:: Notre Dame Football ::
Irish weather bitter loss to Trojans
Clausen scores three second-half touchdowns against vaunted Southern Cal defense, solidifies Heisman front-runner status
"Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react to it."
— Lou Holtz (as quoted by Notre Dame Club of Washington emails)
"If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts, my what a world we'd have."
— "Dandy" Don Meredith
After trailing Southern Cal 34-13 early in the 4th quarter, Notre Dame mounted a furious second-half rally against their fiercest rivals, making it 34-27 and advancing to the Trojan four yard-line only to come up empty in the final second.
Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen called the tough loss heatbreaking: "It's an extremely tough loss. Fighting back at the end, fourth quarter, coming up short, one second to go, it's heartbreaking."
At the same time, Clausen credited his team for fighting hard against a hard-playing, talented opponent: "... I'm so proud of this team, keep fighting when we're down. I think that's what the team is all about."
Added Golden Tate: "We don't really care what the score is; we are just going to keep playing. As you guys have seen the last four or five games, we keep playing. We play until the clock says 00:00. I think that is just one of our things this year. We weren't going to quit. We were going to play until the clock said 00:00."
Against the nation's toughest pass defense, which previously had given up zero passing touchdowns, Jimmy Clausen threw for two touchdowns and ran in a third. Clausen threw for 260 yards in the second half alone.
Notre Dame's performance left the college football world realizing that the Irish are poised to play championship-quality football but wondering when they will turn the corner and nail down top-5 results. Against a schedule that, compared with those of ranked teams, is among the toughest in the country, the Irish are playing top-15-quality football but coming up short.
One interesting question will be how Charlie Weis — one of the best offensive coaches in all of football for managing the flow of a game and the flow of a drive — will manage the flow of a season as a head coach for a still-young team building into something truly great.
The players' reactions after the game showed leadership.
Notre Dame vs. Southern Cal — How the Game Unfolded
After fairly limited opening possessions by both teams, Southern Cal scored on its second possession, driving 88 yards in 5 plays, to go up 7-0 near the end of the first quarter on a 20-yard touchdown pass by freshman Matt Barkley.
Notre Dame then drive 29 yards to the Southern Cal 27, coming up on 4th and 2. As the Irish lined up for a field goal, wide receiver Robby Parris, in on the previous play, did not quite make it off the field, but lined up inconspicuously next to the sideline. No one on the Southern Cal defense noticed him and he went uncovered. Holder Eric Maust took the snap, stood up, and rifled a pass to Parris, who streaked down the sideline but was knocked out-of-bounds at the 2. Heavy-halfback/running fullback Robert Hughes then powered the ball in for a 2-yard touchdown run to tie it up 7-7 just before the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Notre Dame offense was largely stymied by what might be the toughest defense in college football.
Meanwhile, Southern Cal put together an 11-play, 80-yard drive, all on the ground with mostly big rushes, culminating in a 24-yard field goal. Then the Trojans had a 10-play 53-yard drive, and a 37-yard field goal.
Notre Dame did follow with a 43-yard drive on 7 plays, to the Southern Cal 39, but elected to punt for field position rather than ask the strong-legged but young freshman kicker to attempt a 56-yard field goal.
The freshman punter delivered a 27-yard punt to pin Southern Cal at their 12, which helped the Irish defense keep the Trojans from mounting a long enough drive to score. After a Trojan punt, Notre Dame ran the clock out.
So at half-time, the game was a fairly manageable, low-scoring affair, with Southern Cal leading 13-7.
In the third quarter, Notre Dame's offense started moving, and Southern Cal's offense started lighting up the scoreboard. At first, both teams traded touchdowns, making it 20-14 — after a 73-yard scoring drive by Southern Cal capped by a 41-yard touchdown pass, and a 78-yard scoring drive by Notre Dame with a spectacular, perfectly thrown 45-touchdown pass and catch from Clausen to Golden Tate, almost entirely in the air. Moving at top speed, Tate made leaping, diving grab with two defenders right on him, including a 235-pound safety plastered against him in mid-air. The combined momentum carried everybody into the endzone still in mid-air with Tate demonstrating hands of steel hanging onto the ball.
Southern Cal then uncorked a 73-yard, 5-play scoring drive, including a 60-yard pass in the middle of the drive, to go up 27-14, followed by the Trojan defense stopping Notre Dame for a three-and-out.
On a drive starting in the third quarter and carrying into the first few minutes of the fourth, Southern Cal's now seemingly unstoppable offense went 66 yards on 6 plays, including pass completions of 25 and 28 yards, to score a one-yard rushing touchdown to go up 34-14 with 13:33 minutes to go in the game.
Notre Dame then combined a mixture of good passes and good runs, with two Southern Cal personal fouls for 30 yards, for a 68-yard scoring drive capped off by Jimmy Clausen, sore foot and all, scampering in from two yards out for a rushing touchdown to make it 34-20. The kick was blocked, but Notre Dame was within two touchdowns with about 11 minutes to go.
On Southern Cal's next possession, the Trojans started out driving the ball a bit, getting a first down and picking up 24 yards total, only to have the quarterback, under intense pressure by linebacker Brian Smith, throw a pass that safety-turned-cornerback Jonas Gray picked off at the Southern Cal 43, returning it 30 yards to the Southern Cal 13.
Clausen was actually sacked on Notre Dame's first play, before completing a 3-yard pass, and 15-yard touchdown pass to Tate, to get Notre Dame to 34-27 with 7:28 to go.
With Notre Dame in a position to tie or win if they got the ball back, the Irish defense then yielded 18 yards and a first down, but stopped the Trojans at mid-field on a drive that included a sack for an 8-yard loss. On fourth-and-two, Southern Cal elected to punt, but the punt only went 28 yards, to the Notre Dame 22.
Getting the ball back, down 34-27 with 4:18 left on their own 22, the Irish then put together a 17-play drive covering 74 yards. Clausen accounted for all 74 yards, including 2 rushes for 7 yards and 60 yards of passing.
In a drive also sprinkled with incompletions, Clausen completed a 14-yard pass to Armando Allen, and rushed for 6 yards to pick up a first down. Clausen threw passes of 7 and 4 yards to Parris to bring the Irish to mid-field. Next, Clausen threw a 9-yard pass to a new face, John Goodman, who made the catch but fumbled around the Southern Cal 43. Allen got the fumble. Clausen then ran for another first down.
Amidst a rash of incompletions, perhaps as an alarmed Trojan defense try to buckle down, the Irish moved to the 29 on a 13-yard pass from Clausen to Tate.
But the Irish came up on 4th-and-10, only for Clausen to make a clutch 13-yard throw to Robby Parris at the 16, who reached up to make a big-time catch while getting hammered by a defender. Parris went to the ground, and was seated on the ground, when another Southern Cal defensive back, who had been flying into the scene trying to get on the play, but had not been in position quickly enough, delivered a cheap shot. While at the time it appeared he might simply have not pulled up quickly enough or try to avoid contact, video seems to show that the defender, now running in standing up, therefore positioned high above the seated Parris, not only did not avoid contact, but actually lowered his helmet to make helmet-to-helmet contact with Parris's head and neck. Parris's helmet was knocked off.
The PAC-10 official on the field threw a flag for hitting a defenseless player when he was down.
Clearly the Southern Cal defender should have been kicked out of the game. And the conference and the NCAA should examine the video to determine if a longer absence from play is called for.
The defender-turned-goon was 235 pounds and was supposed to be an All-American. His unsportsmanlike conduct probably should be assessed to determine whether he belongs on a football field. In addition to the NCAA emphasizing sportsmanship this year, the NFL, for example, has gotten very wealthy billing itself as family entertainment. Goonmanship does not really fit with family entertainment.
Parris was knocked from the game, and ended up not being available for the final play when he would have been the primary receiver, given that Tate was double-covered. If the second blow was what knocked him out of the game, then the situation raises the prospect that, if the Southern Cal defender who took the cheap shot is not suspended, the NCAA is giving an incentive for other players to become goons like that one that did.
Now, Parris's injuries, and presumably at least part of his grimacing, turned out to be due to an injured ankle, knee, and hip, apparently not the deliberate blow to the head.
But it was nevertheless a deliberate blow to the head that the defender-turned-goon seemed to concentrate on. Whether and how that blow, and the overall impact, affected the other injuries apparently was not discussed publicly.
On the drive Southern Cal got called for two personal fouls inside the Trojan 16-yard-line. As a result, not only did the perpetrator on the first one not get kicked out, he only got half-the-distance. And for the second personal foul, a cheap shot delivered against Notre Dame's Heisman contender, it was an even shorter half-the-distance.
