ANALYSIS
Once again, this is just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time as the road team gets outclassed today from start to finish in complete dominavion.
Let me first start out with the fact the Irish haven't seen an offense or QB this year the likes of the Sooners and Landry Jones.
In getting to 7-0 this year the Irish defense has seen the following ranked pass offenses: Navy (117th), Purdue (72nd), MIchigan St (61st), MIchigan (106th), Stanford (81st), BYU (76th) and Miami/Fla (23rd).
So the Miami Hurricanes were the best pass offense Notre Dame has seen all year and I pretty sure we can agree Stephen Morris is no Landry Jones.
If this game were in South Bend, as it is next year, maybe the Irish defense would stand a chance but today, on the road, they stand none..
It was just 3 weeks ago the Sooners saw a defense ranked almost exactly the same as the Irish are only they had to go on the road to face them in Texas Tech and destroyed the undefeated Red Raiders 41-20.
Look at the similiar nationally ranked defensive numbers of Tech and the Irish: Run defense: Texas Tech (20th) - Notre Dame (15th), Pass defense: Texas Tech (12th) - Notre Dame (14th), Total defense: Texas Tech (7th) - Notre Dame (6th).
The Oklahoma Sooners went on the road against a defense as good as the Irish and put up 41 points on close to 400 yards total offense on the 7th best defense in the country.
And Texas Tech didn't pad their defensive numbers against a bunch of vanilla offenses like Notre Dame has and just like Red Raiders 3 weeks ago, the Irish won't know what hit them tonight until it's to late.
This Sooners bunch is peaking at this time of year just like they do every year.
Off their 24-19 home loss to Kansas State they went into their week off a pissed off football team. It was off that week off they went into Tech and hammered them by 3 touchdowns.
They then went on the road to Dallas and completely obliterated Texas 63-21 as a 3 point favorite and then back home for a 52-7 win over Kansas.
All you are hearing is about this Irish defense but I bet it would suprise you the Sooners 1st string defense hasn't given up a touchdown in 2 1/2 games.
They shut down Texas Tech in the 3rd quarter and was pulled in the 4th. They held Texas scorelxess through 3 quarters and were pulled and didn't allow Kansas to score for 3 quarters when they were pulled.
Think about this for a moment. Against Texas Tech's 11th ranked total offense and the Longhorns 31st ranked total offense, they couldn't score against the Sooners first string defense.
Now, at home, in Norman, the Sooners get to pin their ears back and face the 74th ranked offense in the country called Notre Dame.
Bob Stoopes hired his brother Mike to run the defense and quite frankly, they are playing their best football of the year right now.
Notre Dame is only playing their 2nd true road game of the entire year as they went to Michigan State, play Miami/florida in Chicago with their other 5 games at home.
Folks, I give Notre Dame credit for winning the games they have but quite frankly, this team should at best be 5-2 if not 4-3.
Michigan turned the ball over 6 times in a game they completely dominated including 5 INT's by Denard Robinson or they win the game.
Stanford was up 3 inside a minute to play and got the stop with 1:14 to play forcing a 48 yard field goal but a helmet to helmet hit kept the drive alive and the field goal ended up being a 22 yarder to force OT.
We all know what happened their.
Hell folks, BYU led the Irish at the half but couldn't hold on and if Purdue gets a break or two, they could have pulled an upset.
So on a very realistic level, the Irish should be 5-2 and with 3-4 a reality if a couple of breaks fall Purdue or Byu's way.
I give Brian Kelly credit. He has come in here and turned this program around much quicker than anybody had anticiptted and he has won football games.
However, when you step up in class like the Irish are today, on the road, with an offense as bad as the Irish are, this is a case as I said at the top, sometimes you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I'm sorry people, the 74th ranked offense in the country isn't going on the road to Norman and putting up enough points to cover this number. Not going to happen.
Lay the wood as the home team delivers the knockout blow early and often.
38-13.
