In years past I would have been devastated, losing a game we should have won, losing it in overtime and losing after overcoming a three touchdown comeback.

Somehow it was not as awful as it has been in the past, and the reason is that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel—there is hope after all and now we can see it on the field. 

The score was MSU 38 Notre Dame 17.  At that point, who thought the Irish could or would come back?  I turned to Dan Hayden at this point and reminded him of the awful BC game in 1993 which went from 38 to 17, to 39 to 38 and then ended in a flame out at 41 to 39.  I saw the same score this time, but with Notre Dame in the win column with 41. 

But it was not to be!  I guess I had not counted on overtime.

Here is what is so weird.  Our friend on my left who goes to all the games, said the following with the Irish down by 21 points:  “not to worry, we have plenty of time and for the first time in a long time we have a real coach.”  Well, if you are looking for the definition of an enthusiastic optimist, then here it is.  But, he was essentially right.  In recent years, in the last eight years as we crossed through the Valley of Death, once down by 21 points we sought the greater opprobrium and ignominy of a 31 point loss—for some reason this number seemed to have special significance for tyresome and dull davie. 

Someone should have explained to Ty that the significance of 31 points is that the Irish scored that many against Miami the year they beat the Hurricanes on their way to their last national championship!!  But then, he seemed to miss the essentials of the Irish Tradition. 

There is no doubt that the comeback is profoundly significant.  And on the other side, Charlie quite rightly talks about the loss as he should.  If he wants to lay the foundation for morale victories or hopeless comebacks, then crowing about the comeback would be appropriate.  But his head is on straight and he knows that he must use this game as a teaching tool about how nothing less than victory is the GOAL, and yet, everyone in the football world knows now that there has been a profound change in the program that is the Fighting Irish.  And more importantly, the players know in their guts that they can do anything, that no matter what happens, they are in the game and that they can do the impossible.  This game goes a long way to rebuild brand equity and the broken morale of these players from the past eight years.

Are you a Doubting Thomas?  Do you fear that this game is a turning point in the wrong direction?  If so, then consider this vignette: 

On the way back to Chicago, at the rest stop on the Toll Road, as I was pumping gas, I see this enormous big black SUV pull up, an SUV with customized stuff on it, elegant and tasteful yet scary, with license plates that said simply: CONJAR.

So, I went over to him and asked him “Are you the Larry Conjar?”  Nick Eddy, Hanratty, Page, Bradley, Seymour, Lynch—all of them I would have recognized, but not Conjar.  He looks great and is a gentleman.  We had a very nice chat.  He said two things: first, he thinks that Charlie is the best thing that has happened to ND football since Ara, and second that he was very very impressed by the comeback, the guts that it took and what it means for the future!!!  If all of this is good enough for such a great player, then it should be good enough for all of us.

The Turning Point:

There is about a minute and a half left in the first half.  After being down for most of the first half, the Irish and Spartans are at 17-17 and the Irish are in control, about to score a TD or a field goal right before halftime.  All of a sudden it is third and ten and Charlie calls a little run around left end by Darius Walker.  It goes nowhere—absolutely nowhere!! 

The call is inexplicable.  We all know why coaches call plays like this, calls that are designed to gain just a few yards, calls for plays that are almost fated to deliver less than the first down, calls for plays that are designed to set up field goals, rather to get first downs that will lead to touchdowns.  This pattern began in 1959 with Joe Kuharich, the first pro coach to bring the field goal mentality to South Bend.  We have all seen it time and time again.  We saw Lou do it more than we wanted to see, and we saw davie and tyresome do it a lot.  And now we have seen Charlie do it. 

THIS ONE CALL WAS THE TURNING POINT IN THE GAME. 

WHY?

Because it transformed a game that the Irish were in control of, not by much, but control nonetheless, especially considering what the score had been, into a game in which the Spartans were in control, and sent the Irish into the dressing room somewhat dispirited.  Had to be, Motivational Magic or no!!

Zibby said they were flat in the first half!!  How can this be??  See Charlie’s quote below:

“The way that they played in the second half was encouraging to tell you the truth,” Weis said. “The first half was discouraging. The second half was encouraging. It was kind of a tale of two halves in that game. If they would have played flat the entire game,that would have been more of a concern. I’m more concerned with the consistency of the fact that you can play some periods so well and some periods not so well.”

