Notre Dame got a bad performance from CJ Carr, cocked up opportunities for easy points, and continually left the door open for Southern California to take their first win in South Bend since 2011. With the skies opened and a lightning delay ever present, the Fighting Irish slammed the door shut against their main rival. Now, a bye week comes as Notre Dame moves to 5-2 and inches closer to hosting a playoff game on campus for the second season in a row.

Here’s our 18 Stripes game review of the 34-24 win over USC:

QUARTERBACK: D

It took half the season but the lead up to the USC game had the country finally taking notice of CJ Carr’s talent and productivity as a redshirt freshman. The praise was finally coming from the nation and we got the first real stinker performance of his career against the Trojans. The normal pinpoint accuracy and calm footwork were off, too many passes were sailed high, and Notre Dame’s quarterback made one of the worst interceptions (officially picked off on 3rd & 2 from the USC 2-yard line) you’ll see from anyone this year.

The Irish had been a fairly explosive pass offense in 2025 with Carr’s yards per completion among the best in the country. On Saturday night, that facet of the offense came crashing down to earth with Carr totaling just 136 yards through the air at 8.5 yards per completion.

To not have a game like this over the course of a full season would’ve been miraculous and it makes sense that it would happen against a USC defense that routinely played 2 high safeties and seemed hyper focused on limiting Carr’s ability to move the ball with his arm. In the end, there was a 99.4% post-game win expectancy for the Irish and the rushing attack made sure USC’s approach failed.

RUNNING BACK: A+

I mean, my goodness gracious. Love and Price combined for 315 rushing yards at 8.5 yards per carry! Price came through with a crucial kickoff return (again!) against USC. The Trojans did produce 8 stuffs on Notre Dame but simply could not slow down the running game at any point of this game to prevent the Irish from putting points on the board.

Lost in the 300+ yards was a pretty poor night for 3rd down conversions, though. To highlight Carr’s badness he was 0 for 6 converting through the air, plus he had the slipped 5-yard loss keeper in the closing act of the game.

Notre Dame had a few key conversions on the ground–led by Price’s leaping reach across the line on 3rd & 8 to crucially burn 2 more minutes off the clock during the last offensive series–but the offense didn’t get too bottled up in those moments when they produced 11(!!) runs of 10+ yards.

WIDE RECEIVER: B-

The blocking from the receivers was routinely highlighted throughout the broadcast and that deserves a boost to their grade on an evening where Carr wasn’t connecting too often through the air. We got a quality game out of Jordan Faison who was targeted nearly twice as much as any other receiver.

There’s not much else to say, really. Hopefully, this is the last game where the receivers aren’t able to make a big impact. A little sneak preview of the Boston College game after the bye week: The Eagles allowed 362 yards on 31 attempts through the air with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions versus UConn! After his worst game, CJ Carr  might throw for 900 yards in the next one.

TIGHT END: B

Am I right to believe the blocking from the tight ends is so much better now than earlier in the year? Does anyone find it super interesting that 195-pound walk-on freshman receiver Matt Jeffery was being used in some sort of blocking H-back role?

Is Denbrock setting something up with the long game scheme???

On the fateful Carr interception he’s even next to Raridon off the right edge in a blocking role down by the goal line. What is the thought process there? I know the tight end room isn’t real deep this year, but still! Carr even tried to force the interception to Jeffery, too.

FYI, Cooper Flanagan played 4 snaps on Saturday, just 289 days after tearing his Achilles against Georgia in the playoffs.

OFFENSIVE LINE: A

Yeah, I have no problems going with a super high grade here. I know USC’s defense has not been synonymous with toughness in recent years but this was the most rushing yards they allowed in about 2 full years. The first start for Joe Otting at center in place of Ashton Craig was about as great as we could’ve expected. Before his injury (please be okay!) Billy Schrauth turned into prime college Quenton Nelson.

Sure, USC won some snaps pass rushing. They only ended up with one sack though, and that included Carr doing a 2007 Jimmy Clausen impression spinning away from light pressure directly into an oncoming defender.

They kicked ass on Saturday night.

