Instant analysis of USC win over Notre Dame: Austin Jones, 3rd downs are huge keys

The simplest analysis of USC’s win over Notre Dame is that the Trojans have Caleb Williams and the Irish did not, but there are obviously more components to this story.

Before the game, it was uncertain if USC was going to meet the physical challenge presented by Notre Dame. Playing Arizona, Cal, Colorado, and even a tissue-soft UCLA defense offered no real preparation for facing Marcus Freeman’s Fighting Irish defense. Notre Dame is definitely a few notches better on defense than USC’s recent 2022 opponents.

The last really good defense USC faced: Washington State on Oct. 8. Before that: Oregon State on Sept. 24. Those are the two really solid defenses on USC’s 2022 schedule. Utah has a defense-first reputation but has not played great on defense this year — not against good offenses with fully healthy quarterbacks. (Oregon’s Bo Nix was nowhere close to 100% for last week’s game versus the Utes.)

USC’s offense wasn’t perfect against Notre Dame’s defense, but the offensive line fundamentally met the challenge against the Irish’s front four. Caleb Williams did the rest, avoiding sacks other QBs would not have avoided.

Let’s analyze this game with help from our friends at Fighting Irish Wire:

CALEB WILLIAMS

USC had him on its roster, Notre Dame did not. Any analysis of this game has to start and end with that simple point.

NOTRE DAME PASS RUSH

Against 99 percent of quarterbacks, including C.J. Stroud of Ohio State, the Notre Dame pass rush would have been a lot more impactful.

Not against Caleb Williams. He set himself apart.

STROUD AND CALEB VS NOTRE DAME

Stroud did make some key plays against Notre Dame, but his Ohio State offense managed only 21 points against the Irish. Caleb Williams put up 38. Yes, Stroud played Notre Dame in Week 1 and Caleb played the Irish in Week 13, but we still did see Caleb show dimensions of his game which Stroud did not offer. That is a key point of separation in the Heisman race, since the two men faced a common opponent.

IRISH WIRE ON CALEB WILLIAMS

From Nick Shepkowski:

Yes, he ran for three touchdowns but it was his scrambles and extensions of plays on non-touchdowns that did the largest amounts of damage.

UCLA-NOTRE DAME DOUBLE FOR AUSTIN JONES

Stanford plays UCLA and Notre Dame every year, so Austin Jones was familiar with the Irish defense. That paid off for him, as did the fact that he is fresh in late November as a result of not getting many carries behind Travis Dye for two and a half months.

IRISH WIRE ON AUSTIN JONES

Shepkowski:

Austin Jones won’t get the headlines on Sunday morning but he had a massive night in establishing everything USC wanted to do.  Because of Williams big night it will get ignored by the masses but his 24 carries for 154 yards was anything but quiet in determining this outcome.

USC RUN-PASS MIX

The Trojans have been a pass-first team with a pass-first offense most of the year. In this game, they ran more, and were effective.

39 rushes, 22 passes. This was a win older USC fans definitely relished.

USC BALL CONTROL

The thought process going into this game was that Notre Dame would need to keep the ball away from Caleb Williams. Instead, Caleb Williams kept the ball away from the Notre Dame offense, thereby reducing the exposure of USC’s defense.

USC won time of possession by more than 10 minutes, 35:23 to 24:37. This was really important, especially when the Irish offense found a rhythm in the second half.

THIRD DOWNS MADE USC'S BALL CONTROL POSSIBLE

Shepkowski:

The final numbers show USC going 8-12 on third down but that’s somehow worse than what they did when the game was still in the balance.  They started 8 of 10 with Notre Dame finally getting a stop to make the Trojans 8 of 11 on a third-and-28.

TURNOVERS

Drew Pyne played well at quarterback, but his two mistakes cost Notre Dame points and were crushers.

IRISH WIRE ON TURNOVERS

Shepkowski:

We spoke about it all week going in about how important the turnover battle was in this game.  We didn’t expect Notre Dame to be able to win it but if they were to keep it even then the Irish would have a chance in this one.

CREDIT TO DREW PYNE

Shepkowski:

We spoke about it all week going in about how important the turnover battle was in this game.  We didn’t expect Notre Dame to be able to win it but if they were to keep it even then the Irish would have a chance in this one.

EARLY LEAD

Against UCLA’s weak defense, USC could give up some early scores and come back. The Bruins could — and did — give USC a lifeline.

Against Notre Dame’s much stronger defense, USC was not in position to come back nearly as easily if it had to do so.

The Trojans, by getting a quick 10-0 lead, helped themselves a lot. Notre Dame had to play the kind of game it didn’t want to play.

TAHJ WASHINGTON, BRENDEN RICE, OTHER RECEIVERS MAKE BIG CATCHES

It wasn’t just Caleb or Austin Jones. The USC receivers’ depth did emerge on several impressive pass plays. This is one part of a larger winning effort from the Trojans.

MICHAEL MAYER IS THE TRUTH

Shepkowski:

On a night that USC used bracket coverage and tried their hardest to keep him from beating them, Michael Mayer still did Michael Mayer things.  The record-setting Notre Dame tight end ended the night with eight receptions for 98 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

PERSPECTIVE

Michael Mayer had a really strong night for Notre Dame, and yet his catches and yardage were dwarfed by what Dalton Kincaid of Utah did to USC … which puts the Trojans’ performance against Kincaid into perspective.

IRISH WIRE LINKS WITH MORE POSTGAME COVERAGE

Here are a few links to Irish Wire’s postgame coverage:

5 stars – best and worst of Notre Dame’s loss at USC

Watch: Chris Fowler goes nuts as USC gains 12 yards on 3rd and 20

Twitter reacts to Notre Dame’s regular season finale loss at USC

NATIONAL REACTIONS

Two other links from Irish Wire:

Kirk Herbstreit updates his top 6 following crazy Week 13

Joel Klatt releases updated top teams rankings after crazy Week 13

USC POSTGAME SHOW AT THE VOICE OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire