Trojans Fall to Irish

Caleb Williams had his toughest day as a Trojan turning the ball over three times. It was his first time he threw three interceptions in a game. 

Earl Heath  

Contributing Sports Writer

Throughout the nearly 100 years of the rivalry between USC and Notre Dame there have been close games and then there were routs. This year was the ladder, and the Irish came out on top 48-20. 

Caleb Williams had his toughest day as a Trojan turning the ball over three times. It was his first time he threw three interceptions in a game. 

Notre Dame has picked off opposing quarterbacks once every 36.3 pass attempts during Al Golden’s time as Irish defensive coordinator that includes 20 games. Picking off one pass from the defending Heisman Trophy winner may have made sense since Williams only had one interception all season, but three, that would never be thought of.  

“We were able to capitalize off — I’m sure [Williams] would call them mistakes,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. “He doesn’t want to throw the ball to our defenders. We were able to capitalize off them, instead of just having [pass breakups] or almost(s). Our guys turned those into takeaways, which were huge for our entire team.” 

The Irish (6-2) were coming off of a tough loss 33-20 to Louisville the previous week and were desperate to turn things around.  

USC was put in the hole early as each turnover was turned into scores by the Irish. 

To compound things the Walter Camp Player of the Year was sacked six times for loss of 44 yards. Before the game, the Trojans gave up an average of 1.83 sacks per game, 11 sacks in six games for a total loss of 80 yards. Williams finished the night completing 23 of 37 for 199 yards.  

Michael Jackson III was the leader in catches with 6 for 51 yards. MarShawn Lloyd had 46 yards on 8 carries to lead the ground game. Maybe the Trojans could have run the ball more. 

The Trojans had more total yards 307 to 250 more first downs 23 to 13 and led in time of possession 34.35 to 25:35. All that showed was the turnovers were more than costly and helped them miss out on opportunities. 

Freshman Zachariah Branch had four punt returns for 86 yards including a sixty yarder for a 21.4 average.  

Curtis Tacket lead the team in tackles with eight, six of them solo. Calen Bullock had six four solo. The Defense gave up just 260 total offense only 125 passing yards. 

“We can’t dwell on it,” said USC coach Lincoln Riley. “That’s the main thing. We’ve got some big opportunities in front of us right now as a football team. We’re disappointed with the way we played,” he continued. “That’s not representative of what we expect — our expectations, our standard. Just a lot of missed opportunities in that game that, certainly, we regret. We hate that we missed them and weren’t at our best. I think our best would have been good enough.” 

The loss dropped USC to 18 in this week’s poll. is still undefeated in the PAC 12 (3-0) and will take on UTAH at the Coliseum it will be the first of four ranked opponents they will take on in the next five weeks.