Notre Dame embarrasses USC in rout: 3 takeaways
The matchup between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and USC Trojans was exciting coming in, but the dominant Irish made that not so quite quickly.
Due to their longstanding rivalry, there’s always a palpable level of excitement when the USC Trojans and Notre Dame Fighting Irish square off each college football season. Sometimes, the games live up to the hype. Other times, things play out like they did on Saturday in Week 8 of the 2017 campaign as the Irish beat the brakes off of Clay Helton’s squad.
With quarterback Brandon Wimbush returning, Notre Dame wasted little time putting it on a Trojans defense that has been shaky all season. They scored in just over a minute on their first drive of the game, then added another touchdown later in the first quarter. It was more of the same in the second quarter as the home team in South Bend went to the end zone twice more.
However, the bigger surprise in all of this was how dominant the Notre Dame defense was. Despite USC having the great Sam Darnold on their side, their offense had nothing going. They forced turnovers, they stifled Ronald Jones II and they essentially had their way as they played to a 28-0 halftime lead.
Darnold and the Trojans showed a bit of life in the third quarter, but their defense still had no answer for Wimbush and Josh Adams, each of whom rushed for over 100 yards and multiple touchdowns on the night. It was a complete out-classing by the Fighting Irish as they toppled the Trojans with a massive victory that you wouldn’t expect in a battle between two top-15 teams.
Takeaways
1. USC isn’t the team we thought they were
In truth, this has been evident for quite some time. Be it because of injuries, because of over-hyping or because of a defense that just isn’t overall at the level they need to be at to compete on a national level, the Trojans aren’t the team that we expected them to be. Darnold hasn’t been the superstar some hoped, though that’s not all on him with his offensive line playing poorly and the receivers not playing with any consistency.
However, the bigger issue has been the aforementioned defense. Against most everyone, the run defense has been nearly nonexistent, which Notre Dame took full advantage of in this matchup. That isn’t the type of thing that improves enough for them to be a contender, which falls well short of the preseason expectations for this team.
2. Neither is Notre Dame, but in the opposite manner
Following the loss to Georgia early in the season, many wondered if Brian Kelly’s team was just another good, not great Notre Dame team. As it turns out, a one-point loss to the Bulldogs might speak more to their quality than to their detriment. And a win like the one that they earned on Saturday night only speaks more to that.
This Fighting Irish team can get it done on both sides of the ball. They’re capable of throwing the ball to big receivers, especially with Wimbush in the fold. Meanwhile, they can run the ball with a number of hands and do so with amazing effectiveness. All of that is before you even talk about a defense that might be one of the best units in the country from top-to-bottom.
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3. If Brandon Wimbush stays healthy, the Irish are a CFP team
To that same tune, this team should be getting respect as a potential College Football Playoff team. Yes, they have one loss. But if you put this Fighting Irish team up against several of the remaining undefeated teams, my bet would be that they could handle most of them. Hell, they were ever so close to topping Georgia, who might be the second best team in the country, despite their No. 3 ranking.
If this team can stay healthy — especially with Wimbush at quarterback — they have enough talent at every level on both sides of the ball to compete with anyone. Their remaining schedule isn’t easy with dates against Miami, Stanford and NC State looming. But if they can play at this level consistency, they’ll be in the mix for the CFP when it’s all said and done.