Now, while Tate had the biggest scoring impact, and the biggest yardage, Parris had nine catches on the day, the most for an Irish receiver, and has been a key player in the absence of Michael Floyd. He was the third hottest player on the Irish offense.
So with the game on the line, the Southern Cal defense delivered an absolute goon shot, a deliberate hot-shot, on the third-hottest player on the offense, then followed up with a cheap shot on Clausen.
After Parris made the big catch to convert the 4th-and-10 and give Notre Dame first down at the 16, and got absolutely clocked both by a good legal hit and a cheap shot by a goon, Parris, on his back with his helmet knocked off, thrust the the ball up in the air in heroic fashion to show he had it and then began writhing in agony before being helped off the field.
Let the record show ... in addition to being tall, big, fast, with great hands, great route-running, great leaping and great reaching ability, Robby Parris might just be the toughest wide receiver in college football.
The Parris reception and penalty put the ball at the 8-yard-line.
After the Southern Cal defender-turned-goon was allowed to remain in the game after delivering a cheap shot knocking out Parris, another Southern Cal defender, on the very next play, was called for roughing up Jimmy Clausen, moving the ball to the 4-yard line.
After getting hit with the cheap shot, Clausen threw what would have been a touchdown to tight-end Kyle Rudolph, only to have it ruled barely out-of-bounds. The next pass, intended for Tate, was incomplete.
While the clock ticked off an extra second, the officials — and any attentive spectator or viewer — ruled correctly that one second remained.
Clausen was very quick with his timing on the next play, throwing what would have been a perfect pass, low and on target, based on the short, quick route. The route was to go a few yards deep in the end zone and cut quickly to the left. But the wide receiver, when he made the cut, slipped, and was a split second late.
It came out later that the intended receiver would have been the top receiver on the day for catches, Robby Parris, had he not been knocked out of the game after deliberately getting drilled in the head by the safety-turned-goon.
Now, think back to the last time Notre Dame and Southern Cal had a close game that went down to the final moments. In both cases, there was a fourth-down that had to be converted, and chances inside the 10. Now, to put it in perspective, imagine if Notre Dame had done in that game what Southern Cal did in this one. Imagine seeing Reggie Bush making a 4th-down catch, picking up yardage for the first down and then some, was hit, being brought down, a Notre Dame defender running over to spear him in the head and see Bush knocked out of the game; and then, on the very next play, Notre Dame roughing Matt Leinert.
Yet, in this game, that is sort of what Southern Cal did on defense on the final drive, to Robby Parris and Jimmy Clausen.
Another curious wrinkle is that the grass apparently was shorter than on at least one past occasion when Notre Dame hosted Southern Cal in October. Now, Charlie Weis has pointed out that, in a normal climate such as the Midwest that has seasons, nobody cuts grass as often in cold-weather months as during the summer. Not only does the grass not grow as much, but the grass needs to be allowed to preserve itself against the chilling weather, in order to have appropriately stable turf.
After what can only be termed whining by some figures about the grass, and how a more normal height was somehow too tall for Southern Cal several years ago, we now hear that the grass was shorter. Meanwhile, Notre Dame is still in a normal part of the country, with a normal climate. And Notre Dame recently had cold and rain. Despite hiring a top turf expert to put in turf similar to Wrigley Field's, the turf was a little choppy lately, with the cold limiting grass replenishment, and the rain softening the turf. We can only wonder if slippage would have been as likely if the turf had not been kept shorter to accomodate Southern Cal sensibilities.
Interestingly, the scheduling of the game itself also might have fallen victim to the same misplaced compassion for folks not having normal seasons.
It used the be the case, for many years, that the Notre Dame-Southern Cal game was always the final game of the regular season. But then it got changed, so that it was only in late-November if Southern Cal got to play it in sunny southern California. If it was in a region with a normal climate, with seasons, at Notre Dame Stadium, the game would be moved up to milder October.
According to Southern Cal, the Trojans have not played a game in snow since 1957. That's right, a half-century of avoiding snow for what is supposed to be a football team. When was the last time Southern Cal had to play in snow? You guess it — Notre Dame. And the Irish beat them, in the snow, in 20-degree temperatures.
Did you see the recent New England Patriots game? Did you see the AFC Championship games several years back, when the hothouse Colts losing to the Patriots early in the season meant they had to play in Boston in a blizzard, and what the result was?
One wonders how any Southern Cal player can ever make the adjustment into the NFL. Forcing a return to tradition, and forcing Southern Cal to restore the series as it originally was can be of great help to those young men from Los Angeles hoping to qualify for professional play.
