Rakes Report #248: It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes but it might just save your life (The Southern Cal Review)

Notre Dame will be home for the first round of the playoff after a wild win out west.

~optional musical accompaniment~

1) I will admit that despite my nerves this week after the first two drives of the game — a fourth-down stop by the defense and a clinical 13-play touchdown drive by the offense — I allowed myself to briefly think “Oh, maybe this will be easy?” That was not correct. A combination of critical mistakes from Notre Dame and gutsy work by Jayden Maiava kept this one very much not easy until the final minutes became a celebration of a tenth straight win and home playoff berth. The goal we set during the offseason was technically possible but felt a million miles away following the second game but Marcus Freeman kept his team locked in for two-and-a-half months of excellent football and now we’re there.

The Trojans had led in the fourth quarter of every single contest this season but they didn’t lead at all in this one despite playing free and loose and doing their damnedest to deny their rival the jeweled shillelagh and a playoff spot. It wasn’t pretty at times and it was nerve-racking throughout until a pair of iconic interception returns but in his third season Freeman delivered. The coordinators he hired were as good as we hoped. The quarterback he brought in and stuck with rounded into form. I’m so proud of the success rate on fourth-down decision making. Considering how hard the team played and how many “Fight Offs” they threw down during/after the game, I think we can also give a big thumbs up to the culture. It was a check-plus of a third season overall with a chance to be so much more.

A really fun football game and a really fun regular season. Something special about the unit that’s been doing the heavy lifting for a lot of the season slipping and the other side stepping up to handle things. Let’s keep going.

2) The working theory on offense for this game was if Southern Cal indeed had a young defensive line and solid-but-unspectacular linebackers then the running game should be able to do some damage. Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price were excellent, averaging over eight yards per carry, while Riley Leonard chipped in 59 sack-adjusted yards and another score of his own. Before he was knocked out of the game with what I’m hoping is a minor injury, Love was also a threat in the passing game, his 20-yard reception up the sideline including another highlight hurdle. Price and the offensive line stepped up in Love’s absence to help keep a touchdown distance from the Trojans. (A thing you talk about only after a win: Very pleased Love was able to set the consecutive games with a rushing touchdown record prior to his injury.)

Another theory going into this game was the defense that gave up 17 catches and 224 yards to Penn State tight end Tyler Warren might be willing to bargain with Mitchell Evans. Evans was the team’s leading receiver and had a great touchdown on what was probably Leonard’s best throw of the game, while Eli Raridon also came through with a score in the other corner. Not a ton of explosiveness from the passing game — Jordan Faison had a fourth down grab, Kris Mitchell had the longest catch by a wide receiver on the day with 19 yards — and two critical errors with Leonard’s YOLO interception and the Jayden Thomas fumble but delivering efficiently (78% completion rate) (that doesn’t include Tyler Buchner’s dime, how fun was that callback by the writers?) and capping the mistakes at a pair will work most of the time.

Ran into the same issue we’ve seen a few times this season where the Irish have a decent-but-not-insurmountable lead and don’t want to take chances but can’t quite lean on the opponent to kill clock. Getting the ball back with a two-touchdown margin, the Irish went three and out. After USC scored and the Irish retook possession up seven with 8:43 remaining, they could muster just five plays, three yards and three minutes burnt. (Not being able to just give the ball to Love in this situation further hindered things.) If the glorious situation arises in the playoff where the Irish have a two-score lead in the second half, I think we have to give Mike Denbrock the all-clear to roll the dice a little bit more.

The Irish are up to sixth (6th!) in SP+ offense, which is insane, but apparently not too far out of line because they’re fifth (5th!) in KFORD. (FEI isn’t updated as of this publication.) Putting up a quality performance against a Trojan defense respected by the computers makes you look real good.

3) There have been great games by defenders over the years we celebrate and abysmal ones we try not to think about but I can’t recall a game where more Total Things Happened on both sides of the ledger for someone than Christian Gray’s* visit to the Coliseum. On the game’s first drive he had a pass breakup and a fourth-down tackle but then things went on tilt for him with Lincoln Riley clearly targeting the sophomore. Yet in the game’s final moments, with the Trojans on the verge of tying things up and potentially taking something very important from us, Gray delivered with a 99-yard pick six they’re going to show for as long as they play Notre Dame football. What a day.

