Notre Dame's Scoring Streak Is Much Bigger Than Just The Offense

Notre Dame has been on a red hot scoring pace over its last five games, but the success goes much further than the offense

Notre Dame has been a hard team to figure out in 2022, but the Irish go into their matchup against No. 6 USC (10-1) playing their best ball of the season. There have still been some hiccups, like a rough second half against Navy, but Notre Dame has largely dominated its opponents during the current five-game win streak.

During that stretch Notre Dame has outscored its opponents 199-91 (39.8 PPG - 18.2 PPG), and the Irish have done something we haven't seen since World War II. Notre Dame has scored at least 35 points in each of its last five games, all wins, which is something the program hasn't done since 1943.

Notre Dame's offense is certainly playing better of late, especially its run game, but this scoring streak is much more about the Irish playing great team football. Notre Dame is winning not because its offense has caught fire, but rather because all phases of the team (offense, defense, specials teams) are doing whatever it takes to win.

A case could be made that Notre Dame hasn't been this good in all three phases, at the same time, in quite some time.

Notre Dame's ground attack has taken off in the last eight games, and during the five game win streak the offense is averaging 215.8 rushing yards per game, but it has been far from alone when it comes to putting the ball in the end zone. Notre Dame's points have come in all three phases.

It began in the 44-21 win over UNLV, when the Irish offense offense took advantage of two blocked punts and dominant defensive play by turning short fields into points. In the opening quarter the Irish jumped out to a 23-7 lead, but it had scoring drives of just 20, 18, 5 and 4 yards.

On the first play of Notre Dame's 41-24 win over the 16th-ranked Syracuse, Irish safety Brandon Joseph stepped in front of a Garrett Shrader pass and returned it 29 yards for a touchdown. The offense took advantage of a third quarter pick from its defense by scoring to go up 31-17, and the game was put away after a blocked punt gave the offense the ball at the Syracuse 2-yard line, and it took just one play for the offense to get into the end zone and break the game open.

In the dominant 35-14 win over then No. 5 Clemson, Notre Dame got on the board when linebacker Prince Kollie returned a blocked punt 17 yards for a touchdown. Notre Dame broke the game open with a 14-yard touchdown drive that followed a Benjamin Morrison interception. On the very next series, Morrison picked off his second pass of the game, this time returning it 96 yards for a touchdown.

The team's best all-around performance of the season might have been the 44-0 blowout win over Boston College. A Morrison interception gave the offense a short field, which it turned into a touchdown. After that the Notre Dame offense didn't anymore help on its way to 37 first half points.

Notre Dame certainly has come a long way since September. You remember what I'm talking about, it was back when Notre Dame struggled to get beyond 20 points in most games. The Irish averaged just 23.7 points per game during the 3-3 start to the season. In fact, Notre Dame topped 28 points just once during that stretch, but that now feels like a different season.

If Notre Dame scores at least 35 points in this game it will break the mark set by the 1943 team, which beat No. 3 Navy 33-6 in that season's sixth game, which continued its great season, but it ended the 35+ point scoring streak.

Notre Dame goes into this matchup with a chance to earn its sixth straight win of the 2022 season, its fifth win over USC, its second Top 10 win of the season. If the team can continue playing strong in all three phases the Irish can pull off this upset, but it certainly won't be easy.

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