Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1485778
22 DECEMBER 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED if-you-can Houdini act of a scramble. He had the Trojans set up with second-and- goal on the Notre Dame 3-yard line when time ran out in the quarter. Stats: Southern Cal outgained Notre Dame 146 to 124 in total yards. The Tro- jans possessed the ball for 8:47. Notre Dame averaged 10.3 yards per play to Southern Cal's 9.1. Items: The Irish offense was rolling to start the quarter before Pyne put the ball on the ground on a botched RPO (run-pass option) exchange; Southern Cal recovered the fumble and scored on the ensuing drive to take a 24-7 lead … Estime's best sequence of the night was a gain of 5 followed by a gain of 24 on consecutive plays on the same drive as the Colzie touchdown … Southern Cal had four plays of 12 or more yards on its final drive of the quarter. FOURTH QUARTER SOUTHERN CAL 38, NOTRE DAME 27 Top Moment: Mayer caught his sec- ond touchdown pass of the game with 1:02 remaining. This one was from 24 yards out. It was inconsequential in the outcome, but it could have been Mayer's final act in a Notre Dame uniform if he decides to skip the Irish's bowl game to focus on the 2023 NFL Draft. Feature Performer: Southern Cal running back Austin Jones ran 7 times for 26 yards to keep the clock moving. Those aren't huge numbers, but the trust was there in Jones to help the Tro- jans ease over the finish line. Stats: Notre Dame outgained South- ern Cal 141 to 79 in total yards. The Irish had 9 first downs to the Trojans' 3. But as they had in the previous three frames, Southern Cal won the time of posses- sion battle, 8:56 to 6:04. Items: Williams scored his second rushing touchdown of the night on a 3-yard scramble on the first play of the fourth quarter … Diggs scored Notre Dame's only rushing touchdown of the game to get the Irish within 31-21 with 11:29 left … The Trojans were called for offensive holding for the first time all night on back-to-back plays midway through the quarter … Pyne was inter- cepted over the middle of the field with 4:56 left, and Williams scored on a 16- yard rush four plays later to put the game away at 38-21 with 2:42 remaining. ✦ Notre Dame junior quarterback Drew Pyne passed for a career-high 318 yards versus Southern Cal, but he also turned the ball over twice. PHOTO BY MEG OLIPHANT ND USC FIRST QUARTER USC Washington 11-yard pass from Williams (Lynch kick) 10:36 0 7 Drive: 8 plays, 75 yards, 4:24 USC Lynch 31-yard field goal 3:29 0 10 Drive: 9 plays, 37 yards, 4:51 SECOND QUARTER ND Mayer 22-yard pass from Pyne (Grupe kick) 6:14 7 10 Drive: 9 plays, 80 yards, 4:53 USC Williams 5-yard run (Lynch kick) 0:34 7 17 Drive: 10 plays, 75 yards, 5:40 THIRD QUARTER USC Brown 5-yard run (Lynch kick) 8:21 7 24 Drive: 7 plays, 74 yards, 2:53 ND Colzie 23-yard pass from Pyne (Grupe kick) 5:54 14 24 Drive: 5 plays, 75 yards, 2:27 FOURTH QUARTER USC Williams 3-yard run (Lynch kick) 14:53 14 31 Drive: 10 plays, 75 yards, 6:01 ND Diggs 5-yard run (Grupe kick) 11:29 21 31 Drive: 7 plays, 75 yards, 3:24 USC Williams 16-yard run (Lynch kick) 2:35 21 38 Drive: 4 plays, 24 yards, 2:21 ND Mayer 24-yard pass from Pyne (Pyne pass failed) 1:02 27 38 Drive: 6 plays, 56 yards, 1:25 ND USC Total First Downs 22 23 Rushing 6 11 Passing 15 10 Penalty 1 2 Rushing Attempts 26 39 Yards Gained Rushing 114 237 Yards Lost Rushing 24 33 Net Yards Rushing 90 204 Net Yards Passing 318 232 Passes Attempted 26 22 Passes Completed 23 18 Had Intercepted 1 0 Percent Completion 88.5% 81.8% Yards Per Attempt 12.2 10.5 Yards Per Completion 13.8 12.9 Total Offensive Plays 52 61 Total Net Yards 408 436 Average Gain Per Play 7.8 7.1 Fumbles: No.-Lost 2-1 1-0 Penalties: No.-Yards 4-39 6-55 Punts: No.-Yards 1-39 2-84 Average Per Punt 39.0 42.0 Average Net Punt 39.0 32.0 Punt Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0 Kickoff Returns: No.-Yards 4-82 0-0 Interception Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 1-11 Fumble Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0 Miscellaneous Yards 0 0 Possession Time 24:37 35:23 Third-Down Conversions 5-7 8-12 Percentage 71.4% 66.7% Fourth-Down Conversions 0-1 1-1 Percentage 0.0% 100.0% Sacks By: No.-Yards 2-16 2-16 SOUTHERN CAL 38, NOTRE DAME 27 Nov. 26, 2022 ✦ Attendance: 72,613 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ✦ Los Angeles 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final Notre Dame 0 7 7 13 27 Southern Cal 10 7 7 14 38