FLASHBACK - NOTRE DAME 34, OKLAHOMA 30 - OCTOBER 2, 1999
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Published on 10/22/2012 09:13 AM
SOUTH BEND, IN - Under a blue-gray October sky, dripping with rain, in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus, the Oklahoma Sooners came to Notre Dame's legendary home with a mission. And they should have accomplished that mission. But a 30-14 Sooner lead evaporated in the second half, as the Fighting Irish came roaring back to score 20 straight points and squeak out a 34-30 win. And if one looked only at the statistics, they would have figured that the Sooners had been blown out, when in reality, they were on the verge of scoring a blowout themselves.
Notre Dame, behind a stellar performance from much-maligned QB Jarious Jackson, rolled up their biggest offensive day under head coach Bob Davie. Notre Dame collected a staggering 566 yards of offense, 284 on the ground and 282 through the air. Jackson accounted for 383 yards of that all by himself, with 107 yards rushing and 276 yards passing. Sooner QB Josh Heupel, meanwhile, had by far his worst day of the season, going 22 of 40 for 168 yards, 3 touchdowns, and one critical interception. In fairness to Heupel, the Sooner receiving corps had butterfingers, dropping several balls on the day, including three on the Sooners' final possession.
Indeed, the Sooners might have been in trouble in the first half, had it not been for the heroics of Brandon Daniels. Daniels returned Notre Dame's first kickoff 89 yards for touchdown, and had two other returns that covered 43 yards and 68 yards, both of which led to Sooner touchdowns. Daniels' 229 yards in kickoff returns for the game (200 in the first half) was a school record, and was only a few yards short of an NCAA record. Sooner assistant coach Jonathan Hayes found a glaring weakness in the Notre Dame kick coverage and exploited it well. The Irish eventually figured out that they shouldn't kick to Daniels, but their first kick to Jarrail Jackson was a shoestring tackle away from going for another long return. After that, they squibbed it every time.
The way the game started out actually mirrored how it ended. Notre Dame took the opening kickoff, and on the first play from scrimmage, tailback Tony Fisher blasted through a huge hole on the right side and rolled 55 yards to the Sooner 21-yard line. He then blasted up the middle for 11 yards, and two plays into the game the Irish were at the Sooner 10-yard line. After the Sooners stuffed two running plays for no net gain, Jackson made his first big play of the day. On third down from the 10, he scrambled up the middle and dove for the end zone. The officials gave him the touchdown, even though his knee was clearly down before he extended the ball over the goal line. Notre Dame led 7-0 only 1:43 into the game.
That lead would last all of about 15 seconds. On the ensuing kickoff, Daniels took the ball at the Sooner 11-yard line and headed left. OU's blockers sealed off the right side, and Daniels split a pair of defenders, then outran the last man to the corner and streaked down the left sideline for an 89-yard TD. The return was the first OU kickoff return for a TD since 1989, when Eric Bross alertly took an attempted Iowa State onside kick 49 yards for a TD. That made it 7-7 only two minutes into the game.
Notre Dame looked like they would answer on their next possession. Starting at their own 23, they drove all the way to the Sooner five-yard line in 15 plays. The Sooners had multiple chances to stop the drive, but couldn't get it done. The Irish overcame three third down situations on the march, all at least four yards, and one third and ten. OU finally got a stop when Torrence Marshall blew up an ill-conceived option play on third and goal from the Sooner one-yard line, tackling Jackson for a four-yard loss. Hapless Irish kicker Jim Sanson then snap-hooked a 22-yard field goal try wide left, and the Sooners had escaped.
The Sooners then finally put their offense on the field for the first time, 9:59 into the game. The opening series was a dud, going three-and-out, including a dropped pass by Jarrail Jackson that would have been an 18-yard gain. The Irish then reciprocated with a three-and-out series of their own. OU then gained a couple of first downs before punting the Irish down to their 20.
On their first possession of the second quarter, ND went backwards. A holding penalty and a false start turned first and 10 at the 20 to first and 25 at the five. Three plays later, the Sooner special teams made another big play. Standing at the back of his end zone, the Notre Dame punter fumbled the snap as he faced a Sooner rush that looked like it would have smothered the kick had he caught the ball. The alert Irish punter swatted the ball out of the back of the end zone, resulting in a safety for the Sooners instead of a touchdown. OU led 9-7 with 12:07 to go in the second quarter.
