Notre Dame Football: More Questions Arise in Irish Loss

This is the team that Notre Dame has.

They are inconsistent, irrational and self-damaging.

They are capable of playing "lights out" football and belonging on the field with anyone in the country.

They are also capable of simply being run off their own field.

Oddly, Saturday's 31-17 loss to a solid Southern California team encompassed the season as a whole so far. There was a lot of good and a lot of bad. There were moments in which it seemed certain that the Irish would suffer a Weis-like USC beating. Those were followed by periods where it looked as if Notre Dame was taking control and looked likely to turn the tables and win going away.

Any hope of an Irish win likely came to an end in the third quarter, as this year's most unfortunate man, Dayne Crist, let a snap fly through his hands and watched helplessly for the second time this year as an opponent scooped up a fumble and raced 90-plus yards for a damning score.

By the time USC's Jawanza Starling reached the other end zone, Notre Dame's season had come unhinged.

At the outset of that play, Notre Dame lined up for 2nd-and-goal at the USC 1-yard line, poised to erase a 17-point lead.

Instead of tallying the equalizing points, the Irish found themselves looking up at a 24-10 deficit and now trailing by what would be the final margin.

In a moment, all the momentum gained in an electrifying kickoff return by George Atkinson III and a stellar half-ending drive in addition to a trio of defensive stops was long gone.

This is how the season has gone.

Every time Notre Dame has had a chance to take that figurative step and cement the program back on solid ground, a self-inflicted wound causes the earth to crumble.

Unlike previous Irish meltdowns against South Florida (which drops to 4-3 with it's third straight loss) and Michigan, at least USC can be credited with beating the Irish.

Lane Kiffin's squad developed a sound game plan to limit Notre Dame.

Offensively, they implemented a run-first attack, pounding away at the Irish interior with punishing I set runs that not only yielded significant yards, but ate tons of time from the clock.

After establishing the run, the Trojans turned the ball over to their excellent junior quarterback Matt Barkley, who exploited Notre Dame's insanely soft corner coverage in throwing for three scores.

Defensively, Monte Kiffin employed a rather simple "anyone but Floyd" defense, constantly blanketing the Irish wide-out with double and triple coverage.

Notre Dame sleep-walked through the first quarter, running only six offensive plays and netting nine total yards, allowing USC to flash out to a 14-0 lead.

That, more than USC's ability to stop it, took the Irish rushing attack out of the game.

Still, despite the Trojans' early dominance, in the third quarter, Notre Dame was seemingly in control.

Even after the heartbreaking Crist fumble, a resurgent Tommy Rees led a fast five-play 68-yard drive that was culminated with a 25-yard Jonas Gray score, which cut the lead back to seven.

After another bruising USC drive that covered 65 yards in nine plays, chewing five minutes off of the clock, the Irish were granted a stay of execution as the Trojan field goal missed left.

Immediately after finding this extended life, Notre Dame pulled the switch on its own execution.

At their own 23-yard line, Tommy Rees threw a lateral toward Cierre Wood on a screen, which was ruled to have traveled backward. The ball bounced off of Wood's hands and fell to the turf.

Wood watched as USC's Chris Galippo fell on the fumble at the Notre Dame 18.

Three snaps later, Robert Woods made a beautiful diving catch in the north end zone to end all doubt.

Any loss is disturbing, any loss to an arch rival is depressing. Yet this loss with this team begs a tougher set of questions.

Why does it seem that the team is often simply not ready to play at the outset of games?

How soon can the cornerback position be fixed?

Does the quarterback rotation cause more problems for Notre Dame or the opponent?

Why did it take well into the third quarter to find Tyler Eifert?

How can the same things (turnovers and stupid persona foul penalties) keep killing you?

Why does it seem like Manti Te'o and Harrison Smith are the only sure tacklers on the team?

Is Notre Dame really sticking with those sparkle helmets?

Do they really think that not playing "Crazy Train" and the White Stripes at every commercial break was the problem? More so than say... tackling? Ball security?

Most of all, what now?

The BCS dreams are gone.

Navy is looming to remind everyone that they can come in and beat you.

For the Notre Dame football team, it is truly gut check time. Like the Tulsa loss a year ago, this must be the turning point at which the team decides its fate.

Now which way will they go?