Irish Offense Hits Stride
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
After accumulating 180 yards in the first half, the Irish racked up 204 in the third quarter alone, jump-started by a five-play, 81-yard opening scoring drive, that gave them their first lead at 21-14, leading to a 38-21 win over Purdue.
"It's 14-14 at halftime, and basically I told them this is the most important drive of the entire season," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said. "That game could have obviously gone either way at that point."
Whatever he said at halftime, it worked.
"I don't think they did anything different," Purdue coach Joe Tiller said about the Irish offense. "They executed extremely well offensively. We couldn't get off the field defensively. Offensively, it looked like we were going to get caught in a ping-pong game, when we were able to match their scores."
Purdue did get a touchdown in the third quarter, but with Notre Dame scoring a touchdown on every one of its three drives, the ping-pong game turned into a 35-21 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Among the 204 yards of total offense in the third quarter, 115 were rushing yards from sophomore Armando Allen.
Allen's career rushing best had been 91 yards against Navy last season, but the strong third quarter put him well over that mark for a game-high 136 yards. Coming into the game, Allen had had one run of 15 yards in his career, but had gains of 21, 16, 21 and 21 in the opening drive of the second half.
"Armando had a big day," Weis said. "We were all getting on him pretty good. I think in his career, he had one 15-yard carry, then he had five today. I said, 'Where've you been?'."
The Irish also got a career best from sophomore quarterback Jimmy Clausen who passed for 275 yards and three touchdowns.
"I felt good out there," Clausen said. "I felt comfortable. I was reading the coverage pretty good. I felt like I knew what they were going to do coming into the game. The coaches got me ready to go."
Keeping Purdue off balance, Notre Dame worked a nice mix of the run and pass, with 40 rushes and 35 passes.
"They had really good balance tonight," Tiller said. "Invariably, they moved the ball well. Primarily off the play-action."
Another big performer for the Irish was freshman Michael Floyd, who caught six passes for 100 yards.
"They shifted toward Golden (Tate), which is something we expected them to do with the production we've been getting out of him," Weis said of Purdue's game plan to slow the Irish's leading receiver. "So they rolled to him, so then who do you go to? The guy on the other side has to be able to step up when that happens."
Floyd did have the biggest output of the day, but it was Tate that may have had one of the biggest catches.
With the Irish up 35-21 early in the fourth quarter, Clausen lofted deep third down pass to Tate down the sideline. As Tate went up for the catch, he held possession when he hit the ground, but after rolling over, the ball came flying out. After being ruled an incompletion initially, the play was reviewed and the catch was deemed legal, giving Tate a 38-yard grab, setting up Notre Dame at the Purdue 43-yard line.
"I knew I had it in my hands and it was a legitimate catch," Tate said. "Then I hit the ground, and (it popped out), so I thought it was an incompletion. I forgot about all the reviewing and all that stuff. I was just kind of upset it got out of my hands."
The catch did set up a 41-yard field goal by Brandon Walker, who had missed all four of his attempts this season, including a 31-yarder in the second quarter.
"I didn't talk to him after the miss," Weis said of Walker. "(Special teams coach) Brian (Polian) talked to him, but I didn't talk to him after the miss. After he made a couple extra points, I just went over to him and said, 'You're going to have to make a kick here in this game. It's just like kicking an extra point.' We've seen him kick balls 50 yards in practice. It's just like kicking an extra point.
"That was a big kick for him, just knowing we were in an opportunity to put the game away, and he made a big kick," Weis added.
The kick allowed the Irish players, coaches and fans to let their guard down a little bit, picking up a win after losing a 23-7 game at Michigan State the previous week.
"I think we're capable of running the football and we're capable of throwing the football," Weis said of his team. "We're capable of picking up the blitz and we're capable of making some plays. Capable doesn't mean anything until you actually show it, until you actually do it. Today was a good from that aspect. It's not making plays in practice. It's making plays with 80,000 people at Notre Dame Stadium."