DEFENSIVE LINE: B+

No Rubio, no problem!? With USC’s own injury issues this was a matchup that Notre Dame just had to win and they came through with a great game. Neither one of the Trojan running backs averaged over 4 yards per carry and USC finished with just 68 rushing yards overall. Again, nearly the worst rushing performance for USC in nearly 2 years. King Miller squeaked out runs of 15 and 11 yards and finished the night with 44 yards on his other 16 carries.

I always talk about the absurdly inaccurate QB Hurry stat in the official book. On Saturday, the Irish were credited with 6 QBH so you know they were able to get after Jayden Maiava with regularity. Super super impressive performance.

With just 28 snaps, I thought Elijah Hughes was really effective against his former team.

LINEBACKER: A-

I thought there was an inordinate amount of linebackers playing in space and covering USC players and they did amazingly well. I mentioned this in the NC State review–the linebackers for the Irish have really hit their stride mid-season and they continued that high level of play against USC.

They stuck with a lot of Drayk Bowen with a hefty dose of KVA with side roles from Jaiden Ausberry and Jaylen Sneed. Everyone was able to make an impact and an important play or two apiece. I’d particularly light to highlight KVA, who not only picked up a sack, but calmly collected the crucial fumble on USC’s attempted trick play. So many times we’ve seen players try to collect the ball with little room to work and mishandle it out of bounds.

SECONDARY: A-

USC threw for over 300 yards and there were a couple precarious moments where it felt like the Trojans were going to have a real breakout. And then it never materialized. Upon reflection the day after, you could make the argument this was a pretty weak passing day for USC.

The long touchdown pass to Ja’Kobi Lane was a nice play and Maiava found Makai Lemon (holding him to just 76 yards was a huge win for the secondary, props to Leonard Moore) open down the left sideline in the second half.

It was a memorable night for Christian Gray. 

USC used their other 40 pass attempts to gain 227 yards.

A word on Christian Gray. He was beaten multiple times (including the long touchdown play) and on at least 2 or 3 plays appears to be visibly limping and injured. This looked like a nightmare situation early on. He kept fighting and fighting only to make a great read and pick off Maivia when the defense really, really need a play.

NOTES:

Fun fact: This was the 10th loss for USC in a game where they passed for 300+ yards passing in the Lincoln Riley era.

Another fun fact: That’s 3 straight wins in the USC series and a more dominant 7 out of 8 victories.

This turned into a 21-yard gain for USC. 

Lincoln Riley basically had no words for his terrible play-call resulting in the Lemon fumble. That’s an all-time blunder of a decision. They had just converted a 3rd and long on the deep pass to Lemon and had 1st & 10 from the Irish 37-yard line trailing by just 3 points. Brutal.

Let’s not forget an early 2 & 7 from the Irish 7-yard line where Riley put in true freshman quarterback Husan Longstreet who was predictably pulled down for no gain. USC had to settle for a field goal after a dropped pass/near interception on the next play.

Yay: Price’s kickoff return touchdown and Rendell’s punting. Nay: Missing a 31-yard field goal, PAT, and kicking the ball out of bounds twice on kickoffs.

As discussed on the 18S Discord server game chat, Marcus Freeman’s hat was too big for his head. #analysis

If you didn’t think things could get any better, just remember that Notre Dame hosted a massive haul of blue chips for this home game and will surely reap many rewards from this performance.

Notre Dame had 7 red zone drives on offense against USC. That’s a ton! On the season, the Irish are tied for 8th nationally in red zone attempts in 2025. The offense is moving the ball.

Four turnovers between each team and only a combined 10 points off those turnovers wasn’t something to expect given these good offenses.

Only 5 targets to Makai Lemon is wild, although I guess that’s the power of Leonard Moore.

Another hurdle cleared and now we’re off to the back end of the schedule. Here are the SP+ rankings for Notre Dame’s remaining 5 opponents following this weekend’s action:

104th – Boston College
57th – Navy
31st – Pittsburgh
77th – Syracuse
101st – Stanford

Boston College and Syracuse have been trending backwards big time. Stanford is ever-so-slightly trending upwards from their brutal start to 2025 and are coming off a win over Florida State (LOL NOLES). We’re all in on handling Navy at home and bouncing back on the road against a decent Pittsburgh team.