Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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up to me and were like, 'Did you catch it?' I went, 'Yeah, I caught it.' It bob- bled around a little bit, but I had possession of it," Te'o said. Jones, a senior, threw the ball 51 times for 356 yards but no touch- downs, and his final chance to enter national title talk and cement a legacy at Oklahoma slipped away. He picked away at a well-cushioned Notre Dame secondary from start to finish. Recently activated from 30 to make the score 10-6 Notre Dame heading into the halftime break. Oklahoma came into transfer Jalen Saunders caught 15 passes for 181 yards while setting a school record with eight catches in the first quarter. At times, especially early, the up-tempo attack over- whelmed the Irish. The Sooners, though, failed to capitalize. A wayward snap re- versed a promising opening series, pushing the Oklahoma offense backward 19 yards and giving Notre Dame a chance to catch its breath. Two other times during the first half, Jones hur- ried his team into the red zone only to settle for field goals. Sophomore Michael Hunnicut con- nected from 24 yards in the first quarter and again Saturday's game with the highest red zone suc- cess rate in the country having converted 32 of its previous 33 trips — 25 of them touchdowns. Notre Dame's defense was tops in the nation for stopping teams inside the 20, al- lowing only four touch- downs in its first seven games. The Irish were the better team in close quarters, and it cost the Sooners. "There were opportu- nities early to get more points and make a change on the way the game was played a little bit," Okla- homa offensive coordina- tor Josh Heupel said. "We didn't do that. We did some things really well at times, did some good things in tempo, and sometimes our tempo wasn't good. We didn't execute well enough." The Sooners did fi- yards and put him on the doorstep. Bell trampled an Irish defender on the next play before reaching across the goal line to end Notre Dame's 41-quarter streak of not allowing a rushing touchdown and tie the score, 13-13, mid- way through the fourth quarter. Bell finished with six of Oklahoma's 15 net rushing yards. Notre Dame ended any external search for its identity by acquit- ting itself at the line of scrimmage once again. The team put its famil- iar stamp on this win in the third quarter by piec- ing together two 14-play drives and hanging on to the ball for all but three minutes. They ended the game by sacking Jones a second time and denying a garbage time touch- down from the 1-yard line, which made its snapped streak easier to stomach. "It's not that disap- nally crack the end zone thanks to their 255-pound battering ram Bell. His game-tying score in the fourth quarter came af- ter a pair of short runs and a fourth-down jump pass to fullback Trey Millard picked up eight pointing," fifth-year defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore said about giving up a rushing touchdown. "We came out with the W in a very hostile environment, and that's what's most impor- tant. Now we've just got to keep this rolling." ✦