TEMPE, Ariz. -- No. 10 Notre Dame?s visit to No. 9 Arizona State was dubbed THE newest product in the Saturday Catalog -- the elimination game. This would be no mere matchup of two highly ranked teams in the last third of the season -- not in the era of the College Football Playoff. The stakes are higher. The loser would be out of the running for one of the four slots.
After the entertaining affair staged Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium, the Fighting Irish are definitely out of it. Losing 55-31 tends to do that. The Arizona State team that racked up a 31-point lead in the first 30 minutes and scored 21 points in the last six is a tough out. But the Sun Devils that spent most of the second half losing all but three points of that large halftime lead would make a skeptic of anyone.
But football is a 60-minute game, and the 24-point final margin is an accurate depiction of what Sun Devils coach Todd Graham called the most meaningful of his 75 career victories.
?It is different because it?s Notre Dame,? Graham said. ?I?m just being honest with you.?
Five Everett Golson turnovers helped put Notre Dame in a huge hole and eventually led the Fighting Irish to be buried by No. 9 Arizona State.:142smilie
Irish quarterback Everett Golson, once a Heisman candidate, pretty much hit for the cycle as far as turnovers were concerned. In the first three quarters, Golson fumbled at the Arizona State 19 (converted to a touchdown), threw an interception at the Arizona State 23 (ditto), added a 59-yard pick-six by Damarious Randall and threw a third interception in the Sun Devils' end zone. :142smilie
That?s four turnovers and 21 points. The Sun Devils led 34-3 late in the second quarter, which would cause anyone to take their foot off the gas. Tailback D.J. Foster said the team got ?lackadaisical? after halftime.
Even as Notre Dame charged back, it kept making mistakes. Golson threw another red zone pick, and Hunter Smith mishandled another field goal snap. Without those two errors, the Irish would have gone ahead instead of trailing 34-31 with 6:37 to play.
?You can feel it when the momentum shifts,? Graham said. ?I surely felt it. I kept saying, ?Hey! We?re winning! They?re not winning! We?re winning! We?re still ahead by 10 points!? I kept saying that because I wanted to make sure everyone understood we were ahead ? because you can feel it. It?s almost like a, I don?t want to say panic, but yeah, I think I might have been a little panicked.?
The reason to have faith in Arizona State is what happened next: A five-play, 75-yard drive for a touchdown, followed by Golson?s fifth turnover, which resulted in the Sun Devils? second pick-six of the game.
Truth be told, the fifth Golson turnover was on wide receiver Corey Robinson. The ball bounced off him into the hands of Lloyd Carrington, who sprinted down the sideline 58 yards for the score.
?Honestly,? Golson said, ?I think it?s all on me. You play with fire as much as I did today, you know you are going to get burned eventually.?
In his past six games, Golson has thrown 11 interceptions and lost five fumbles.
?We?ve been working with him,? Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. ?Sooner or later, he?s got to take it on himself to take care of the football. I don?t know what else to do. We?re at that point now where it hurt us in the game. He knows it.?
In 1952, after Irish junior halfback Johnny Lattner fumbled five times against Purdue, head coach Frank Leahy had a handle attached to a football and instructed Lattner to carry it with him all week. Hint, hint, Coach Kelly: Lattner won the Heisman in 1953.
Could this Notre Dame performance have been preordained? When the university decided last year to plant one foot in the ACC, senior associate athletic director John Heisler called Arizona State and told the Sun Devils, ?We?re not coming.? The Fighting Irish needed schedule openings to accommodate five ACC opponents.
However, when the schools negotiated a three-game deal in 2008, Arizona State asked to strike the buyout clause from the game at Sun Devil Stadium. Notre Dame agreed. The game could be cancelled by an act of God or a national crisis, not because Notre Dame needed to play Wake Forest. The 2-7 Demon Deacons would have been the Irish?s fifth ACC game.
Initially, the inability to cancel this game looked like a blessing. If Notre Dame had any chance of getting into the College Football Playoff, it needed to beat a team such as No. 9 Arizona State. The Irish had only one such game coming in, as they took No. 2 Florida State to the last six seconds before falling. Notre Dame almost didn?t make it out of the first quarter of its second opportunity.
Despite what the dumbstruck subway alumni might have thought while watching Saturday, the loss at Sun Devil Stadium qualified as neither an act of God nor a national crisis. The Irish don?t need video to understand how they lost. They just need a mirror.