I am actually amazed by the fact that Charlie says that they played “flat.”  I am amazed that he admitted it.  If the first half was flat, then the 92 Stanford game and the 1990 Orange Bowl against Colorado must have been played by dead people.  Clearly, Charlie’s standards are very very high.  This is very very good!!

Some cite the Schwapp delayed fumble or the failure in the fourth quarter on fourth down by Schwapp or the freaky interception at the outset of the third quarter as the turning points, but I submit that it is this awful call by Charlie, which minimized the chance to get any points, and then gave Sparty field field position on a silver platter.

In the post game press conference, Charlie blamed himself for the loss, quite rightly because that is just what the last two excuses for coaches the Irish had NEVER DID and it is precisely what the great coaches ALWAYS do, which is to blame themselves for a loss and to give the players all the credit for a win!!!

Statistics mean nothing in a game like this, so we will not focus on them as we often do.  Remember Joe Theisman’s record setting performance against the Trojans in the rain after the Irish turned the ball over four consecutive times.  Exciting, but essentially meaningless…

What is meaningful is that Brady Quinn shows that he has the guts and the skills to lead a comeback under pressure, a comeback equal to the ones engineered by Montana and McDougal.  This demonstration augurs well for the future.  Brady must work hard to improve on his consistency and his timing.  By now these things should be more advanced, but he is a freshman when it comes to coaching, so Irish fans should take heart.

What of the Spartans? 

They are a good team, but they are not a great team.  They are much better on offense than we had expected.  Their stats, we thought, were meaningless because they were garnered against patsies.  But Drew Stanton is a first class quarterback, nearly as good as Carson Palmer, Matt Leinhart and Kyle Orton (as he looked in the Stadium last year—not as he finished the season).  Other than these three I have seen no better in recent years.  They have great talent at the skill positions.  And they have the bulk up front to keep out our defensive line. 

This brings us to the weakness in the Irish defense.  It is not primarily in the secondary, contrary to what many believe.  The secondary is far better than last year, although not yet up to standard.  What we have now is a defensive line that simply does not have the size, strength and speed to put enough pressure on the quarterback.  The Irish sacked Stanton just once, and failed to put nearly enough pressure on him in the first 40 minutes of the game.  Sure, the last three possessions were great for the defense, but John L. Smith had sent the Spartan Offense back to East Lansing.  He had put the game on ice, thinking that all he had to do was sit on his lead.  What a fatal mistake.  He transformed himself into Lloyd Schembechler for the fourth quarter.  He has a reputation for being goofy, and he sure lived up to it in this game. 

What is disturbing is that despite the superior Irish play in the fourth quarter when on defense, and despite the ferocious hitting—violent hitting, not seen in many years—we simply don’t and cannot know if the Spartans would have moved the ball had Smith permitted them to run or throw something other than a predictable play.  The notion here is that they would have moved it, scored and kept the Irish at bay. 

Yet for the plays run on the field, after the freak interception, the Irish outplayed the Spartans by a fairly big margin.  This fact alone should warm the hearts of the Irish fans, but should not encourage anyone to plan on going to a football game on New Year’s Day. 

The Irish could lose to Purdue, Southern Cal and to Tennessee.  To any of them and to all of them.  The odds are huge against the Irish against Southern Cal.  It is hard to see how they could lose to anyone else.  So the Irish Musings prediction of 8 and 3 is very much alive.

Just remember that many of you were firmly convinced just a month ago that the record would be 0-3 or 1-2 at this point in the season.

Regarding the genius label—that third down call in the late second quarter eats away at my brain.  As for the savior label—Musings sticks to that.  This guy is the real deal.  Even geniuses make mistakes.

Warning:  Washington is not bereft of talent.  And tyresome has a lot to prove.  Take note of the following:

*Irish fans should get to know this name before Saturday’s game against Washington: Manase Hopoi. The 290 pound, 6’4” defensive tackle has quite an impressive resume over his four plus years as a Husky. Last season, he led the Pac-10 Conference in tackles for loss with 22 and added nine sacks. The 22 TFL’s also were fourth best in the nation. Hopoi’s best day last season came vs. the national champions USC Trojans, where he registered six TFL’s and three sacks. Hopoi has not slowed down in 2005. Through three games, he has 5 TFL’s and four sacks. He will be a challenge for the Notre Dame offensive line, who to this point have allowed six sacks.