How often does a team go in to another team's stadium without its 2 of its best players and without its best player for 3 quarters of the game and end up winning? It rarely happens. As we saw UW beat USC without Barkley and Mays. Some of you on this board are way over reacting. Our defense played lights out for 3 quarters of the game minus the first drive. They got tired with our offense playing so conservatively.
Actually ND was missing more than 3 players from the offense. People seem to have forgotten that James Aldridge who was playing FB like Powers-Neal used to was the first to go down eliminating a great deal of versatility in the backfield including the short yardage man.
Then Floyd went down. Then Allen. And Clausen.
As to your question, "How often does a team go in to another team's stadium without its 2 of its best players and without its best player for 3 quarters of the game and end up winning?"
Take away the opponents best weapon. Bolden had 421 yds on the season rushing coming into this game. Averaging 140 yds a game facing a defense that "can't stop the run", "porous", "putrid". After his 26 yd run in PU's opening drive, he had 41 yds in the next 58 minutes. With all the game time whinning going on did anybody note that for the second week in a row the opponents barely got over a 100 yds rushing?
Control the clock. ND was +9 minutes for the game. ND dominated TOP in the 2nd and 3rd Qs.
Do the unexpected. PU expected Clausen in the shotgun to minimize foot movement. So Weis switched QBs and scheme. Then switched back to Clausen for the coup de grace. Tate had 114 yds but instead of it all being in the air it was split evenly between rushing and receiving. ND had 4 rushers with long runs of 15 or more yards. ND had 6 receivers with double digit yardage on a reception and Burger with a 9 yard gain just missed making it 7. 10 different ND offensive players had plays of more than 10 yards.
Will to Win. Compare this game to UNC, PIT or SYR. This team knows they can score. They know they can answer an opponents score. They made miscues on offense and defense but they did not quit.
