Prayers Answered as Irish Finally Win!

by Wally

Hallelujah!!!!    Seems like it’s been several months since Notre Dame’s last win, but the Irish got it done last night in Chestnut Hill, MA with a 31-13 win.   Seems the Irish have been turning the tables lately against a Boston College team that has seemingly tormented them almost as much as Michigan State.    And it’s quite a relief to know that ND is not the worst Catholic school playing major college football …. BC is clearly a candidate for that dubious distinction.

Yours truly did not see the game, as it was blacked out here in Houston.  We were instead fed Penn State-Iowa, Stanford-Oregon and USC-Washington on the ABC/ESPN family of stations.   And I still have not been able to locate a Houston-based station that carries the ND radio broadcasts.    Thank God someone invented Blackberry.   Anyway, it seemed as though the Irish got off to a really fast start (smart on the road) with a 21-0 lead in the first quarter.    Brian Kelly’s determination to make QB Dayne Crist more of a threat with his feet was apparent as he scampered in for the first Irish TD.   Armano Allen had an effective game on the ground with 90 yards on 19 carries.    Crist was also effective through the air by distributing the ball to Riddick, Floyd, Allen and Goodman … Riddick in particular led the WRs with 9 catches and a TD.   Altogether, Crist passed 44 times, connecting on 24 for 203 yards, two TDs and one INT.  The ND offense was at least somewhat efficient, but far short from inspiring.   Clearly, the ground game needs to be better … and Crist has to do a better job of finding the open guys.   The only score in the second half was a ND touchdown midway through the 3rd quarter.    A couple of fumbles cost the Irish more points.

The real story last night was a combination of ND’s defense and/or BC’s pathetic offense.  BC gained just 40 yards on the ground before subtracting sack yardage.    ND sacked the inexperienced BC quarterbacks 5 times and picked off two passes which help offset yielding 265 yards in the air.     There were several 3 and outs and the Irish D gets credit for doing what they had to do …. no, what they were EXPECTED to do ….. against the rookie QBs.   On GameDay, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit actually scolded the Irish defense for being slow vs Stanford and predicted BC would win.   Ha …  not so fast, my friend!

Well … it’s certainly great to win a game, esp on the road, but it’s clear the Irish must improve in AT LEAST two key areas in the coming weeks:    they need a better, more dynamic running game (that hangs on to the ball) and QB Dayne Crist needs to find the guys who are really open downfield.   But it starts with the O-line … they need to bust some better holes.   Pitt comes to South Bend next week; they are another squad playing below expectations this year and it appears Dave Wannstedt is approaching “hot seat status”.

In other college football news:

—  Northwestern pulled out a close one at Minnesota to remain undefeated … barely.      Same for Michigan at Indiana.   It won’t be long before the Skunkbears are exposed for having a terrible defense.

— Staying in the Big 10, Penn State was thoroughly exposed  by Iowa for having no offense as they were smoked 24-3.   See ya Lions!    Also as I predicted, Sparty beat Bucky in East Lansing and the Green Machine remains undefeated.     Ohio State had a surprisingly tough time with Illinois.   Something tells me it will be the Buckeyes who drop a game somewhere along the line to drop out of the nation’s coveted Top 2 spots.

— As predicted, Florida and their suspect offense … well, team … was abused at Alabama 31-6.   Actually, Florida’s players are highly suspect off the field too as this team might be leading the nation in arrests!

— Registering quite high on the Dumb Meter are two SEC schools who played in Baton Rouge.   Anyone else see this comedy of stupid errors?    First of all, it should be pointed out that LSU coach Les Miles has a reputation for being, shall we say … not so bright.   Secondly, both schools have reps for giving scholarships to more than a few “student-athletes” who essentially have no chance of graduating.  Combine the two, and you get what happened at the end of the game Saturday.   LSU down by 4 with very little time left and needing a TD to win.   They drive down inside the 5 yard line, have used all the timeouts, and run a QB keeper with about 24 seconds left on 2nd and goal.   It gets stuffed … and panic ensues as the clock isn’t stopping and the players on both sides have no idea what to do.   Guys are running on the field, guys are running off the field, Miles is looking for his mommy.   Finally, LSU snaps the ball with 2 seconds left and it skirts by the QB, a scrum ensues on about the 15 yards line and the game is over with Tennessee winning, right?    WRONG!    Turns out the Vols had at least 13 guys at the line of scrimmage!   LSU gets another chance and this time they score from the 2.    What a debacle!    But again, not surprising when several of your players might be reading at no better than a 3rd gade level.     And a coach in Miles who needs to use a lifeline for advice whenever the game gets tight and the clock is under a minute.   (Michigan guy).

— In PAC 10 showdown, Oregon beat Stanford in a game that pretty much lived up to the hype.  It was much closer than the final score might indicate as the Cardinal were ready to make it tight with about 4 minutes left, but fumbled it away on Oregon’s 2 yard line.    Both of these squads look like legit Top 10 teams.

— Now we’re seeing USC’s true colors after being caught with NCAA infractions, punished and put on probation.   After a handful of uninspiring wins, the Trojans suffered an uninspiring loss at home to Washington.      The players on the sideline look about as enthused as Scrooge on Christmas.   Well … not much to play for … can’t go to a bowl.   And Kiffin looks about as bumfuzzled as Bowden used to.

—  Like Florida, Texas is … well, a bad team.    I watched most of this game and Texas was never really in it from the beginning.   This is not to say that Oklahoma is “for real” … they’ve got quite a few warts, too.    But Texas will be kicked out of the Top 25 for the first time in a looooooooooong time, and they deserve to be.

—   Hey Mark Richt …. didn’t you used to be the coach of Georgia???    Seeeee ya!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!