* Freeman on Gray after the game: “He had to reload. You hear me say that all the time. Reload. Get your mind back to the place where it needs to be so you can execute. That was the challenge I had for the team before the game, but him specifically. Like, hey, reload, reload. Don’t let the last play affect the next play.”

“There was a play in the first half I thought it did. It was after the big catch, the next play he got the PI. Christian Gray’s a great player, but he had to get back into that moment where nothing else matters but doing your job for us to achieve team glory. Don’t let anything personal affect that. I’m proud of him because he did. He has faith,and he’s a really good player and he showed that in the second half.”

Another play they’re going to show in that highlight reel is the subsequent 100-yard interception return by All-American safety and certified Notre Dame legend Xavier Watts, who taunted his hosts the entire way down the sideline. Watts was the leading tackler on the day with nine and threw in a pass breakup and incompletion-forcing blitz for good measure. Part of the reason Gray was being targeted so much was Leonard Moore putting on a freshman finale effort that would have made 2012 KeiVarae Russell proud, allowing one completion to go with five (5!!!) breakups.

This was a game where losing your two best edge rushers in September while also missing both Howard Cross and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa was readily apparent. Tip the hat to Maiava, who hung in when he could and escaped when he had to, and another acknowledgment of some really silly catches by the Trojan receivers. There were certainly some secondary busts Al Golden is going to need to clean up over the next three weeks — a bit of a throwback from Golden at times, blitzing with defensive backs seemingly not sure what the coverage was supposed to be — but in his third start Maiava and his playcalling head coach were in a good groove. Was certainly beneficial to the Irish that ace tailback Woody Marks joined Love on the sidelines for most of the game.

A few more positives: Despite the issues, Notre Dame never allowed an easy long scoring play (longest catch of day was 35 yards, no carries longer than 23) and if you made a young quarterback stay out there over and over the odds of him making a mistake were going to improve. In this instance, he made two critical mistakes that turned into 199 yards of return yardage and 14 points for the good guys.

4) Notre Dame was a perfect three-for-three on fourth downs, including the Buchner fake and one that wasn't a no-brainer (4th and one from your own 44 in the second quarter of a 7-7 game, the Leonard battering ram that was reviewed and upheld, eventually leading to the Raridon score).

I would have gone for it instead of kicking the field goal (four yards to go from the Trojan nine after a third-down quarterback draw didn’t quite get there) but I understand wanting to get some sense of where your kicker was in the first half. Mitch Jeter made 23-of-25 attempts at South Carolina so I don’t know if this is lingering injury or yips but Marty Biagi has three weeks to try and get him right or the fourth down attempt rate is going to continue going up.

60-yarder from James Rendell! That flipped the field and pinned the Trojans back so they had to show a few more cards before the Gray interception return. He hasn’t had to do much the last few weeks but arrow pointing in the correct direction.

Good defense is fun but there’s something thrilling when a game starts to get loose like it did in the possessions around halftime that saw five consecutive drives ending in touchdowns. At that point, there is so much pressure on the offense to keep coming through while you are begging the defense for any kind of service break. Things settled down a bit after that but really fun sequence that reminded me of the 2020 North Carolina Black Friday game where Ian Book and Sam Howell combined for four straight first-quarter touchdown drives.

I know they don’t “properly identify all the players” or “pronounce all their names correctly” but I loved Uncle Brad and Uncle Gary on the call. The thing that annoys me most in sports broadcasting/journalism is when those involved act like they’ve had a burden placed upon them and that was far from the case on Saturday with the booth. Elite bumper music work and quality open.

The all-whites are growing on me and will continue to curry additional favor as long as the Irish win by double digits when they bust them out.

5) Winning Is Hard Round Up: Ohio State was a three-touchdown favorite at home against a Michigan team that didn’t become bowl eligible until last week. A win would have sent them to the Big Ten title game with a shot at the potential number one overall seed but in a cataclysmic turn of events Ryan Day lost his fourth consecutive game to the Wolverines despite one of the most talented rosters in the country. Ugly stuff in the postgame and ugly stuff from ESPN writing that pepper spray was used to “calm” things down.

