The 21st-ranked University Notre Dame football team knocked off No. 10 Southern Cal 48-20 in a sold-out Notre Dame Stadium (77,622) on a blustery and cool Saturday evening. The Irish defense led the way, intercepting reigning Heisman Trophy winning SC quarterback Caleb Williams three times (the most of his career) and putting him on the ground via sack six times.
Junior safety Xavier Watts led the way for the big play Irish defense, intercepting two passes returning a fumble for a touchdown and forcing a fumble. Notre Dame’s defense forced five turnovers in the game which led directly to 21 points.
Notre Dame’s balanced offense (126 pass yards, 125 rush yards) protected the ball and calmly took advantage of the SC miscues. Sam Hartman finished 13-of-20 passing for 126 yards and two touchdowns. Audric Estimé led the rushing attack with 22 carries for 95 yards and two scores.
The 28-point win is the worst of Southern Cal head coach Lincoln Riley’s regular-season career and the most lopsided victory over a top-10 ranked by the Fighting Irish since a 28-point win over No. 5 SC in 1995.
“I don’t have a whole bunch of words,” Dick Corbett Head Coach Marcus Freeman said after the game. “I’m just going to enjoy this one, and I’m so happy to be a part of this place with this team and this university. You realize the support through adversity sometimes, and the amount of people around this university and our players, they understand how special it is to be a part of this football program.
“We had a lot of support, and I’m proud that our players were able to go out there and be able to enjoy the feeling that you get after a victory like this together.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish defense propelled the entire team off to a hot start. Xavier Watts intercepted his third pass of the season on the game’s fourth play. It was just the second interception of the season thrown by SC quarterback Caleb Williams. Watts returned the interception to the Southern Cal 12 to put the offense right on the doorstep.
After two Estimé runs moved the ball to the four-yard line, Hartman found Gi’Bran Payne out of the backfield and he stepped behind a timely Jaden Greathouse block to score the first touchdown of the game.
“Yeah, definitely boosted us,” Watts said about his early interception. “It gave us momentum. We needed some juice. We got some juice. The crowd was live. It gave us a good boost that we needed to go for the rest of the game.”
The two teams traded defensive stops back and forth before the visitors put together a methodical 10-play scoring drive. The Irish made the Trojans earn every yard, however, and firmed up the defense in the red zone. A key third down stop on a swing pass on third and goal by Cam Hart forced Southern Cal into a 25-yard field goal attempt, which was successful and cut the Irish lead to 7-3.
Chris Tyree started out the second quarter with a key 16-yard catch on third-and-four to move the Irish into SC territory. Jordan Faison then ripped off a 16-yard run, but it was followed by a short run, an incompletion and a pass caught short of the sticks which brought Spencer Shrader out for a 36-yard field goal to improve the Irish lead to 10-3.
Notre Dame’s defense stepped up with another hard-earned defensive stop. DJ Brown made a big play on third and short for a loss which brought about a fourth-and-seven scenario. SC punted, but Notre Dame ran into the kicker to give the Trojans fourth and one after the penalty. Williams would pick it up on a quarterback bootleg but the Irish defense would not be deterred.
On another fourth down, this one needing just one yard at the Irish 29-yard line, JD Bertrand penetrated the backfield and blew up the quarterback-running back exchange before it could even occur. The four-yard loss gave the Irish the ball at their own 33-yard line.
“What our defense put on display up to this season is like – no matter if it’s fourth and one, no matter how many yards are left in the red zone or whatever, we stand a chance,” Bertrand said after the game about the defense’s performance.
“It’s been really cool being able to have that mentality as a defense that no matter how many yards they need to get, even just one yard, half a yard, we are able to stop them.”
After the big defensive turnover-on-downs, the Southern Cal defense stepped up to force the Irish into a three-and-out. A solid punt coupled with a Trojan holding call on the return, pinned SC back to their own six-yard line.
That is the spot where SC would make their second mistake of the game. After one first down, Williams threw his second interception of the game to Watts. Irish defensive lineman Gabriel Rubio got his hand on the ball to tip the pass, Watts picked it off at the 25-yard line and returned it to the two-yard line. Estimé bullied in for a touchdown one play later to push the Irish to a 17-3 lead.
