The White Horse Cometh

While Notre Dame's players watched from dormroom couches, the USC Trojans continued their steamroll through the gauntlet of powerful Pac-10 foes, with the latest victim being the Arizona Wildcats. Yet as with several prior contests, the either trailed or were in a close game late before pulling away. And as with these prior contests, Matt Leinart and the rest of the USC offense picked apart the opposition, both on the ground and in the air.

Much has been made of the Trojans' offensive prowess. Can the Irish shut them down? Doubtful. But there are some areas of focus where they can disrupt the Trojans.

One such area is by getting pressure on Leinart. Through five games this year, opposing defenses have sacked the reigning Hesiman Trophy winner only six times, roughly once per game. Without any pressure, he will perform surgery on the Note Dame secondary just like past college football cadavers. And while certain ND players such as Wooden and Zbikowski have made a habit of hustling defensive plays resulting in ensuing turnovers, with enough time in the pocket Leinart will make these efforts irrelevant.

There's reason to believe that Notre Dame's offense will continue to score points against USC, and should well surpass prior opponents' 19 pts/game average. But with the USC offense putting up over 50 pts/game to date, the true test of how well Charlie Weis' staff can meet it's stiffest test of the year will be on the defensive side of the ball.