Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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TURNING POINT With Notre Dame leading 40-37 and trying to run out the clock, a third-and-nine pass from senior quarterback Everett Golson to sophomore wideout Corey Robin- son was ruled defensive interfer- ence. The Irish had a first down at the Wildcats' 33-yard line, and Northwestern called its final time out on second-and-eight with 1:36 left. "Taking a knee" two consec- utive plays would have made it fourth down but burned most of the clock. Instead, the ball was given to reli- able senior running back and cap- tain Cam McDaniel — who fum- bled on a hit from safety Ibraheim Campbell that linebacker Jimmy Hall fell on at Northwestern's 28 with 1:28 left. That took the Wild- cats off life support and set up a 45- yard Jack Mitchell field goal with 19 seconds left and then victory in overtime. STAT OF THE GAME Northwestern ran 96 plays in the game — 48 rushing and 48 passing — while compiling 547 yards of total offense. Particularly notable was the bal- ance the duration of the game that kept Notre Dame's defense on its heels and seldom in a position of strength. In the first half, North- western had 149 yards rushing on 20 carries, and 149 yards on 25 pass attempts. The Wildcats finished with 263 rushing yards and 284 passing yards. Northwestern's highest scoring output this season was 29 points, and the Wildcats had averaged only 12.5 points during their four- game losing streak coming into the Notre Dame game. Northwestern had been averaging only 109.9 yards rushing and finished with minus-nine a week earlier versus Michigan. TOO FAMILIAR A SCENE Notre Dame's setback at home in November versus a 3-6 team brought back ghosts and horrid memories of losing to 2-8 Syra- cuse in 2008, first-time opponent UConn in 2009, the stunning defeat to Tulsa in 2010 and the fiasco that was the 2011 South Florida opener — a team that would end up with a losing record. The magical 2012 regular season seemed to put Notre Dame past that stage of its growing pains, but four losses last year and now sputtering to the finish line this November raises questions anew of w h eth er th e footb all opera- tion is again spinning its wheels and if 2012 was a once-in-a-gen- eration outlier. Fifth-year head coach Brian Kelly isn't necessarily on the hot seat, but a restlessness about the program's direction has returned. THREE OBSERVATIONS BY LOU SOMOGYI