Notre Dame holds off USC: Lessons from a crucial playoff win for the Fighting Irish

With a 49-35 win at USC on Saturday afternoon, Notre Dame all but secured a spot in the College Football Playoff. It was the 10th straight win for the Fighting Irish, who rebounded from a shocking Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois to finish the regular season with an 11-1 record.

Entering the weekend, Notre Dame had a 99 percent chance of making the 12-team field and a 71 percent chance of hosting a first-round game The athletic oneThis is Austin Mock. The Irish were No. 5 in the CFP rankings last week but will likely move up after No. 2 Ohio State lost at home to Michigan. However, they cannot secure a spot in the top four as they will not become conference champions.

USC finishes the regular season with a 6-6 record and awaits its bowl goal. The Trojans, who had won two straight after switching at quarterback from Miller Moss to Jayden Maiava, had led in the fourth quarter in each of their previous five losses. That streak ended against Notre Dame, which scored 21 points in the third quarter and took control.

USC threatened late, trailing Notre Dame by 21 yards to 35-28 with about four minutes left, but Christian Gray – who had struggled most of the day – intercepted a pass and returned it 99 yards for a touchdown. Xavier Watts followed shortly after with a 100-yard interception return.

CHRISTIAN GRAY #GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/VPYKhCeH3S

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 1, 2024

Quarterback Riley Leonard continued his strong play, completing 17 of 23 passes for 155 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, while adding 50 yards and a score on the ground. Star tailback Jeremiyah Love ran for 99 yards and a touchdown on 13 attempts, but had to leave the game in the third quarter due to an injury. Jadarian Price led the Irish ground game with 111 yards and a TD on 12 carries.

Here are some takeaways.

Notre Dame is pushed… and responds

On a day when Notre Dame had to find an answer after being pushed by USC, the Irish leaned heavily on their ground game but also got burned when they didn’t. Love and Price combined for 25 carries and 210 yards, including some spectacular game-changing plays that allowed Notre Dame to leave the Coliseum with the CFP targets still in place. Love got past another defender. Price broke off a 36-yard touchdown run. Love scored a rushing touchdown for the 12th straight game, a school record streak.

It was all a reminder that Notre Dame doesn’t have to work everything through the quarterback every week – although Leonard finished with 50 yards and a touchdown on the ground, the Duke transfer remains Notre Dame’s most dangerous weapon in the red zone.

And yet it’s worth asking whether Notre Dame can continue to win if Leonard, the quarterback, can’t offset this three-man rushing attack. Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock appeared to lock down Leonard, the downfield passer, which at times made Thanksgiving weekend look like early September for the Notre Dame offense.

Leonard barely pushed the ball vertically, although both touchdown passes – the first to tight end Eli Raridon and the second to tight end Mitchell Evans – were ambitious down the field. But so did Leonard’s interception, when he miscommunicated with receiver Kris Mitchell to give USC a second-half gift that John Humphrey collected.

Yes, Notre Dame got its running game into the CFP. This is a smart business decision. And yes, it’s fair to wonder whether the Irish will have the passing game needed to win the CFP in December. — Pete Sampson

Go deeper

Sampson: How will Notre Dame perform in the playoffs? It has earned the right to celebrate first

There is still work to be done

Notre Dame’s spot in the College Football Playoff is secure. The event will most likely take place in late December, with the greater curiosity being where the Irish are seeded and who they might face on their side of the group.

But this USC survival is also a reminder that Notre Dame still has a lot of work to do before then. For the first time this season, Al Golden’s defense was in trouble and Notre Dame’s defensive depth looked overwhelmed. The Irish team appeared to be unraveling when wide receivers coach Mike Brown was called to the sideline for unsportsmanlike conduct. Leonard, the passer, was sporadic. And the kicking game remains a big question for Mitch Jeter.

Notre Dame can tackle all of that in the next three weeks now that the biggest (but not only) goal of the season has been checked off and it is now known that it is going to the CFP. The loss to Northern Illinois, which remains the biggest scoring upset of the college season, necessitated that 10-game winning streak that saw Notre Dame improve virtually everywhere over the last three months.

That’s a credit to coach Marcus Freeman, who may be on his way to a classic Year 3 in Notre Dame history. — Sampson

The dam is finally breaking for the USC defense

Look, the Trojans’ stats aren’t eye-popping or overly impressive, but defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn has done a good job keeping the unit respectable. USC has struggled with injuries to its top players (defensive lineman Anthony Lucas and linebacker Eric Gentry), sudden departures (Bear Alexander), lack of depth and general youth. Through it all, the defense has held its own and kept the Trojans in every game – and sometimes won the game for them, like last week against UCLA.

But all of these problems were so glaring against Notre Dame, the best team USC has faced this year. Whether it was running backs Love and Price, tight end Evans, or Leonard’s arms and legs from the quarterback position, the Trojans had no answer for what the Fighting Irish were doing offensively.

Notre Dame finished the game with 436 yards of offense and controlled the line of scrimmage with 258 rushing yards. USC’s lack of size, strength and depth along the defensive line was evident against a strong Fighting Irish O-line. Notre Dame scored touchdowns on three of its four possessions in the third quarter, building a lead it refused to relinquish. Lynn did a commendable job in his first season as USC’s defensive coordinator, but the problem is clear – he needs more talent. — Antonio Morales

USC continues to find ways to lose

It’s pretty amazing to see how many mishaps the Trojans have had towards the end of games this season. USC led in the fourth quarter of its first 11 games this season and somehow managed to lose five of those games. Against Notre Dame, they didn’t take the lead in the fourth quarter, but seemed poised to equalize at least four minutes before the end.

On first-and-10 from the Notre Dame 21, Maiava tried to hit Kyron Hudson with a back-shoulder throw. Hudson didn’t get the ball back and it was intercepted by Gray, who returned it 99 yards, essentially sealing the game for the Fighting Irish.

This sequence summed up USC’s 6-6 season: a great opportunity, only to find a way to blow it. The Trojans will hate to look back on this season because they missed so many opportunities and games because they simply couldn’t make enough plays when they needed to. – Morales

(Photo by Riley Leonard: Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)