I don't think anybody in their right mind actually thought the Fighting Irish were going to beat the #5 USC Trojans on Saturday night, and that includes the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame went into the game as 32 point underdogs -- the largest spread ever in a Notre Dame game -- and they couldn't even manage to cover that as the offense was as inept as ever.
If you didn't watch the game here's all you really need to know about how things went: The Irish didn't pick up a first down until the last play of the third quarter when James Aldridge broke free for a 15 yard run. Until that point the Irish had run 30 plays on offense for a grand total of 23 yards. They would finish the game with a total of four first downs and 91 total yards.
The Trojans on the other hand racked up 449 yards of offense and picked up 22 first downs.
It was evident right from the very start that the Irish were outclassed at every position on the field. The Trojans are faster, bigger, stronger, and just a much better football team than the Irish can hope to be at this point.
Now that the Irish have finished their regular season schedule only two questions remain for the program: Does Charlie Weis keep his job and are they going to accept a bowl invitation? As for the former, if the team had to play well against USC to keep Charlie in town, well then he might as well keep his bags packed once his flight get back in to South Bend. As for the latter question, I hope not. I don't care if the team is bowl eligible, it would just be embarrassing for the Irish to accept a bowl invitation with just a 6-6 record, and frankly, they've embarrassed themselves enough over the last two weeks.
I don't know if it would be fair to their fans to subject them to another 60 minutes of having to watch this team again.
