Jags as OC: Game 8, Notre Dame 1997

Like any good blowhard writer I occasionally pick and choose my stats to reinforce my own hypothesis. Sometimes I claim each game is a separate event. Other times I’ll blame what happened in a prior game. I bring this up because at this point in the 1997 season it felt like everyone had kinda thrown in the towel (the end of the season would prove me wrong). So what Jags did on offense in this game was nice but the Irish were so far ahead it is hard to gauge tendencies or effectiveness.

Stat Line
First downs 19
Rushed-yards 32-83
Passing yards 277
Sacked-yards lost 3-20
Return yards 16
Passes 23-33-1
Punts 7-40.9
Fumbles-lost 0-0
Penalties-yards 10-95
Time of possession 30:24


What can we learn from the game? Players make the ultimate difference. I think Jags and Logan will take us to that next level, but ultimately it is about the talent. Just look at this game. Dicosmo returns and suddenly Hasselbeck is throwing the ball well. Notre Dame was effective in slowing the run, which also forced us to chuck it a little.

This was a bad game. But I’ll give the offense credit. They kept chipping away and narrowing the scoring into the third quarter. It didn’t matter though. Whenever we cut the lead, Notre Dame waltzed back down the field to score again.