Finishing Drives, Disguising Coverages: Keys to USC Week

Liam Farrell
5 days ago
5 min read

No. 13 Notre Dame has passed all of their weekly assignments after beginning the season 0-2, but the Irish must succeed in this midterm exam against the No. 20 USC Trojans.

Photo by Notre Dame Athletics

Notre Dame's back has been against the wall since the Irish sank to 0-2 to start the season, but since then, Marcus Freeman's team has risen to the occasion. Specifically, defensive coordinator Chris Ash has excelled in the last three weeks, in containing Arkansas, Boise State, and NC State's explosive offenses to 27 total points.

After the 41-point performance against the Aggies, Notre Dame's personnel changes, specifically inserting Tae Johnson and Dallas Golden into the lineup, have made the Irish more athletic. While the athleticism came at a cost of inexperience, these athletes have now been fully acquainted into Ash's scheme and have played enough downs to understand the concepts their defensive coordinator has drawn up.

Notre Dame's defense has also gotten much better performances from their defensive line, which has had a complementary effect on the backend of the unit as well. Boubacar Traore has cemented himself as one of the most explosive edges in the country, especially when rushing the quarterback, while Gabriel Rubio and Jared Dawson have been anchors in the middle of the field in the running game. It was announced earlier this week that Rubio will be OUT for the USC game due to an elbow injury, so Dawson's performance in the middle of the defense will be even more paramount.

Leonard Moore's re-entry into the lineup after the Texas A&M game has made an enormous difference, and has also allowed safeties to help Golden against skilled slot receivers. Christian Gray has also bounced back after rough performances to start the year, and has done a great job as the field corner.

With that being said, the Irish defense will have their toughest matchup of the season. Let's breakdown three keys to the Irish bout against the USC Trojans.

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Finish in the Red Zone

Even in Notre Dame's 36-7 victory over NC State, the Irish left much to be desired from the offensive side of the ball. Yes, redshirt freshman CJ Carr delivered a 342-yard, two touchdown performance, but the Irish had three drives in which they made it to the red zone and ended with zero points.

Much is to be made about the short-yardage problem Notre Dame has had this season. With such a skilled offense, it's baffling that the Irish cannot figure out what to do on 3rd and 2, let alone 4th and inches. The wildcat has struggled, along with passing in this situation, but this is a main cause of concern for Mike Denbrock and the Notre Dame offense.

Last season, Freeman reveled in the fact that he could be an aggressive football team that went for any 4th down, but the reason he was able to be so aggressive in nature was because of the success he had in these situations. For everything Riley Leonard wasn't in the passing department, he was as surefire of an option in short yardage situations.

This season, the Irish don't have the easy solution to pick up two or three yards a piece. In this case, and especially this week, Notre Dame cannot afford to leave any points on the field. Knowing that, the Irish must be successful on 3rd down, OR Freeman has to adapt to this year's team and swallow the pill of taking the three points instead of leaving empty handed.

Disguising Coverages

Last season, Notre Dame and Al Golden got exposed a bit against the USC Trojans. The Trojans were able to move the ball up and down the field with ease against the Irish, as they ended the game with 557 yards, which actually out gained Notre Dame by 121 yards.

Jayden Maiava finished the game with 360 yards, and the one-two punch of Makai Lemon and Jakobi Lane combined for 159 yards and three touchdowns. The memory of that game will be the two pick six's from Christian Gray and Xavier Watts, but the Trojans were pushing the ball down the field to tie it up when Gray recorded his 99-yard interception return.

The reason why the Trojans were able to have so much success through the air last year was because of the Irish's dimensionality on defense. Golden and Notre Dame were going to play man coverage and blitz the quarterback. While this was a recipe for success against most teams last year, USC has one of the best playcallers in the country in Lincoln Riley. Riley was exceptional drawing up and calling man coverage beaters last year, and forced Notre Dame to be on their toes.

This season, Notre Dame has played around with more zone coverage under Ash, and the Irish took some time to understand the concepts, but are finally getting the hang of it. Actually, Notre Dame has been disguising coverages extremely well in the past two weeks against the Broncos and the Wolfpack. With younger players getting more comfortable in Ash's scheme, the savvy defensive coordinator can implement more complicated concepts to confuse the opposing quarterbacks.

While Maiava has been significantly better taking care of the football this season, he still makes some mistakes. If the Irish can confuse Maiava and force him into tough situations, a couple turnovers could be instrumental in a game of this magnitude.

Embrace the Energy

This is Notre Dame's Super Bowl. Look, every week has been a must-win week for the Irish after they dropped their first two games of the year, but this is the time for Notre Dame to make a statement.

It is a ranked matchup under the lights against their biggest rival. A rival that doesn't want to play them anymore.

Freeman even said it was going to be a bloody game this week. Notre Dame in the past ten years has made a living off being the more physical team in the rivalry and it has treated them well, winning six of the last seven. If the Irish can continue being the more physical team and winning in the trenches, then Freeman's team will re-insert themselves into the CFP discussions.

However, it's always a week-by-week mindset, in which each game is taken one at a time. But, this game is different. This game is one that players circle on their calendars and is one where they want to make a statement and display their dominance.

Notre Dame just needs to play their own game, which is a violent defense effort, coupled with a balanced offensive attack. If the Irish can do that, they will enter the BYE week 5-2.

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