A packed Notre Dame Stadium watched the Irish start slowly offensively but take a 17-3 lead into halftime all the same. In the second half, USC awoke on offense and nearly put together one of the better comebacks in series history. However, thanks to a gutsy touchdown drive led by Ian Book and Tony Jones, Jr., Notre Dame was able to hold off their rivals from Los Angeles. Next up will be visiting the vile Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor but first a bye week and a review of the USC victory.

Stats Package

Offense

QB: C
RB: A+
TE: B
OL: A
WR: C

Notre Dame needs Ian Book to play better, there’s no way around it. He didn’t turn it over again (only 2 interceptions on 171 attempts is really good) and showed the kind of patience in the pocket we’ve been looking for while also executing a couple very important runs, including a 17-yard scamper on third down before his game-winning 8-yard touchdown on Notre Dame’s final non-kneel down series.

Nevertheless, the passing game just is not clicking.

The Irish could only pick up 44 yards through the air on first down on 13 attempts for a measly 30.7% success rate. Compare that to USC who picked up 142 yards while passing on first down with 18 attempts for a 61.1% success rate.

Third down passing was a little better but not by much. Book finished 6 of 10 for 64 yards with only 3 first down throws, plus a sack thrown in there for good measure. Those 3 conversions went to Chase Claypool, Cole Kmet, and Chris Finke. Neither Claypool or Kmet were targeted on third down outside of their single conversions.

The Irish were very fortunate to pick up an extremely friendly roughing the passer call on a third down throw and that USC quarterback Kedon Slovis wasn’t productive on third down, either.

With all the talk about struggling throwing deep (or the lack of effort) this game really hammered home how Notre Dame’s short-passing game has been severely neutered. Is that all on Book? It seems like there’s a wider problem. There were a handful of drops in the game although even if they were caught USC had most of those plays well defended.

Chris Finke has been getting a lot of criticism although he did have 52 total yards on 8 targets, certainly not bad by any means. It’s not his fault the play-calling gave him a pop pass on third down that went nowhere.

You don’t see this very often. 

Michael Young remains a frustrating playmaker as he was targeted 5 times against USC (6 if you include the roughing the passer incompletion) for only 4 yards. That’s now 11 targets on the season for 24 yards, plus he inexplicably fumbled a would-be touchdown on the second half kickoff.

Compare this to Kmet and Claypool who were targeted a combined 11 times for 108 yards.

Improvement for the rest of the season really seems to come down to whether serious third and fourth options are going to emerge for Book in the passing game. To date, it’s been atrocious.

Rushing Success

Jones – 17 of 25 (68%)
Book – 5 of 10 (50%)
Smith – 3 of 5 (60%)
Armstrong – 0 of 1 (0.0%)
Finke – 1 of 1 (100%)
Lenzy – 1 of 1 (100%)

Thank goodness for the run game!

The Irish totaled a season-high 308 yards at over 6.4 per carry, with a success rate at nearly 63% with the kneel-down snaps removed. That is truly one of the best performances of the Kelly era. Additionally, after a rough start to the season the Irish bulldozed their way to 100% success running on 3rd or 4th and short on 4 attempts against the Trojans. This also doesn’t include Tony Jones’ 10 yard scamper on 3rd and 6, either.

Speaking of Jones, it’s too bad he didn’t score a touchdown because it would’ve highlighted one of the best games from an Irish running back of the Kelly era. He actually started the game with 3 unsuccessful carries but finished with success on 17 out of his last 22 carries!

For as much as the offense struggled throwing on first down, the same cannot be said for the run game. Notre Dame piled up 157 yards on 20 carries on first down, good for a 60% success rate.

Defense

DL: B-
LB: C+
DB: D+

If I had told you Tyler Vaughns and Michael Pittman would combine for 8 catches for 76 yards I bet everyone would’ve guessed the Irish won in a route. That’s not how it worked out, though.

This was a tale of two halves for the Irish defense who limited USC to just 3.84 yards per play for the first two quarters. However, the Trojans did move the ball into Notre Dame territory on 4 drives during the first half and saw several drives peter out unsuccessfully.

The second half was a different story as USC gained 8.23 yards per play while scoring on all 4 drives, including 3 touchdowns. A lot of the blame fell on the pass defense although that only tells part of the story.

Notre Dame was determined to keep everything front of them and it worked initially. Slovis connected for 19 yards on his first completion but didn’t have another completion for more than 9 yards throughout the rest of the first half. They were dinking and dunking but couldn’t put points up on the board, that’s a win for Notre Dame.

