2. The secondary struggled mightily vs. Trevor Lawrence
Before this game, Notre Dame’s defense had only giving up four total touchdown passes of 20+ yards. Trevor Lawrence and the Tigers quickly changed that narrative against a secondary without Julian Love for most of the first half.
Lawrence looked like an upperclassman on one of the biggest stages in college football, and he torched the Fighting Irish secondary for 320 yards and three touchdown passes. The Notre Dame defense has talent on every level, but Lawrence was able to exploit them with deep passes to Justyn Ross.
Ross was electric as he hauled in six passes for 148 yards and two scores.
Travis Etienne caught one pass for eight yards and did the rest of his damage on the ground, as he ran the ball 14 times for 109 yards and a score, his 21st of the season.
Would the outcome be different if Love played all game? More than likely not, but him being out didn’t do the defense any favors.