Yeah I didn't know tuanting was a personal foul. But Irish now up 10-7, some rb #33 seems to have come out of nowhere to run like a baby bull. Where's he been?
Damn 17-7 now, running game? ND? Who'd have thunk it. I assume we've seen the last of Jimmy Clausen for the night. I wonder if they'll throw the ball again? Now if the defense can hold.
17-7 halftime. Clausen just really can't do it tonight. They need to come out with Crist and that running game in the 2nd half. I was suprised to see Clausen in the last 2 minutes. I guess he's the guy to run the 2 minute drill but I would have liked to see Crist do, at least he can move around. Terry
Wow what a finish. A one legged Jimmy Clausen leads the Irish to a come from behind win at Purdue. It was a gutty performance by Clausen, he sat on the bench most of the 2nd half, but when it counted he was the man making the throws and plays. Irish win 24-21.
ND <r>Terry,<br/> <br/> Can't say it any better, Clausen was the man in this game!<br/> <br/> Like I said, ND will win!!! I love beating Purdue. <br/> <br/> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E> <E></E></r>
TIM!!! I was hoping your heart didn't give out on that last drive!! After that barn burner finish last week vs MSU, the barn burner finish at UM ...We know one thing about this team, they will not quit and can finish.
In a week in which 4,5,6,9, and 24 in the top 25 have lost and 17 is currently losing... any win is a good win. mix in the bag that it's a road win without your best WR, your starting TB, your starting FB and your QB for more than half the game and that's a mighty nice win.
Congratulations...good win. Wanting to be gracious but in reality I think you scraped by another bad team. :cry:
ND <r>Stu,<br/> <br/> Say what you want but losing one of the best WRs in the nation, your top RB out for the game, and having your starting QB on a gimpy leg but still finding a way to pull it out on the road....hey, I'll take it. <E></E></r>
You knew that beforehand and still comments here indicated all week that you took us for granted...obviously for reason. My other two comments; Clausen is a totally quality kid and Tate is awsome.
ND <r>Terry,<br/> <br/> I gave up on this game about 5 times in the last 5 min!!! Man, I can't take many more of these.!!!<br/> <br/> That last drive by the Irish really showed me something about Clausen, this kid is the real deal, give him a little time and is will flat out pic you apart. Even when he is playing hurt, he is more accurate than 95% of the college QBs out there. <br/> <br/> One thing though, we need to let Kamara sit on the bench and just let S. Evans play. kamara had too many penalties an too many dropped passes again. <E></E> <E>8)</E> <E></E> <E></E> <E>8)</E></r>
ND <r>Stu,<br/> <br/> I never predicted anything but a win. All I said was we would score more points. If Floyd, Allen and Clausen had all been healthy imagine what ND would have done. <E></E></r>
Stu, Good game. I wouldn't be so hard on your Boilermakers. The truth is that you've lost 3 games by 11 total points to teams that are a combined 8-4. The one loss of Purdue's that I still think is really bad would be the Northern Illinois game. I wasn't aware of the bonehead fumbles and special teams play that enabled them to beat Purdue. I hate to admit this, but I had relied on the ESPN reports of the games that had 'the Huskies running all over them.' If that kid holds onto those punts, I'd bet it's a different game. Coach Hope is being ripped for taking that time out and perhaps rightfully so, but I find it ironic that the 'take a time out to get the right defensive people on the field' move is straight out of the Bob Davie playbook... someone the people ripping him now claim to respect. I'm betting you go bowling and finish no worse than 4th in the Big10 unless the coach loses the team and they melt down.
It was tremendous win on the road with a team depleted at the three major offensive skill positions. With that said..... 4th and 10 at the Purdue 34.. The ONLY play at that point is to punt. We had the momentum and the lead and even a crappy punt moves the ball closer to the Purdue end of the field. Weis committted the cardinal sin of giving his opponent hope at their home. The momentum change was profound and lasted for all but the last two minutes of the game. Jimmy Clausen probably saved Charlie's job with that final drive.