Then there's the nicety of using PAC-10 officials on the field.
And so, for the good of the game ... move the Notre Dame-Southern Cal game back to late-November regardless of the location, let the grass grow to a normal height needed for stable turf, use Big East officials, and have somebody in authority review that video carefully of the cheap shot(s).
Even with all that, however, Notre Dame still needed to win. It's past the point of moral victories.
Notre Dame Football indeed is back, to whom much is given much is expected, Notre Dame Football has the ability to beat anybody, and that's what they need to do.
Notre Dame Offense
Southern Cal has college football's toughest defense, and previously had not given up a single passing touchdown, while giving up just three touchdowns total. Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen threw two touchdowns in the second half, adding a third on the ground. Notre Dame scored four touchdowns total.
Turning in a Heisman-caliber second-half performance, Clausen was 17 of 29 for 213 yards and two touchdown passes of 45 and 15 yards to Golden Tate, with no interceptions, in the second half alone. Clausen also had a two-yard rushing touchdown.
Overall Clausen was 24 of 43 for 260 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. Thus far, on the year, Clausen has thrown 14 touchdowns to 2 interceptions, one of which hit the receiver in the hands and bounced off.
In another All-American-caliber performance, Golden Tate had 117 receiving yards and two touchdowns on 8 catches, with 146 yards all-purpose running. One of Tate's touchdowns was a spectacular 45-yard leaping, diving catch with two Southern Cal defenders draped all over. In addition to having incredible aerobatic skills, Tate might have the strongest hands in college football
Overall, Notre Dame had 367 yards of total offense against a Southern Cal defense that had only given up 239 yards per game previously.
In fairly evenly-split play-calling, Notre Dame ran the ball 33 times (including 5 sacks that count as runs) and threw 25 times.
The Irish threw for 285 yards (including a 25-yard pass by holder Eric Maust on a fake field goal) and two touchdowns, against a Trojan defense that previously gave up only 174 yards per game and, as mentioned above, no previous passing touchdowns.
Tate led receiving yardage with his 8 catches for 144 yards and two touchdowns, while Robby Parris in a dynamic game had the most catches, with 9 for 92 yards.
Both Tate and Parris proved fast, athletic, and downtown-tough, making hard catches, taking big hits, and coming down with the ball in the clutch. Tate's leaping, diving 45-yard touchdown grab wearing two Southern Cal defensive backs like a cheap was one of the more spectacular receptions of the college football season, and Clausen's perfect ball placement, timing, and touch were almost as eye-popping as the catch.
Parris fooled the entire Southern Cal defense on a fake field goal, going unnoticed as he lined up near the sideline, and then hauling in a 25-yard catch to set up a short touchdown run that was Notre Dame's only score of the first half.
Also making a limited number of catches were tight-end Rudolph, halfback Allen, wide-receiver Kamara, and, on the final drive, sophomore wide receiver John Goodman.
With Michael Floyd out, it is interesting to see the mix of players in at wide receiver, especially sophomore Goodman. Freshman Shaquelle Evans was not on the field (The Chicago Tribune reports Weis indicates Evans was in the two-deep but simply did not get onto the field.)
Parris, whom Weis has said has three injuries and looks like one big ice-bag, will not be available against Boston College. Conversely, Floyd is wearing pads again and apparently engaging in some kind of activity during the practices, but will not be available until the game against Pitt, if cleared medically by an examination in early November.
Notre Dame's rushing attack was just a little better than what has been happening on average against the Trojans.
On the ground, Southern Cal has given up roughly 68 yards per game and 2 yards per carry, placing them among the nation's top-5 rushing defenses.
Including the 5 sacks, Notre Dame had 82 yards rushing and picked up about 2.6 yards per carry.
Armando Allen did average 4.2 yards per carry, with 51 yards rushing on 12 carries. But Robert Hughes averaged a little less than 3 yards a carry, picking up 17 yards on 6 carries, including a 2-yard touchdown run.
Notre Dame Defense
The Irish defense plays hard late in the game and shows great competitive fire in the clutch, making some very tough defensive stands, but seems to morph a bit from week to week and through the flow of a game. Overall against a Trojan offense that actually did not run a lot of plays and kept the play-calling balanced, the defense was solid against the run; gave up a lot of passing yardage per attempt despite pressuring the quarterback; shut out the Trojans during the final stretch; and made a key turnover to help Notre Dame put itself on verge of winning.
