Notre Dame Completes Perfect Regular Season
#3 Notre Dame survived a scare on rivalry weekend, and overcame its largest deficit of the season to defeat USC, 24-17 in the 90th meeting between the two schools on Saturday night at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
After a lackluster first quarter, the Irish went down 10-0 early in the second quarter, but scored 24 straight points to leave the West Coast with a win and their perfect season intact at 12-0.
USC led 10-7 at halftime. After three-and-outs by the Irish and the Trojans to open the second half, Notre Dame was able to strike in 33 seconds to take a 14-10 lead on its second drive in the third quarter.
After a 15-yard reception to Alize Mack from Ian Book, Dexter Williams took an outside zone run 52 yards to pay dirt. Notre Dame led by four with 10:55 left in the third quarter.
The Irish defense tightened up and forced back-to-back punts by the Trojans after Williams’ long touchdown run. Book and the offense were able to turn the stops into three points.
Justin Yoon hit his record-setting 58th career field goal to give Notre Dame a 17-10 lead with just over a minute to play in the third quarter.
After a USC punt following the field goal, Book hit Miles Boykin and Chase Claypool for long completions to set up the Irish offense in the red zone, but on 3rd and long, Book rolled to the left and threw a pass intended for Mack into triple-coverage and USC defensive back Jordan McMillan recorded an interception in the end zone.
With a chance to tie, USC started its drive from the 20-yard line. The Notre Dame pass rush had other things in mind, Julian Okwara sacked Trojan quarterback JT Daniels on first down and Jerry Tillery forced a punt with a sack on third down.
Notre Dame extended the lead moments later when Book swung the ball to a wide-open Tony Jones Jr., who took it 51 yards to the house.
USC scored a touchdown late, but wasn’t able to recover the onside kick.
Book ended the game 22-for-39 with 352 yards and two touchdowns. He also made two crucial third-down runs of 11 and 16 yards which extended scoring drives. Williams ended with 104 yards on the ground on 16 carries and also added 5 catches for 54 yards. Chris Finke led all wideouts with seven catches for 86 yards and did most of his damage in the first half. Boykin and Claypool each added 73 yards each.
Julian Love led all Irish tacklers with 12 tackles and had a near interception that was nullified after a booth review.
Daniels was lights-out in the first half, but less efficient in the second half, completing just 11 of his 20 pass attempts for 104 yards and a late touchdown. The true freshman ended 37-for-51 for 349 yards and a touchdown. Tyler Vaughns caught a game-high 12 catches for 120 yards and a touchdown while freshman Amon-Ra St. Brown caught 10 passes for 94 yards.
Iman Marshall was led the USC defense with 12 tackles and also was excellent in coverage. The senior had many pass breakups in his matchup with Boykin. Marlon Tuipulotu also added two sacks for the Trojans.
USC dominated the first half and the Irish were fortunate to be down only three, 10-7, at intermission.
The Trojans came out and took advantage of the soft coverage Notre Dame showed on the perimeter. Daniels was accurate and got the ball out of his hand quickly and drove down the field 78 yards on eight plays and the Trojans’ first drive was capped by a 14-yard scamper by Vavae Malepeai. Daniels completed on six of his seven pass attempts on the first drive of the game.
After the Irish were unable to do much of anything on their first drive, USC was again moving before Troy Pride stripped Vaughns and recovered to stop the threat.
But after a Notre Dame three-and-out, USC went 50 yards on 13 plays to set up a 30-yard field goal by Michael Brown to take a 10-0 nine minutes into the first quarter.
The Irish drove into USC territory on their third drive, but turned the ball over on downs when Marshall broke up Book’s fourth-down pass to Finke.
Notre Dame’s defense forced USC into a three-and-out on the following possession and the Irish were able to gets points on the board after it took over.
Book capped an 11-play, 64-yard drive with a 24-yard touchdown toss to Finke. The quarterback showed some heart earlier on the march, converting a pair of third-and-longs with his arm before an 11-yard run to move the chains by lowering his shoulder into a USC defensive back to pick up the first down by a yard.
The Trojans had a chance to grow the margin late in the half.
With two minutes to play, USC started to drive down the field once again sparked by a 35-yard connection down the left sideline to Michael Pittman from Daniels. The Trojans had the ball on the Irish 29 yard-line and Daniels connected with St. Brown for the eighth time, but Alhoi Gilman punched the ball out and it was recovered by Drue Tranquill to end the threat.
Notre Dame took over on its own 15-yard line, but was unable to capitalize with points despite Book connecting with Boykin for 39 yards on a last-second heave to the end zone as the first half expired. Boykin was tackled at the USC two-yard line.
Notre Dame’s offense was kept in check for most of the first 30 minutes, but Book ended the half with a decent stat-line. The junior signal-caller completed 14 for his 21 pass attempts for 178 yards and a touchdown. Finke was his favorite target and he caught seven passes for 86 yards and a score. The problem was the Irish being limited to 32 rushing yards on 13 carries in the first half. Love led the defense with 10 tackles as Pride and Gilman forced the crucial fumbles.
Daniels commanded the Trojan offense from the start. He completed 26 of his 31 pass attempts for 244 yards and got the ball out quickly which nullified the Notre Dame pass rush. St. Brown and Vaughns were his favorite targets. St. Brown caught eight passes for 84 yards and Vaughns caught 10 passes for 72 yards.