Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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THREE OBSERVATIONS TURNING POINT BY LOU SOMOGYI in the third quarter and facing third- and-12 when Cougars quarterback Ri- ley Nelson completed a 19-yard pass to Cody Hoffman to the Notre Dame 32. The Irish were close to looking at a potential two-score deficit. The Notre Dame defense dug in Brigham Young was leading 14-7 and forced a 46-yard field goal at- tempt — which Justin Sorensen missed. A 17-7 lead, never mind 21-7, against a Notre Dame offense that has to grind for everything might have been quite difficult to overcome against the aggressive BYU defense. An honorable mention notice goes one of them to TJ Jones for 31 yards. Two other factors were notable about the 270 rushing yards amassed by Notre Dame. One, the zone read, which sophomore quarterback Ever- ett Golson was starting to run with a little more confidence, was not a factor because he was sidelined as a precau- tion for his concussion. Two, the rush- ing yardage came against a defense ranked third nationally against the run (67.86 yards allowed per game). to Irish junior wide receiver TJ Jones' leaping 31-yard grab from classmate Tommy Rees to begin the game-win- ning drive when the Irish still trailed 14-10. That put the ball at the Cou- gars' 41 and provided a crucial jump- start to running the ball productively the rest of the way. so overrated in terms of run-pass ratio. If a team can run the ball with consis- tent effectiveness, there's no need to "balance it out" with the pass when it is controlling the line of scrimmage. In the second half, Notre Dame had TOP STAT(S) OF THE GAME The term "balanced offense" can be 27 snaps on offense — and 24 of them were kept on the ground for 151 yards, a robust 7.3 yards per carry. Junior quarterback Tommy Rees attempted all three passes and completed only of the best things that can happen to a Notre Dame team prior to a power game, especially on the road, is to have a struggle a week earlier. The Irish eked out a 21-14 win at Air History has often shown that one AN IDEAL VICTORY PRIOR TO OKLAHOMA GAME? Force the week before upsetting Flor- ida State in Tallahassee back in 2002. ND barely beat Navy (21-17) prior to winning 24-6 at No. 11 LSU in 1997. It trailed at halftime against Navy the week before vanquishing No. 1 Florida State in 1993. It was in a dogfight at Pitt in 1988 (30-20) the week before defeat- ing No. 1 Miami in 1988. And now … "The thing that was concerning for me the most is when our guys came in, and I didn't sense a great feeling after winning a tough, tough football game," head coach Brian Kelly said after the 17-14 victory over BYU. It might be the best thing for them heading to Oklahoma. Stay hungry and not complacent.