Trojan cheap shot to the neck of Notre Dame’s QB knocks him out of the game, but despite the back-up’s disgracefully bad performance, the Irish still manage to Beat SC 14-10, by shutting them out in the Second Half
For the first month of their dismal season, u$c fans were mainly blaming now-ousted Head Coach Lane Kiffin. They claimed that his play-calling was too predictable, and he didn’t know how to utilize all his 5-Star talent. Well, now he’s long gone, but the sc Offense still sucks. Trojan Star Receiver Marqise Lee caught only two passes before leaving with an injury, but that still left sc with plenty of firepower, and a guy calling plays that isn’t Kiffin.
But with Cody Kessler at the helm, sc’s Offense still couldn’t get untracked, scoring only 10 points before Halftime. With the trojans down by 4, and with Notre Dame’s Offense piling up yardage, they must have figured their only hope was to knock out the Irish’s QB, who had already thrown two TD passes. So one of their defenders put a forearm into Tommy Rees’ neck, and Rees was removed, with concussion treatment being administered. Although there was no flag on the play, the announcers reported that the hit was illegal, and SHOULD have been flagged.
If it was indeed a trojan PLAN, the plan worked brilliantly. The back-up QB was atrocious. He was allowed to throw only 4 passes, and none of them came anywhere near a Receiver. There was actually a FIFTH attempt, but it doesn’t count as a pass, because the ball just slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground as a fumble.
He was SO bad, that sc just stacked the box, KNOWING that ND was running on almost every down. SC had every opportunity to come back from their 14-10 Halftime deficit, but they choked on two make-able Field Goals, and they torpedoed themselves with penalties the rest of the time. Every time they had a chance to build some momentum, they were flagged for an OBVIOUS Holding penalty, usually just grabbing a jersey and yanking someone to the ground, and Kessler was too inept to overcome being behind the sticks. Kessler also threw a weak Interception that kept the Irish in control.
So despite the brilliant strategy of forcing a worthless and useless player into the QB role for ND, the trojans go down to a demoralizing 14-10 defeat in South Bend, at the hands of their OTHER hated Rival. You think Kiffin’s watching from his home, laughing his ass off at the complete trojan ineptitude? He’s probably wondering why his successor Ed Orgeron wasn’t fired upon arrival back at LAX.