On the ensuing free kick, Daniels rumbled 43 yards to the Irish 37-yard line. Four plays later, Heupel hit Antwone Savage on a hitch screen for 16 yards to the ND 10. Three plays after that, with the Sooners facing third down at the Irish three, a pass interference call in the right corner of the end zone gave the Sooners first and goal at the two. Two plays later, Heupel hit Jackson in the end zone for the TD and a 16-7 lead with 5:59 to go in the first half.
The Irish would answer on their next possession, thanks to some help from the officials. The Sooners had held them three-and-out, but a running into the kicker penalty on Ontei Jones gave ND a first down and kept their drive alive. The call was bogus on several levels. From the stands, it appeared that Jones had tipped the ball. Plus, even had he not tipped it, there was little contact with the punter, and Jones was blocked into him, anyway. After a delay in which the officials talked to both coaches, the call stood and ND had a first down. Three plays later, Jackson hit Joey Getherall crossing the middle, and Getherall took it the rest of the way for a 58-yard TD play. The extra point made it 16-14 with 3:39 to go in the half.
But apparently getting burned by Daniels twice wasn't enough for the Irish. They decided to play with fire again on the ensuing kickoff, and once again, they were burned badly. Daniels brought this one back 67 yards to the Irish 26-yard line. Two plays later, Heupel hit a wide-open Trent Smith on a post route for the touchdown. The Sooners led 23-14 at the half.
The teams exchanged punts to open the second half, with the Sooners getting the better of the exchange. OU started their second possession of the half at the Irish 45 after a short punt. Three plays later, facing third and seven from the Irish 42, Heupel pulled his patented hard count and drew Notre Dame offside. On the next play, with an empty backfield and a Notre Dame blitz coming, Heupel audibled to a slant to Daniels, which went for 14 yards and a first down at the ND 23. After a holding penalty pushed OU back, Heupel hit Josh Norman for 18 yards, then tossed a perfect fade to Daniels in the right side of the end zone for the score. Tim Duncan's extra point made it 30-14 with 10:01 to go in the third quarter, and it looked like the Sooners had the game in hand and might even run the Irish out of their own stadium.
But it was not to be, because from that moment on, this one was pretty much all Notre Dame. Jackson really started tearing up the Sooner defense on the first Irish possession after the Sooners took their 16-point lead. Passes for 26 and 23 yards were the big plays of the drive before Jackson hit TE Jabari Holloway, who had beaten Rocky Calmus badly, for the touchdown that got the Irish within nine points at 30-21. Why Davie didn't go for two points, which would have put the Irish within a single TD and a two-point conversion of tying the game, is mystifying.
Two plays later came one of the biggest plays of the game. Heupel threw an ill-advised pass into good coverage, and Irish DB Lee Lafayette picked it off at the Irish 44, adding to the momentum that ND had from their scoring drive. Heupel threw the ball on a line before Lafayette even looked for it, and it basically hit him in the hands and stuck the second he turned his head to look for the ball. I'd lay money he never saw the thing.
With the short field, Jackson carved through the tiring Sooner defense again, leading the Irish on a nine-play, 56-yard scoring drive. The march was capped by a one-yard run by Tony Driver that made it 30-28 with 2:37 to go in the third quarter. The Sooners tried to mount a drive of their own, but were once again foiled by the officials. OU had moved to the Irish 38, where they faced a third and seven. Heupel tossed one toward the end zone for Mackey, who was basically tackled as he went for the ball. However, this time no flags flew. The Sooners came out like they were going to go for it, then called time out and decided to punt. Jeff Ferguson's boot was a beauty, rolling dead at the Irish two-yard line.
The field position advantage didn't help the beleaguered Sooner defense. On third and three from his own 33-yard line, Jackson ran a QB draw and, helped by poor Sooner tackling, got 24 yards to the OU 44. Two plays later, he hit a wide-open Getherall on a post for a 29-yard gain to the Sooner seven-yard line. Driver's one-yard TD run two plays later gave the Irish their first lead since the first quarter. The two-point conversion pass was incomplete, and OU trailed 34-30 with 9:19 to go in the game.
The Sooners picked up one first down on their next possession, but that was it. Forced to punt from his 40, Ferguson got off a poor punt, giving ND the ball at their 26. It looked like the Irish would ice it right there, as they once again marched right down the field, powered by Jackson runs of 38 and 26 yards where the Sooner defense was nowhere to be found. However, they managed to hold the Irish at the OU five-yard line, when Calmus made a nice play to bring Jackson down on third and goal. Sanson came in to try to give the Irish a seven-point lead with a short field goal. However, the Sooners almost blocked the kick, and Sanson bounced it off the outside of the right upright to keep OU hopes of a last minute drive alive. The Sooners had 2:21 to go 80 yards, which is more than enough time for this offense.
