Team of Destiny?

OK.  9 penalties for 70 yards.  Three turnovers including a back breaking fumble in the end zone.  Weather out of control.  Starting QB (schizophrenic or not) goes down with concussion on game tying drive in the last few minutes.  Have to come from behind (twice!) for the first time this year.  Have to stop a stud running back four times from inside the 4, twice at the goal line.  Uh yeah, Irish win!

It is always tempting to think ahead and start wondering if there is something special going on here.  Hopefully the team will not because many tough games remain but we fans can dream a bit.  BCS bowl well within reach maybe more.  Are we as good as Oklahoma or USC?  Bring 'em on and lets find out!  I like our chances to play well against anybody.  Are we as good as an Alabama?  Bring 'em on and lets find out!

Tonight the BCS standings come out for the first time.  I will go out on a limb before they are published and predict we are #4 possibly #3.  We will only be #5 in the AP probably.  But it really does not matter because our destiny is in our own hands.  We run the table we will be playing for the national championship.

Having a great season, undefeated or not, takes a few breaks and a few gut checks along the way.  This year's team keeps responding and doing what it takes to win; often under very different circumstances.  Golson is developing right before our eyes and still shows the potential to take this offense to a new level (if Golic stays still!!!).  Incidentally we out rushed AND out passed Stanford in the game even with all the challenges.  Nothing to say about the defense except wow.  Held the Cardinal to under 300 yards and got a couple big turnovers.

Game notes:  

First time I can recall a fly over being cancelled due to weather.  I thought those guys flew all the time!  Weather was real bad a few times but mostly light drizzle with long patches of dry throughout the game.  We got pretty wet but it was worth it!  Pretty big crowd stayed for the whole thing and was pretty loud again.  I hope Kelly and Swarbrick are happy because ND stadium is not a fun place to play this year.

Was a bit confused about the offensive play calling yesterday.  Seemed like we either ran 3 straight passes or 3 straight runs and the mix was not balanced within series.  Stanford has a great D-line and that clearly disrupted many of the things we wanted to do.  I do feel Kelly is partially to blame for the end zone fumble.  Why we call 3 passes from the shadow of our end zone makes no sense to me.  Defense was playing great so why go for broke?  Golson was running for his life on the first two downs; they finally got him on 3rd down and it could have cost us the game.

Very nice to see Eifert get a few big catches and make a difference.  The guy is doubled on almost every play and that has opened up some nice opportunities for Toma, Jones and the other young receivers.  Running game sputtered again; very surprised this line has not developed more consistency but of course we have to give Stanford some credit for playing tough D.

Speaking of defense, the stuff at the goal line will get the headlines but overall we played another solid game with a bend but don't break type of performance.  Again, no offensive touchdowns allowed for the 4th game in a row.  We were out punted most of the night and this gave Stanford a field position advantage in a game where long, sustained drive were few and far between (almost non-existent).  If you like defense, you had to like watching this very entertaining game.

So BYU comes to town next week smarting from another loss.  They will give us a game no question but the momentum right now is spectacular for the Irish.  We should win comfortably in my view but let's talk about that later in the week.  For now, celebrate a classic victory in the rain.  We may look back on it as a huge fork in the 2012 season on the way to something very big.

GO IRISH!  BEAT COUGARS!