Feeling So Good About Being So Wrong – ND 30, OU 13

I was wrong and I don’t care.

An hour before gametime Saturday, I wrote the combo of Golson to Eifert would be the key to a Notre Dame victory.  Well, I don’t think three receptions for 22 yards would validate my claim.  One of those receptions wasn’t even from Golson. 

Notre Dame’s defense was the key to its 30-13 win over Oklahoma in Norman last Saturday night.  Playing a bend-but-don’t-break defense, Notre Dame allowed 364 passing yards on Saturday night.  Not exactly stellar numbers by any means.  However, this same defense tightened up in the red zone, forcing Landry Jones out of the pocket and into some dangerous throws.  Notre Dame found a way to keep Landry Jones off the scoresheet.

What’s more impressive is the Oklahoma rushing stat line:  15 rushing attempts and 24 yards.   That’s it.  To OU’s credit, they did score the first rushing touchdown on ND’s defense this season.  Like most predicted, it was Blake Bell(the Belldozer).  

As Brian Kelly discussed in the postgame, this was the plan all along – allow yards, but not points.  It’s pretty obvious that the yards were coming from the air.  Notre Dame forced Landry Jones to beat them.  He just couldn’t.

Back to the offense for a minute.  I was wrong about the Golson to Eifert combo.  But I wasn’t wrong about Golson himself.  I said Notre Dame needed to score points and they delivered.   The 30 points scored was the most points ND scored against a ranked team the entire season.   Golson’s final line isn’t strong, but he made the plays when the mattered most.  His biggest play was his 50 yard bomb to freshman receiver Chris Brown.  It was a solid throw by Golson and an impressive catch by Brown, the first in his collegiate career.  This big play killed any OU momentum from their previous score. 

From that point on, you know the rest.  Golson caps off the final play of the drive, scoring the game winning TD on a QB dive.   Theo Riddick puts the icing on the cake with a 15 yard run to put ND up 30-13.

One last thing, let’s not forget the biggest play of the game:  The fourth quarter interception by Manti Te’o.  He dove, caught it, flipped over, lost the ball on his thigh, picked it up with his hands, and laid on the ground safely with the pick.  Another Saturday, another stellar performance for Te’o.  The final numbers say he had 11 tackles, 2 TFLs, 1 sack, and 1 INT.   He’s not that far from KSU’s Collin Klein for the Heisman trophy.   Should be an interesting subplot in another magical Notre Dame season.