Against Southern Cal, the defense gave up 34 points in a little more than three quarters, more than 500 yards total offense on the game. But the Irish defense pitched a shut-out for most of the 4th quarter, indeed roughly the final 13 minutes, punctuated by a timely interception that set up a short touchdown drive to pull the Irish within a score.
And the linebackers and defensive line stepped up, with respect to clamping down on the run and pressuring the quarterback.
While Southern Cal has averaged about 194 yards on the ground, at roughly 5.2 yards per carry, the Irish limited them somewhat, to 121 yards rushing, 3.7 yards per carry. And Notre Dame also pressured the quarterback, including getting three sacks.
But through the air the defense gave up 380 yards and two touchdowns against one very timely interception.
Southern Cal ran only 62 offensive plays, and, as with Notre Dame, actually called a fairly even game with respect to play selection between runs and passes. The Trojans ran the ball 33 times, and threw 29 times.
But Southern Cal averaged a whopping 20 yards per completion, 13.1 per attempt.
Gray did make the timely interception in the 4th quarter to set up Notre Dame's touchdown that pulled them within a score.
Early on in the Weis tenure, the secondary was supposed to be vulnerable, but in reality was NFL-caliber but thin. The defensive backs had an embarrassment of riches with respect to coaching with Bill Lewis, with four decades of experience and one of the best defensive backs coaches in football, as well as defensive coordinator Corwin Brown who had played defensive back in his playing days.
Back then, Notre Dame apparently was so thin in the secondary that they could not field all the formations they wanted to. But for those who could take the field, the secondary included a two-time All-American, multiple NFL draft picks, and actually some pretty good speed man-by-man.
Since then, Notre Dame systematically has added quality depth in the defensive secondary, including some really highly talented recruits.
But the defense as a whole, while it has team speed, and team guts, and team talent, does not necessarily seem to have a defensive Golden Tate or Michael Floyd, or a defensive Jimmy Clausen.
Linebacker Manti Te'o was defensive player of the year as a recruit, and is being brought along well, but is still a freshman, and was getting his second bona fide start against the Trojans. Linebacker Brian Smith and safety Kyle McCarthy and others are great players, and linebacker Darius Fleming is among the national leaders in tackles-for-loss. And the line is stepping up its play as well.
But at this point, there do not seem to be the world-beating, All-America-campaigning Golden Tates of the defense at this point.
And, at least earlier in the game, missed tackles cropped up. Although, as with earlier games, if the defense got gouged for bigger gains it seemed to relate to being out of position more than being outplayed, except for the missed tackles. And against Southern Cal, quickness, speed, agility, and open-field athleticism by the opponent are indeed at their peak.
It might be interesting to try to figure the extent to which Jon Tenuta's play-calling changes throughout the game, or if Notre Dame simply plays harder than the opponent later when the game is on the line.
Against the Trojans, linebackers Brian Smith and Manti Te'o each had 8 tackles, while safety Kyle McCarthy had defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore each had 5. Defensive backs Harrison Smith, Robert Blanton, and Darrin Walls each had 4 tackles, as did defensive end John Ryan.
Overal, the linebackers, including Brian Smith, Te'o, Darius Fleming, Steve Filer, and Scott Smith, combined for 20 tackles. The defensive line, including Lewis-Moore, Ryan, Ian Williams, and Ethan Johnson, combined for 13 tackles, showing continued increases in productivity.
Eight defenders registered tackles-for-loss, including of defensive linemen, linebackers, and safety Sergio Brown.
Defensive lineman Ryan had a sack, while linebackers Brian Smith .and Filer, and defensive linemen Lewis-Moore and Johnson, had shares of sacks.
Next Up
Heading into the season it was clear that, with the Irish drawing one of the toughest slates in the country with a tough game every week, Notre Dame's biggest game would be Southern Cal but the most pivotal games would be Michigan State and Boston College, with huge implications for institutional memory. The Eagles are up next.
Keywords: Notre Dame Football, Fighting Irish, Irish Offense, Irish Defense, Jimmy Clausen, Charlie Weis, Golden Tate, Robert Hughes, Armando Allen, Duval Kamara, Robby Parris, Manti Te'o, Brian Smith, Kyle McCarthy, Kapron Lewis-Moore, Southen Cal Football, University of Southern California, USC Football, Pete Carroll, Matt Barkley
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