USC vs. Notre Dame: Report Card Grades for the Irish's Loss vs. USC

After the Fighting Irish’s poor 0-2 start to their four game win streak that followed, the hopes were high for Notre Dame tonight.

The team had one of their biggest rivals in USC coming to South Bend for their first night game in more than two decades.

Well, the hopes were dashed by the Trojans. They came into Notre Dame stadium and walked out with a 31-17 win over Notre Dame. The win silenced the huge crowd on hand in South Bend.

The following slideshow will give you an alphabetical grade for the performance of the Fighting Irish in their BCS dream killer loss to USC Saturday.

Offense

If you are a fan of Notre Dame, the one word that you’re tired of hearing about this season and continue to plague the Irish are turnovers.

The team had three: one interception and two fumbles of tonight against USC Saturday night.

Quarterback Tommy Rees wasn’t able to be very effective for the Fighting Irish against a tough USC defense.

Rees had only 190 yards through the air along with no touchdowns and an interception.

The ground game was almost nonexistent. Jonas Gray was the only Notre Dame offensive player that had more than 10 yards rushing. Gray had 38 yards on the ground and a touchdown in the later moments of the game.

Grade: D

Defense

While the Notre Dame offense was pretty ineffective against USC Saturday night, the Fighting Irish defense was just as unsuccessful.

The Trojans was able to account for more than 440 yards of total offense and didn’t force any turnovers during the game.

USC quarterback Matt Barkley was brilliantly simple against the Notre Dame defense.

He went 24 of 35 passing for 224 yards through the air for three touchdowns.

The game went from a tight game to a blowout in the final moments of the game.

Grade: F

Special Teams

Here we find the lone bright spot for the Fighting Irish during Saturday’s game against USC.

George Atkinson took a second quarter kickoff return back 96 yards for a touchdown. The Trojans were leading the game 17-0 just before halftime.

In other parts of the game, Atkinson averaged nearly 36 yards per return on kickoffs.

If only the Fighting Irish could have used that field position to make tonight’s game a closer game against the rival Trojans.

Grade: A

Coaching Staff

You can’t blame the three turnovers by the Fighting Irish offense on the coaching staff.

Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame staff did not have a great game plan for USC Saturday night.

USC is a team that has really nothing to lose this season due to sanctions and everything to gain against Notre Dame tonight.

Grade: C

Summary:

If anything can be pinpointed for Notre Dame’s troubles it would be turnovers.

Those errors have ruined what could have been a great season for the Fighting Irish this year.

From the season opening loss to South Florida at home to the shootout in the Big House versus Michigan, Notre Dame could have won both of their early season losses this year.

They have the talent to win but they just can’t get everything on the same page.

You can blame Brian Kelly and the coaching staff or the mistakes made by players on the field.

Notre Dame can definitely be better than the 4-3 record shows up when you look at the standings on Sunday morning.