A Step in the Right Direction
By Joe

Trailing 23-0 at halftime in West Lafayette Saturday, Notre Dame could have accepted a fifth straight embarrassing blowout loss. Purdue had dominated a sloppy, mistake-ridden Irish squad in the first half and easily could have led by much worse. Notre Dame, it seemed, was on the verge of conceding defeat -- not only on the game, but perhaps the rest of the season.

But Notre Dame's players didn't give up. And consequently gave Irish fans hope for the rest of the 2007 and beyond.

In easily their best half of the season, Notre Dame looked like a decent football team. They ran an efficient offense. They made key defensive stops. They put pressure on the opponent. And they played with the fire and passion I hadn't seen yet this season.

While Notre Dame fell short of pulling out a much-needed win, the Irish gave themselves a chance -- which is more than can be said about the first four games.

After the game Weis summed up the importance of Notre Dame's second half play.

"For the first time this year, we played a half of football where you could win," he said. "That's closer to winning football."

There were numerous positives to take away from this loss.

*Charlie Weis opened up the playbook and managed his team in the second half much the way he coached a year ago with more experienced players. He took chances by going for it on fourth down, threw downfield (including on 4th and 5 in the third quarter), and stuck with what worked -- short slants, the occasional deep throw, and few running plays. He forced the running game too much in the first half, when it obviously wasn't working, and it severely hurt the Irish offense. Still, Weis coached "looser" and his players played better.

*Both quarterbacks played fairly well, particularly Evan Sharpley. I was impressed with Sharpley's ability to throw the deep pass and he stayed poised despite facing a Purdue defense that routinely dropped six and seven defenders in coverage in the second half. He made one bad decision by prematurely throwing into double coverage in the end zone. But it's hard to expect him to play error-free considering his inexperience.

*By the middle of next season, and maybe sooner, Notre Dame's wide receiving corps will be one of the best in the nation. George West, Robby Parris, Golden Tate, and Duval Kamara played great and showed that Weis has in fact recruited some very talented players. If they can gain more experience this season, this group will cause all sorts of problems for future opponents.

*The defense made adjustments and locked it down for much of the second half. It was disheartening to watch Purdue move right down the field for a score right after Notre Dame had cut the lead to 26-19. Still, the Irish defenders also didn't allow the game to get out of hand in the first half by forcing the Boilermakers into field goals instead of touchdowns. For the first time in a long time, we were the team making defensive adjustments.

*As mentioned earlier, Notre Dame's players played with a passion we haven't seen up to this point in the season. The Irish were visibly excited on the field after making a big play. The sidelines were animated when Notre Dame climbed back into the game. And after the loss, the players looked ticked off and upset with failing to complete the comeback. That's an encouraging sign because it showed the players expected to win. When it didn't happen, they were almost surprised. That's the kind of attitude a championship team needs.

*The Irish dominated the second half, minus the lone Purdue touchdown drive. For the first time, Notre Dame outgained an opponent in yardage. They controlled the time of possession. And they converted on a much higher percentage of third and fourth downs then previous games.

In all, it's not unreasonable to believe that the Irish will look back later this season or in 2008 and point to the second half of the Purdue game as the turning point for this young team. Even though Purdue is probably a five-loss team this season, and certainly not top-25 caliber, the opponent is much less important than the fact that the Irish grew up a lot in those final 30 minutes of football.

For the first time, Notre Dame looked like the team most fans expected in August -- a young, talented squad that would make some very good plays and some rookie errors. We were fine with this kind of team, even if it meant losing a bunch of football games. What we couldn't handle were blowout losses coupled with little to no improvement from week-to-week. That's what happened through the first four and a half games.

Now there's hope the Irish can truly begin growing as individual players and as a football team.