The No. 11 USC Trojans were utterly dominated by the No. 13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday night in South Bend, and we probably should have seen it coming.
Saturday’s game between heated rivals USC and Notre Dame was supposed to be one of the best matchups of Week 8 but quickly devolved into a blowout.
Notre Dame opened up a 28-0 lead over the Trojans at the break and never looked back in a comfortable 49-14 victory on Saturday night in South Bend. The Fighting Irish racked up 377 rushing yards against the USC defense and forced three first-half turnovers out of Sam Darnold and company.
Now sitting at 6-2 with losses to Notre Dame and Washington State, the Trojans are out of College Football Playoff contention, and may suddenly have some competition in the Pac-12 South with Arizona and Arizona State suddenly playing well. While Notre Dame is an excellent team that is far exceeding preseason expectations, Saturday’s result is still a massive disappointment for a USC team that had national championship aspirations.
Nobody expected a blowout of this magnitude, but many should have seen USC’s fall coming given their issues early in the season. The Trojans struggled from the opening whistle of 2017 with a narrow win over Western Michigan, and were fortunate to beat lesser teams like Texas in double overtime and Utah by a point.
Here are three reasons we should have known USC wasn’t for real prior to Saturday’s disaster in Notre Dame.
The lengthy injury list
While not necessarily USC’s fault, it should have been easy to see that the Trojans were going to struggle given all the injuries they have suffered this season.
USC had a number of players out even prior to the season opener, and its injury list has only grown since then. The Trojans are one of the few teams in college football this season without a bye week, and a tough schedule has since taken its toll with a number of players lost for the season.
Perhaps the biggest injury blow came on the offensive line, as starting left tackle Toa Lobendahn was unable to play in the loss to Washington State and has been limited since by a pectoral injury. Coupled with a season-ending injury to guard Viane Talamaivao, the already depleted USC line has been unable to protect Darnold this year, leading to a regression on offense.
There are countless other injuries elsewhere, with as many as eight starters sitting out an individual game this season back on Sep. 23 against California. Darnold has been unable to develop much chemistry with his wide receivers constantly being shuffled due to injury, while the defense has suffered without key pieces like Marlon Tuipulotu and Porter Gustin missing.
Things got even worse on Saturday when star cornerback Iman Marshall exited the Notre Dame game with a knee problem. As talented and deep as the Trojans are, no team in college football could expect to have a successful season with so many injuries.