And that bell will be tolling for one Charlie Weis, as Notre Dame lost on Saturday night at Pittsburgh to the Panthers, 27-22.
Before this season, most experts had the Irish winning 10 games, and with this loss, they are now 6-4. They have two remaining games on the schedule before any bowl possibilties. So the most they can win is now nine if they run the table.
And neither the UConn home finale nor the last game at Stanford are gimmes, especially with the way Stanford stomped all over USC today, 55-21.
ND looked like a dead team in the first three quarters last night, as they could muster only 3 points in them, and falling behind 20-3. Pitt's a good team (ranked 8th going into the game) and showed some strong defense in those first three quarters.
Notre Dame finally scored a TD on Jimmy Clausen's one-yard run to open the fourth. But Pitt answered it right back, Dion Lewis, who was particularly impressive, ran for a 50-yard TD to make it 27-9, and I thought the night was done for ND.
But Golden Tate caught an 18-yard TD from Clausen to make it 27-16. Tate had another game, catching nine passes for 113 yards. But his most impressive play of the night was an 87-yard punt return for a TD that made the score 27-22 (a two-point play failed), as tate scampered right up the middle and gave Irish fans some hope.
But with just over 2 minutes left, Clausen was hit around the 20-yard line going back to pass and the refs ruled correctly that it was incomplete and brought up fourth down. But the replay booth, for whatever reason, overruled it and called it a fumble (which Pitt had recovered). One first down later, it was all over.
A nice comeback fell short, but ND only have themselves to blame for the loss. A season of great promise is slowly slipping away, and you have to believe that Charlie Weis will ultimately pay the price for it. Weis maybe one of those coaches whose better off being a coordinator as opposed to being a head man. I hope he's getting his resume ready, because he maybe needing to use it soon.
2 comments:
10 days ago Notre Dame was in good shape. That loss to Navy is inexplicable and will cost him his job. Probably will beat UConn.
Although I do not want to bash Jeter too much I can not believe he won the Gold Glove - so many times (although I do not watch that much Yankees) a seemingly routine grounder goes through the middle (slightly to left of middle) for a base hit. Texiera definitely does deserve it and I think a good defensive first baseman is underrated in importance.
The last two losses will be Weis' ND exit, especially the Navy one. The chorus for his dismissal is growing louder.
And congrats on Stanford's destruction of USC yesterday. I'm sure that made you proud, Rick!
The Gold Gloves are a joke. Too many players, just not Jeter, are given the awards based on rep and offensive production. Can't argue about Teixeira, as he's one of MLB's best at first.
Post a Comment