Notre Dame Held Under 100 Yards in Loss to USC

Saturday night’s loss to USC had very few highlights for the Irish.  Instead the game was highlighted by offensive ineptitude like we haven’t seen for a while.  Even though the Irish got on the scoreboard Saturday night, unlike they did in Boston three weeks ago, the Irish offense could barely move the ball.

Notre Dame gained just 91 total yards and collected just 4 first downs.  In fact, the first 1st down of the game came on the last play of the 3rd quarter.  Let that sink in for a bit.  It took almost 45 minutes of game time for the Irish offense to gain a single first down.

In the last two meetings with USC, Notre Dame now has just 14 first downs and 3 points.  Who ever thought that would be the case after the 2005 thriller in South Bend?

Here are a few more sobering offensive stats from tonight.

  • Clausen completed a respectable 50% of his passes (11 of 22) for a mere 41 yards.  That’s 1.87 yards per attempt.
  • Thanks to sack yardage, Notre Dame ran 27 times for 50 yards – a 1.9 yards/carry average.  Even without the sack yardage, Notre Dame gained just 79 yards on 23 attempts – a 3.4 yards/carry average.
  • Notre Dame had almost as many turnovers (3) as first downs (4).
  • The Irish were just 2 of 14 on 3rd down.
  • Notre Dame never reached the red zone.

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6 Comments

  1. after watching nd only on tv, the sparse occasional game in south bend and for the past many decades in los angeles, all the games against sc, i was very disheartened about the depths of yesterday’s performance.

    the best part of yesterdays game finally was the appearance of the nd band. that was the only performance i saw that made me proud.

    the team under weis showed no fire, no creativity and was befuddled. clausen “slung” the ball and each was a hail mary in its own way.

    after the game, pete carrol said. for defense he really didn’t have to make any real adjustments since the only eapon nd had was the occasional long ball with floyd or tate.

    sad… is this going to be a 3 – 5 year ritual… fire davie, fire ty, fire charlie…. none of them got the spirit of nd football… aggressive team football….

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