USC defense wobbled vs Notre Dame, but allowing only 27 points was enough

Matt Zemek
·6 min read
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The USC Trojans made Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne look good on Saturday night, much as they enabled Cal quarterback Jack Plummer to look good.

Credit to Pyne for playing what was generally a very good game against USC. The much-maligned quarterback didn’t throw an incomplete pass until the fourth quarter. He looked comfortable in the pocket. He put together a solid performance, and he deserves credit for that.

Yet, we can also say — because we saw it happen on Saturday night — that USC’s defensive line couldn’t get home for sacks and huge negative plays which could have made its night a lot easier. The pass rush did not have the high-impact game it hoped for. USC didn’t get its second sack until garbage time, with the game out of hand in the final three minutes. The pass rush’s flaws left the secondary vulnerable against a Notre Dame passing attack which is not that impressive.

This defense continues to be vulnerable and flawed … but hey, we all knew this going in. The defense just has to be better than terrible over the course of 60 minutes. Moderate competence is usually going to be enough with Caleb Williams on the field … and so it was.

Let’s take you through the night for the USC defense after another Trojan victory:

STOP THE RUN

FIRED UP

SEEMS GOOD

SEEMS BAD

GENTRY GETTING INVOLVED

TRY NOT TO THROW THE RUNNER FORWARD

HUGE

TOUGHER

VIDEO

NOTEWORTHY

EARLY 2ND QUARTER:

FIRST 20 MINUTES: SOLID

QUESTIONABLE DECISION TO BLITZ

BIG TURN OF EVENTS

HALFTIME

GOTTA FINISH PLAYS

NOTRE DAME COULD NOT AFFORD THIS

DREW PYNE

WHAT A STAT

MAKING DREW PYNE LOOK GOOD

NOT LOCATING THE BALL

HARSH BUT TRUE

NOT GONNA CUT IT

VERY FAMILIAR

THIS IS NOVEMBER

ECHOES OF THE CAL GAME FOR SURE

AGREE

YOU WERE SAYING?

ANSWERED

SO TRUE

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire