USC’s Williams on 3 INTs: ‘Got to keep battling’

• Paolo Uggetti, ESPNOct 15, 2023, 01:22 AM ET

SOUTH BEND, Ind.– By now, USC quarterback Caleb Williams is used to owning every stage he steps on. However as Notre Dame fans leapt over walls and ran onto the field in event following the Fighting Irish’s 48-20 win over their long time competitors Saturday night, Williams put his head down and made a beeline for the tunnel. Fans shouted at him, and others happily recorded videos of his exit. Some even attempted to approach him. Williams hardly flinched. After one of the worst games of his college profession, all the reigning Heisman Trophy winner wished to do was exit.No.

10 USC had begun the season 6-0 despite having a hard time to hold on against Arizona and Colorado the last two weeks, however the bill came due for the Trojans versus No. 21 Notre Dame on Saturday night. While the defense that had actually had a hard time all season did its finest to hold its own and reveal enhancement, Williams appeared to be a shell of his normal self, and the offense he normally results in high scores appeared to strike a wall.

“I made errors tonight that I typically don’t make,” Williams said postgame. “I’ve remained in college for 3 years now and don’t think I have actually ever had a season or game or anything like that.”

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Williams admitted he may have forced a few throws, but he wasn’t the lone offender. USC’s unsteady offending line became a screen that put Williams on his back foot from the outset. When made uncomfortable in the past, Williams grew by scrambling, turning dead plays into highlights. That was not the case Saturday night.

“Games like this take place in professions,” Williams stated. “You got to survive it. You got to keep combating, you got to be a leader. It starts with the head of the snake, and I’ll be much better.”

On the very first drive of the game, Williams was pressured and threw just his second interception of the season. After the Trojans struggled to put three points on the board, Williams had another pass picked off when he was once again pressured and his throw was tipped at the line of skirmish. Then, simply a drive later on, Williams rolled out to his left like he has done a lot of times before, and rather of unleashing some magic, he dropped the ball into triple protection where it was immediately picked.

“He is one of the best college football players that I’ve ever seen,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “All I kept telling the guys is … on this play, you need to attack. You can not play passive, can not play a three-man rush and let him head out and be the Heisman Prize winner. You need to attack.”

Linebacker JD Bertrand echoed Freeman, keeping in mind that the Irish defense let Williams wander far excessive last season in a game that more or less clinched his Heisman win. This time around, they had one directive: Keep him in package.

“In 2015, we truly experienced him going out, him playing backyard football where he’s scrambling, he’s holding his play, making it 10 seconds long and, at that point, it’s tough to cover downfield and receivers are getting open,” Bertrand said. “So that was a huge focus. As you could see, we attempted to contain him as much as we might in the pocket.”

Each of Williams’ three interceptions caused an Irish rating, which put the Trojans in a hole they never ever climbed up out of. When Notre Dame drives were beginning at the USC 12-yard line, the USC 2-yard line and the 50-yard line, the defense– even on its best day– had little to no possibility. Take away those 21 points off turnovers, and the much-maligned system under defensive planner Alex Grinch surrendered just three points in the very first half.

“I believed our defense did enough to win the football game,” USC coach Lincoln Riley stated. “We put our defense in some dreadful positions.”

The defense started the 2nd half with back-to-back stops of the Irish, opening the door for a USC comeback. But while Williams had the ability to craft a touchdown drive to cut the deficit to 11 points, Notre Dame returned the serve with a scoring drive of its own that consisted of a 43-yard touchdown pass from Sam Hartman– a suggestion that the USC defense was still prone to allowing huge plays.And when USC again cut the cause 11 points early in the 4th quarter, it was time for USC’s special teams to add to the loss by allowing a 99-yard touchdown return, the backbreaker that put the game out of reach for great.”We type of simply took our turns making errors, which’s what it

appears like,” Riley said.By the time the clock struck no, Williams had actually been sacked six times, the Irish had

forced 5 turnovers (including two fumbles in the 4th quarter )and USC had tallied 9 charges for 75 yards. It was as if every glance of a weakness the Trojans had revealed over the previous six games was exposed in the span of 60 minutes.Riley said he was”exceptionally dissatisfied “by the result but that the group was not defeated

or demoralized. He stated he advised the group in the locker room that they were still unbeaten in conference play, giving them the chance to summon something similar to what they did last season, when a midseason loss at Utah put a roadway bump in their season. In his very first year as USC coach, Riley still got the Trojans to the Pac-12 title game, where a win would have put them in the College Football Playoff. Utah, however, beat them when again.As USC leaves South Bend with a loss, what awaits isn’t just another rematch versus Utah in the house next week, but a gauntlet that includes juggernauts Oregon and Washington, along with UCLA to end up out the season.”The good that you see from this football group suffices to beat anybody,”Riley said.”However we obviously understand we have actually got to put it together and put it together rapidly. … We got to let [go of] the dissatisfaction of not playing excellent tonight. We got to surpass it. We got to proceed. “