable fashion, the quarterback position will decide the outcome of the game. If Rees can stop turning the ball over, Notre Dame has a legit shot, but if he does and Kessler continues his stellar play under new guidance, this one will swing either way.

Prediction: Notre Dame 38, USC 35

Follow B/R's Chris Roling on Twitter for more news and analysis @Chris_Roling