348 Rushing Yards Propel Navy Past Notre Dame 23-21

It's still too early to write the obituary for Notre Dame's 2009 season but today's 23-21 loss to Navy is more than a hiccup—it's more like a case of full blown acid reflux.

No. 22 Notre Dame wasn't the only one to get dealt a hard dose of reality on this Saturday.  Along with the Irish, five other ranked teams went from the contender column into the pretender column.

No. 4 Iowa, No. 8 Oregon, No. 11 Penn State, No. 20 California, and No. 24 Oklahoma  were also exposed for not being worthy of the lofty rankings the coaches poll had given them. 

Northwestern (6-4) knocked Iowa out of the unbeaten ranks.  Oregon (7-2), the team that pummelled USC last weak was beaten by Stanford (6-3) 51-42, and No. 16 Ohio State (8-2) upset Penn State (8-2) in Happy Valley. 

Oregon State (6-3) went on the road to beat California (6-3) and Nebraska (6-3) beat Oklahoma (6-3). 

Two other ranked teams had trouble but were able to hang on for wins.  No. 10 Georgia Tech had to go into overtime to beat determined Wake Forest and No. No. 15 Houston beat Tulsa on a last second field goal 46-45.

The fighting Irish had no answer for the Navy running game.  Navy compiled 348 rushing yards and running back Vince Murray had 158 of them.

Along with allowing too many rushing yards, Notre Dame sputtered too many times inside the red zone.  The Irish tried to mount another last minute comeback and closed a third quarter gap of 21-7 by scoring 14 fourth quarter points.

With the help of a successful on-side kick, Notre Dame scored with one minute left to cut the score to 23-21.  They tried another on-side kick but Navy recovered the ball and ran out the clock.

Although the Irish can still have a solid 2009 season by winning their last three games, Charlie Weis has the unenviable task of explaining how his team has lost the last two out of three to Navy--both at home.

This loss takes a little luster off next weeks game at Pitt (8-1) but with an upset, Notre Dame can get back on track. 

Were the Irish focused on the Pitt game?  Was that the reason they turned in what has to be called their worst performance of the season or were they simply outplayed by a gritty Navy team?

What's so disappointing for Irish fans about this loss is that many of them, after Notre Dame's 2008 Hawaii Bowl win were confident that they could win ten games this season and play in a BCS game.

Former Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana encouraged fans to lower expectations and actually took criticism for his statement.

The voters on the coaches poll added fuel to the fire when they voted Notre Dame to a spot in their preseason top 25 poll.  The coaches put the Irish back in the poll after their Washigton State win even though they don't have a win over a ranked team and already lost to Michigan and USC.

Michigan (5-5) lost today to Purdue and USC (7-2) struggled to get by Arizona State (4-5) 14-9.

It's still possible for the Irish to have a respectable season but things don't get easier from here--they get a lot tougher.

They'll travel to Pitt, at home against Uconn and finish on the road at Stanford.  Pitt could make it into the top 10 this week, Uconn (4-5) plays everyone tough(tonight they lost a close one to No. 5 Cincinnati 47-45) and Stanford's win over Oregon today proves they're legit.

If the Irish had trouble stopping the ground game today, they better shape up quickly because Pittsburgh's Deon Lewis and Stanford's Toby Gerhart are two of the country's best running backs.  Both have gone over the 1,000 yard mark already.