.,...............................................................................................................
they just need a mirror :142smilie
wow what a spanking .
As soon as they play another team ranked they fall like chopsticks.
forget the final 4 Notre Dame , you time is up
After the entertaining affair staged Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium, the Fighting Irish are definitely out of it. Losing 55-31 tends to do that. The Arizona State team that racked up a 31-point lead in the first 30 minutes and scored 21 points in the last six is a tough out. But the Sun Devils that spent most of the second half losing all but three points of that large halftime lead would make a skeptic of anyone.
But football is a 60-minute game, and the 24-point final margin is an accurate depiction of what Sun Devils coach Todd Graham called the most meaningful of his 75 career victories.
?It is different because it?s Notre Dame,? Graham said. ?I?m just being honest with you.?
Five Everett Golson turnovers helped put Notre Dame in a huge hole and eventually led the Fighting Irish to be buried by No. 9 Arizona State.:142smilie
Irish quarterback Everett Golson, once a Heisman candidate, pretty much hit for the cycle as far as turnovers were concerned. In the first three quarters, Golson fumbled at the Arizona State 19 (converted to a touchdown), threw an interception at the Arizona State 23 (ditto), added a 59-yard pick-six by Damarious Randall and threw a third interception in the Sun Devils' end zone. :142smilie
That?s four turnovers and 21 points. The Sun Devils led 34-3 late in the second quarter, which would cause anyone to take their foot off the gas. Tailback D.J. Foster said the team got ?lackadaisical? after halftime.
Even as Notre Dame charged back, it kept making mistakes. Golson threw another red zone pick, and Hunter Smith mishandled another field goal snap. Without those two errors, the Irish would have gone ahead instead of trailing 34-31 with 6:37 to play.
?You can feel it when the momentum shifts,? Graham said. ?I surely felt it. I kept saying, ?Hey! We?re winning! They?re not winning! We?re winning! We?re still ahead by 10 points!? I kept saying that because I wanted to make sure everyone understood we were ahead ? because you can feel it. It?s almost like a, I don?t want to say panic, but yeah, I think I might have been a little panicked.?
The reason to have faith in Arizona State is what happened next: A five-play, 75-yard drive for a touchdown, followed by Golson?s fifth turnover, which resulted in the Sun Devils? second pick-six of the game.
Truth be told, the fifth Golson turnover was on wide receiver Corey Robinson. The ball bounced off him into the hands of Lloyd Carrington, who sprinted down the sideline 58 yards for the score.
?Honestly,? Golson said, ?I think it?s all on me. You play with fire as much as I did today, you know you are going to get burned eventually.?
In his past six games, Golson has thrown 11 interceptions and lost five fumbles.
?We?ve been working with him,? Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. ?Sooner or later, he?s got to take it on himself to take care of the football. I don?t know what else to do. We?re at that point now where it hurt us in the game. He knows it.?
In 1952, after Irish junior halfback Johnny Lattner fumbled five times against Purdue, head coach Frank Leahy had a handle attached to a football and instructed Lattner to carry it with him all week. Hint, hint, Coach Kelly: Lattner won the Heisman in 1953.
Could this Notre Dame performance have been preordained? When the university decided last year to plant one foot in the ACC, senior associate athletic director John Heisler called Arizona State and told the Sun Devils, ?We?re not coming.? The Fighting Irish needed schedule openings to accommodate five ACC opponents.
However, when the schools negotiated a three-game deal in 2008, Arizona State asked to strike the buyout clause from the game at Sun Devil Stadium. Notre Dame agreed. The game could be cancelled by an act of God or a national crisis, not because Notre Dame needed to play Wake Forest. The 2-7 Demon Deacons would have been the Irish?s fifth ACC game.
Initially, the inability to cancel this game looked like a blessing. If Notre Dame had any chance of getting into the College Football Playoff, it needed to beat a team such as No. 9 Arizona State. The Irish had only one such game coming in, as they took No. 2 Florida State to the last six seconds before falling. Notre Dame almost didn?t make it out of the first quarter of its second opportunity.
Despite what the dumbstruck subway alumni might have thought while watching Saturday, the loss at Sun Devil Stadium qualified as neither an act of God nor a national crisis. The Irish don?t need video to understand how they lost. They just need a mirror.
.,...............................................................................................................
they just need a mirror :142smilie
wow what a spanking .
As soon as they play another team ranked they fall like chopsticks.
forget the final 4 Notre Dame , you time is up
