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.

Blame can – and should – be divvied up to a variety of areas. The offensive line was a dying star, pocket collapsing upon Williams repeatedly, a third-quarter push for momentum quashed on back-to-back sacks where USC’s quarterback had little chance to think before multiple Fighting Irish blitzers torpedoed at him.

“Those guys are so good,” offensive-line coach Josh Henson said of Notre Dame’s linebackers on Wednesday, “they like to blitz ‘em. We gotta be ready to pick up those blitzes.”

They were not. And the run game was thus nonexistent, MarShawn Lloyd and Austin Jones repeatedly probing for holes that weren’t there, Zachariah Branch running approximately 20 yards across the field on a third-quarter end-around all for an ultimate gain of 0.

But a 24-6 hole was dug, in large part, by Williams, in a true bizarro-world of a sentence rarely written in his time at USC. Three first-half interceptions, all leading 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.

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 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.

Related Articles

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.

The worst game of Williams’ collegiate career – completing 23 of 37 passes for 199 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions – and a crooked-number point-total masked what could’ve been a breakout performance from USC’s defense. Riley drilled his feet to the earth on Tuesday in backing his unit, and 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.

And the issues that plagued USC in a six-game start, masked by the thin sheen of an undefeated record and their quarterback’s brilliance, were unveiled raw and ugly and once and for all Saturday night.