Those players will have another opportunity to show what they can do when they host Stanford Saturday at 2:30 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]
After accumulating 180 yards in the first half, the Irish racked up 204 in the third quarter alone, jump-started by a five-play, 81-yard opening scoring drive, that gave them their first lead at 21-14, leading to a 38-21 win over Purdue.
"It's 14-14 at halftime, and basically I told them this is the most important drive of the entire season," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said. "That game could have obviously gone either way at that point."
Whatever he said at halftime, it worked.
"I don't think they did anything different," Purdue coach Joe Tiller said about the Irish offense. "They executed extremely well offensively. We couldn't get off the field defensively. Offensively, it looked like we were going to get caught in a ping-pong game, when we were able to match their scores."
Purdue did get a touchdown in the third quarter, but with Notre Dame scoring a touchdown on every one of its three drives, the ping-pong game turned into a 35-21 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Among the 204 yards of total offense in the third quarter, 115 were rushing yards from sophomore Armando Allen.
Allen's career rushing best had been 91 yards against Navy last season, but the strong third quarter put him well over that mark for a game-high 136 yards. Coming into the game, Allen had had one run of 15 yards in his career, but had gains of 21, 16, 21 and 21 in the opening drive of the second half.
"Armando had a big day," Weis said. "We were all getting on him pretty good. I think in his career, he had one 15-yard carry, then he had five today. I said, 'Where've you been?'."
The Irish also got a career best from sophomore quarterback Jimmy Clausen who passed for 275 yards and three touchdowns.
"I felt good out there," Clausen said. "I felt comfortable. I was reading the coverage pretty good. I felt like I knew what they were going to do coming into the game. The coaches got me ready to go."
Keeping Purdue off balance, Notre Dame worked a nice mix of the run and pass, with 40 rushes and 35 passes.
"They had really good balance tonight," Tiller said. "Invariably, they moved the ball well. Primarily off the play-action."
Another big performer for the Irish was freshman Michael Floyd, who caught six passes for 100 yards.
"They shifted toward Golden (Tate), which is something we expected them to do with the production we've been getting out of him," Weis said of Purdue's game plan to slow the Irish's leading receiver. "So they rolled to him, so then who do you go to? The guy on the other side has to be able to step up when that happens."
Floyd did have the biggest output of the day, but it was Tate that may have had one of the biggest catches.
With the Irish up 35-21 early in the fourth quarter, Clausen lofted deep third down pass to Tate down the sideline. As Tate went up for the catch, he held possession when he hit the ground, but after rolling over, the ball came flying out. After being ruled an incompletion initially, the play was reviewed and the catch was deemed legal, giving Tate a 38-yard grab, setting up Notre Dame at the Purdue 43-yard line.
"I knew I had it in my hands and it was a legitimate catch," Tate said. "Then I hit the ground, and (it popped out), so I thought it was an incompletion. I forgot about all the reviewing and all that stuff. I was just kind of upset it got out of my hands."
The catch did set up a 41-yard field goal by Brandon Walker, who had missed all four of his attempts this season, including a 31-yarder in the second quarter.
"I didn't talk to him after the miss," Weis said of Walker. "(Special teams coach) Brian (Polian) talked to him, but I didn't talk to him after the miss. After he made a couple extra points, I just went over to him and said, 'You're going to have to make a kick here in this game. It's just like kicking an extra point.' We've seen him kick balls 50 yards in practice. It's just like kicking an extra point.
"That was a big kick for him, just knowing we were in an opportunity to put the game away, and he made a big kick," Weis added.
The kick allowed the Irish players, coaches and fans to let their guard down a little bit, picking up a win after losing a 23-7 game at Michigan State the previous week.
"I think we're capable of running the football and we're capable of throwing the football," Weis said of his team. "We're capable of picking up the blitz and we're capable of making some plays. Capable doesn't mean anything until you actually show it, until you actually do it. Today was a good from that aspect. It's not making plays in practice. It's making plays with 80,000 people at Notre Dame Stadium."
Those players will have another opportunity to show what they can do when they host Stanford Saturday at 2:30 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]
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