1:02/80 Yards

In a game they shouldn't have won, BQ and the Shark came through again. Similar to their comeback against Stanford in 2005 that definitely saved a BCS berth, Brady Quinn hit Jeff Samardzija with 27 seconds left for a 45 yard TD pass that proved to be the difference. The Irish won a squeaker, 20-17. Some October magic was required, for sure.

I can’t believe how many times I wrote the word “blech” on my notes page. Before the final drive, we had 13 possessions for 13 points. Like I said, “BLECH”. Here’s a good metric: I always keep track of how many different receivers Brady hits each half. His usual minimum is 5, maximum 7. Second half today? 3. DW, Grimes and the Shark. What is up with the O-line this year? We should be blowing people away up there, but UCLA ruled the day today. On one play, we kept Carlson in to block and the six blockers couldn’t stop the 3 rushers.

I suppose some of that was receivers not open, but it was more Brady Rushed than Brady Can’t Find a Receiver. And Brady took a few bad sacks today too.

Here is an absolutely amazing stat, even given that sacks count as rushing attempts. The two teams combined today rushed the ball 63 times for 67 yards. Find a worse running day in the archives, I dare you.

The non-scoreboard stats look like a clean ND victory. Time of possession was 34-26, ND. We outgained them 345 to 243. Ran 20 more plays from scrimmage (80-60). First downs were 20-12 in our favor. We won turnovers, 2-1. But as we all know, statistics lie (I’m a math major, I can say that). Example: in the second quarter, we out-possessed them 11 minutes to 4, but they outscored us 14-3!

I noted at the beginning of the 3d quarter that we rarely rush more than 4. Midway through the 3rd I noted “we’re starting to blitz”. And bringing more was the key for the defense today. Outside of those two long TD passes, defense played well, giving up 153 yards all game outside those two plays. Heck, I predicted 17 points for UCLA, so I have to be happy about the D. I shouldn’t mention that UCLA had only two 20+ yard passing plays ALL SEASON before today, when they had 3. But I just did. And I shouldn’t mention the 3 missed tackles on their second TD. But I just did. Oops.

What’s your vote for the biggest play of the game, BESIDES the BQ-Shark TD? On UCLA’s 4th drive in the second half, they had 3rd and 3 at our 37. In Medlock’s FG range. Mo Crum, Jr. (how did his dad let him go to ND?) timed the snap perfectly, sacked Cowan for 7 yard loss, forcing a punt. Potentially 3 points lost there. A biggie.

When I write my game notes I write each team’s drives down either side of a piece of unlined paper, capturing big plays and other things of note. For the last drive, instead of simply writing “ND 7th drive (20 yd line)” I wrote “1:02/80 yards”. Well, it didn’t take 1:02. It took 35 seconds and 3 plays. Samardzija for 21, Grimes for 14, Samardzija to the House. Way to go, BQ. You da man.

My final point of analysis is that we should start each game in no-huddle and stay there until the game is out of reach. We're more "in charge" and today UCLA burned at least two timeouts on defense today just to re-collect themselves when we were in no-huddle.

Other notes of note: Ain’t it fun seeing FSU and Miami this bad?...John Carlson is a better tight end than Anthony Fasano. Better yards per game, yards per catch and total catches…AMAZING 35 point comeback by the Spartans to beat Northwestern. Down 38-3, they won 41-38. Largest comeback in NCAA history…Brady was 32nd in history to pass for 10,000 yards… I was thinking Tigers in 5, but that’s a tall order now.

So on to Navy. If we don’t win by at least 3 touchdowns, I’m going to be angry. Very, very angry. Don’t think anyone ahead of us lost today, since Nebraska gagged against Texas. Cal and Tennessee, who were right behind us, won close, so we’ll probably hold on to the #8 spot. Clemson stomped on Ga Tech, so our strength of schedule will go down a bit. But I don’t think Clemson will pass us. Would have been real nice for Texas to lose. Oh well. Next week, who ahead of us can we realistically root for to lose? Nobody, really. Closest is Florida, who hosts Georgia. Iffy.

I’d apologize for the length of this, but Blogger.com has been down for hours, so I keep writing more in MSWord while waiting for the site to come back up. So blame Nancy Rose! Yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket. (Remember when SNL was good?).

Have a good week, all of you. Blog away, please!