I spent more than a few plays last night bitching about the strange offensive play-calling. Either it was more obtuse than usual, or the echoes of the 2007 UCLA game weren't my imagination and the coaches were trying to avoid entirely eviscerating the opposition.
On offense.
The SC defense gave up four 1st downs to Notre Dame, the first of which came at the death of the third quarter, and the fourth of which was a late present from Malik Jackson's personal foul (which he followed up by getting himself ejected - learn a lesson from that, young man!)
If you take a look at the summary stats for the game, you can understand why some portion of the Notre Dame fanbase would like to seek their decided schematic advantage elsewhere:
| Notre Dame | USC | |
| First Downs | 4 | 22 |
| Total Yards | 91 | 449 |
| Passing | 41 | 274 |
|
Running |
50 | 175 |
| Penalties | 2 - 22 | 8 - 80 |
| 3rd Down | 2 - 11 | 5 - 14 |
| 4th Down | 0 - 1 | 0-1 |
| Turnovers | 3 | 3 |
| Possession | 25:59 | 34:01 |
Next time I complain about SC under-achieving on offense, I'll take a look at this.
Surely this has to be testing the patience of the Irish fans; this has been a good rivalry where even most streaks weren't built on blowouts and beatdowns. I may live to regret this post when Notre Dame lays a fifth consecutive beatdown under Brian Kelly, of course.