HUGE!

Unfathomable Futility
By: Joe

Notre Dame will be underdogs against Navy in two weeks. That sentence sums up the 2007 season.

After a 38-0 thrashing from Southern California Saturday, there's no reason the Irish should be favored against anyone but Duke. And even that game is far from a gimme win.

After making slow, but steady improvements for several weeks, including a surprise road victory over UCLA, Notre Dame hit rock bottom -- again -- Saturday by failing to execute on offense, defense in the second half, and special teams. Other than those problems, Notre Dame played great.

It's become tiresome to think about all the mistakes this football team makes each week. Even when one unit shows improvement, the other two fail miserably. Off the top of my head, I can think of a laundry list of problems that need fixing immediately, including:

*Offensive lineman learning how to block
*Quarterbacks learning how to read a defense/blitz
*Defensive players learning how to tackle
*Wide receivers learning how to get open
*John Sullivan learning how to shotgun snap
*Running backs learning how to pick up a blitz
*Geoff Price learning how to catch a low-snapped punt without putting his knee on the ground
*Special Teams learning how to cover a kick return
*Special Teams learning how to block on a kick return
*Special Teams learning how to stop getting penalized on every other punt return
*Offense learning how to stop killing drives with costly penalties
*Quarterbacks learning how to not leave receivers out to dry on short screens or across-the-middle passes
*Offensive line learning how to block on a screen pass or in the open field
*Defense learning how to pressure the quarterback
*Learning how to break tackles
*Learning how to make halftime adjustments
*Learning how to sustain drives for more than 1 minute, 34 seconds.
*Learning how to throw down field more than twice a game
*Learning how to play with passion each and every week

I was optimistic after the UCLA game and thought we could be competitive against USC. The Trojans were banged up on offense and had struggled for several games against inferior opponents. But when your running game is nonexistent and you don't attempt to throw the ball downfield, then you can't sustain any type of offensive drive which consequently wears out your defense. Add in a muffed punt return which gives your opponent a free seven points and beating a team like USC is pretty much impossible.

The only hope left is that we keep our talented recruiting class intact and start over fresh next season. I don't even want to fathom what happens if these high school kids start dropping like flies and changing their commitments.

At Charlie Weis's first press conference, he said the reason he was the head coach at Notre Dame was because the Irish had been 6-6 the previous year. "You are what you are, and right now you're a 6-6 football team. And that's not good enough."

Charlie was right. You are what you are. And right now, we're one of the worst teams in college football.

I hope the Midshipmen take it easy on us Nov. 3.

D is for Dominant
By: Joe

Notre Dame's offense managed a meager 140 yards of offense Saturday against UCLA. They tallied just 12 first downs. They averaged 1.4 yards per rush and just 2.1 yards per play.

And the Irish won 20-6. One-and-five never felt so good.

While Notre Dame's offense struggled against a very solid UCLA defense, the Irish defense turned in an absolutely suffocating performance en route to forcing seven turnovers and setting up every Irish score.

Sure, the Bruins were handcuffed offensively after starting quarterback Ben Olson left the game with a knee injury, forcing freshman wak-on McLeod Bethel-Thompson into action. And yes, Bethel-Thompson threw four interceptions and looked shaky much of the game. But the fact is Notre Dame's defense dominated the line of scrimmage, pressured the quarterback and disrupted nearly every UCLA drive.

It didn't matter the quarterback, it mattered that Notre Dame's defensive coordinator Corwin Brown was blitzing on every other play, the Irish defensive ends were routinely beating their guy and the linebackers and safeties were playing tight coverage all night.

Offensively, the Irish took a step or two back Saturday night. Defensively, they took a flying leap forward.

After starting the season with three embarrassing losses, Notre Dame has showed progress in each of the last three games. The Irish ran the ball better against Michigan State, threw the ball better versus Purdue and stepped up defensively against the UCLA. There are still plenty of areas to improve upon -- rushing offense, passing offense, special teams, checking wide receivers at the line of scrimmage, and play-calling to name a few.

But suddenly, things don't seem so terrible in South Bend. The Irish have a week to continue improving before facing a top-5 Boston College squad that hasn't beaten anyone of substance. Then it's USC coming to town, two weeks removed from a total collaspse against Stanford at home. I'm not saying we should expect Notre Dame to be 3-5 in two weeks, but nothing's impossible. Finally, the Irish can feel good about themselves.

This week the players don't have to field questions about tying a Notre Dame record with eight consecutive losses and they won't be asked about securing the worst start in Irish football history. Instead, they can focus on pulling off an upset against Boston College in front of a sure-to-be-excited crowd.

Slowly, but surely things are starting to turn around for Notre Dame.