ND <r>Before the season Clausen said he wouldn't be the reason Charlie was fired. So far Jimmy is holding up his end. <E>8)</E></r>
I was there. We played a horrible game against a bad team. Our lack of discipline, our failure to excute, a very stupid coaching decision, allowed PU to hold onto the momentum and take the game to us. Give Clausen et al due credit for the last drive, but that doesn't change the fact that there is nothing about this win that is worth celebrating. I and my group stood and watched in silence as students who were not born when we won our last NC celebrated like this was the greatest win in ND history. Intercepting a 4th down pass and costing us about 14 yards. Going for it on 4th and - what? - 9? when we had the lead. More holding calls on #74, who by the end of the season will hold the ND record for the most starts in a career. How many illegal formation calls at critical times because a flanker was not on the line of scrimmage? Very poor tackling. Very poor pass coverage. The Purdue QB is at best adequate, and for the third game in a row we made an adequate QB look like all conference. I wanted to think that we lost to a Michigan team that was better then people thought, but they should have been beaten in their own house yesterday by an IU team that is not good. Michigan State was beaten by a so-so Wisconsin team. I have been a supporter of Weis, but if we would not have stuck the ball in the end zone at the end I would have taken a flying leap off the bandwagon. As it is, I'm hanging on by a thread. What scares me is that this is the same mental process I went through with Faust, Davie, and Willingham. The only difference is that because of the late winning TD, I did not arrive at the "defining moment" that turned me away from those three coaches during what turned out to be their last seasons. Maybe that's because there still remains a sliver of hope....only a sliver. :x :x
ND <r>Sid,<br/> <br/> I'm sorry but given all the conditions yesterday, I'll take the win a save the criticism for later. <br/> <br/> Hell, Purdue brings us in the evening, when they are all drunk, gives us the "Black Out" treatment, everyone is in black, the players wear all black for the first time since 1989 or something, they drag Joe Clondike Tiller in from Montana or somewhere 1200 miles away, he gives a pep talk to the whole stadium at the end of the 3rd Qtr, Purdue acts like it's their biggest game since 1959, Clausen is hurt, Allen is out, Floyd is out.....come on. I really don't have a problem with anything except the defense and I'll bitch about that later. <br/> <br/> You had to like the look of those Purdue fans who went from thinking they had those mean old Irish boys down and out one minute to a look of "what the hell just happened" the next. It was priceless I tell ya, priceless! <E></E></r>
Sid, Charlie's decision to go for it on 4th and ten from the Purdue 34, on the road with a lead, is one of the fundamentally stupidest decisions I have ever seen anywhere. It entirely changed the momentum and led to almost immediate points by Purdue and almost the game. Purdue was on life support up to that point. This is what I've been trying to convey to you guys about Weis.... he is a very good OC but has more balls than brains as a HC. We got away with it against Purdue but there are three or for teams left who will eat our lunch if we make stupid decisions like that . Another hallmark of Weis coached ND teams is poor tackling and the Irish put on a virtuoso performance last night as Sid can attest to.
I agree with Sid and George that the call to go for it on 4th down was stupid. However, good coaches put their kids in a position to win. In one week, Chuckie had to make TWO offensive prep packages (one for Clausen and one for Crist who is CLEARLY a different style of QB)... oh hell, he had to make THREE offensive packages because we had to re-do the wildcat formation to fit Golden Tate instead of Armando Allen. Weis made a bonehead call, but people need to give the devil his due here. The man took a nightmare situation offensively, basically redesigned his entire offense, executed it and won on the road all in about 6 days. There aren't many coaches who could do that. I was impressed time and time again by exactly how perfectly placed and called many of our plays were in that game. I got it DVRed if any of you wanna swing by and watch the game. With the exception of the last Purdue TD, we were all over them on every play. The kids have to execute at some point in time.. When we run a blitz that clearly works and rushes the pass.. and we have 3 tacklers who all make immediate contact with the WR..but the play goes for 10 yards.. it's really hard for me to blame the coach.. at some point in time, the kid has to tackle.. everything else relative to that play suggests to me good (if not great) coaching.. We've become this cannibalistic, inbred society at ND in which our players are rarely (if ever) truly held accountable. It's always the coach at ND. Weis and his staff took a terrible situation and put those kids in a position to win all game long. Name the top 25 teams that could go on the road, playing a long-time instate rival who is pulling out all the stops (blackout, night game etc) and then do so without your leading passer, rusher and receiver and still win the game. I defy you to realistically come up with one. We saw Oklahoma go fetal position when they lost Sam Bradford. For all the cocky strut Florida fans have about their overall dominance.. if you saw the faces of those UF fans in Lexington, then you saw the very real reaction to a fanbase watching their dynasty potentially come to an end. It's maddening to me.. I agree Coach Weis did make a bad call. I think that is where his lack of HC experience comes into play. Every now and then, he makes a call that a 20 year vet might not make... No one is perfect. That being said, to focus on that is to overlook an absolute **** ton of outstanding work he did this week. We've simply lost all perspective. And I'm serious, name me a top 25 team that could do that.. -Road game vs Instate Rival pulling out all the stops. -Playing without your top WR, top RB, FB and QB... name one.