Given the opponent and environment, USC’s performance in the third and fourth quarters at Notre Dame qualify as its best half of the 36 played since Sam Darnold took his last snap.
On the road against a top-10 opponent and trailing by 17 points, the Trojans responded in unfamiliar fashion:
With grit and resolve; with leadership, aggressiveness and playmaking on both sides of the ball; and with no major gaffes on the sideline. (But a big whiff by the officials.)
Final judgment, however, depends entirely on distance.