Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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homa's yards after the catch, which went a long way towards hold- ing the Sooners to their lowest offensive output since a 44-10 loss to rival Oklahoma State Dec. 3 last year. Prior to kickoff, Me- morial Stadium's Owen HUSHED HOUSE Field was as electric and noisy of an atmosphere as Notre Dame had seen under head coach Brian Kelly. Fireworks, a foot- ball-field sized Ameri- can flag and the Okla- homa's sideline muskets charged a rowdy crowd. Few teams have had a better home field ad- vantage than the Soon- Dame now has bragging rights when it comes to most wins over top-25 teams this season. The Irish have beaten four squads on that list, including No. 10 Michigan State, No. 18 Michigan and No. 17 Stanford. • The Notre Dame defense has surrendered just three touchdowns on its opponents' last 17 trips to the red zone. The Irish entered the contest against OU ranked second in the country in red zone de- fense (52.6 percent opponent success rate), which includes both field goals and touchdowns. Teams are averaging only 2.42 points per trip inside the 20-yard line. • Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly has an all- time record of 156-23-1 when his team has out- rushed the opponent. The Irish dominated the ground battle against the Sooners, outgaining them 215-15 yards. • Sophomore place kicker Kyle Brindza missed a 35-yard field goal midway through the third quar- ter that would have given ND a 13-6 lead, but he regrouped on a 44-yarder that curved inside the played 273 of its 450 road games since 1930 in front of capacity crowds. The official attendance at Memorial Stadium was 86,031, which was an Okla- homa record. In Notre Dame's 893 games over the past 83 years, they have played before 621 sellouts. • With the victory over the No. 8 Sooners, Notre • After its trip to Norman, Notre Dame now has MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ers in recent history. Bob Stoops started the game with a 79-4 home record during his 14 seasons at Oklahoma. He was 14-1 against ranked teams prior to the game against Notre Dame, which he called the biggest home game in a decade in the week leading up to kick- off. on you," Brindza said. "Kickers have only one op- portunity. It's a one-shot deal. … If you put your head down, your confidence will go down. But Coach Kelly having all the confidence in me helps me out a lot." The first-year starter at placekicker is now 13 of 17 uprights just more than a minute into the final stanza to widen the cushion to seven points. He added a 46-yarder with 3:22 remaining to push the lead to 23-13. "Obviously missing a kick kind of puts a downer this season on three-point attempts. • Senior inside linebacker Manti Te'o finished the game with a team-high 11 tackles, which improves his career total of double-digit performances to 26 games (six this season). He added his team-best fifth interception of the season and has been a part of nine of the team's 18 takeaways (he also has two fumble recoveries and two quarterback hurries that led to picks). To top off a stellar evening in Norman, Te'o registered his first sack of the 2012 campaign and the eighth of his career. • Senior running back Cierre Wood bolted up the middle of the field for a 62-yard touchdown with 6:24 to play in the first quarter to give the Irish a 7-3 lead. It was the longest scamper of the year for ND and the longest of his career. He recorded a 55-yarder against Purdue in 2011.