Paolo Uggetti, ESPN
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — By means of now, USC quarterback Caleb Williams is worn to proudly owning each level he steps on. However as Notre Dame lovers jumped over partitions and sprinted onto the farmland in party following the Preventing Irish’s 48-20 win over their longtime competitors Saturday evening, Williams put his head i’m sick and made a beeline for the tunnel. Enthusiasts shouted at him, and others gleefully recorded movies of his travel. Some even attempted to method him. Williams slightly flinched. Nearest one of the vital worst video games of his faculty profession, the entire reigning Heisman Trophy winner sought after to do was once travel.
Incorrect. 10 USC had began the season 6-0 in spite of suffering to secure on in opposition to Arizona and Colorado the ultimate two weeks, however the invoice got here due for the Trojans in opposition to Incorrect. 21 Notre Dame on Saturday evening. Era the protection that had struggled all season did its perfect to secure its personal and display development, Williams gave the look to be a shell of his regular self, and the offense he normally ends up in prime ratings perceived to accident a wall.
“I made mistakes tonight that I usually don’t make,” Williams mentioned postgame. “I’ve been in college for three years now and don’t think I’ve ever had a season or game or anything like that.”
Williams admitted he would possibly have pressured a couple of throws, however he wasn’t the lone offender. USC’s shaky offensive layout was a sieve that put Williams on his again underpinning from the get-go. When made uncomfortable within the year, Williams thrived by way of scrambling, turning useless performs into highlights. That was once now not the case Saturday evening.
“Games like this happen in careers,” Williams mentioned. “You got to get through it. You got to keep fighting, you got to be a leader. It starts with the head of the snake, and I’ll be better.”
At the first pressure of the sport, Williams was once burdened and threw handiest his 2d interception of the season. Nearest the Trojans struggled to position 3 issues at the board, Williams had every other move picked off when he was once once more burdened and his throw was once tipped on the layout of scrimmage. Nearest, only a pressure then, Williams rolled out to his left like he has executed enough of occasions ahead of, and rather of unleashing some necromancy, he dropped the ball into triple protection the place it was once promptly picked.
“He is one of the best college football players that I’ve ever seen,” Notre Dame educator Marcus Freeman mentioned. “All I kept telling the guys is … on this play, you have to attack. You cannot play passive, cannot play a three-man rush and let him go out and be the Heisman Trophy winner. You have to attack.”
Linebacker JD Bertrand echoed Freeman, noting that the Irish protection let Williams roam some distance extra ultimate season in a sport that roughly clinched his Heisman win. This past round, they’d one directive: Reserve him within the field.
“Last year, we really experienced him getting out, him playing backyard football where he’s scrambling, he’s holding his play, making it 10 seconds long and, at that point, it’s hard to cover downfield and receivers are getting open,” Bertrand mentioned. “So that was a big emphasis. As you could see, we tried to contain him as much as we could in the pocket.”
Each and every of Williams’ 3 interceptions ended in an Irish ranking, which put the Trojans in a hollow they by no means climbed out of. When Notre Dame drives had been inauguration on the USC 12-yard layout, the USC 2-yard layout and the 50-yard layout, the protection — even on its perfect presen — had tiny to disagree prospect. Remove the ones 21 issues off yields, and the much-maligned unit beneath defensive coordinator Alex Grinch surrendered handiest 3 issues within the first part.
“I thought our defense did enough to win the football game,” USC educator Lincoln Riley mentioned. “We put our defense in some terrible positions.”
The protection started the second one part with back-to-back stops of the Irish, opening the door for a USC comeback. However month Williams was once in a position to engineer a landing pressure to snip the insufficiency to 11 issues, Notre Dame returned the grant with a scoring pressure of its personal that incorporated a 43-yard landing move from Sam Hartman — a reminder that the USC protection was once nonetheless liable to permitting obese performs.
And when USC once more snip the top to 11 issues early within the fourth quarter, it was once past for USC’s particular groups to give a contribution to the loss by way of permitting a 99-yard landing go back, the backbreaker that put the sport out of succeed in for just right.
“We kind of just took our turns making mistakes, and that’s what it looks like,” Riley mentioned.
By means of the past the clock accident 0, Williams have been sacked six occasions, the Irish had pressured 5 yields (together with two fumbles within the fourth quarter) and USC had tallied 9 consequences for 75 yards. It was once as though each glimpse of a condition the Trojans had proven over the former six video games was once uncovered within the span of 60 mins.
Riley mentioned he was once “incredibly disappointed” by way of the outcome however that the group was once now not defeated or demoralized. He mentioned he reminded the group within the warehouse room that they had been nonetheless undefeated in convention play games, giving them the chance to summon one thing related to what they did ultimate season, when a midseason loss at Utah put a highway bump of their season. In his first moment as USC educator, Riley nonetheless were given the Trojans to the Pac-12 name sport, the place a win would have put them within the School Soccer Playoff. Utah, alternatively, beat them as soon as once more.
As USC leaves South Bend with a loss, what awaits isn’t simply every other rematch in opposition to Utah at house nearest age, however a gauntlet that incorporates juggernauts Oregon and Washington, in addition to UCLA to complete out the season.
“The good that you see from this football team is good enough to beat anybody,” Riley mentioned. “But we obviously know we’ve got to put it together and put it together quickly. … We got to let [go of] the disappointment of not playing very good tonight. We got to get past it. We got to move on.”
