It’s not really an upset when the No. 5 team in the country plays and beats the No. 8 team. But when most of the National media has the No. 8 team picked to win by double-digits, it could be considered one. The Oklahoma Sooners hosted Notre Dame Saturday night in what many were saying was going to be the Irish’s reckoning moment. Many had the Irish pegged as one of the most over-rated teams of this season.
After looking at some of their stats, I was starting to believe this true. Their defense was doing extremely well, but hadn’t played a good offense. Granted I hadn’t watched much Notre Dame football this season and just watching highlights. But nonetheless, I was impressed, but not overly-worried about what would happen.
What happened last night was something I don’t think anyone expected. Notre Dame QB Everett Golson had the game of his life. From what I’ve seen of him and statistically this game was the best he has played all season. And he is just a redshirt freshman. For someone of that age, to come into an environment like Norman, Oklahoma and take control the way he did, he deserves a lot of the credit. He threw for 177 yards and ran for 64. The numbers aren’t helmet-sticker worthy, but after sitting out the week prior against BYU due to a concussion and being able to handle the pressure (which Oklahoma wasn’t doing much of and is a completely different story); the kid is only getting better as the weeks pass.
As for the Notre Dame defense? LB Manti Te’o and the rest of the Irish line is legit. This isn’t one of those fluke things where people think they really aren’t back, they are for real. Oklahoma was trying to get a ground game established all night and was no-dice. At one point in the game, they were sitting at -9 yards.
You can shoulder some of the blame on the Sooners with the play-calling; the defense didn’t look as sharp as it has in the last couple of weeks and a few other factors. But I think, in this case, you have to give credit to Notre Dame. They came to play. They came to play and win. The Sooners showed up and played a lot better than the score showed, but Notre Dame wanted it more. This Notre Dame team has the meat of their schedule already out of the way, with only USC looming as the team that could break their little Irish hearts. BUT I don’t see that happening. USC lost to Arizona Saturday, who barely beat Oklahoma State, who barely beat Kansas.
A Notre Dame against Alabama title game might be a little interesting to see…
I completely agree with seeing what Oregon is made of. I am just not sold on USC offensively yet. They have struggled some and at the beginning of the season, I was just ready to hand the Heisman and the crystal ball over to them. USC’s defense will have to win the game against the Irish instead of relying on their offense, IMO. But like you said, crazier things happen in these rivalries.
As far as Arizona and the Pokes, the Pokes completely rolled over and killed themselves with turnovers. That was their game to lose, and at one point were ahead. If I remember right, the Pokes cut the game pretty close in the third and just up and quit in the forth, so when I say barely, it was a battle up until the end. But I get what you are saying completely.
I like OU’s chances of winning out. They will have their hands full with that Iowa State defense next week, but like you, I hope it was a lesson learned thing! Notre Dame completely controlled the field last night and those errors came back to haunt the Sooners once again.
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Well written article, and you made good points. One thing I disagree with however is when you say Arizona “barely beat” Oklahoma State. Arizona put 59 points on the Pokes, winning by a 21 point margin; that doesn’t really seem like a close game at all. Remember that this same Arizona team got walloped 49-0 by Oregon the following week, pushed Stanford to overtime, then turned around and beat USC.
USC gets to play Oregon this coming weekend, so we’ll see what Oregon is made of. I still give USC a slight chance at beating ND just because they have lost just once in their previous 10 meetings. I would give ND a chance coz given what Stanford’s defense did to USC, Notre Dame’s could do more damage, but it’s a rivalry so crazy things can happen.
As far as the OU-ND game goes, it’s not that the Sooners didn’t show up; they did show up, but ND’s defense dictated what OU could and couldn’t do on both sides of the ball. The shut down the run, and gave OU the short underneath routes, and they also didn’t miss tackles. In a game where there was little to no margin for error, it was OU who kept making those mental mistakes, while ND played some fundamentally sound, mistake free football.
OU can run the table and win out, and hope that some teams fall off the radar and an “at large” invite to a BCS may be the reward. Hopefully, there were some serious lessons learned from this loss, and the Sooner Schooner can roll over the remaining teams.
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