Miami had a 21-0 lead at Syracuse and lost so they’re not in the ACC title game. The Hurricanes were down a touchdown with under four minutes left and Mario Cristobal opted to kick a field goal from the ten even though he had one of the best quarterbacks in the country. The Orange ran out the clock the rest of the way. Clemson is in the ACC title game despite blowing a late lead to South Carolina. Down a field goal at the Gamecock 18, the Tigers threw an interception. Brutal way to go.

Georgia Tech could not hold a 17-0 lead against Georgia, falling after eight overtimes that served as a display of how bad two teams can be at two-point conversions. (Repeating myself but they have to get rid of this stupid shootout system. Can you imagine if a playoff game comes down to it?) Tulane had a path to the playoff but lost at home to Memphis and so they no longer do. Crappy effort from Texas A&M at home against the Longhorns, failing to score an offensive point. Tennessee was down 17-7 early to Vanderbilt but did fine. Penn State started the game against Maryland with a fumble and touchdown pass allowed to go down 7-0 but had little trouble after that.

Duke was down 17-3 at Wake Forest but ended up winning on a walk-off touchdown pass while the Demon Deacons were trying to defend field goal positioning. 9-3 for the Blue Devils! In Mack Brown's final game, North Carolina took a late lead against NC State but then gave it back 86 seconds later as the Wolfpack salvaged a bowl. Michigan State needed a win against Rutgers to go bowling but got blown out. Pitt lost comfortably at Boston College to finish 7-5 after starting 7-0. Congrats again to Pat Narduzzi for hitting the win total over and still pissing off all his fans.

What else? Oklahoma State got annihilated by Colorado to finish 0-for-the-Big 12. Nebraska frittered away a win at Iowa and Wisconsin stunk up the joint against Minnesota, failing to make a bowl for the first time in over two decades. Florida State fumbled eight times against Florida, losing five of them. (They also lost the game to finish 2-10 with one FBS win.) Indiana wanting some style points against Purdue delivered to the tune of 66-0 and Ryan Walters being fired after only two seasons. Give us the Seminoles and Boilers in a best-of-seven, please.

6) As someone who became a Notre Dame fan in the mid-2000s, the idea of this sort of run against Southern Cal felt unfathomable. Immensely happy and proud of what this team accomplished on Saturday and in the preceding three months. It wasn’t the most imposing schedule but it was damn fine football for the majority of the season capped with a gutsy road win against a talented opponent when all the pressure was on one side. (I really adore how much the players have embraced the importance of this matchup even though it can be hard to maintain the strange exhilaration in such total detestation when you’ve won six of the last seven.) With a host of wonderful players seeing their eligibility expire soon and a tricky 2025 schedule, it was important for Marcus Freeman to secure his imprimatur season now. Mission accomplished.

I’m still processing how I feel about the playoff and how it should factor into the evaluation of this season. We need to see what the bracket looks like but no one in the field is a juggernaut and it’s perfectly acceptable to believe (expect?) Notre Dame could make a run. But considering all the horses the Fighting Irish are down (assuming/hoping Cross will be healed by the next game, but unsure on Love and KVA, plus the extended break doesn’t help with Morrison, Botelho, Traore and Craig) I am trying to keep my expectations modest.

I certainly don’t want a home defeat but if it’s a back-and-forth affair and the bounces are unkind it would be heartbreaking but the rules of the game require a loser. If the team no shows (seems unlikely) or there are catastrophic in-game decisions (possible, but would be against trend) that would be a different discussion. It’s fun (?) we get to feel a very high level of stress at least one more time. It’s going to be a scene that Freeman and his program scrapped, clawed and fought to earn.

Up next: Selection Sunday, where we find out who will be traveling to South Bend to start their holiday off right, and Christmas Giving. (All of Bridget’s holiday designs are live, with any TeePublic proceeds from this month donated to the Center for the Homeless.) Thanks for reading (and/or listening) along all season. Was a real pleasure and I’m glad to be part of this community with all of you. Big, big stuff still to come but until then take care of yourselves and each other.