Slovis got much more comfortable in the second half going 14 of 18 for 181 yards.

For me, the run defense and poor tackling were the biggest problems. Slovis throwing for 255 yards and a couple touchdowns was to be expected in USC’s offense (and honestly even feels a little low in production) yet the Trojans piled up nearly 200 yards on the ground with an absurd 70.9% success rate.

Former Notre Dame commit Markese Stepp was so effective (10 carries for 82 yards) that College Football Data had him as 2nd best running back in the country over the weekend.

Slovis did a great job moving in the pocket and avoiding pressure at key times, Notre Dame eventually struggled handling USC’s pass catchers in the middle of the field (slot receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and tight end Erik Krommenhoek combined for 13 catches and 149 yards on 16 targets), the Trojans didn’t turn it over, but it was the run game that kept their offense on schedule the entire night. If it hadn’t, the Irish likely would’ve feasted much more as Slovis was only 2 of 6 for 24 yards on third down with only 1 conversion coming in the 4th quarter. Slovis was also sacked on another third down.

Stuffs vs. USC

(season stuffs in parentheses)

Kareem – 2.5 (9)
Bilal – 2 (8.5)
White – 1 (12.5)
JOK – 1 (8.5)
Jones – 1 (5.5)
Okwara – 0.5 (7)
Hinish – 0.5 (5.5)
MTA – 0.5 (8)

I can’t reiterate enough how better tackling would’ve helped and possibly mixing in more 4-man fronts, as well. USC started moving a lot quicker in the second half which likely frustrated Clark Lea’s game planning. Still, the Trojans rushed for 105 yards on first down at a 64.7% success rate.

There were plenty of opportunities for more stuffs or to stop a 3-yard run turning into an 8-yard gain. Those moments didn’t happen and very rarely was Slovis put into tricky passing downs.

Final Thoughts

Are we witnessing Jonathan Doerer emerging as a good college kicker right before our eyes? He receives the game ball after nailing field goals from 43, 45, and 52 yards.

Hopefully this is the game we remember where Braden Lenzy gained enough confidence to be in the regular rotation at receiver. His 51-yard rushing touchdown was a thing of beauty but then he had just 1 catch for 8 yards on 3 targets in the passing game, including a drop.

My grade for the secondary was poor in large part because Lea offered them a lot of protection and the team really needed a couple game-changing plays from them. I didn’t think they tackled well–Gilman in particular has to rein in some of his aggressiveness and be more fundamentally sound–didn’t intercept Slovis, and only broke up two passes. I think they need a little more from Troy Pride, as well.

We simply cannot downplay that final touchdown drive by Notre Dame. It was 14 plays for 75 yards that ate up nearly 7 minutes of game time and essentially forced USC to need an onside kick to win the moment the Irish scored. The drive included 12 rushes, and maybe most impressively, overcame an illegal blocking call on Tommy Kraemer while still scoring after 1st and 21 at the USC 41-yard line.

This is now 15 straight home wins for the Irish. The remaining slate of Virginia Tech, Navy, and Boston College looks pretty friendly although beware of the Middies who won again on Saturday and could be a top 40 team in SP+ by the time November rolls around.

I’ve been such a Tony Jones critic but he’s been on fire lately. He’s currently on pace to rush for over 1,200 yards on the season!

The Irish have moved up about 70 spots or so in the national third down conversion rankings since the first few games. There’s still work to do but it’s getting a little better.

Ian Book hasn’t hit 20 completions in 6 out of his last 7 starts after doing so in his first 8 starts of 2018.

Jafar Armstrong suited up and played a few snaps but was far from an impact player with one rush for -4 yards. Left guard Aaron Banks didn’t move quickly enough while pulling and a run blitz dropped Armstrong for the loss.

I thought Notre Dame’s second drive of the 2nd half was a brutal momentum changer while leading 20-6 on the scoreboard. Book connected with Finke for 19 yards on third down, then Jones later converted a 3rd & 1 down to the USC 43-yard line. USC’s starting weak-side linebacker limped off the field and then an outside run by Jones was stopped for 2 yards on 1st down. Then, Banks gets pushed back while pulling and allows a USC defender to corral Book on a QB keeper that looked like it would’ve gone for a big gain. The Irish went conservative on 3rd & 7 resulting in a 2-yard Jones run then Book missed Tremble on 4th down when he was short of the sticks anyway.