The Defense is Back

USC may to have appeared to beat the Irish offensively all night at least statistically.

	USC	ND
First Downs (Rush/Pass)	18 (7/10)	17 (6/9)
Yards per rush	4.2	3.2
Passing yards	201	166
Total Offensive Yards	330	295
Yards per gain	5.1	4.5
Possession Time	31:18	28:42

 

USC players came out of South Bend with some respectable if not impressive individual numbers.  Running back Silas Redd had 112 yards, averaging 5.9 yards a carry along with a touchdown.  Receivers Agholor and Rogers each had six catches with 89 and 60 yards respectively.  Nelson Agholor also had four punt returns for 100 yards (average of 25 yards per return) with a long of 48.

With all those numbers and performances it was the Irish defense looking like the defensive squad from 2012 that won the game for Notre Dame.  Six players had tackles for a loss for the Irish; Calabrese, Tuitt, Jackson, Smith, Day and Nix.  Notre Dame’s defense also had an interception (Farley) and two sacks (Tuitt).  The defense also threw in five quarterback hurries and four pass breakups.

 
 
 
 
After Tommy Rees went down with a neck injury and the Notre Dame Offense stalling out the Irish defense held the line playing the bend don’t break defense we loved last season not allowing a score in the second half.  USC had eight offensive series in the second half; four finished with three and outs, one with an interception, a missed field goal and two on downs.

Appropriately Stephon Tuitt was awarded the game ball for his seven tackles (4 solo/3 assisted), two tackles for a loss (16 yards), one pass breakup, two sacks and two quarterback hurries.