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Interesting To Say the Least
We saw some things from today’s game that were a little bit out of the ordinary. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish did beat the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, but it was in somewhat unusual fashion for this season.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very much a fan of us dropping 48 points on an opponent, but Wake Forest did score 37 points, a full 19 points higher than any opponent has scored on us in a victory this season. It was a bit different of a win today for the Irish.
A Limited Josh Adams
This was definitely one of the weirder parts of this victory. Because Josh Adams went down during the first quarter, he did not see any more action during the game. According to Coach Kelly, he did not have a head injury, but the team and staff wanted to be cautious going forward. Therefore, Josh did not go back into the game. It felt strange seeing him not in backfield for the rest of the game; however, the offense succeeded overall without him on the field. The Irish had 380 total rushing yards, so that was still a strong part of the offense.
Wimbush
Brandon Wimbush was on the field, off the field, then on the field again. He showed continued promise and dominance with his 50 yard rushing TD in the first half. But, he went down later in the game with an injury (he later had a bandaged hand). He came back into the game, though. Brandon is not one to show too much weakness with injuries. He usually fights through the pain to lead his team. However, he had to come out of the game, giving us another substantial Ian Book sighting (with a pass TD at the end of the first half).
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Overall Thoughts
I thought the weather was crappy (obviously), but I thought we played very solidly on the offensive side of the ball. I love how 48 points is pretty par for the course with this team. However, a couple of streaks were broken this game. We did not hold Wake Forest to under 20 points, and we did not win by 20+ points. The defense showed to give up a lot of points today. Luckily, the offense lost little momentum from previous games so that the lead never really looked to be in jeopardy especially later in the game.
One of the reasons for the many points scored by Wake Forest’s defense was because they were the most familiar (and will be) with Mike Elko’s defensive scheme. Since he ran the defense there the past few seasons before this current one, they knew about how he ran it. Wake Forest saw they could succeed there with their offense. It did work, but we overall had too much talent and willpower to lose the game.
Overall, we did give up a lot of points, but I’m not too worried. The weather wasn’t ideal, and we still rattled off a 7th straight win on the season. The Irish still showed great skill, and they still beat a relatively good team today. I think it’s time to acknowledge the win, fix some mistakes, and get prepped for the final quarter of the season. The boys showed great skill today, and it showed, even with giving up 37 points. Time to keep on rolling.