The USC Trojans made Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne look good on Saturday night, much as they enabled Cal quarterback Jack Plummer to look good.
Credit to Pyne for playing what was generally a very good game against USC. The much-maligned quarterback didn’t throw an incomplete pass until the fourth quarter. He looked comfortable in the pocket. He put together a solid performance, and he deserves credit for that.
Yet, we can also say — because we saw it happen on Saturday night — that USC’s defensive line couldn’t get home for sacks and huge negative plays which could have made its night a lot easier. The pass rush did not have the high-impact game it hoped for. USC didn’t get its second sack until garbage time, with the game out of hand in the final three minutes. The pass rush’s flaws left the secondary vulnerable against a Notre Dame passing attack which is not that impressive.
This defense continues to be vulnerable and flawed … but hey, we all knew this going in. The defense just has to be better than terrible over the course of 60 minutes. Moderate competence is usually going to be enough with Caleb Williams on the field … and so it was.
Let’s take you through the night for the USC defense after another Trojan victory: