In the previous installment of this series, Notre Dame unloaded an automatic rifle into both of its feet in losing to Navy at home. This week, the Irish were faced with a must-win game at #12 Pitt.
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Do or Die
Before the loss to Navy, Notre Dame seemed headed for an 9-3 finish and the slim possibility of a BCS bowl. Now their goal was to deny Pittsburgh that honor, as the Panthers were a surprising 8-1 and gunning for the Big East title. Pitt had lost to a bad NC State team on the road in September but had won every game since then. They would be 5.5 point favorites in front of rare sellout crowd at home.
Meanwhile, this would mark the second time that ND would be underdogs in 2009 with the other being USC. The loss to Navy was a colossal shock, but there was still a lot of respect for what the Irish could do. Even with no Kyle Rudolph, there was cautious optimism that Notre Dame could find a way to beat the Panthers.
True to the title of this series, the 2009 Pitt game would be a last stand for Weis. Coincidentally, it would be at the same stadium and against the same opponent he faced in his first game for the Irish. If Weis could muster the same magic he did in September of 2005, he might just survive another trip to Heinz Field.
Game Highlights
*If you would like to watch the game in its entirety, click here. If you want DownInTheBend’s condensed games from the 2009 season, you can find those here.
Some Thoughts
- This game was a defensive struggle until the Irish defense imploded at the end of the first half. Pitt piled up 298 yards at 13 yards a play from the five-minute mark of the second quarter until the beginning of the fourth quarter. Any gradual improvement throughout the year on defense had completely evaporated by now.
- Jon Baldwin averaged almost 30 yards a catch while Dion Lewis and Ray Graham combined for 209 yards at nine yards a carry. I honestly don’t know how this ND defense held Pitt to just 27 points.
- Graham became known to us in this game starting with one of the greatest runs I’ve ever seen in the third quarter. He would continue to torment Notre Dame football and almost single-handedly ended the undefeated run in 2012.
- Clausen’s “fumble” on Notre Dame’s final drive was total crap, but it seems unlikely that ND would’ve converted 4th and 16. Still an awful call though.
- Despite no Kyle Rudolph, Tate and Floyd still flourished with a combined 16 catches for 220 yards. Tate provided the highlight play of the evening with a scintillating punt return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. On a better team, it would have been a Heisman moment.
- One of the surprising things I didn’t remember about this season was how well Armando Allen played when he was healthy. He had another strong game against Pitt with 110 yards from scrimmage and 5.5 yards per carry.
- One of the things I do remember is how dysfunctional ND’s run game was under Weis even if one back was running well. Allen got 14 carries at good efficiency, while the only other players to get designed hand-offs were Theo Riddick and Golden Tate. They combined for four carries for -2 yards.
- Once again, Robert Hughes got no carries. There’s probably a story that explains why he was never the consistent starter or even the backup for Weis and Kelly.
Reality Sets In
Weis had his chance in this game and the team fought valiantly, but ultimately couldn’t overcome the mid-game lull where Pitt outscored the Irish 24-6. In yet another one-possession game and the 2009 Irish learned once again that you can’t win them all. The cosmic forces that helped ND beat the likes of Purdue, Washington and Boston College had now disappeared.
This passage from the AP game recap caught my eye:
“Weis wanted to play conservatively and not let Pitt’s multidimensional offense get going, but Pitt’s big lead changes those plans. ‘We didn’t want to get into that [a wide-open game] that early,’ he said.”
Let’s break this down for a second: why would you not want to play a “wide open game” considering you have an All-American offense? And did this conservative game plan include punting from the Pitt 38-yard line in the third quarter down 10-3? Weis began his career at Notre Dame by pantsing Dave Wannstedt in 2005 with a blitzkrieg of modern offense. Yet when the chips were down and he had his most talented personnel, Weis apparently declined to be aggressive until it was too late.
Most Notre Dame fans knew this game marked the official end of the Weis Era. There was no going back now because 8-4 with wins over UConn and Stanford weren’t going to cut it. The coach who declared that “9-3 isn’t good enough” would miss attaining that mark for the third consecutive year.
Weis had a chance to right the ship with a win over a top-15 team on the road but once again fell short. He would finish his career without ever beating a team on the road that ended the season ranked. If the Irish had been 8-1 or 7-2, Weis could have weathered the storm. Coming off the heels of Navy, this loss was a death sentence.
The strange roller coaster that was the 2009 Fighting Irish was starting to wind down. All that separated Weis and the inevitable were two more games, including Senior Day against 4-5 UConn the following week.
Other Things that Happened that Week
- Cincinnati downshifted its potent offense for a 24-21 win over West Virginia that ensured the Bearcats would claim of share of the Big East title. A win at Pitt would clinch the league and bigger things were still ahead for Brian Kelly.
- Perhaps the most memorable moment of this weekend happened at midfield of the LA Coliseum after Stanford obliterated #11 USC 55-21. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a refresher. This also marked the true end of Trojan hegemony in the soon-to-be Pac-12.
- Ohio State clinched the Rose Bowl by beating Iowa in overtime while TCU all but clinched a BCS bid by winning the other ranked-on-ranked match-up of the weekend against Utah.
- The U was once again not back after an upset loss to UNC on the road. Thankfully the national media lost interest in them at this point.
There are only two things that I remember from this game. One is Tate’s punt return, an electrifying moment that was another sign that he was, IMO, the single best offensive player in college football that year. The second is the sh*t-eating smirk on the face of the ref before he announced that Clausen’s incomplete pass was a fumble. I saw that smirk and knew the Big East, which had millions of dollars potentially riding on the game if Pitt could score an at-large bid to a BCS game, had pulled some strings to make sure Clausen wouldn’t have another chance.
“There’s no way there’s enough evidence to overturn… oh.”