Caleb Williams and USC hit a wall in blowout loss to Notre Dame

Scrambling away from a collapsing offensive line, USC’s quarterback threw three first-half interceptions that the Trojans never recovered from

Luca Evans (OC Register)  —  SOUTH BEND, INDIANA — In the deep heart of the Midwest, the magic from Caleb Williams’ fingertips turned to dust.

A year ago, when the Fighting Irish marched into the Coliseum and USC marched them right out, was Williams’ crowning moment, a four-touchdown dazzler that all but tied up his Heisman in a neat little bow. And heading into South Bend Saturday night, these Trojans needed the same sort of Atlas-level performance from their junior quarterback, shouldering the weight of a much-maligned defense that had given up 40 points in back-to-back games.

But in front of a packed-out Notre Dame Stadium booming with vengeance and Irish-green pom-poms, against a defense that gave not a few inches of breathing room to blanketed receivers, the rabbit-from-a-hat plays that have made Williams “Caleb freakin’ Williams” went shockingly and irreparably wrong in a blowout 48-20 loss.

He carried the worst game of his collegiate career in the lines of his face postgame, eyes glassy and furrowing his lips to keep obvious emotion at bay, standing tall with chin high after reclining casually at the postgame podium in USC’s previous wins. Three interceptions, all in the first half, most in his collegiate career. And after points of clear frustration with media through the start of the season, USC’s leader stood square and assumed responsibility for a night Lincoln Riley called “incredibly disappointing.”

“I made mistakes that I usually don’t make,” Williams said, when asked if he felt he’d forced a couple throws. “Been in college for three years now — I don’t think I’ve ever had a season or a game or anything like that.”

“You got to be a leader, it starts at the head of the snake,” Williams continued, later in his response. “And I’ll be better.”

A Notre Dame team that entered 108th out of 130 FBS teams in sacks per game, at 1.57, finished with six against the Trojans’ O-line, Williams on the ground in the middle of a dogpile too many times for comfort.

“They’re a good defense,” Riley said, postgame. “We knew that coming in. We put ourselves in too many bad positions. That’s what happens.”

But USC’s first-half whole was dug, in large part, by Williams, in a true bizarro-world of a sentence rarely written in his time at USC. His three picks all lead directly to Notre Dame scores, far and away the worst stretch of play in not only his tenure at USC but his collegiate life.

The first shocker came just two minutes in, when Williams – who’s bona-fide missed, in total, a handful of throws all season – lofted a seam ball to Lake McCree simply too high and into the cradle of Notre Dame’s Xavier Watts.

“A couple of throws I always make, didn’t make,” Williams said. “The one to Lake, went over his head. How often do you see that?”

How often do you see, too, what happened next?

Down 10-3 with a few minutes left in the first half, Williams stepped up in the pocket to evade a rapidly charging Benjamin Morrison, firing on the move with his momentum carrying forward – the kind of impervious-to-pressure toss that always seems to end in a first down over the middle.

Except his pass got tipped at the line of scrimmage, and a floating duck fell right into the arms of Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts (0) for his second pick.

Down 17-3 just a few seconds later, Williams escaped another detonated pocket, rolling to his left, setting his feet with a defender charging and firing against his body – the kind of devil-may-care back-foot throw that always seems to end in a receiver plucking a laser out of thin air.

Except there was little mustard on a desperation heave, and one of the worst in-moment decisions Williams has made in his USC career ended in his third pick of the half.

In a cruel stroke of irony, after weeks of constant chatter over USC’s defense that grew so loud Riley went on a two-minute-long defense in media availability Tuesday, they played “good enough to win the football game,” as Riley put it postgame. They delivered when afforded the length of the field, Christian Roland-Wallace submitting an excellent game in pass coverage and linebackers wrapping up admirably in open-field situations.

But Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman finally popped the lid off the Trojans’ defense with a 46-yard touchdown bomb to extend the lead to 31-13 in the third quarter, and after an electric return by the returning Zachariah Branch set up a USC fourth-quarter answer, Notre Dame’s Jadarian Price took a kickoff 99 yards to the house himself. Untouched. Ballgame, for all intents and purposes.

There can be no hiding, after Saturday night. The thin sheen of an undefeated record, and quarterback’s consistent brilliance, were both ripped away brutally by the Fighting Irish, wounds unveiled raw and ugly.

“Still very much believe in this football team, 1000%,” Riley said postgame, frequently speaking with a pained smile. “The good from this football team is good enough to beat anybody. But we obviously know we got to put it together quickly.”

Utah awaits. Oregon looms. Washington licks their chops. Optimism is no longer enough.

“We have to coach and play better,” Riley said. “But is it in our power? Is it something we’re capable of? I believe it, to my core, and we’re going to go fight our ass off to get it done.”

ocregister.com

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