Well…I had to endure another excruciating loss to USC today. This year’s game lived up to the hype. Notre Dame was more than capable of winning and it showed in the 4th quarter. The talent gap has been closed between the two schools due to Weis’s recruiting efforts. This team has made huge strides this year but they didn’t do enough early on or when USC made their run in the 3rd quarter. The defense was unable to put pressure on Matt Barkley for most of the game which allowed him to pick them apart for a career day. Jimmy Clausen was under the gun for the better part of three quarters before putting together an impressive string of scores. There is little doubt that having Michael Floyd on the field would have made a pretty big difference. That said…USC did what they always do and made plays when they needed to. It’s too bad Kamara slipped on that last play. I would have liked to see this game played out in overtime. Notre Dame should have earned some respect after this performance despite the loss. If you missed the action, you can catch the highlights and post game interviews here.