Remember a few weeks ago, when I asked after the MSU game about ending a game without any complaints?

Wow.

Notre Dame crushed/creamed/obliterated/smothered/walloped (I could keep up with those for a while) USC Saturday night, 49-14. The Irish never allowed any semblance of doubt to creep in, right from the Trojans’ first play from scrimmage, an all-effort play that saw Te’von Coney steal the ball from Sam Darnold after the latter fumbled a high snap. That quickly erased the bad memories of a sputtering first ND possession, and the Irish set to work making SC pay for it, scoring a touchdown in 3 plays.

They did the same thing a little while later. Up 14-0, the Irish punted, SC muffed the kick and ND recovered. The Irish scored a TD.

As a matter of fact, that’s what ND did every single time SC gave them the ball. The Darnold pick? TD. SC turns it over on downs in the 2nd half? TD.

That’s what this Irish team has done so well. Almost impossibly well. Make other teams pay. And when in the red zone, it’s TDs almost every time (including every time today). It’s why they’re now, beyond all doubt, a College Football Playoff contender.

This is the first time you can indisputably say that, because it’s the first ND team with a win like this in a long, long time. The 2015 team was very good but didn’t have any wins remotely resembling this one. The 2014 team started 6-0 (believe it or not, that actually happened) but didn’t have any wins over ranked teams in that time. You probably have to go back to Lou Holtz to find an ND team thoroughly bludgeon a highly-ranked team like this from start to finish.

Mike Elko can have whatever he wants

I don’t care what it is. Want to be the mayor of South Bend? Want a luxury SUV? Want to be addressed as “Your Highness”? I literally do not care. He needs to be the defensive coordinator forever. This team was shredded to bits by freaking Duke not even 13 months ago, and tonight they held a high-powered USC offense to 336 yards – fewer than ND rushed for. They allowed 2.5 yards per rush – the vaunted Ronald Jones went for 32 yards on 12 carries. Nick Watkins baited Sam Darnold into an INT. Every key tackle was made. Jerry Tillery continued to be an animal, and his buddies Khalid Kareem, Jay Hayes and others were regular presences in the USC backfield.

Welcome to the Heisman discussion, Josh

It’s about freaking time Josh Adams got some Heisman attention. He has nearly 1,000 rushing yards in 7 games. He doesn’t do a lot in the passing game (his drop of the screen pass on 3rd down of the first possession showed why), but he’s averaging NINE FREAKING YARDS PER CARRY! He’s good for at least one 70+ yard TD run every game. You can count the number of guys more dangerous than him with the ball on one hand. The Georgia defense throttling him is likely to keep him from having a real chance to win the award (although that didn’t stop Johnny Manziel when LSU did it), but it’s been long since time to put him in the discussion, and 191 yards and 3 TD will do that.

Numbers might lie (a little) on Wimbush

Wimbush was 9/19 for 120 yards, with 2 TD. Not that impressive, right? Well, in one sense, you are right. Wimbush (barely) missed two throws that could have been TDs and obviously missed a couple of other throws. But he was in command all night. It helped that he ran for 106 yards. (He tied DeShone Kizer’s QB-rushing-TD season record tonight with his 10th. There are 5 games left.) He tucked and ran when it made sense, and he protected the ball. ND’s line and running game are so good that that’s all he needs to do. If he keeps it up, winning out is a real possibility.

(Slight digression: Welcome to the party, KJ Stepherson. Finally playing an actual role on the team, Stepherson ran the ball a few times and actually led ND in receiving yards, with 58. It’s always nice to have another crazy-fast dude available.)1

Special teams: An underrated key

Sometimes your best attribute can be not screwing up. That’s what the special teams has had most of the year. Outside of the poor opening kickoff return, the Irish’s special teams was just fine. Most importantly, they recovered USC’s muffed punt. USC missed a field goal early. The Irish, meanwhile, got decent returns, kept SC from breaking off any big ones of their own, made all their PATs and had good kickoffs. And although it didn’t amount to anything, Tyler Newsome, for the second week in a row, launched a perfect punt inside the one-yard line with less than a minute left in the first half.

So here we are. Notre Dame, actual Playoff contender. The schedule from here lines up almost exactly the way you’d want it to if you need quality wins: ND plays a bunch of highly-ranked teams that also haven’t done anything that would scare you. Miami is ranked in the top 10, but seems to be living on borrowed time. NC State’s signature achievement so far is beating Florida State, which everyone is doing now. Stanford is probably the best team left on ND’s schedule, but the same SC team ND just crushed won big against them. There is no reason to fear anyone left on the slate. And with the Pac-12 essentially out of the race already (only the Washington/WSU winner can finish with 1 loss, and I doubt either will win out until then), only one more conference needs to cannibalize itself for ND to be 5 wins from a playoff berth.

This is a real discussion. We’re actually having it. We’ll continue to have it at the very least until a week from now. What could be better?

(Photo credit: USA Today)