It’s September 27, 2014 and Syracuse has decided to play a home game inside MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey for the pleasure of watching a near capacity crowd of 76,802 cheer on 3-0 Notre Dame. It’s an odd time for the Orange as they’re in the midst of a basketball-fueled attempt to become “New York’s College” which is extremely not the case for college football.

On this day, Irish quarterback Everett Golson would break the school-record for consecutive completions and nearly tie the NCAA record in the process. Some even thought he did tie the record, we’ll get to that in a bit.

Note: Dominique Davis from East Carolina holds the NCAA-record for consecutive passes completed in a season but did it across 2 separate games. In 2011, Davis finished the Pirates’ game against Memphis with 10 straight completions and opened the following game against Navy with 26 straight completions. And ECU barely beat Navy that day 38-35! So, he has both the single game and in one season record.

Back to MetLife Stadium…

It was scoreless after 1st quarter and this didn’t appear to be a night for an easy Notre Dame win, let alone lining up for any sort of passing record.

The Irish started the game with a fumble, 2 punts, and an interception. Golson opened the 1st quarter 5 of 8 for 40 yards but was directly responsible for both turnovers. Pre-chilled out Brian Kelly, who always had a love/hate relationship with the enigmatic quarterback, was not too pleased with Golson.

Say what you will, Everett was an EXPERIENCE.

Late in the 1st quarter on 3rd & 5, Syracuse tried to run the ball and was absolutely stuffed by Irish defensive tackle Sheldon Day. The Orange would open the 2nd quarter punting the ball down to the Notre Dame 5-yard line. Three plays later, Golson’s passing streak would begin as follows:

#1 – Quick screen to Tarean Folston for 7 yards.
#2 – Bubble screen to Corey Robinson for 10 yards.
#3 – Bubble screen to Corey Robinson for 8 yards.
#4 – Out route to CJ Prosise for 9 yards.
#5 – Hitch to Ben Koyack for 6 yards.
#6 – Bubble screen to Corey Robinson for 10 yards.
#7 – Tunnel screen to Will Fuller for 23 yards (touchdown).
#8 – Corner route to Will Fuller for 72 yards (touchdown).
#9 – Tunnel screen to CJ Prosise for 4 yards.
#10 – Bubble screen to Chris Brown for 3 yards.
#11 – Deep comeback to Corey Robinson for 13 yards.
#12 – Comeback to Will Fuller for 9 yards.
***Something happened here***
#13 – Go route to Chris Brown for 23 yards.
***Something also happened here***
#14 – Comeback to Will Fuller for 7 yards.
#15 – Bubble screen to Chris Brown for 7 yards.
#16 – Stop route to Chris Brown for 12 yards.
#17 – Dump-off to Tarean Folston for 18 yards.
#18 – Fade to Corey Robinson for 8 yards (touchdown).
#19 – Deep comeback to Corey Robinson for 22 yards.
#20 – Hitch to Ben Koyack for 4 yards.
#21 – Quick out to Ben Koyack for 6 yards.
#22 – Crossing route to Cam McDaniel for 8 yards.
#23 – Bubble screen to Chris Brown for 9 yards.
#24 – Dump-off to Cam McDaniel for 1 yard.
#25 – Out and up to Torii Hunter for 13 yards (touchdown).

The streak would end on yet another bubble screen to Corey Robinson that I believe was tipped by a Syracuse lineman. Apologies for the GIF looking like this was filmed in 1972.

Went to this well one too many times. 

The record caused massive confusion for 2 reasons. Tying the single-game record became a thing for a while because the Irish were moving fast and there was a penalty for illegal formation that was missed by a bunch of people in the press box. Following the 9-yard completion to Fuller we saw Golson hit Fuller again for a short gain but it was wiped out by the flag.

Later in the game, even associate athletic director John Heisler (now no longer at Notre Dame) was promoting that Golson had raised his streak to 26 straight completions.

That confusion festered in large part because just 2 plays later one of the weirdest snaps in recent Notre Dame memory happened. Closing in on the end of the 1st half, Golson threw the laser to Chris Brown for 23 yards to bring the ball to the Syracuse 15-yard line. With 1 timeout in their pocket, the Irish hurried to the line and tried to spike the ball.

Except, well, that’s not what happened.

In his haste to spike, Golson never really controls the ball from the snap. He backpedals slightly with the ball popping up in front of him. With hindsight, you wonder if Golson could’ve grabbed the ball and executed a broken play touchdown. None of the receivers move but if Golson grabs the ball I can just imagine Chris Brown at the boundary side breaking away for an easy score on late press coverage.

Or, Golson could’ve grabbed the ball and then spiked it or thrown it away.

Instead, he just swats it down as the ball is subject to gravitational forces and on its way to the ground. Initially, the play was ruled a spike and I distinctly remember the chatter at the time on our site and on social media about how funny it was that Golson had snapped his streak on a spike.

And people were arguing if he’d tied or come up 1 completion short of the NCAA record.

The ACC officials reviewed the play and reversed the decision. In the scorebook it went down as a -3 yard rush and fumble lost by Everett Golson. Syracuse would take over with 13 seconds left and would promptly take a knee into halftime. Notre Dame threw away at least 3 points in this episode but it wouldn’t really matter too much in the end. Plus, it allowed the streak to continue!

This was just a super weird game. Syracuse was downright terrible in the 2nd of Scott Shafer’s miserable 3-year tenure with the Orange. That they gained 429 yards was an early warning sign of what was to come for the Irish on defense under Brian VanGorder. That Syracuse was +4 in turnover margin and still lost by 16 points again shows how bad they were in a game that probably should’ve ended something like 52-14 if not for Notre Dame continuing to shoot themselves in the foot.