The Line

Yikes! ND is favored to win 8 games? All on Saturday?

Eight game!

It's ok Scott. We know how hard it is to proof read one sentence.

Damn, wish I got the 9. Anytime SC is laying points against the domers, take em!

....Moneyline....bank on it

monopoly..... you got that backwards

Okay so ND's record is 4-2 with six games remaining in the regular season. Let's say that they win all those, and win a bowl game. That would give them a record of 11-2. USC is 5-1 with six games remaining in the season. Even if USC lost every game, we'd end up at 5-7. Notre Dame is favored by eight games, so they need 13 wins. Scott, what casino gave you this info??! I'm ready to bet the house, car, dog, 401k, a package of napkins from Costco.....

Goatboy Kiffin gets no respect. 8 pt dog to a two loss team , that hasn't beaten SC in 10 years at home. While SC is a awe inspiring 5-1. What gives Goatboy Kiffin , does anyone take you seriously ?

For someone who grills Kiffen for mispronouncing players names occasionally you think you could write a simple sentence you idiot. Maybe you should blog about your mistake for the rest of the week.

Full disclosure: I'm a Notre Dame fan.

I haven't seen a lot of the Trojans this year and I was wondering what some of the fans thought of them this year.

I saw a little of the game against Arizona State where Barkley threw the pick 6 in the second half and I saw the first half against Cal. Overall, this USC team doesn't seem to be nearly as talented as in years past when they were laying the beat down on the Irish almost every year. Barkley does not look good to me; his accuracy is very poor when he gets pressure. Woods is a stud and Lee seems to be pretty talented. Not having Tyler has to hurt.

The D just doesn't look like a USC defense.

Notre Dame is still a very angry team after giving away the games against South Florida and Michigan (5 turnovers each, many of which were in the redzone). The offense is starting to click and other than the 4th quarter against Michigan, the defense has been very solid all year.

Rat,

Everyone's offense clicks against Air Force and Purdue. That being said, Southern Cal this year is terrible. Take the Fightin' Irish and give the points. Enjoy the next five years as SC is back to the 90's mode.

Not so fast my Irish friend. This USC team is very young, but very talented. I could see them beating ND by three touchdowns or losing by the same margin. You never know what you're going to get with these guys, but if the offense plays like it has much of the season and the defense plays like it has almost none of the season, USC can beat nearly any team in the country (they could also lose to a lot of teams).

Notre Dame hasn't really been the model of consistency either though. While they have drubbed Purdue and Air Force, they struggled mightily (15-12) to outlast a Pitt team that just got beat by a second-string quarterback led Utah team.

Who knows who will come out on top in this one. It's certainly important to SC, since Kiffin DOES NOT want to lose a second straight to the hated Irish, but ND is still mathematically eligible for a BCS game, and you know they'll pull out all stops to try to get another one on SC. Brian Kelly has come out and admitted that SC is the number one rival for ND (obvious to most, but disputed by those who don't know as much as they they they do) so I expect him to call his best game of the year. Let's hope we can get Lamar Dawson out there so we can have a linebacking core worth talking about - Bailey/Pullard/Dawson.

FIGHT ON!

Did the Wolf edit his post?

And Scotty doesn't read the comments...sure thing, Pinocchio.

@sureshot, how can we be so sure Dawson is ready? Galippo might be unathletic and slow, but he sometimes ends up in the right spots. Dawson might be overwhelmed by a pretty decent offensive attack in South Bend. Next couple seasons, however, these linebackers will be fun to watch.

Thanks for the response, SCIdiot and Sureshot.

That's a good point about Purdue and AFA and about Pitt; Pitt's offense sucks, but their D is pretty good (14 points against South Florida who has a dynamic QB).

We also had a good offensive performance against Michigan State, one of the top teams in the country from a defensive statistics perspective. While Sparty's D got fat on FAU and a couple Directional Michigan schools, holding Denard Robinson in check on Saturday was impressive. We were very balanced against MSU- Cierre Wood had 14/71 with 2 TDs and Jonas Gray 12/65. Rees pretty efficient going 18/26 with 1 TD, 1 pick. Overall, we had 275 yards of offense (not great) and 21 offensive points (1 TD was a KO return and 3 were set up by a pick).

I think SC is going to have to CAUSE some TOs wtih their D to win (don't expect the gift picks like Cal was giving last week; we got those out of our system the first two games). Rees is really starting to find other weapons (particularly Tyler Eifert and Theo Riddck last game) and make better reads/decisions. Also, be prepared for Andrew Hendrix as a change-of-pace QB (4/4 passing, ran for 111 against AFA).

I see Tyler's playing; that's good for the Trojans. I think Bob Diaco will have some blitzes dialed up for Barkley. I'm interested to see his accuracy with pressure (as I mentioned in the last post, he does not seem to be very accurate at all when his feet aren't set).

I was struck by how young 'SC is; wow. 2 starting LBs that are freshman, both corners are sophomores, and no 4-deep stable of proven RBs.

If I'm Kiffin, I find ways to isolate Woods or Lee on #4, Gary Gray one of our CBs. He's been shaky and gave up 3 TDs against Michigan. If I'm Kelly/Diaco, I put our best cover corner Robert Blanton (#12) on Woods the whole game and force USC to use Lee and your TEs.

I'll be in the Stadium and look for a little payback for the last time I was at ND-USC in 2005.

Yo RAT...Nice informative posting! Thanks..and good luck on Sat nite.. We're going to give you hell, so I am ready for a great game! This era of Trojan football is not used to losing under the shadows of TDJ!
You did neglect discussing the Michael Floyd mismatch! If we don't basically shut him down at the los, were going to pay heavily against that guy.
Fight On