Lincoln Riley said after USC’s win over Notre Dame Saturday night he and the defense was tired of being told the Fighting Irish were going to run wild on the Trojans.

It felt like a pointed comment when he delivered it. Sure enough, Riley took to Twitter shortly after to highlight one such prediction from The Mercury News’ Jon Wilner. Before the game, Wilner implied that Notre Dame would derail USC’s College Football Playoff hopes with its ground game.

That didn’t exactly happen.

USC beat Notre Dame 38-27 behind another superb performance from Heisman hopeful quarterback Caleb Williams, but the defense certainly left its impact on the game as well. Not only did Notre Dame not rush for 850 yards, it didn’t even crack 100. The Irish were held to 90 yards on 26 carries.

Heading into the contest, the Irish had run for at least 200 yards in four of their previous five games. That coincided with a five-game winning streak. They were coming off a 44-0 win over Boston College in which they ran for 281 yards and four scores as a team.

Logan Diggs led the way in the win over the Eagles, with 122 yards on 15 carries. Against USC, Diggs was held to 34 yards on 12 carries.

“I kind of got sick and tired of hearing how we were just gonna get pounded in the run game,” Riley said Saturday night. “That didn’t happen. Really proud of the way we stopped the run, tackled, caused turnovers, and made big plays. I thought we played really well defensively.”

A week ago, USC was knocked by the CFP selection committee for giving up 45 points to UCLA. The AP Top 25 had the Trojans fifth, one spot ahead of then-two-loss LSU. The CFP selection committee reversed the order, putting the Tigers over the Trojans for the fifth spot.

This week, with LSU losing and Ohio State dropping its first game of the season, USC jumped into the top four. The Trojans appear to be a win away from making the Playoff. On Friday (5 p.m. PT, FOX), they’ll face another team that will try and run the ball at them in Utah.