Instant Reaction: Notre Dame 49 - USC 14

Did that just happen or was that my own personal fever dream? Did Notre Dame just kick the you know what out of USC like it was a reverse 2014?

What a performance by the Irish.

Some of the narrative might be that USC is a fraud, but most of it should be that the Irish are for real. They treated the Trojans like they were Temple. I did not see that coming. At all. But, wow, what a win for Brian Kelly and the program. They and he needed it and boy did they ever deliver.

Was this the best home win for Kelly at Notre Dame? There is a legitimate argument that it was. No longer just a nice bounce back story, at 6-1 and likely in the top 10 after this week, this jumped them up into contender status.

Many tests are yet to come. For now, let’s give all the players and the staff all the credit for acing this one.

- We knew before the game that the Irish had the edge up front on both sides of the ball. If I had to pick one thing that made the difference in this blowout, it had to be that. They out-rushed SC by 301 yards!

Josh Adams and Brandon Wimbush will get the accolades. They deserve it, but once again there were huge holes to run through for Adams and Tony Jones Jr. The line whooped them. They missed Josh Fatu, but it wasn’t like they just ran at Malik Dorton and Brandon Pili all game long. No matter who they ran at, it seemed to work.

It was all punctuated by Quenton Nelson dominating Rasheem Green at the point of attack on the final Adams touchdown.

- I will say that Adams doesn’t get enough credit for good his feet are. He made some ridiculous cuts. The kind of cuts that backs that tall don’t typically make. That and the finish by him and every runner, including Wimbush, were what stood out.

Notre Dame took it too them physically and USC wilted.

- Ronald Jones rushed for 2.7 yards per carry. That’s all about the defensive line winning the majority of the time. Even when USC used some motion to try and open up some holes, the line was winning one on one and able to make tackles with less help from the back seven.

The ends in particular had USC’s tackles on skates often. It was versus the run and the pass. I’d love to mention individuals, but it was really everybody on the edge. And even just mentioning the edge is not fair because of how well Jerry Tillery played. He harassed Sam Darnold on several occassions.

Darnold’s numbers ended up being okay, but those numbers don’t bring attention to the times he was forced to scramble for his life.

- Back to Wimbush, 9-19 isn’t exactly stellar. He missed some open guys and could have had a bigger day throwing the ball. USC played so much man coverage, though, that they were playing with fire if he could get free as a scrambler. He did several times and they never seemed to adjust to it.

That play-action touchdown to Equanimeous St. Brown and the back shoulder bullet to Kevin Stepherson were the highlights of his day throwing the ball. If Notre Dame can win up front like that and he can make enough of those throws, then the Irish can beat anybody because he just needs to keep the defense honest through the air with how good the running game has been.

- This was Exhibit A of why it’s so big to have Stepherson back. He looks so slim, but runs much tougher than you’d expect. He’s always a threat after the catch and you saw how good he is when he gets a chance to run the football.

Chip Long did a great job implementing him into this game plan. 5 touches on offense for 82 yards and touchdown. Not a bad day at the office and he caught all three targets thrown his way.

- This defense, man. The play by Te’Von Coney to open the game was the perfect example of what has been drilled into every player since Mike Elko arrived. They are always looking to rip away the football. You see it on every play while the Irish are gang tackling. It’s a habit now.

- Coney absolutely balled out. They never even had to mention that Greer Martini was out after the game started. He’s played pretty well this season and last, but this was probably the best game of his career.

He led the way and the overall performance was terrific. USC went 4-13 on 3rd down. The had 10 tackles for loss. Two more turnovers (not including the gift Jack Jones gave them on his muffed punt). Yeah, they could have tackled better at corner and made a mistake on that one touchdown to Burnett. But they held USC to 14 points.

I laughed when I saw that prediction from our guy Matt Freeman before the game, but he was right. Nice job, Matt.

- Outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu has been having a great season. He has been a disruptive presence in several games for the Trojans. He had one quarterback hit. That’s it.

- I bet the recruits on campus enjoyed that one. It’s a lot easier to sell these kids when Notre Dame does that instead of using the “If we had you, we could have won” pitch.

- What a game. What a night. Now that’s a USC memory I won’t soon forget.