Week 7: Clock lapse dooms Notre Dame in lossby Don Borst, FOXSports.com
Updated: October 18, 2009, 1:42 PM EDT 124 comments
Notre Dame's comeback against Southern California should have been an ending for the ages.
Trailing by three touchdowns, the Irish got key late contributions from their offense, defense and special teams. The officials did their part, and even the timekeeper got into the act.
Maybe if Notre Dame had more time, it could have designed a better play than a late lob to Kyle Rudolph. (Michael Conroy / Associated Press)
But when it came down to it, and they reached a point that the 34-27 game was theirs to win or tie ... well, the legendary brainiac Charlie Weis and supposed Heisman Trophy candidate Jimmy Clausen forgot to manage the clock. So USC won.
USC's defense got Clausen to rush three poor throws from the Trojans' 4-yard line in the final 9 seconds, but it was Notre Dame's poor clock management that created the hurry-up situation in the first place.
When the clock stops with a first down and injury with 35 seconds to go, the coach and quarterback simply cannot allow the clock to run down 20 seconds as they decide what to do before snapping the ball again. But the Irish did exactly that, which destroyed their chance for a well-constructed completion to the drive.
Clausen promptly threw one ball away and got a friendly roughing-the-passer flag to get a first down at the 4. Problem was they used 26 seconds for that one throwaway, so the clock wound all the way down to 9 seconds, turning the end into a hair-on-fire mess. One rushed throw, two rushed throws, and the clock ran out ... except that it was at Notre Dame, and, well, the timekeeper had messed up in the classic 2005 game ... and, well, the whole world seemed to be screaming for another chance for the Irish drama to come out right this time.
And so it was determined that a second should be put back on the clock.
Oh brother.
It's too bad, because it would have been fun to watch had Weis and/or Clausen paid attention and they had 35 seconds to try to get into the end zone instead of the frantic 15 seconds. It might have been a classic ending, rather than the dizzy, time-pressed one that needed help from the refs and clock folks that made it almost anticlimactic.
Clausen's last last-chance pass fell incomplete, too, and that was that.
It's a good thing for Weis that his team has pulled out some dramatic wins this season, because if this team was 2-4 instead of 4-2, his weak clock management in an opportunity to beat USC for the first time in eight years would have been considered a reason to finally get rid of him. Instead, the Domers will effuse about how gutsy Charlie's kids were and how close they are to being as good as USC, and how they just need to win five of their last six to probably get into a BCS bowl game.
Whatever. They're 4-2, and considering that their last five games have gone down to the very, very end, they could be anything from 6-0 to 1-5.
Saturday, they got what they deserved
..............................................................
ouch
