USC vs. Notre Dame: Game Grades, Analysis for Trojans and Fighting Irish
If you're a fan of college football for its big plays and back-and-forth action, this was the game for you. USC and Notre Dame get together for the annual grudge match, and despite having a trying week, the Trojans came into South Bend with a load of confidence.
But it was the Irish who came up with a few more big plays late in the fourth quarter to secure the comeback 41-31 victory over the Trojans, avenging last season's loss in Los Angeles.
As usual, it's time to look at the good, the bad and the ugly for both teams in our weekly game grades.
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Here is the box score from Saturday's game, via NCAA.com.
| Pass Offense | A | B |
| Run Offense | B | B- |
| Pass Defense | B- | C+ |
| Run Defense | C | C |
| Special Teams | B | B |
| Coaching | A | A- |
Southern California Pass Offense
If you break the game into two pieces for Cody Kessler, the first piece—comprising the first three-and-a-half quarters—looks pretty darn good.
He finished with 365 yards passing, while Jalen Green added 75 yards on a double-pass play that worked to perfection. Adoree' Jackson had 83 yards and a score, while JuJu Smith-Schuster got the lion's share of the receiving work, hauling in six receptions for 139 yards and a score.
But again, that was all part of the first three-and-a-half quarters. The last half-quarter wasn't so good for the Trojans' passing game.
Kessler jacked up two interceptions late in the game, and the Trojans as a whole put up a big fat zero on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter despite scoring 10, 14 and seven points in the previous three quarters, respectively, to take a seven-point lead into the final quarter.
Southern California Run Offense
When you have a quarterback such as Kessler and receivers such as Smith-Schuster, Deontay Burnett (three catches, 53 yards) and even Tre Madden out of the backfield (six catches, 47 yards), the running game doesn't have to be a big part of the offense.
But when you're playing against a defense capable of making on-the-fly adjustments the way Brian VanGorder's defense can, mixing in a little running between the tackles is a necessary evil.
Kessler threw the ball 46 times, but the Trojans ran the ball (on called run plays) fewer than 30 times. By the time the game was over, USC's run game accounted for just 150 of the Trojans' 590 offensive yards.
Ronald Jones led the way for the Trojans with 73 yards on six carries, while Justin Davis added 52 yards on seven carries. But not a single running back was able to find the end zone against the Irish defense (Kessler scored the only ground touchdown on a rollout).
Again, USC is a pass-first offense, and that works well most weeks. But not every team is going to be Arizona or Oregon State, and if USC wants to take the next step forward, it must find a way to run the ball effectively against teams such as Notre Dame.
Southern California Pass Defense
We've heard for ages how fast Adoree' Jackson is. But when he lined up opposite Will Fuller, we learned for ourselves that speed is relative.
Fuller burned Jackson more than once, and Jackson, while fast, wasn't able to keep his amazing speed up while covering Fuller's route running.
Fuller only caught three passes, but he averaged 43.7 yards per reception, including a long of 75.
He might be the fastest wideout USC will see all season long, which is a good thing. But this wasn't the last time USC will ever play Notre Dame, and the coach will need to formulate some improvements before next season's rematch.
USC also failed to generate those momentum-swinging turnovers that have long been the hallmark of championship-caliber Southern Cal teams.
While the Trojans showed that they have the talent to challenge for a Pac-12 South title this season, they also proved that they need more talent in the secondary before we can consider USC a truly national program once again.
Southern California Run Defense
Unlike USC, Notre Dame likes to run the football. That showed up in both the play selection for Notre Dame (35 rushing plays versus 25 pass attempts) and total rushing yards (214).
As expected, C.J. Prosise did the heavy lifting for the Irish's ground game, and as expected, he was efficient at times while explosive at others. He ended the evening with better than 7.5 yards per carry (19 rushes for 143 yards and two touchdowns).
USC wasn't able to bottle Prosise up at the line of scrimmage, and his elusiveness and speed allowed him to eat up large chucks of the field almost unchecked all evening.
Like Fuller in the passing game, USC won't see many players more talented than Prosise this season. Still, it's another strike against the Trojans defense and leads us to believe they aren't quite in championship form on defense.
Southern California Special Teams
It's hard to know—if not downright impossible—if kickers really can be "iced." But Brian Kelly being Brian Kelly, he's certainly willing to give it a shot.
Kelly called three consecutive timeouts at the end of the first half to try to get inside the head of USC kicker Alex Wood as he lined up for a field-goal attempt. And wouldn't you know it, Wood's kick banged off the left upright and fell to the turf.
No, it wasn't a game-winning field-goal attempt at the end of the game, but who knows how the game could have been affected late in the fourth quarter had USC been down by seven points instead of 10.
Like icing the kicker, we will never know for sure.
Southern California Coaching
Coming into this game, USC had only taken the field against the Irish six times with a head coach making his debut. USC had lost all six.
