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Even after yesterday, USC still has the #2 scoring offense in the land (45.5 ppg).
Lots of guys stepped up last night.
Dline is getting better with pressure. Golden is coming into his own. I would say each game the D is improving. Still a bunch of opportunities to get better.
The defense has done well against 4 decent offenses in a row.
It also helps that the offense can sustain drives and give the defense more rest.
This 2025 ND team reminds me of 2002's USC team, where they started out slowly, losing early to a couple of very good ranked teams (Washington State ended up being #10, Kansas State was #6). They were reeling, and the "fire Pete Carroll" chat started buzzing.
They got their act together, and steamrolled everyone in the 2nd half of the season, with 5 of them being ranked teams.
That was the 2nd most crushing feeling for Lionel Tyrone Willingham's inaugural season as ND's coach (BC loss was much worse feeling), since Carson Palmer carved us up like a Thanksgiving ham.
At the end of the season, USC was in a position where they could have been the best team in the land, and under today's playoff rules (or even the 4 team playoff), they could have certainly made a statement.
Need to reduce the penalties, but starting to play like we all expected.
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against very talented team. Minus penalties and couple boneheaded mistakes, we win by 3 Tds
lity against any fast WR. i have been surprised by the lack of pass rush. I’d like to see Sneed become more of a pure pass rusher from different gaps.
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front four seems to get. There were many downs where you knew USC would be passing and the QB still had a lot of time to throw. That’s how you get picked apart. I’m a firm believer of being able to get to the QB with your down four. I think last year ND was better at getting to the QB. Was that better personnel or better schemes by Golden or a combination of both? I don’t know, but glad the defense has looked much better in recent weeks. Hopefully they will keep getting better.
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