You Take the Notre And I’ll Take the Dame! » sportvent.com
You Take The Notre And I'll Take The Dame!
by Ed Quigley and Matt Minucci...but mostly Ed Quigley.
Might be too harsh.
My buddy Ed and I got into a discussion about whether Notre Dame was finally good enough or at least motivated enough to finally beat USC. And probably save Charlie Weis's job in the process. I thought maybe...maybe they had a shot.
Ed was adamant. Nope. No way. No chance. I thought his reasoning was so good, I thought I'd share it here with you.
But first, a little background on Mr. Ed Quig Lee (the asian enforcer!)
Ed is not a Notre Dame hater. In fact, he grew up loving 'em. 1987 Miami debacle? He was dressed at the orange bowl in navy and gold garb. 1988 31-30 miracle? He lived near "the U" & actually got his yearbook to print page 31 before 30 just so every year that high school yearbook was looked at it would read 31-30. Tim Brown is STILL one of his favorite players & the only NFL player his wife can quote his pseudo-nickname "quicksilver". He had the poster up through 1998! And it's because of this and as a passionate follower of college sports that he can say without hesitation that Notre Dame & Charlie Weis can not eat the moss left over from Pete Carroll's wheat grass & Red Bull smoothie let alone win on Saturday
Eddie Quig Lee and friend before a big Notre Dame game.
Take it away, Ed...
CAN NOTRE DAME BEAT USC?
Not if the refs allow strangling.
No. Notre Dame is not ready for the big boys. You're talking about a slow, slow team who lost it's #1 playmaker in wide receiver Mike Floyd and with him any shot at playing with the big boys.
You can talk about everything "wrong" with USC but USC's soccer team would beat Notre Dame.
USC...they'll hurt ya.
Let's discuss ND's season:
Nevada. Nevada is horrible and ND did what it was supposed to do - beat up on them, 35-0.
Michigan. Lost, 38-34. Good game but they couldn't stop Tate Forcier. Tate Forcier is good but he's no Matt Barkley
Michigan State, Won 33-30. A GIFT win thanks to a miracle interception by Notre Dame on their own 4 yard line with 1 minute left and Mich. St. driving for at least a game-tying FG. Notre Dame gave up 459 total yards in this game.
Purdue, Won 24-21. The Irish 21-17 with 29 seconds left and got another GIFT win as Clausen threw a game-winning TD to seal the victory.
Washington, Won 37-30 in OT. If you watched this game and the USC game you saw how differently Washington moved the ball here than the week they played SC. SC mailed in the last 3 quarters of that game and still should've won. I still say the loss of USC defensive standout Taylor Mays is the difference in that game.
Ouch.
I'm not going to extrapolate too much based on who other teams played or how those teams looked on weeks they didn't face Notre Dame since, as Washington has shown, no sport is more week-to-week than College Football. But the bottom line is that the Irish have beaten slow Big 10 teams and a middle of the pack PAC-10 team. So what?
Who's Notre Dame beat? No one!
Except for Washington these are SLOW, SLOW teams and Notre Dame made them look like lightning. Notre Dame's offensive line is not good enough to exploit USC's perceived weaknesses on the D-Line. The Irish have no playmakers. Clausen is a great QB but Mays will neutralize the Irish tightend Kyle Rudolph and that leaves Golden Tate and Armando Allen as the only possible playmakers. And Allen's lunch will be handed to him by the USC Line-backing corp.
Pictured: USC linebacking corps
Also, what we've yet to address is Notre Dame's defense. It's HORRIBLE, slow, inexperienced and undisciplined and that is a DEADLY threesome vs. Barkley and the USC line. Barkley is getting better and better each week and this is likely the week Barkley embraces most if not all of the playbook. It's also the week that Barkley shows he's just as good as Clausen.
Hey, if Clausen can lead his team to a win over USC, Heisman trophy here he comes. But he's looked TERRIBLE in his career vs. USC to date.
USC's got this game on ice.
I hear people talk about the "issues" USC has but they pale in comparison to Notre Dame's awful defense, mediocre at best D-Line and lack of playmakers. USC is better at every single position except QB and that one isn't too far behind. And when Pete Carroll gets his guys up for a game, road issues become non-issues. See Ohio State.
And Notre Dame would not beat Ohio State.
The final score will be closer than the actual game as I can see Notre Dame tacking on a late, meaningless score.