It would not take long for the Irish lead to grow. Williams uncorked his third interception of the game just a few plays later – this one picked off by Benjamin Morrison at the 50-yard line – and Notre Dame quickly took advantage.
Hartman hit Rico Flores Jr. for 24 yards, then scrambled for another 12. Estimé then finished off the drive with a five, eight and one-yard run to put the Irish up 24-3 with just under two minutes remaining in the first half.
Southern Cal was able to nab three points before halftime, going 44 yards in eight plays. Boubacar Traore made his first career sack of his career on the drive which snuffed out any hope of SC scoring a touchdown and forcing a successful 48-yard field goal. The Irish entered the break with a 24-6 lead.
The Trojans trimmed the Irish lead to 11 half way through the third quarter with a six-play, 57-yard drive capped by a 31-yard touchdown run.
Notre Dame needed an answer and they found one with Estimé and Chris Tyree. Estimé earned a first down rushing, then Hartman stepped back to find a streaking Tyree across the field for a 46-yard touchdown catch and run.
“All week we kind of had a bead on some of their coverages of what they might run to certain formations, and got one there,” Hartman said about the big play.
“It’s a credit to him (Tyree). You don’t see that anywhere really ever. You know, older guy like that. His persistence, who he is as a man, will take him so much further than anyone can ever know and that’s something that I’ll always be forever grateful for.
“To be an older guy and have some struggles and have to change positions, like that itself, and he’s had some bad stuff and some drops and some things you’re like, oh, man you gotta make that play. He just kept showing up.”
The Irish defense stopped the Trojans next drive with back-to-back sacks. The first from linebacker Marist Liufau and the second from a combination of Nana Osafo-Mensah and Rylie Mills.
“Be aggressive,” Freeman said about the Irish defensive line.
Be aggressive. Roll guys. We want to roll guys (in). I told Coach Wash(ington), when you see them sub, we need to roll our guys, get some fresh guys in there, roll them. We have to have relentless rushers against Caleb Williams, and we were able to do that and it was a whole group of guys that were able to really get pressure on him.”
The SC defense earned their team a stop, however, and their offense cut the Irish lead back to 11 points. After a big 60-yard punt return, the Trojans scored in four plays to make the lead 31-20 Irish with 9:04 remaining in the game.
Notre Dame’s special teams then decided to answer with their own score. Jadarian Price caught the kickoff at the one-yard line, broke through the SC coverage, cut left and out raced all defenders for a 99-yard kick return touchdown. The play developed out of a new kick return alignment the Irish debuted for the game.
“We went over that Monday and it was new for us as a team, but we knew we could execute it,” Price said after the game.
“Coach (Marty) Biagi laid out a great plan for us to execute, and we executed today. Devyn (Ford) had a few early on that I wish we could have hit. He was so close if I would’ve just led the block a little bit more. But I was blessed for them to have an opportunity myself to take it up the middle and end up going right, cutting all the way back. Feel like I ran 140 yards, more than 90.”
Yet again on the next drive, the Notre Dame defense snuffed out any hope of a Southern Cal rally. A fourth-down sack by Jaylen Sneed ended the Trojan drive at their own 14-yard line. Shrader tacked on three points a few plays later for a 21-point lead.
The icing on the cake – and the final highlight of an amazing performance by Watts – on SC’s first play of the next drive, Cam Hart stripped a Trojan receiver after a short catch and Watts scooped it up and returned the ball for a 14-yard touchdown.
“The last takeaway that Cam Hart had,” Freeman said.
“I saw it on the video board, and it’s something that we practice, the ability to stab the ball out. We talk about if we have awareness, you can stab the ball out and Xavier returned it.
“I couldn’t speak more highly of the performance of our defense and the way Coach (Al) Golden prepares. I Have a lot of respect for him. He’s been through a lot of ups and downs in his time of being a football coach. He’s unwavering. The way he prepares is unwavering.”