Playoff bid just beyond their grasp

Mistakes doom Trojans' hopes in perhaps final game of rivalry

- BY RYAN KARTJE

Photographs by JUSTIN CASTERLINE Getty Images

TANOOK HINES (16) attempts to make a catch against Dallas Golden of Notre Dame, which prevailed 34-24 on a rainy Saturday night at Notre Dame Stadium.

It was an ominous bit of imagery, at the bitter end of a century-long series. Dark clouds descending over Touchdown Jesus, and a heavy downpour soaking every soul in Notre Dame Stadium, as if Mother Nature was lashing out at the prospect of one of college football's defining rivalries dying in vain.

Both USC and Notre Dame have suggested they hope the rivalry can continue beyond this season, if they can come to an agreement in the coming months. But if this was indeed the end, 99 years since USC and Notre Dame first met on a football field, it would be a particularly crushing final scene for the 20th-ranked Trojans, who now find their hopes of a College Football Playoff bid hanging by a thread after a 34-24 loss.

"We just flat-out did not play good enough tonight against a good team on the road," USC coach Lincoln Riley said. "[We] had some missed opportunities that make you sick right now."

The game seemed well on its way to a different sort of conclusion, when the 13th-ranked Irish shanked a 31-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. Three plays later, USC quarterback Jayden Maiava found wideout Makai Lemon for a 42-yard gain.

The game's momentum was suddenly back in the hands of Riley and his dynamic offense. That's when the Trojans coach dialed up a harebrained trick play that even he couldn't defend when asked about it later.

Sprinting right on an end-around, Lemon took the handoff from Maiava and immediately found himself trapped by the descending Notre Dame defense. So Lemon cocked the ball as if he were going to throw, only to have the ball stripped away.