The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are destroying the USC Trojans at halftime, and Twitter had plenty to say about it.
One of the most intriguing games on the Week 8 schedule has quickly turned into a dud, as the No. 13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish are currently destroying the No. 11 USC Trojans 28-0 at the half in South Bend.
Coming into the season, nobody expected the annual meeting between the two rivals to be of this much significance. Notre Dame entered the year with tempered expectations following a miserable 4-8 campaign that left plenty of questions about Brian Kelly’s future, while the Trojans were expected to contend for a national championship after rolling to nine straight wins including a Rose Bowl victory to close out 2016.
Kelly has engineered a remarkable turnaround, as the Fighting Irish entered Saturday at 5-1 with a one-point loss to a terrific Georgia team. While USC’s title hopes took a hit with a Sep. 29 loss at Washington State, the Trojans were still in the hunt at 6-1, setting up a crucial week eight matchup in South Bend that figured to be close throughout.
Notre Dame had other ideas and jumped out to a 28-0 lead over the rival Trojans in the first half. USC might be fortunate to be down only four touchdowns, as it was outrushed 190 to -4 in the first 30 minutes and turned the ball over three times.
Of course, Twitter had plenty to say about the developing blowout on Saturday night. From calls to fire Clay Helton to already anointing Sam Darnold as a future NFL bust, here are the best Twitter reactions to Notre Dame wrecking the Trojans in the first half.
I repeat, Notre Dame is overwhelming USC with speed right now.
— Bryan Driskell (@CoachD178) October 22, 2017
And Notre Dame is wayyyyyyy underrated. Only loss by one-point to awesome UGA? Brian Kelly turned this thing around fast from a year ago.
— Gregg Doyel (@GreggDoyelStar) October 22, 2017
Touchdown Notre Dame. It's 28-0.
— Reign of Troy (@ReignofTroy) October 22, 2017
In some parts of the country this would be couch burning time.
The outcome of the Notre Dame/USC game will all but eliminate the PAC 12 from the playoff conversation
— Booger (@ESPNBooger) October 22, 2017
Notre Dame has 176 rushing yards, USC has 7
— Marek Mazurek (@marek_mazurek) October 22, 2017
Another Irish touchdown. ND is beating the brakes off USC. It's 28-0 and still time for the Trojans to turn it over again before halftime.
— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) October 22, 2017
tfw you’re USC pic.twitter.com/XYGW3897p1
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) October 22, 2017
What time does USC play
— Sports internet (@Sportsinternet1) October 22, 2017
Notre Dame is beating USC so badly tonight that the Trojans might not even qualify for "signature win" status.
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) October 22, 2017
Sam Darnold is picked off!
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 22, 2017
Scheduled by @TweetDeck
I do wonder if we were all too quick to anoint Clay Helton last year...
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) October 22, 2017
There’s still a lot of football left to be played, but it would take a miracle for the Trojans to even make it a competitive game based on their first half performance. If the score holds, USC will be out of the playoff race, while the Fighting Irish will presumably jump into the top 10.