Notre Dame-Purdue: Charlie Weis Coaches a Great Game in Beating the Boilermakers

Prior to the season, Notre Dame fans were not looking at the Purdue game as one that wouldn't be that big of a challenge. Long time coach Joe Tiller retired and Curtis Painter graduated. With a new coach and a new quarterback, the Irish should have no trouble with the Boilermakers.

Then when Purdue lost to Northern Illinois, a blowout win looked very likely. Irish fans would normally be disappointed with a nail-biting, 24-21 win on a touchdown with less than a minute to go. Ordinarily that would be disappointing against a team like this, but there were definitely some extenuating circumstances for the Irish.

The Irish have had one of the most potent offenses in the country through the first month. However, this high scoring unit was very banged up. Michael Floyd is already out for the year. Armando Allen was unable to play Saturday. Jimmy Clausen wasn't going to be able to play the whole game. The only big weapon left was Golden Tate.

With all these injuries and an underachieving defense, there was reason for the Irish to be concerned. With all these factors it would really take a great game plan for Notre Dame to get a victory. Well, a great game plan is exactly what head coach Charlie Weis and defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta delivered.

First, on defense, it was a much-improved effort. The long play for a touchdown shows that there is still work to do, but fewer penalties and missed tackles made me feel a lot better about the unit. Tenuta must have read some of Eric Murtaugh's articles because it was a much more controlled gameplan with fewer blitzes.

They looked more disciplined, and with less blitzing meant less overrunning the play. That means fewer missed tackles. The best part is that by blitzing less, the blitzes actually seemed to work better when they came with them. They held Purdue to 21 points, and with this offense that is good enough.

Offensively, this was probably the best coaching I have seen from Weis since he left the New England Patriots. He knew Allen couldn't go and that he had to preserve Clausen. Therefore, he had to come up with a plan B. This plan B was a package of plays for Dayne Crist that featured mostly runs and safe passes.

This package featured Tate, a former tailback, running the wildcat and taking handoffs in the backfield. We also would see the re-emergence of Robert Hughes pounding the ball up the middle. Young phenoms Jonas Gray and Theo Riddick were also featured in this package.

Weis planned to use this package no matter what in the second quarter in case he needed it late in the game. This package worked so well that it produced two unanswered touchdowns. It also just killed the game clock.

Announcers Brad Nessler and Bob Griese said that it was working so well that they wouldn't do anything else until Purdue showed they could stop it. Weis must have agreed because he played this out as long as he could. Clausen didn't re-enter the game until midway through the fourth quarter.

Clausen showed his maturity and toughness by leading the team to a last-minute victory. The whole time he was hobbling down the field. He found Kyle Rudolph on 4th-and-goal with 24 seconds left. Clausen really showed once again who the face of that team is and that he is a legitimate Heisman candidate.

Some may downplay the victory because it was a rebuilding Purdue team. However, Weis's group was beat up and his game plan with the circumstances was outstanding. Besides, Purdue is better than its record. It almost beat Oregon.