Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Redemption Junior quarterback Tommy Rees leads the game-winning drive to help Irish eke past Purdue 20-17 By Dan Murphy Tommy Rees is still the most trusted quarterback in South Bend, and this time he gave his head coach a much-needed dose of vindication. Brian Kelly inserted his embattled junior quarterback for the first time this season to a chorus of boos at Notre Dame Stadium with two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of a tie game. Rees delivered a 55-yard game-winning drive to help the Irish sneak away with a 20-17 victory over Purdue. The No. 22-ranked Irish played much of the fourth quarter without some of their stars, relying instead on veterans who have played mostly ancillary roles to this point in their careers to lead the team down the field in its final drive. Rees completed 3 of 8 attempts on the march, including a third-down desperation heave to fifth-year senior wide receiver John Goodman. He later connected with senior wide receiver Robby Toma for 21 yards on another third-down play to move the Irish into the red zone. “Does he have all the elite skills? No, but he’s a gamer,” Kelly said of Rees following the game. “He’ll do anything. Those guys in that locker room will go to the wall for him. They’ll do anything because he’s a great teammate.” Senior running back Theo Riddick provided the final push to put Notre Dame safely within field goal range, busting through the Purdue defense for 11 yards with less than a minute to go in the game. Two plays later, the Irish called on sophomore Kyle Brindza, seeing action as a placekicker in a game for the first time, to end it with a 27-yard field goal attempt. Brindza missed his first try earlier in the game — but in a final push highlighted by players in need of a second chance, Brindza came through to seal the win. Rees replaced sophomore Everett Golson, who nearly cost the Irish dearly with his first game-changing mistake as a college quarterback. Golson fumbled at his 15 with four minutes remaining to set up a game-tying touchdown for the Boilermakers. Kelly said Golson had trouble gripping the ball on the sideline following that play, but he made the choice to go with Rees because of his experience in previous pressure situations. “We also made the decision with the flow of the game that Tommy could come in there and manage our two-minute [offense], and he did a great job,” Kelly said. “I will further say, there is no quarterback controversy. Everett Golson is our starter. He will start against Michigan State.” Golson’s productive day — 21‑of‑31 passing for 289 yards with one score passing to go along with a rushing touchdown — came to a close when Purdue cornerback Josh Johnson stripped the Irish first-year starter as he scrambled for a first down. The turnover on its own 15-yard line, Notre Dame’s lone give-away of the game, eventually lead to a Boilermakers touchdown. After a delay of game penalty, a quarterback sack and a badly overthrown pass, Purdue took advantage. On fourth-and-10, signal-caller Caleb TerBush slipped a pass to wide receiver Antavian Edison, who managed to squeak across the goal line while being pulled down by a trio of Irish defenders. Edison’s second score of the game tied the score at 17 and provided a shot of adrenaline to a game that had otherwise been somewhat of a snoozer through the first 57 minutes. After a sleepy first half at home, Notre Dame started the third quarter with 10 points in less than six minutes. Sophomore wide receiver TJ Jones hauled in his first touchdown of the season to start the half. Notre Dame covered 60 yards through the air on the drive, including two long pass plays to tight end Tyler Eifert. The senior, who missed most of the fourth quarter with a concussion, finished with a career-high 98 receiving yards against the Boilermakers. Junior cornerback Bennett Jackson made his first career interception — one of two on the day — on the following drive to set up a Notre Dame field goal. TerBush, feeling pressure from freshman defensive end Sheldon Day, underthrew his receiver, and Jackson stepped in front of the pass at the 31-yard line. The Irish offense failed to pick up a first down, but got close enough for Brindza to poke through a 30-yard field goal and increase the team’s lead to 17-7. Purdue marched to the Notre Dame 1-yard line late in third quarter, but was unable to crack the end zone. A pair of costly missed tackles helped quarterback Robert Marve lead the Boilermakers to the brink of a touchdown before a delay of game penalty and a sack by sophomore defensive end Stephon Tuitt forced them to settle for a field goal. Even with a healthy lineup, the Irish struggled to move the ball in the first half. Purdue made a successful, conscious effort to shut down the Irish running game that racked up 293 yards in its opening win a week earlier. The Boilermakers, behind a strong performance from their crew of defensive linemen, held the Irish to 52 rushing yards on 36 attempts. Those numbers are slightly skewed by the 46 yards Golson lost on five sacks, but Notre Dame was never able to establish its ground attack. “They gave us a tough game,” team captain and left tackle Zack Martin said. “Hats off to them. They gave us some challenges all day with different looks. They played very hard. We definitely expected them to come out and play like that.” Purdue head coach Danny Hope said he knew the Irish wouldn’t be as dedicated to the run game this week as they were in Ireland, but the amount they passed the ball early in the game still caught him a little bit off guard. “I assumed they wouldn’t come out and just run the ball at us. I think we’re too big and strong to run the football at us,” he said. “They threw it more times consecutively in a row than I anticipated. But I thought they would try to loosen us up some.” Notre Dame finally cracked a scoreless tie 26 minutes into the game with an 88-yard scoring drive that featured the added dimension of an athletic quarterback. Golson avoided two pass rushers on a third-and-nine play deep in Irish territory, then hit sophomore Troy Niklas for a 30-yard gain. He found sophomore wide receiver DaVaris Daniels for 41 yards on a rollout later in the drive, and then picked up his first career-rushing touchdown by tagging the pylon with the football while diving out of bounds on a third-and-goal play. Purdue took advantage of a special teams miscue to tie the score right before halftime. Sophomore Raheem Mostert got outside of the Irish kickoff coverage and brought the ball out to the Purdue 42-yard line before he was dragged down. Marve, who had come off the bench one series earlier, led a 13-play scoring drive capped off by a two-yard touchdown pass with nine seconds remaining in the half. Earlier in the drive, Marve scrambled away from pressure and found tight end Crosby Wright for a crucial 11-yard completion on fourth down. Six plays later, Marve found Edison open in the corner of the end zone. Purdue dropped to 1-1 on the season, while Notre Dame improved to 2-0 for the first time since 2008. The Irish head into a particularly tough stretch of their 2012 schedule next week by traveling to East Lansing to play Michigan State.