USC 49 Notre Dame 14
Well, how absolutely painful was that?? It could have been worse, maybe 2-4 TD’s worse, but Sarkisian had mercy and did not run up the score further.
Actually, USC could have done anything they wanted in the 4th quarter but they put subs in and they just ran the ball.
I haven’t seen such a whipping since Gerry Faust’s last game vs. Miami, but Jimmy Johnson had no mercy on that day.
How the hell do you start a game totally confused on the very 1st play which actually was Kelly’s signature call all year? Run the ball behind either the left or right guard, he went left this time and as usual lost a yard. From there on out the ND OL was mauled… Every one of them.
DE/DT Leonard Williams beat the hell out of them. At least he didn’t do it on one guy, he took turns.
Everett Golson may have started his last game. He continued his slide with poor passes, aided here by poor receiver play and atrocious OL play.
The lack of any kind of protection in this game finally put Golson in a mental fog and that was that.
Malik Zaire enters the game in the 2nd quarter and finished the game, leading the Irish to 2 scores. There was a marked difference in the QB’s. Zaire looked confident and in charge and rallied the offense somewhat. He too suffered dropped passes and I must say the receiving group had their worst game of the Season. Golson looks fried and lost.
I said it before this OL is atrocious they looked and played scared. Outside of RG Elmer they all look weak. They can’t run block nor pass block and they were getting thrown into the backfield. They reminded me of the 2007 OL that almost got Jimmy Clausen killed.
Since Kelly refuses to get any of the sub OL in any game even for just a series he’s stuck with this group which played lots of minutes last year. He finally benched Lombard for RT McGlinchy who will be a good one and should have gotten more snaps during the season.
The Notre Dame defense looked like a bowling alley with them being the pins. Already depleted they lost 5-6 more in this game and actually had to play Chase Hounshell, who’s had like 4 shoulder operations and is no where ready to play college football.
Our best cover man Cole Luke was like 5 yds behind the USC receivers all day. I’m giving the “D” a pass in this game. They are just so injury depleted that they could not compete.
USC ended up just shy of 700 yards and Cody Kessler had 6 TD passes earning him a record against ND. They also had 200 or so rush yardage.
If Kessler was any good in previous games this game would have earned him the Heisman. We apparently like to give USC QB’s their best shot at this trophy.
So now what? Do we play Bowl Game against a loser in a cold climate with a chance to lose again or do we call it a year? I say no Bowl Game. Those 15 practices will not help these guys.
ND does not have enough healthy players so that makes the 15 practices meaningless. Those that disagree say it helps the younger guys, but not really since Kelly won’t play them anyhow. They need game experience not more boring practice.
Five years in and Kelly is going backward. He’s very smooth and glib and a hell of a politician, but he’s not the answer here. The trouble is no one wants this job except Maryland coach Randy Edsall.
Here is Kelly’s post game video press conference: