It's as if some weird, alternate universe had decended upon the Notre Dame football team in recent years. 2007, 2009, and 2010 certainly seem like they never should have happened- at least when it comes to losing to Navy. For the past two years now, the Fighting Irish have completely excorcised those demons and sent the Midshipmen back to hell.
It's a wonderful feeling, but it is also a feeling of "meh." But, that's OK. Handling your cupcakes should always feel that way.
The Irish Invasion
I'm not sure, but it seemed like Dublin was completely overtook by the Irish. Odd statement, but many of you know exactly what I mean. The Notre Dame fanbase is legendary in its ability to travel well to other venues around the country.
The same can definitly now be said about the fanbase's ability to travel well AROUND THE WORLD. While this is the third game that Notre Dame has played overseas (the first was in Tokyo in 1980 against Miami & the second was in 1996 against Navy in Dublin), I'm not sure if people, talking to you Rick, knew just how well it would go.
By all accounts it went quite well. Droves of fans, and an event that was truly more like a bowl game in a country that has a completely different definiton of what a fullback is on the roster. I saw a lot of tweets rolling in from fans that made the trip. One giant vacation y'all!
Well,
@thesubwaydomer, it happened. twitter.com/bhaydon5/statu…— Brent Haydon (@bhaydon5) September 2, 2012
The Broadcast
Ok. I need to tell you that I was unable to watch most of the game live becasue of a job that is just cramping my style man. All rich people who read this… hire me for something.
Thanks to my handy Justin.TV app, I was able to see some of it live and then I rewatched the game on the DVR. Verne and Gary might be one of the worst booth combos in the history of televised sport. Fucking awful. I won't get into all of their mistakes and how many times I felt my brain spontaneously combusting- becasue you already know.
The one saving grace for CBS was David Feherty. Funny, insightful, and had such an honest approach to what he was seeing and reporting. It was almost like, GASP… there was a blogger like presence on the field. It was refreshing, and I demand more. (Note to CBS: please see 2 paragraphs ago…)
Stephon Tuitt Ran A 4.7
In a game, that quite honestly felt boring, it was the awesome things that stuck out the most. (know what I mean, know what I mean?) Stephon Tuitt was just chaneling his inner Jonas Gray. LOOK AT THAT SPEED MAN! By the way- this is a 300 pound individual.
Golson ICE
I don't care if MQ thinks I am copying BC with this meme. Actually, I got it from Knute School Fool first. Seriously though, Golson looked as calm, cool, and collected as most 3 year starters.
Just how much did BK troll so hard by not naming Golson the starter earlier? In my eyes it didn't even look like it should have been close.
Golson played well and was never asked to do very much but excecute our basic offense, or at least this years version of it. The minor disapointments were the times (3 I believe) that Daniels was wide open and wasn't thrown to, obviously the redzone interception, and one more thing that left me somewhat puzzled…
No deep throws. We all know Golson has a cannon for an arm- I just wanted to see a bit more of it Saturday. Maybe this was by design, but I thought ND would have tried to bomb (and I mean BOMB) one out at least 2 times. Perhaps this week….
Team RamRod
I don't care who is running the ball. We are finally at that point where Notre Dame has amassed enough depth to play "running back by committee."
Here's the catch… it has nothing to do with Cam McDaniels performance, and it definitely doesn't have to do with "White Lightning's" touchdown run either. Geroge Atkinson & Theo Riddick ran for a combined 206 yards on 26 carries with a 7.3 yards per carry average. They both scored twice.
They did all of this while incumbant starting running back Cierre Wood sat out the first of his two game suspension. They also did this against a really bad Navy defense, so I'm pumping the brakes just a bit. You can say whatever you want, but Cierre Wood is still the best running back on this roster. The nice thing is… it may not even matter.
Wrapping It Up
Look, I realize this is all kind of late and we are moving onto Purdue… my bad. Rough week y'all. At any rate, Notre Dame dominated the line of scrimmage and handled its cupcake. I'm down with that, and I'm ready to see more. Holla!
