I think this game exposed one basic flaw in USC this year. The combination of their offensive dominance and defensive mediocrity this year has been such that some of their games have become toss-ups simply because of the way they play. Any opposing team that was within a touchdown with a few minutes left in the game had a 50-50 chance of winning the game, because I always had the sense in these close games (vs. Notre Dame and Texas in particular) that the last team with the ball and some time on the clock was going to win the game. And 50-50 it was, as USC won against Notre Dame and lost against Texas in very similar fashion.
Agreed -- SC could just have easily lost to ND and beaten Texas.