Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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the Trojans to overcome. "When you have a back like C.J. Pro- sise, they have to put another guy down to defend against the run," Kelly said. "You're going to get one-on-one cover- age with Will Fuller, and in my estima- tion there's nobody in the country that can cover him one-on-one." Jackson certainly could not. The sophomore two-way player is con- sidered one of the nation's top cor- nerbacks. Fuller beat Jackson on the touchdown and for a 45-yard gain in the fourth quarter, and dusted Jackson again on a post route late in the third quarter, forcing the USC cornerback to grab him to prevent another touch- down. "That's the balance we have now within our offensive structure that at times we haven't had," Kelly said of his team's big play potential. "We're very difficult to defend because of that." The big plays fueled both offenses. USC finished the night with 590 yards of total offense, and 411 of those yards came on 11 plays. On its other 66 plays the Trojans had just 179 total yards, good for an average of 2.9 yards per snap. Notre Dame's 11 big plays resulted in 337 yards of offense. On its other 49 plays, the Irish had just 139 yards of offense for an average of just 2.8 yards per play. SPECIAL TEAMS EXCELLENCE The often-overlooked third part of the game — special teams — came up huge for the Irish. After Notre Dame went up 14-10 in the opening quarter, the kick coverage unit was able to tackle USC's dynamic return man Adoree' Jackson at the Tro- jans 21-yard line. The defense forced a punt on a quick three-and-out. Notre Dame went on the attack, sending mul- tiple rushers at punter Kris Albarado. Freshman wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown was able to block the punt, and fifth-year senior Amir Carlisle scooped up the ball and scored from five yards out to give the Irish a 21-10 advantage. Notre Dame had not been overly ag- gressive attacking opposing punters in the first six games of the season, but that changed against USC. "We just felt like we wanted to be ag- gressive when we got the opportunity," head coach Brian Kelly said. "We've shown some coverage more than we have attacked the punt, and we felt like this was a week that we wanted to do it. We got the right circumstances in situa- tions where they were backed up." Freshman return man CJ Sanders had another big night, ripping off a 25- yard punt return and back-to-back kick returns that went for 33 and 30 yards. Sanders was also a missed block by fifth- year senior tight end Chase Hounshell MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • Freshman wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown was awarded the special teams game ball for his blocked punt in the second quarter. • With the win over USC, Notre Dame im- proved to 11-2 in home night games. • Junior wide receiver Will Fuller's 75-yard first-quarter score was the eighth offensive TD of at least 50 yards and the ninth play with at least 50 yards for the Irish this season. Both totals are team bests since 1992. • Sophomore quarterback DeShone Kizer re- corded the first two punts of his career, averag- ing 40.5 yards per attempt.