Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Sunday, September 17th, 2006
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The hype had been over the top at Notre Dame ever since the preseason.
This was the year the second-ranked Fighting Irish were supposed to contend for a national championship, the year they were supposed to return to the mountaintop in college football.
No one told that to Michigan.
The 11th-ranked Wolverines sent Notre Dame crashing back to earth with a thud yesterday, physically throttling the Irish, 47-21, at Notre Dame Stadium and leaving Irish coach Charlie Weis, the man who had all the answers his first year in this job, wondering what happened to cause the disaster.
"Let's face it," Weis said. "You go lose 47-21, you deserve to get criticized. You deserve to pick up the newspaper the next day and say, 'What happened?' You deserve that, okay?
"On the flip side, you got a team that came in and kicked your butt pretty good. They deserve the credit.
"The bad comes with the good (for a coach). You're the one - you and the quarterback are the ones who when things go well, everyone pats you on the back. When things don't go well, guess what, you're the ones they should come after, too. It should work that way. I just hope it doesn't happen too often." So does Irish quarterback Brady Quinn, who may have seen his Heisman hopes evaporate after one of the worst days of his college career.
Quinn did throw for 234 yards and three touchdowns, but his day will be remembered for three interceptions and a fumble that turned into a 54-yard touchdown run by defensive end LaMarr Woodley with 3:23 left that put a punctuation mark on the rout.
"After we watched their game with Georgia Tech, we felt if we could get to Quinn, he would make some bad decisions," Woodley said.
Michigan's defense - and particularly its relentless front four - left the Irish's normally high-powered offense spiraling out of control by effectively pressuring Quinn without having to blitz and totally neutralized the running game, holding Notre Dame to four yards on 17 carries. The Wolverines (3-0) jumped out to a 34-7 lead late in the second quarter on Chad Henne's third touchdown pass to wide receiver Mario Manningham. The Irish (2-1), who went with several unconventional offensive looks, including a no-huddle, four-wide split in the second half, finished with just 245 yards of total offense and committed five turnovers.
"I tried just about everything in this game," Weis said. "The issue was simply, you know, regardless of what we tried calling, we weren't making plays and we were careless with the ball. When you're careless with the football, you're just asking for something bad to happen."
It was a sloppy, very un-Weis-like performance. The Irish committed three deadly sins in the first quarter alone when Michigan jumped out to a 20-7 lead:
Quinn threw an interception on Notre Dame's first possession that resulted in a 31-yard touchdown return by linebacker Prescott Burgess.
Manningham exploited Notre Dame's slow, vulnerable secondary, beating cornerback Ambrose Wooden badly for his second score on a 69-yard bomb from Henne.
And the Wolverines came right back to score a third touchdown on a 2-yard run by Mike Hart that was set up when David Grimes fumbled on a kickoff return, the ball being recovered by Morgan Trent at the Irish 20.
It was all downhill from there. The Wolverines - who could jump as high as the Top 5 in tomorrow's polls - have the look of a team that can compete on an equal basis with top-ranked Ohio State when the two Big Ten goliaths collide in Columbus on Nov. 18, especially if Henne and Manningham keep putting on an air show. They made it look easy yesterday against a team that was supposed to do the same to them.
Sunday, September 17th, 2006
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The hype had been over the top at Notre Dame ever since the preseason.
This was the year the second-ranked Fighting Irish were supposed to contend for a national championship, the year they were supposed to return to the mountaintop in college football.
No one told that to Michigan.
The 11th-ranked Wolverines sent Notre Dame crashing back to earth with a thud yesterday, physically throttling the Irish, 47-21, at Notre Dame Stadium and leaving Irish coach Charlie Weis, the man who had all the answers his first year in this job, wondering what happened to cause the disaster.
"Let's face it," Weis said. "You go lose 47-21, you deserve to get criticized. You deserve to pick up the newspaper the next day and say, 'What happened?' You deserve that, okay?
"On the flip side, you got a team that came in and kicked your butt pretty good. They deserve the credit.
"The bad comes with the good (for a coach). You're the one - you and the quarterback are the ones who when things go well, everyone pats you on the back. When things don't go well, guess what, you're the ones they should come after, too. It should work that way. I just hope it doesn't happen too often." So does Irish quarterback Brady Quinn, who may have seen his Heisman hopes evaporate after one of the worst days of his college career.
Quinn did throw for 234 yards and three touchdowns, but his day will be remembered for three interceptions and a fumble that turned into a 54-yard touchdown run by defensive end LaMarr Woodley with 3:23 left that put a punctuation mark on the rout.
"After we watched their game with Georgia Tech, we felt if we could get to Quinn, he would make some bad decisions," Woodley said.
Michigan's defense - and particularly its relentless front four - left the Irish's normally high-powered offense spiraling out of control by effectively pressuring Quinn without having to blitz and totally neutralized the running game, holding Notre Dame to four yards on 17 carries. The Wolverines (3-0) jumped out to a 34-7 lead late in the second quarter on Chad Henne's third touchdown pass to wide receiver Mario Manningham. The Irish (2-1), who went with several unconventional offensive looks, including a no-huddle, four-wide split in the second half, finished with just 245 yards of total offense and committed five turnovers.
"I tried just about everything in this game," Weis said. "The issue was simply, you know, regardless of what we tried calling, we weren't making plays and we were careless with the ball. When you're careless with the football, you're just asking for something bad to happen."
It was a sloppy, very un-Weis-like performance. The Irish committed three deadly sins in the first quarter alone when Michigan jumped out to a 20-7 lead:
Quinn threw an interception on Notre Dame's first possession that resulted in a 31-yard touchdown return by linebacker Prescott Burgess.
Manningham exploited Notre Dame's slow, vulnerable secondary, beating cornerback Ambrose Wooden badly for his second score on a 69-yard bomb from Henne.
And the Wolverines came right back to score a third touchdown on a 2-yard run by Mike Hart that was set up when David Grimes fumbled on a kickoff return, the ball being recovered by Morgan Trent at the Irish 20.
It was all downhill from there. The Wolverines - who could jump as high as the Top 5 in tomorrow's polls - have the look of a team that can compete on an equal basis with top-ranked Ohio State when the two Big Ten goliaths collide in Columbus on Nov. 18, especially if Henne and Manningham keep putting on an air show. They made it look easy yesterday against a team that was supposed to do the same to them.
