Notre Dame Strikes Again, Foil Huskie's Glory

What a game. It was a good thing I was in the hospital already, because I do not know how many of these final finishes I can survive. That being said, I feel that we a so ever slowly going in the proper direction as a team. There are huge issues to be sure, but I still believe a victory over the scum(USC) is possible.

First, I want to comment on that interesting penalty on Saturday. That was not the first time I have witnessed it. The other time was called on Notre Dame. The opponent was Stanford and the year was 2002. That time it cost 14 points as it eliminated a punt return for a touchdown and allowed Stanford to score it's only points that afternoon. I have seen hundreds of games and these are the only TWO instances that penalty has been called. At least this time we have Coach Weis around to even tell us what the referee was calling.

Now, the game and we have both good things and bad things to examine. The bad things are the inconsistent tackling and the offensive line making a few bad plays. The Chicago Tribune wrote that all these close finishes show that Notre Dame is not a good team. I would argue that certain segements are not playing consistently. The poor tackleing was annoying. But the defense did come through at the end. The offensive line missed some chances to allow touchdowns, but they did get that all important 2 point conversion completed.

The only constant good play comes from our quarter back, running backs and receivers. They do not play perfectly, but they do have a high rate of success. When bad things do happen it is usually another segment of the team( offensive line) which fails and makes their task impossible for that particular play.

All in all, I still see a victory is possible on 10/17. That is mainly because the Unrepentant Scum of California have convincing victories over only a division III school and a befuddled California team. Our defense needs to be much more focused and the offensive line needs to be a bit more effective for victory to be possible. All these close victories can actually make a team come together. I hope that we see the fruits of all this anxiety on 10/17. That is because Boston College does scare me much more than the Trojans. I just hope that we beat them both!!