Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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TURNING POINT With Notre Dame trailing 31-24 after giving up 21 unanswered points, it was pinned back at its 10-yard line with 2:20 remain- ing in the third quarter, and then faced third-and-five from the 15. S o p h o m o re q u a r t e r b a c k D e- Shone Kizer appeared to be on the verge of getting sacked with the pocket collapsing around him — when he evaded it and chugged up the middle for a 23-yard gain. That crucial first down when the Fighting Irish were teetering on the brink of USC getting good field position, and potentially put- ting the game out of reach, was pivotal in the 90-yard touchdown drive — and then Notre Dame fol- lowed up with a 91-yard march on its ensuing series for a 38-31 lead. Kizer 's ad-lib scramble changed the game's trajectory. STATS OF THE GAME In the last nine games against USC, Notre Dame averaged only 15.7 points and never tallied more than 27. The 41 points it ended up scoring this season were the most against the Trojans since the 49-19 Green Jersey win in 1977 that pro- pelled them to the national title. In the 87-game series, the 41 points also were the fourth most by the Irish versus the Trojans, be- hind only the 51-0 win by the 1966 national champs, the aforemen- tioned 1977 contest and a 48-14 victory by the No. 2 Irish in 1953. The 21 points tallied by Notre Dame in the first quarter were the most ever by the Irish in any quar- ter against USC. The previous re- cord was 19 in the fourth quarter of the 1978 game in which the Irish rallied from a 24-6 deficit to take a 25-24 lead before losing 27-25. BYE WEEK COMES AT IDEAL TIME After the arduous three-game stretch versus Clemson, Navy and USC, the latter after mid-term ex- ams, Notre Dame's bye weekend will coincide with mid-semester break, allowing the players to go home for several days to relax, re- cuperate and rejuvenate. The victory versus the Trojans kept their College Football Play- off hopes alive and provides the Irish players huge motivation for the final push over the last month in which it likely will be a pro- hibitive favorite in its next four games. Ideally, Notre Dame and Stan- ford both would be 10-1 for their Nov. 28 showdown, with the win- ner putting itself into the playoff conversation. The Irish also might be able to lay claim to an unofficial Pac-12 title with a win over the Cardinal. THREE OBSERVATIONS BY LOU SOMOGYI