With just over 11 minutes to play in Saturday’s battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh, USC football Head Coach Lincoln Riley was looking to make some magic happen at Notre Dame Stadium, down 27-24.

Giving the ball back without regaining the lead wasn’t much of an option: Below-average quarterback play from No. 12 Notre Dame (5-2) freshman CJ Carr was the only thing keeping USC (5-2, 3-1 Big Ten) in the game amid an utterly dominant performance from Fighting Irish junior running back Jeremiyah Love.

The play prior, star junior wide receiver Makai Lemon had caught a 42-yard pass to take USC well into Irish territory. So, Riley went right back to him, but with a bit of a twist.

Lemon received a toss from redshirt junior quarterback Jayden Maiava and ran to the right sideline, preparing to throw the ball in a trick play attempt, but was stripped of the ball, which Notre Dame eventually recovered. Seven plays later — four of which were Love runs that went for a combined 36 yards — the Irish scored another touchdown, putting them up 34-24, and the rest was history.

The fumble was one of five turnovers for USC in Saturday’s loss, many of which came in major situations where the Trojans could have taken a lead. Riley didn’t sugarcoat his thoughts on the play in a postgame news conference.

“Stupid call,” he said twice before moving on to the next question.

After a dominant 31-13 win over then-No. 15 Michigan (5-2, 3-1), Saturday’s loss significantly thinned USC’s path to a College Football Playoff debut. The Trojans likely need to win out to make it into the 12-team field, including a looming road matchup with No. 6 Oregon (6-1, 3-1) on Nov. 22. 

“Anything’s possible,” Riley said when asked about the road ahead of USC this season to make the CFP. “We didn’t play our best game on all three sides tonight [but] still had a golden opportunity to win this football game. We are going to control what we can control, which is all our sides playing better [and] us coaching better. We will be pretty tough to beat here down the stretch.”

The defeat also dropped USC’s all-time record against the Irish to 37-53-5, with losses in seven of their last eight meetings. The future of the historic rivalry is still in question, though Riley said he hadn’t spent time thinking about the future of the matchup, instead focusing on what’s next for the Trojans.

‘Can’t do that against a good football team’

While USC’s biggest storyline coming into the game was the rise of redshirt freshman walk-on running back King Miller to the starting role after a dominant performance against Michigan, it was the other side’s backfield that stole the show.

After Maiava led an impressive 10-play scoring drive to open the game, Love made quick work of USC’s defense, breaking for a 63-yard run and a 12-yard touchdown on his first two carries to tie the game back up in less than a minute. And that was just the beginning for Love, who finished with an unreal 228 yards — over three times more than USC’s whole rushing attack — on 24 carries, an average of 9.5 yards, to go with the touchdown.

“We just overcompensated and, at times, panicked a little bit,” Riley said of the run defense. “We had a lot of guys not stunting into correct gaps or not fitting into correct gaps. Against two really good backs like that, they’re going to make you pay.” 

Love was aided by fellow Irish junior running back Jadarian Price, who added 87 yards and a touchdown of his own while averaging over six yards per carry. Like Love’s early and late big runs, Price also broke for a big play that crushed USC’s comeback momentum late.

One play after a 59-yard touchdown pass from Maiava to junior wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane gave the Trojans their first lead in over a quarter late in the third, Price took the kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to immediately take the lead back, breaking two tackles in the first 20 before cutting all the way across the field to stun Riley and company.

“You just can’t do that against a good football team,” Riley said of Price’s return. “We have to own it.”

While Miller improved on a slow start, he ended the game shy of a 4-yard per carry average with 70 on 18 attempts, failing to break for one of his signature long runs. Miller’s backup, sophomore running back Bryan Jackson, was about as effective on his six carries, putting a lot of the pressure on Maiava to outduel Love and Price as the game wound down.

“I didn’t feel like we did as good a job running through some of the tackles,” Riley said of his running back room compared to previous games. “It was a disappointing performance in terms of us running the ball. Had some good moments but not to the level that we’d been playing at.”

Maiava says he ‘just played shitty’

Though Maiava significantly outclassed Carr, who had a well-below-average 32.1 quarterback rating compared to Maiava’s 87.2 according to ESPN, USC’s star quarterback still missed multiple chances that could have propelled the Trojans to the win.

Notably, Maiava’s completion percentage of around 52% — 22-of-42 passing for 328 yards and two touchdowns — was easily his lowest of the season so far, including multiple missed throws in big spots. In the second quarter, Lane dropped a low third-down pass in the end zone on a drive that ended in a field goal. Soon after, an uncompetitive fourth-down throw in the red zone also halted Trojan momentum.

Maiava ended the game with two interceptions to junior cornerback Christian Gray, one of them right after Price’s kickoff touchdown, and now has four in his last three games after throwing none in USC’s first four contests.

While Riley said the rainy, windy and lightning-filled conditions in South Bend, Indiana, affected the game, especially in the second half, Maiava took responsibility for the mistakes.

“I honestly just played shitty,” Maiava said in a postgame news conference. “I’ve gotta be better for my teammates.”

The game-sealing turnover with about six minutes left in the fourth quarter again came on a Maiava incompletion, this time a fourth-and-1 read option play action try that was locked down by the Irish defense.

“Give them credit. They defended it well,” Riley said of the turnover. “[I made] two fourth-down calls, not very good calls and didn’t put our guys in very good positions.”

On the other side, despite only sacking Carr once, the USC defense limited the freshman quarterback to completing 16-of-26 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown, including a pressure that forced a critical second-quarter interception by junior defensive end Braylan Shelby.

‘Everything is still attainable’

Various Trojan receivers got their chance to shine Saturday, with seven different players catching passes of at least 10 yards.

While Lane led the way with 111 yards on six catches and a touchdown, Lemon and freshman wide receiver Tanook Hines were not far behind, both catching at least four passes for at least 67 yards. An impressive leaping grab by redshirt senior tight end Lake McRee was what got USC on the board in the first quarter.

Redshirt freshman kicker Ryon Sayeri added three field goals despite the tough conditions to improve to 12-for-13 on the season, while Notre Dame graduate kicker Noah Burnette missed his only try and also earned a penalty on an out-of-bounds kickoff. Sophomore defensive end Kameryn Crawford picked up his third solo sack of the season to round out a balanced Trojan effort.

“This loss doesn’t define us as a team,” redshirt senior safety Bishop Fitzgerald said in a postgame news conference. “Everything is still attainable that we want to reach.”

The Trojans will now head into their final bye week of the season, where Riley said he hopes to see the team get healthier, before finishing the year with a five-game stretch. Next up is a trip to Lincoln on Nov. 1 to face Nebraska (5-2, 2-2), who got smacked by Minnesota (5-2, 3-1) on Friday to fall off The Associated Press’ Top 25.