Saturday, September 20, 2008, 03:00 AM EST [General]
Oh we can hear it ringing through South Bend now. The Irish are back. No, really they're back. Uh, no they are not! They're 2-0 record is as unimpressive as they come. In week one they beat a really bad San Diego State team 21-13 with some help from the officials. They were out gained in that game by an Aztec team that is now 0-3 with a home loss to Division 1AA Cal Poly and a 35-10 pasting at the hands of San Jose State last Saturday. After their loss to the "mighty" Irish, San Diego State head coach Chuck Long was asked who was the better team, Cal Poly or Notre Dame. His answer was, "That's a tough question." Wow. We didn't see that one coming. Many may think that the Irish improved drastically from week one to week two based on their 35-17 trouncing of Michigan. However, was it really a trouncing? The answer is no. The Irish defense allowed the Wolverines to rack up nearly 400 yards of total offense. That's the same Michigan offense that struggled to mount any kind of offense their first two games with just 203 yards against Utah and 281 vs. Miami (Oh). The Wolves out gained Notre Dame by 128 yards and had 7 more first downs. The problem for Michigan was they turned the ball over SIX TIMES! No matter how a team dominates the stat book, if they give the ball away that many times, they have NO CHANCE to win the game. Thus, that ND win was not impressive at all. Now the Irish are off to East Lansing and their first road game of the season. Not only that, they are playing a really good team in Michigan State. The Spartans are 2-1 with their only loss coming @ a very good Cal team by a TD. Since that loss they have picked up two easy wins at home rushing for 238 and 259 yards in the process. Sparty should continue to have success on the ground against an ND team they rolled for 219 yards rushing last year in their 31-17 win in South Bend. Because of their success grinding it out on the ground, QB Brian Hoyer has thrown just 27 total passes the last two weeks combined. However, he is experienced and can put up big numbers if needed.
