Notre Dame would have beaten what wound up looking like a better team and perhaps winning if…

Hopefully, Charlie and his team will have learned a great deal from the Fiasco Bowl of 2006 and then this pain too shall pass!

Now we look at the "ifs" in more depth:

The Irish came out throwing the bomb to Samardzija, but he missed it by a finger tip. The magic that he seemed to have bottled for much of the season evaporated on this play and in this game, symbolizing the Irish frustration of the day. Go back to the bomb that started the game: Why did the Irish abandon that initiative? It worked, but they could not or would not go back to the single most important attack mode against this Buckeye team. Also, the Irish ran far too many short screens and dumps that played into the strength of the Buckeye linebacking corps. Instead, Brady needed to have been throwing OVER the linebackers.

Most observers feel that the pass defense did improve this year, and the statistics do support this feeling, but much of the progress disintegrated as d-back after d-back succumbed to simple fakes, and failed to guard against the home run ball.

On one TD, Ndukwe came up to help in the middle of the field and exposed ND to the deep route and then was beaten by three steps. We don’t need a clinic or the playbook to know that he made an awful mistake.

We understand that the role of the D line in Rick Minter’s defense is to tie up the O line so the linebackers and safeties can make the tackles. Yet, we cannot believe that the scheme requires that they avoid making any tackles, nor can we believe that they are not supposed to put any pressure on the quarterback when he steps back to pass. Until the Irish can rely on the D line to pressure the quarterback and until the Defense is able to disrupt the rhythm of the opponents’ passing game, Notre Dame will not compete for the national championship.

Are you surprised? You say you don’t agree! You say that the line is very much improved over last year and you cannot understand why we would say such a blasphemous thing! Well, ok, sure, you are right that the improvement has been great, but these guys did not perform properly in this game. Two cases in point: In the fourth quarter, number 57, Kudla the right linebacker, drives up field on the left shoulder of Ryan Harris and beats him badly one on one, going around him and sacking Quinn. He got beat on technique and hustle. If he had been beaten to the inside on a fake or a stunt or a whirl, well then ok, that is not so bad. Or the sack might have been a coverage sack which cannot be blamed on the offensive linemen, or he could have out schemed him and simply gone up the middle or thru a hole, but it was simple—he got beat! There is no excuse for an athlete like Harris with his experience to give up such a sack.

Later, on the last Notre Dame TD, Mark LeVoir is blocking down on the goal line, and the replay shows him executing a weak push block, rather than getting down low and driving the defender away from Darius, who scored a TD by a whisker. So, here we are with the game on the line and this guy appears to be giving it less than his all.

Simply put, five sacks and more than a dozen desperate run around the backfield plays just does not hack it.

The Shark did not seem to be focused. He and the offense seemed out of sync until the three step drop back showed up deep into the third quarter.

We have not seen or heard an answer to the question about why Charlie would wait so long to move to the three step. Had he done so at the outset of the second half, ND could have won.

Now here is the big one! The zebras stole a TD from the Irish when they recalled Zibby’s run back. I know that some say that the receiver was juggling the ball and never had possession. It does not look that way on the replay, however, and nearly all e mails we have received support this interpretation. And consider this: The receiver acted like he had fumbled the ball. Also, no one on the OSU bench complained. This is the fourth Irish loss in a row, over three years that has been influenced or determined by truly awful officiating.

Wow, we had no idea that Tressel was capable of throwing bombs with abandon. It almost seems like cheating!

We don’t know what went wrong, but the Irish were out-coached for the first time this year. We have worried about Minter and his philosophy all year, but we had not worried about the coaching on the offensive side of the ball. After being unofficially crowned as a genius, Charlie was bested by a guy who does not have the reputation of being an offensive genius.

What is the net take from all of these alleged causes of defeat?

Make no mistake about it. Ohio State was and is a better team. The best team won and won going away. The Irish were exposed as being a tad short in overall team speed, they were out-coached and were also exposed as lacking a competitive defense.

Charlie will cure the first problem over the next two years through recruiting. Charlie will cure the second problem by figuring out what he did wrong in his first year as a head coach. He is fabulous, but he too is mortal, as we have now seen.

He does have the capacity for self analysis, he is humble when bested and he has the ability to learn from his mistakes. The end of game press conference was almost non-existent, but we were able to find this as described by Paul Fulmer in his Splinters from the Bench:

"Weis, who received all the plaudits during the season and one "Coach of the Year" award prior to the game, stood up like a man and took the criticism after the disappointing performance. He admitted that his team looked flat and "tight" during the game."

The real question is "why were the players so tight?" It appeared that way on TV and those who were there report that it was even more obvious inside the stadium. Incredibly it came to light that there was some sort of incipient revolt among the younger players, according to Trevor Laws. Some complained about not having enough fun and some of the older players nipped it in the bud, but there could have and probably were some lingering effects of this unforgivable bull crap. We have all waited too long for the return to glory to put up with insubordination. It is puzzling that any player would break Charlie’s rule about not talking to the media. Charlie does not tolerate this stuff, so it will be worth watching Laws in the Spring and next Fall. (This information comes from a pro who writes for a living)

Where does all of this leave us?

Recruiting is going fabulously well. The next edition of Irish Musings will be devoted to this topic.