Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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THREE OBSERVATIONS TURNING POINT BY LOU SOMOGYI teams, but nothing was more pivotal than the second overtime. Notre Dame had the first possession There are at least a half-dozen for both and drove to the Pitt 2-yard line. On sec- ond down, senior running back Cierre Wood dove past the goal line but lost the ball and the Panthers recovered. On their possession in the "bottom half of the inning," the Panthers set up a rela- tively close 33-yard field goal attempt by Kevin Harper, who had converted his last seven field goals, including one from 41 yards in the first overtime against the Irish. A high snap may have thrown off the timing, and Harper's attempt sailed to the right of the upright to keep Notre Dame's dream season alive. Harper gamely fought back with a 44- yard conversion in the third overtime, but this time with Notre Dame having the final possession, it clinched the vic- tory with a one-yard touchdown sneak by sophomore quarterback Everett Gol- son. 20-6, this became the first Fighting Irish team to rally from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter at home since a 25- 24 victory against USC in October 1999. Notre Dame trailed the Trojans 24-10 in the fourth quarter — and 24-3 earlier — before emerging with that victory. overtimes, Notre Dame ran 43 plays for 223 yards, compared to Pitt running 23 plays for only 21 yards. Consequently, after falling behind During the fourth quarter and three TOP STAT(S) OF THE GAME fourth-quarter comeback wins at home in Notre Dame Stadium's 82-year his- tory. An honorable mention goes to the Irish Those two games are the biggest defense holding Pitt to 1 of 14 on third- down conversions. That is what enabled the Notre Dame defense to consistently get off the field and have the significant disparity of running 104 plays in the game compared to 62 for Pitt. The Irish play volume tied the single-game school record of 104 during a four-quarter 51-28 win versus Iowa in 1968. to the 2002 Irish unit that played superb defense, had an average offense, won the close games and improved to 8-0 with a pivotal 34-24 win at Florida State to move up to No. 3 in the BCS. However, that squad was upset at This Notre Dame team is very similar IS THIS OHIO STATE 2002? home the next week by Boston College (14-7). It seemed history would repeat after the victory at Oklahoma elevated 8-0 Notre Dame to No. 3 in the BCS, and with Pitt on the threshold of victory in the fourth quarter and second overtime. This time the Irish prevailed, 29-26. Now that Notre Dame is 5-0 this sea- son in games decided by seven or fewer points, maybe it is comparable to 2002 national champion Ohio State. That year, OSU won seven games decided by seven or fewer points: Cincinnati (23-19), Wis- consin (19-14), Penn State (13-7), Purdue (10-6), Illinois (23-16 in overtime), Michi- gan (14-9) and Miami (31-24 in double overtime) in the title game.