Final Score: Notre Dame 41 - Penn State 17
Joe Paterno always says, "You're never as good as you think you are when you win, and you're never as bad as you think you are when you lose." Reality check, Nittany Lion fans: we got whooped by a good team today, the #4 team in the nation. But take heart in that we're not as bad as the score indicates. Notre Dame played a perfect game today. We made too many mistakes. Three turnovers. Dropped passes. Another muffed field goal snap. Failing to jump on Zbikowski's fumble. Costly penalties, although I thought the clipping penalty was bogus.
But it's important we not lose focus that there are still ten games to go and we haven't played a single game in the Big Ten schedule. And there are some bright spots from the team's performace we can build on going forward. We moved the ball pretty well despite the fact we didn't score many points. We had 383 yards of total offense compared to the Irish's 397. The Lions rolled up 192 yards rushing when you take out the sacks, which far exceeded my expectations. The bottom line is we have a young team that isn't ready to win these types of big games yet, but they'll get there soon.
I want to say one more thing, and this is going to sound like a little bit of sour grapes. But I thought Notre Dame was a little late in calling off the dogs for my taste. I thought it showed a lack of class still throwing the ball and going for it on fourth down twice when you're up by 31 points in the fourth quarter. But even that I was border line ok with, but when they scored the last touchdown to go up by 38 points, NBC showed Charlie Weis pumping his fist in celebration on the sideline. I thought that showed a lack of class. Clap for your players. High five them when they come to the sideline. But head coaches don't pump their fist when they're running up the score.
That's all I'm going to say on that. Now I'm going to go continue drowning my sorrows. Tomorrow we start to look ahead to Youngstown State.