You Gotta Believe!

What does one say after a game like that?  After it finally ended, people rushed into the restrooms of course.  The guy next to me hit the nail on the head when he said "they may burn the grotto down tonight with all the candles that will be lit".  Right on.  If you feel that Mary the Mother of God waved her hand a touch on that OT field goal attempt by Pitt you are not alone.

This is one of those kind of games championship teams pull out once or twice a season.  In our case seems like 4 or 5 times but who is counting?  Alabama, Oregon, and KSU all had some tough games as well and unfortunately for us pulled them all out.  Well we just need to keep taking care of business in our remaining games.  As we saw last night nothing is going to come easy.

Game Notes:

Lets give some credit to Pitt.  They came to play and had some very nice things in their game plan that worked on both sides of the ball.  Ray Graham was a stud; he has killed us over the years - time to graduate buddy!  Pitt used the screen pass very effectively and called it at great times.  They also had about as many big plays on offense as all of our opponents put together prior to this game.  They beat our offensive line most of the game which tossed our run game out of whack.  Their punt and kickoff returns were fantastic and shifted field position many times.  We made plenty of mistakes to be sure but they gave us everything we could handle.

The Irish obviously did not read my keys to the game.  We did not run consistently, particularly if you take out Golson's scrambles.  Three turnovers that were all back breakers that cost us points.  Failed to turn long drives into TDs.  The list goes on and on.  But we still found a way to hang in there and win.  Golson once again demonstrated that he will be something really special when he puts it all together.  If he gets better on his pass reads (lots of open receivers!) and mixes in the occasional run, this offense could really hum.  We will need that against USC and in a bowl game.  I was also happy to see us stretch the field with several downfield throws.  Not many turned into completions but we gave our receivers some chances to make a play.

Defense showed some flaws for the first time last night but stiffened at the end.  The stop for a field goal inside the ten that kept it 20 - 6 was crucial at the time and of course the overtime stops were huge.  Pitt figured out some way to block Teo in the first half which is really something.  Special team did us no favors on field position or points.  We have to stop missing field goals!

Stadium Notes:

We got our Navy fly over.  Was kind of strange with two jets buzzing the stadium and a third circling off in the distance.  He was either the supervisor or got lost in the cloudy skies.  Later they introduced the pilots along with a Rear Admiral who leads the US Southern Command.  A pretty big job so I was  wondering how he got the day off.

Pitt band put on a nice short show - one long number and no school song.  The ND band show was OK, no dance number unfortunately.  The musical arrangements are always terrific.  have to be an old fogey for a moment and touch on a couple points.  Pitt played the ND Victory March in its pre-game show.  Of course we stopped playing the other teams tune last year.  I continue to think this is a big mistake and diminishes our good old display of sportsmanship.  It is total BS that this somehow saves time before the game.  During games our band has become the USC band.  We play on every little break, some times just a noisemaker spot to usurp the jumbotron rock blasts.  Our band is such a fine organization that represents the University so well, but we are tarnishing the image a bit in these two areas in my judgement.  Oh well.

So to wrap, a very special season continues and we are 9 - 0 for the first time since 1993!  Hopefully the Irish can use this heartstopper to clean up the messy items on both sides of the ball and finish strong and undefeated.  Can we please have a couple of blowouts?

Go Irish!  Beat Eagles!