Notre Dame Fighting Irish Fulfill Promise in 35-0 Win Over Nevada

On the opening Saturday of the 2009 college football season, Notre Dame took a solid first step on the road back to respectability, and does what they could not last year in burrying an opponent.

The Irish throttled the Nevada Wolfpack, 35-0, earning their first shut-out since 2002, and dominating Nevada in each phase of the game.

Notre Dame coasted for the last quarter-and-a-half after scoring on five of it's first six possessions.

The Nevada defense couldn't stop Michael Floyd and spent much of the day watching him sprint unmlested down the sidelines as he hauled in three touchdowns.

Quarterback Jimmy Clausen statistically had the second best game of his career, going 15-for-18, posting 310 yards, and 4 TDs touchdowns.

Protection was good all day, and Clausen had no trouble making correct reads and delivering the ball on time to an open target.

The Irish also added 175 yards on the ground, with Armando Allen leading the way with 75 yards and a touchdown. 

Better news for Irish fans is that the defense held a high powered offensive unit to zero points and just over 300 yards total offense.

The Wolfpack had some success running the ball, but the passing attack never found solid footing.

Despite connecting on only 12-of-23 attempts for 149 yards and a pair of interceptions, Junior quarterback Colin Keapernick was the brightest bulb of the bunch for the Wolfpack. He eluded Irish linebackers all day and proved very hard to tackle.

Several times Kaepernick was the victim of poor play surrounding him, several key dropped passes and a pair of offensive interference penalties wiped out first downs and led to punts.

His play was solid until the game was out of hand and the Irish no longer had to fear the run.

For Nevada, the game seemed to only last three series.

Notre Dame scored easily on their first possession, marching 65 yards in 11 plays with Clausen hitting Kyle Rudolph for the score.

Nevada seemed poised to answer as they took the kick and marched 41 yards in 7 plays before missing a field goal.

The Irish, still having trouble getting the ground game going, remained airborne, with Clausen connecting with Golden Tate for 38 and 15 yards, Robbie Paris for a clutch eight yard first down conversion before finding a wide open Floyd on the first play of the second quarter for a 24 yard touchdown.

All the air came out of Nevada's balloon following that score.

By the time Nevada gained it's next first down, it was 28-0 and the route was on.

Following Floyd's third touchdown at the 10:12 mark of the third quarter, Weis called off the attack and coasted his team to the easy 35-0 win.

By many accounts, Notre Dame exceeded expectations.

The point spread was 14.5, and most sites advised readers to take Nevada.

Many commentators, including Kordell Stewart and Mark May picked Nevada to win outright. The ESPN College Gameday crew remarked that Notre Dame would struggle with Kaepernick and the "high powered" Nevada attack, and would be lucky to win.

Then the Irish hang a 35 point shut-out win on Nevada.

The same commentators that picked Nevada to win now said that "it was only a WAC team" and that "Notre Dame should beat a Nevada by 30 points".

The crowd gathered outside the Georgia Dome chanted "over-rated" at ever mention of the Irish.

It all begs the question "what are the Irish to do?"

The answer is simple.

Beat Michigan.