And given the week USC had, with the firing of Steve Sarkisian and the emotion roller coaster that inevitably ensued, it's not surprising that the Trojans are now 0-7 with debuting head coaches.
But we're not going to pile on Clay Helton. No, in fact, we're going in the opposite direction.
Had USC been absolutely rolled in this game, the press and pundits would probably have excused the failure. After all, it would be perfectly understandable if the Trojans hadn't shown up prepared and with their minds on the task at hand.
But much to Helton's credit, the Trojans gave the Irish—the No. 14 team in the nation, by the way—a real test at home. USC looked rested, prepared and motivated to play this football game. Yes, the Trojans came up just a bit short, but we have to give Helton and his staff credit for having this team prepared for this game after the events of the past 10 days.
There's no way to predict whether or not Helton will be given the opportunity to coach the Trojans on a full-time basis. But if Saturday night was any indication, he should be in the running for the job.
| Pass Offense | B+ | B+ |
| Run Offense | A- | A |
| Pass Defense | D | C |
| Run Defense | B- | B- |
| Special Teams | A- | A- |
| Coaching | B+ | B+ |
Notre Dame Pass Offense
DeShone Kizer was 15-of-24 for a solid 227 yards and two touchdowns.
But really, in a game that was full of big plays and speedy receivers, we almost expected to see larger numbers when the game was over.
Still, there's no denying the 64 percent completion ratio, an interception-free night and a multitude of perfectly timed passes.
On the receiving end, Fuller again showed why he's one of the most electric receivers in the nation. He caught the ball just three times, but that's all he needed to amass 131 yards and a touchdown. Adoree' who?
Corey Robinson added the other receiving touchdown on his lone reception of the night for 10 yards.
But perhaps the best sign of things to come for Notre Dame was Kizer's ability to find six different receivers on his 15 completions. When you have a player such as Fuller, it's easy to get into the habit of throwing his way too often. Kizer isn't falling into that trap, and if anything, he's expanding his list of eligible targets.
Notre Dame Run Offense
What's left to say about Prosise that we haven't already covered?
He's simply amazing. With 143 yards on 19 carries (including two touchdowns), Prosise continued his impressive season at running back. And, yes, we're still amazed that he didn't even start the season as the top running back on the depth chart or even play the position last season.
Even against top athletes from a Power Five team such as USC, Prosise was still able to elude otherwise surefire tackles from stout defenders. He has the uncanny ability to make all-conference or even All-American defenders look absolutely silly, as he can spin and juke like few backs since Barry Sanders.
Don't be surprised if Prosise's name finds its way onto postseason award lists come November.
Notre Dame Pass Defense
This was another not-so-good performance from the Irish secondary.
After a week off against an essentially non-existent Navy passing game, Notre Dame gave up a whopping 440 passing yards and three touchdowns to the Trojans. That's not going to win you a ton of praise.
Yes, there were some silver linings, like the two interceptions late in the game to secure the victory for the Irish, but still...
The Trojans were able to connect on multiple big passing plays, including touchdowns of 75 and 83 yards. Granted, one of those big plays was on a double pass, but when USC puts a former high school quarterback at wide receiver, you'd think the defense might have that play in the back of its mind.
While there's still some College Football Playoff talk flying around when it comes to Notre Dame, we can assure you that the selection committee won't be impressed by teams giving up 440 passing yards to unranked teams sitting at .500 for the season.
Notre Dame Run Defense
Notre Dame gave up five yards per carry on USC's 30 rushing attempts—and that includes sacks and quarterback scrambles for loss.
Like the passing defense, that's not the kind of championship-caliber defensive performance we want to see from a team that is trying to convince the nation—and likely itself—it is still worthy of consideration for a playoff spot.
Southern Cal was able to exploit some holes up front for solid gains up the middle, but the Trojans really found some running lanes around the edge.
Notre Dame must get better on the perimeter before taking on undefeated Temple in two weeks.
Notre Dame Special Teams
In the past, Notre Dame's kicking game has been an adventure.
It's probably nice for Irish fans to know what they're getting when a kicker or punter trots out onto the field nowadays.
Justin Yoon was his usual reliable self, connecting on both of his field-goal attempts and all five of his extra points. Heck, the crowd at Notre Dame Stadium has even taken to yelling "Yooooooon" when he lines up for a kick.
Tyler Newsome also provided a likely overlooked but still monumentally important big play in the second half, perfectly placing a punt that was downed inside the USC 1-yard line.
Notre Dame Coaching
This was another solid performance from the Irish overall, and the coaching staff deserves credit for doing what must be done to win football games every week.
While there's not a ton of reason to heap praise on Kelly or any particular member of his staff this week, we are going to mention again Kelly's "to heck with it" attitude at the end of the first half, using all three of his timeouts to attempt to "ice" USC kicker Alex Wood.
If you believe in that kind of thing making a difference, it worked. Wood's kick hit the left upright, denying the Trojans three points before the half.
Unless otherwise noted, quotes or references to quotes were obtained firsthand by the writer.
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