Notre
Dame Loses 9th Straight Bowl
by Mike Mitchell
1/4/07
12:41 am est
LSU's
41-14 win in the Sugar Bowl was Notre Dame's ninth straight bowl
loss and the Tigers' 8th win in their last 10 bowl games. JaMarcus
Russell threw for 332 yards and 2 touchdowns, and ran for another
score as LSU outgained the Irish 333 yards to 30 in the final
two quarters after leading 21-14 at halftime.
Notre Dame's Brady Quinn was blitzed and harassed all night by
one of the nation's top defenses. During the regular season,
LSU ranked 4th in points allowed, 2nd in yards allowed, 3rd in
pass defense and 14th in rushing defense.
Quinn completed less than 43 percent of his passes (15-of-35)
for 148 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions
after being picked-off just once in his last eight games.
After digging a 14-0 hole, it looked like the Irish had enough
fight in them to pull an upset of the favored Tigers as they
bounced back to tie the game at 14-apiece with 2:25 left in the
half. However, LSU regained the momentum by driving right back
down the field to go into the locker room with a 21-14 lead on
Russell's 5-yard run.
The Tigers struck first after Notre Dame failed on a fake punt
attempt from its own 34-yard line on the opening series of the
game. On first down, Early Doucet caught Russell's pass at the
3-yard line, and Keiland Williams ran in for the score on the
very next play.
LSU drove 80 yards in eight plays on its next possession to open
a 14-0 lead on Dwyane Bowe's 11-yard pass from Russell.
Notre Dame finally found some offense on its next series and
got on the board with Quinn's 24-yard touchdown pass to David
Grimes.
Russell was sacked and lost the football at his own 21-yard line
on LSU's ensuing possession, but the Tiger defense held the Irish
to a 34-yard field goal attempt that missed.
Notre Dame blew another scoring opportunity the next time it
got the ball back on a punt. After driving to the Tiger 36-yard
line, Quinn was intercepted.
The Tigers left the door open for the Irish again when their
31-yard field goal attempt also missed. That's when Notre Dame
finally took advantage of an opportunity and drove for the tying
touchdown, a 10-yard Quinn pass to Jeff Samardzija.
The second half was all LSU and the score could have been much
worse than the final.
On the Tigers' first drive of the third quarter, LSU converted
a fake field goal attempt into a first down at the Notre Dame
16 when Chris Jackson (kick-off specialist and punter) ran 7
yards on an option pitch from the holder. However, on 4th down
from the 8-yard line, they wound up settling for Colt David's
26-yard field goal anyway.
LSU added another David field goal on their next series, this
time from 37 yards out. While those first two drives of the second
half netted 132 yards, the Tigers had just six points to show
for it.
Two minutes later, though, LSU got the ball back on a Notre Dame
punt and Russell connected with Brandon LaFell on a 58-yard touchdown
pass on the fifth play of the drive to open a 34-14 lead just
before the end of the 3rd quarter.
Quinn was intercepted for the second time on Notre Dame's next
possession and, again, LSU was unable to put more points on the
board. Russell tried to go for the jugular with a 32-yard pass
attempt to the endzone but was intercepted at the Irish goal
line.
The Notre Dame offense was helpless by this point, and their
final three possessions yielded ten plays that included two punts
and a pair of clock-killing, game-surrendering runs in the final
seconds.
Williams, who finished the night with 107 yards on just 14 carries
for an average of 7.6 yards per carry, provided the final 41-14
margin with his second touchdown on a 20-yard run with 7:27 left
in the game.
LSU rolled up 577 yards of total offense against the tired and
out-manned Notre Dame defense.
The Tigers ended the season 11-2 while the Irish fell to 10-3
and left the Superdome still winless in bowl games since a 1993
Cotton Bowl victory over Texas A&M. |
