If you grew up a Notre Dame fan or even became one later in life, there is one lesson you learn early. Losing to USC is never OK. It just isn’t. Period. For any reason. Winning seven of the last nine battles and every one since 2017 only to relinquish control so quickly and in showstopping fashion in year one of both Marcus Freeman and Lincoln Riley’s tenures will sit poorly with the Irish all off-season.
Aside from dropping to 8-4 on the year the Irish also aided in catapulting USC potentially into the College Football Playoff and most assuredly aided in Trojan’s quarterback Caleb Williams’ Heisman bid. Certainly, he is spectacular, and likely deserves the award on merit alone. But that doesn’t change the fact that Notre Dame had a particularly bad game in a lot of key areas they couldn’t afford to. And it cost them the game.
The Irish didn’t give the Trojans their best shot. That is the most disappointing part of the evening for Irish fans and has only helped to inflate already plenty large LA area egos. Let’s take a look at Notre Dame’s most costly breakdowns.