ORLANDO, Fla. — Notre Dame knew how it got here but probably still couldn’t figure out why, with a season of promise scuttled by inexplicable early implosions and then inexplicable belly flops when the chances for redemption presented themselves.
And then came Thursday’s 18-14 loss to Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl, and the wheels kept spinning in the mire. An emphatic two-touchdown lead collapsed under the weight of mind-numbing mistakes, leaving the Irish to wonder again just what got into them.
So it’s an 8-5 season speckled with calamity and, in many ways, precisely where the Irish landed a year ago. A team with BCS talent in spots and a favorable schedule grew only semantically better. Now comes an asteroid field of a 2012 slate and the small issue of utter uncertainty at the quarterback position.
„There were a lot of games where we left a lot out there,” said receiver Michael Floyd, whose career closed with a chest injury on his 100th catch of 2011, the Irish’s lone offensive touchdown of the night.
„We see it as we could have run the table this year. But with our mistakes and not being disciplined at certain times, we fell short.”
The Irish defense was capable enough, surrendering two scores on short fields and recording five sacks, holding Florida State (9-4) to 41 yards rushing and scoring itself on safety Zeke Motta’s 29-yard first-quarter fumble return.
Even the ground game sufficed, with two tailbacks and quarterback Andrew Hendrix combining for 122 yards against the nation’s No. 2 run defense. But, oh, the turnovers. Two more end-zone interceptions from quarterback Tommy Rees, with Hendrix contributing another pick, and the conversation stops there.
„It’s nice to be able to talk about a Notre Dame football team that plays championship defense, because they did that today,” Irish coach Brian Kelly said. „Now we have to get our offense, obviously, to play at that level as well. That will be the next step for our program.”
Florida State sported perhaps the best defense the Irish faced all year, so there is that. But Notre Dame nevertheless had a 14-0 lead after the first series of the second half, with Floyd essentially intercepting another possible Rees interception and turning it into a spectacular, juggling scoring grab.
Then the earth opened. Florida State’s 77-yard kickoff return set up a field goal. The Seminoles followed with two EJ Manuel touchdown passes recorded just 96 seconds part, the first one capping an 84-yard march and the second following a horrendous Hendrix interception.
A field goal made it 18 straight points, but the Irish received one last gift: A Seminoles punt and penalty that gave them possession at Florida State’s 28-yard line with four minutes left. Three plays later, Rees misread a coverage and threw an interception off his back foot. An agonizingly familiar, all too fitting end.
„It just makes everyone that much hungrier,” safety Jamoris Slaughter said. „We know we’re better than how we played.”
Source: Chicago Tribune
Photo: Brad Barr/US Presswire photo