Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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a 20‑yard touchdown run five plays after the opening kickoff. He continued to hammer away, reaching 96 yards on the ground in the first two quarters. The junior punctuated a dominant half with an 11-yard touchdown reception with 30 seconds remaining in the second quarter. He slipped out of the backfield and spun away from two Notre Dame defenders that smashed into one another as Lacy crossed the goal line to make the score 28-0. "I think for one of the first times this season we were able to come out and play a complete game," said Lacy, who was named the game's Most Valuable Offensive Player. In between his scores, McCarron hit tight end Michael Williams for a three-yard play-action pass in the end zone and freshman T.J. Yeldon (21 carries for 108 yards) capped another drive with a one-yard touchdown run. Notre Dame's game plan — to grind the ball on offense, keep the game close and wait for its bigplay opportunities in the fourth quarter — stalled on the runway. By the time Irish running backs Theo Riddick and Cierre Wood got their third combined carry Alabama had scored three touchdowns. Notre Dame averaged 202.5 rushing yards per game in the regular season. They managed 32 in Miami. The Irish went threeand-out on their first possession after two fade attempts to senior tight end Tyler Eifert were ruled incomplete. Eifert came close to pulling in the second attempt on the sideline, but referees chose not to review the play. Nor did they review a muffed punt on the following play that Notre Dame thought it recovered. Both points were quickly rendered moot by a Tide offense that was averaging eight yards per snap midway through the third quarter. "We came out flat," Wood said. "Against a good team like that you can't come out that way because it's impossible for you to come back and that showed in the game." Sophomore quarterback Everett Golson found some success in the passing game in the sec- ond half despite throwing an interception on his first drive out of the locker room. The rookie finished his night completing 21 of 36 attempts for 270 yards and connected with Riddick for a six-yard score midway through the fourth quarter. Golson ran in Notre Dame's first touchdown from two yards out on an option keeper early in the third quarter. Alabama's disciplined defense largely contained the mobile sophomore, letting him roam outside the pocket only a handful of times. Golson's lone interception, a deflection somehow hauled in by Alabama sophomore Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix at the 3-yard line on the opening series of the third quarter, led to an insultto-injury Tide touchdown drive that zapped any hope of a comeback from even the most diehard of Irish supporters. McCarron marched his team 97 yards in the other direction in 10 plays. He capped the drive with a 34-yard touchdown pass to Freshman All-American Amari Cooper, who cut through the middle of the Irish defense and emerged wide open on