Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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ON PAPER REVISITED ing total. BYU was going to need at least a net of about 120 yards rushing (30 per quarter) to have a chance. It still almost pulled out a win with just 66 yards on the ground. Advantage: Notre Dame three possessions. The first (16 yards by sophomore lineman Stephon Tuitt) facilitated an interception on the next play by senior linebacker Manti Te'o. The fourth and final sack (nine yards by Tuitt and junior linebacker Carlo Calabrese) came in the fourth quarter on first-and-10 at the Irish 31. It helped take the Cougars out of field goal range when they were trailing 17-14. BYU placed a heavy emphasis on quick screens and BYU PASSING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME PASS DEFENSE The Irish recorded a sack on each of BYU's first shovel passes, but Irish defensive coordinator Bob Diaco adjusted by rolling the coverage over — and it included junior outside linebacker Danny Spond, ex- cellent in coverage all day, basically playing a corner position in nickel packages and never coming off the field. BYU finished with a mere 4.9 yards per pass at- tempt, with only one of the 23 completions gaining more than 11 yards (20). Advantage: Notre Dame battle in the trenches against a top-10 run defense. For the second time this year, the Irish had two play- ers eclipse 100 yards rushing in a game, with seniors NOTRE DAME RUNNING GAME VS. BYU RUN DEFENSE For the second week in a row, Notre Dame won the himself well with 14 carries for 64 yards (4.6 per carry) while bulling to some tough yardage inside. Quarterback Riley Nelson's mobility also gave the Irish defense fits on occasion, enabling him to rip off several nice gains and buy some time on passes. Four sacks resulted in minus-36 yards to the rush- BYU RUNNING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME RUN DEFENSE Cougars running back Jamaal Williams acquitted BY LOU SOMOGYI Junior nose guard Louis Nix III (four tackles, including one for loss) and the Irish defense that limited running back Jamaal Williams (above) and BYU to 66 rushing yards and put constant pressure on quarterback Riley Nelson. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA Theo Riddick (143 on 9.5 yards per carry) and Cierre Wood (114 on 6.3 yards per pop). Both have become effective yards-after-contact runners. Yet sophomore George Atkinson III made maybe the play of the game on just a two-yard gain. On third-and-goal it appeared