A New Low in a Season Full of Them

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse. It did. Just when you thought it had to turn around, it just kept going straight down that same old road that we have seen since September 1st. For the first time in 44 years Notre Dame lost to Navy. Navy! Not USC, not Michigan, not Penn State, not even Georgia Tech. Now granted, the difference between the Navy game and those other four is simple. The Irish probably should have won today. A few things to look at when evaluating what went wrong. First, they had a lot of trouble with that option offense the Midshipman run. It seemed as if Navy has 3 plays. Fake to the running back once followed by a hand off, fake to the full back twice and pitch it out to the running back, fake to the running back three times and have the quarterback take it himself. Not exactly what one would call a complicated scheme. How ironic was it when Navy threw a some-what deep pass on the final drive of the game. Now, the option offense is not something that should be taken lightly. Lets be honest, it's an offense that probably single-handedly ruined Michigan's season. But with that being said, it did not seam as if Navy ran it particularly well either. To me, it was a bare boned version of the scheme which is why I was so shocked that it worked so well.
One thing that I can't get over: We know that Weis loves to go for it in fourth down. But why is he going for that fourth down and eight on the 24 yard line late in the fourth quarter. The field goal would have been 35 yards or thereabouts. The reason he gave in the post game press conference was that Walker missed that distance in pre-game warm ups. And yes, he did miss a 40 yard attempt late in the third but I still think that you make that call in that spot and I'll tell you why. It's a simple risk/reward proposition. Navy is not a big play offense that is going to be able to drive down the field and go 50-60 yards to set up a field goal of their own in :45 seconds. You take the points there if your Notre Dame. If Walker makes it, your up three and the game is more or less over. If Walker misses it, your in the same situation, asking Navy to drive down the field in under a minute. Something that I don't think Navy is going to do. The reward is far bigger then the risk. If your playing a team like USC, maybe the call is different. But when your playing NAVY, you have to think about what they can realistically do in :45 seconds. Weis did not do this and that is a major reason they lost the game.
Is that the sole reason the Irish lost today? No. Sharply did not play fantastic football but he did throw two touchdowns. Is this the Sharply that I thought I would see when I was calling for him a few weeks back? No, but I don't think you can say that ND lost because Sharply only threw for 139 yards. If you want to criticize him for anything its that fumble in the fourth that Navy returned for a touchdown. The reality is that this team probably does not have a quarterback at this point. Sharplys not good enough and Clauson isn't ready yet.....Demetrius Jones anyone?? No, seriously, I'm just kidding..........I'll leave my quarterback assessment section with this: Are we 100% sure that Brady Quinn had all his credits for graduation? Can someone check on that?
However, I must end my post with this. How nice was it to see Robert Hughes get that touchdown in the first quarter. Weis said before that game that all he wanted to do was get Hughes into the end zone. If you missed it, Hughes' brother died this week. Weis drove Hughes home and mourned with the family on Thursday. Hughes is a 18 year old freshman out of Chicago. He got into the end zone early in the game. Even watching the game on the television, you could feel the emotion in the stadium. That's what I like about Weis. For all his flaws (and I think we're seeing them this year more then any other), He strikes me as a guy who cares about his players and has a genuine sense of how football and family can interlock. I like that. I think that if Hughes had not scored on that first drive, Weis would have went to him again and again and again until Hughes either got in or asked Weis to quit it. That's just the kind of guy Weis seams to be. When your 1-7, you can afford to do that sort of thing. 1-8 now.

Congrats to NAVY. They broke a "curse" that seams to be pretty well documented with the cadets. Good for them. But there are certain lows in the game of college football. Loosing to Navy is one of them...............Air Force next week at home.

On a separate note- Mondays Edge will be live from Moes in Greenvale, NY. Milan Nevidomsky and Sean Croft will be there filling in for Nick, Steve, and I. We will be back at the station for the FM show on 88.1FM at 10.

-Jordan Lauterbach: The Edge- Mondays from 9-10pm on mywcwp.com.