As it turned out, though, time wasn't a problem. The Sooners tossed four straight incompletions on their final possession, turning the ball and the game over to the Irish at the OU 20. Three of the four incompletions on the final possession were balls that were right on the money but were dropped, one each by Daniels, Jackson, and Andre Woolfolk. The Irish ran out the clock, and that was that.
After the game, Sooner head coach Bob Stoops gave the Irish, especially their QB, their due. "It's obvious that Jackson was the main factor, the biggest difference in the game," he said. "He made us look foolish at times. Notre Dame just whipped us in the second half. We did some good things early, but we weren't strong enough to finish. Their will to win at the end was greater than ours." Stoops also discounted the fact that the defense was exhausted from playing so much when the Irish ran all over them in the second half. "Get the offense off the field. Make them punt. Get an interception. Get a fumble. Play better defense and you don't get as tired."
Daniels was willing to trade his record-setting returns for a Sooner win. "It's good, but it means nothing," he said. "We came away with a loss. Everybody wanted to win, so it all counts for nothing. It means nothing to me because we came away with the loss. I'd throw all that away for a win. Coach told us all week that we'd have a chance to bust one," said Daniels of his TD return. "We had a left return on and they all floated down the field to the right. Coach said, if we get back across the field, there is no one over there. That's what we did and took advantage of it. It was wide open. I was kind of surprised at first. When we got back to the sideline, coach said we can do this all day until they change it up. The offense had a letdown in the second half and we've got to get that corrected and get ready for Texas. It's a good time for us to be playing Texas, but anytime is a good time to play Texas."
Heupel wasn't concerned about Texas just yet. "I've heard a lot about the Texas game, but I can't think about that now," he said. "What I'm concerned about is what we did wrong in this game. The turning point in the ballgame was my interception. If we take that play back, we start moving the football on that drive, maybe we put the nail in the coffin and they're done. I'll take responsibility for this football game. I didn't do a good enough job, no doubt. This is a football game we should have won. No doubt. For us to come out and not get any points after leading 30-14 is sickening."
"I can assure you, the way we lost is extremely disappointing to everyone," said co-defensive coordinator Brent Venables. "We can learn from it, sure, but we're never going to be happy with a loss. They did nothing in the second half we didn't know they do offensively. I don't think we're out of shape or any less physical than they are. We just didn't do a very good job of tackling. And we had no pressure on the quarterback. That was obvious. As bad as we played, we had chances to win the game late by making plays. Obviously, we didn't get it done."
In the final analysis, the Sooners lost because Notre Dame was a better team. It's not so much that the Irish have better players than the Sooners. They do, but not by much. The key is that they have a lot more of them. OU simply doesn't have the depth to keep the defense on the field for 40 minutes and expect it to stop people in the fourth quarter. Notre Dame had a lot to do with that.
Although Heupel failed to break the Sooner single-game passing record for the fourth week in a row, he did break a record. His three TD passes gave him 16 for the season, breaking the old single-season passing TD mark of 14 only four games into the season.
As one might expect, the Sooners dropped out of the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll after only one week. OU is now ranked the equivalent of 33rd by the coaches.
The Notre Dame loss was tough, but it's in the past. Texas is coming up, and the Sooners owe them, big time. Plus, there is much left to play for. In fact, losing to Notre Dame does not alter anything for this team. The Big XII South is ripe for the taking. The Sooners are currently tied with Texas Tech for first place in the division, after the Red Raiders stunned Texas A&M Saturday. Couple that with Kansas State's win over Texas, and all of a sudden a win in the Cotton Bowl next Saturday puts the Sooners in the catbird's seat for a trip to San Antonio and the Big XII Championship Game. A&M comes to Norman after a Sooner open date. Win that one, and the South title becomes a probability, not a possibility.
But first things first. Texas won't roll over and play dead, but neither will the Sooners. OU needs this one more, and for sure wants it more, than the Longhorns.
The next Road Warrior Report will transmit on Wednesday, October 6, with quotes from Coach Stoops' press conference. Until then, vaya con Dios, and BEAT THE HELL OUTTA TEXAS!!!
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