If I could barrow a saying from the late, great Harry Caray: hoooly cow.
Notre Dame’s improbable 40-37 comeback over the Spartans in East Lansing Saturday night will be talked about in South Bend for years to come. That was simply amazing to watch an Irish team that had no momentum or push in the first half, snatch a win like they did in the third and fourth quarter of this contest.
Lets be honest though – what a nightmare loss for Michigan State. I haven’t seen a choke job like that since six days ago when the Eagles blew a 24-7 lead to the Giants in the fourth quarter of Philadelphia’s 30-24 overtime loss.
The Spartans had a 24-7 lead too…and a 17-0 lead…and a 31-14 lead… and a 37-21 lead, all before fifth year senior QB Drew Stanton decided to make the game interesting and crumble like a Peyton Manning playoff performance.
Lets get right to some random thoughts – although I want to apologize if this seems jumbled, but my head is still spinning from actually watching the Irish players pull a horse shoe so far from out of their…ahh, forget it.
– Brady Quinn has played only one complete game this season and that was against Penn State in the second week of the year. Five touchdowns, 319 yards passing and he still looked like dog crap for three quarters against MSU. Amazing.
– The Spartans offensive line opened up dump truck-sized holes all night for Jehuu Caulcrick and Javon Ringer. But man did those back to back holding penalties early in the fourth quarter kill an important drive for MSU. Not too mention the false start penalty before the two holding calls. Coach John L. Smith can look at those penalties as a starting point for his team’s collapse – and then move quickly on to Stanton’s lack of a brain.
– Two catches for only 20 yards for WR Matt Trannon against that secondary for Notre Dame is just ridiculous.
– Jeff Samardzija had a fabulous night (seven catches for 114 yards and two touchdowns), but he was outdone by Rhema McKnight’s two tiptoe catches in the end zone. I’ll go out on a small limb now and say McKnight will be the better NFL player.
– By the way, Samardzija is a punk – just like Charlie Weis and the rest of his coaching staff.
Follow me here:
Stanton has a run in the first half where he gets hit late out of bounds on Notre Dame’s sideline. Trannon and the rest of MSU’s offense head over to the sideline while Trannon checks to see if is quarterback is okay.
In the meantime, one of the members in Weis’ fun-bag party starts grabbing the Spartan players that are near the sideline by the back of the collar and pushes them out of the way. Then said coach walks behind Trannon, grabs him by the back of the collar as well and shoves him away from the Irish sideline while Stanton is still laying on the ground. Trannon stumbles back, regains himself and then goes after the coach.
The result? A big scuffle breaks out and Trannon gets flagged of course – which offsets the late hit call on Stanton.
I can certainly understand a coach wanting to keep opposing players off of his sidelines. But the play carried those players over there and it wasn’t like the Spartans were trying to start anything – they were just checking on Stanton. There was absolutely no reason to grab and shove players at that moment.
Fast forward to halftime where Weis is being interviewed by Lisa Salters. As the interview is wrapping up, Salters asks Weis a question about switching to the no-huddle offense at the end of the first half, which Weis responds too. Then innocently, Salters ask Weis if we can expect to see the no-huddle again at the start of the second half.
Weis’s response? He looks at her as if she may possibly be one of the mistresses of Saadam Huessin and then says: “We’re down by 17,” and walks away from her as to say ‘hey, you should know the answer to that question – little woman.’
Hey Weis, if your team’s defense didn’t play as soft as oatmeal in the first half, Salters wouldn’t have had to ask that question, now would she?
Oh, and Samardzija? He was the first person in Stanton’s ear hole talking trash when Stanton threw his first inexplicable interception (if you’re wondering why Samardzija would be on the field at the same time as Stanton, it’s because he’s the holder on extra points).
I guess Samardzija can act like Tommy tough guy after his team had to come all the way back from being pummeled the entire game by a program that isn’t even ranked.
– CB Terrail Lambert battled some major demons Saturday night. One week after being embarrassed by Michigan’s Mario Manningham, Lambert had two interceptions in the final minutes of the game (one he returned for the winning touchdown and the other was handed down from Jesus himself after the ball bounced off of every player on the field, every fan in the crowd, several people in the parking lot and then straight into Lambert’s arms).
The kid deserves praise – he manned up and bounced back after a trying situation last weekend.
– Has anybody seen RB Darius Walker? I’m starting to get concerned about his whereabouts.
– I told everybody to watch out for DE Ervin Baldwin in my College Game of the Week on Wednesday didn’t I? Baldwin picked off Quinn in the second quarter and returned it 19 yards for a touchdown.
– Okay, so I also told everybody that MSU would win 35-31 in my preview too. Hey, can’t win them all, right? Or even some of them in my case. Miami, LSU and Michigan State have been three out of my last four Game of the Week picks.
I can give a prediction that is bound to come true, however: USC is going to wax this Notre Dame team by about 40 points unless the Irish can sprout a defense sometime in the next couple of weeks.
