Notre Dame played easily its most complete game of the season Saturday, and picked a fine time to do it, dispatching rival USC 31-16 to get this ‘bridge season’ back on track.

There was plenty to like from the Irish’s performance, and even more so because the one thing that went seriously wrong – an injury to Kyle Hamilton – at least doesn’t appear to have gone as badly as it could have. Hamilton left the game early with a knee injury, but was never ruled out for the game, never left the sideline and doesn’t appear to be ruled out for next week.

With that potential bad-news bomb defused, we can focus on the many good things that happened.

Running game gets going

For the first time this season, the Notre Dame running game was a legitimate weapon. The offensive line playing easily its best of the year was certainly the biggest factor, but not far behind was Kyren Williams. Williams shook off first contact almost every carry, racking up a season-high 138 yards (on a career-high 25 carries) and two touchdowns. He also caught six passes for 42 yards, including a third-and-long conversion that was hilarious because it was so predictable as soon as he got free.

ND has some talented backs who can vie for Williams’ starting spot when he inevitably goes pro next year, including Chris Tyree, Logan Diggs, and guys we haven’t seen play yet. But it will be hard to match how damn fun it is to watch Kyren play.

Jack Coan (with an assist to Tommy Rees) puts QB questions to bed for now

ND surviving to the bye was a talking point two weeks ago, and this was why. The Irish definitely appeared to tweak their offensive playbook to emphasize getting the ball out of Jack Coan’s hands sooner at the expense of some of their intended deep shots. It was a move born of desperation at the then-poor state of the offensive line, but it also appears to play to Coan’s strengths.

Coan was legitimately very good – 20/28, 189 yards, a TD and a pick that probably shouldn’t have been called a pick. He was the kind of QB ND needs to win games right now. Perfect? No. Good enough to win the next 5 games? Definitely.

And because of that, calls for Drew Pyne or full-time Tyler Buchner can slow down. Buchner can settle in to what his ideal role for this year always was – occasional change of pace and red zone weapon. (USC’s linebackers getting caught up in Buchner’s zone read to Kyren on Buchner’s TD run was exactly the kind of dimension he can bring to the offense.)

Pyne, well, unfortunately for him I don’t expect to see him on the field again this season unless there’s an emergency. As much fun as it was trying to win games with three different QBs, I’m alright sticking with two as long as it works like this.

Defense was Freemanish – but also Leaish

We saw a mix of the past and current defensive coordinator tonight against USC. The mostly bend-but-don’t-break efforts and the inability to stop Drake London to any degree certainly harked back to the 2019 ND/USC game; London played the combined role of Markese Stepp and Amon-Ra St. Brown.

However, ND also brought some timely heat to Kedon Slovis, most notably the heat that forced Bo Bauer’s near-pick-6 at a key early juncture of the game – right after Hamilton had been hurt and with the Trojans threatening to tie it up. Another such rush resulted in the game-clinching fumble recovery.

Freeman has struggled at times implementing his preferred scheme with Lea personnel. Saturday looked like he’s gotten closer to that happy medium.

Next week up

NBC showed the remaining ND schedule late in the game, along with the very high Pro Football Focus win probability for each one. No game was below 75% ND except for @ Virginia Nov. 13. Yes, that says a lot about the strength of schedule this year. However, 11-1 is 11-1, and it’s a realistic goal – looking a lot more realistic after this one.

Beat the Heels.