Irish 'Fighters' in Need of a KO Punch

FanHouse Writer John Walters is living in South Bend, Ind., during one of the most pivotal seasons in Notre Dame history. Check back daily for his dispatches on the Irish.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Fight? Yes.

Might? We're waiting.

"Anyone who doesn't realize the fight that's in the Fighting Irish is missing the boat," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said following Saturday's 34-27 loss to No. 6 USC. "If you haven't watched the last five games, I mean, it's every week the same thing."

The last five games?!? The last two years. As Saturday's nail biter proved yet again, Notre Dame football is the most compelling prime-time network drama that does not involve forensic evidence. What it also reaffirmed, what we've long believed, is that the Irish have a penchant for playing to the level of their competition. Johnny Drama, meet Charlie Drama.

Beginning with the 2007 season finale at Stanford, Notre Dame has played twenty games. Fourteen of those contests have been cliffhangers, even though only three of the opponents (No. 22 North Carolina and No. 5 USC in '08, and No. 6 USC on Saturday) were ranked at the time.

Let's erase the six games, or 30 percent of the sample, that were over at halftime. In a pair of 2008 losses, at unranked Boston College and at No. 5 USC, the Irish trailed by double-digits at the intermission and never narrowed the gap. On the other hand, the Irish led Michigan, Washington, Hawaii and Nevada by at least 11 points at the half and only widened the margin in the second half. The Wolverines and Wolf Pack did not score after the break and only the Warriors scored in the third quarter.

Four dominant performances in a twenty-game stretch for the Irish. And again, only three of those opponents were ranked.

Now, about those other fourteen games, or 70 percent. In all but one game -- the 2008 win versus Purdue -- the margin between the two sides was a touchdown or less. In all but two games -- Purdue and, one week earlier, Michigan State -- the team trailing by a touchdown or less in the fourth quarter had the football. That is to say, in twelve of those fourteen games one fourth-quarter play could have changed the outcome.

What is it that Weis' favorite New Jersey musician says? "Whoa, oh, livin' on a prayer!"

The Irish, it so happens, are 8-6 in those games. For every jig-worthy, good-til-the-last-dropped-pass win the past two years against Navy or Washington, there have been mind-numbing losses to Pittsburgh and Syracuse and Michigan. Exciting? Sure. Impressive. Hardly.

Granted, the Irish were still a callow, adolescent team in 2008. They failed to put away North Carolina, Pitt and Syracuse even though they had double-digit leads against them late in the second quarter or afterward. Win those three games, finish the regular season 9-3, and the word "buyout" would have never entered any trustee's vernacular last November.

And this season, playing half their games minus the services of their most gifted player, Michael Floyd, only the most cynical observers would question the team's heart. The Irish have only led by as much as ten points twice, against Michigan State and Purdue, and while blowing those leads, they salvaged those games.

Then again, why haven't the Irish been able to build anything greater than a 10-point lead against the unranked likes of Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue and Washington, three of whom are playing a first-year starter at quarterback?

Where is the killer instinct on a team that, every Saturday except last, emerges from the tunnel with a decided advantage in talent? USC, on the road and behind a freshman quarterback, albeit a precocious one, stepped out to a 20-point lead against an Irish team that should have been as motivated as any Weis has ever led onto a field.

Why don't the Irish do that?

A lot of people compared Saturday's final score (34-27) to last year's (38-3) and concluded that the Irish have closed the gap between themselves and the Trojans almost as swiftly as Taylor Mays closed the one between himself and Robby Parris on that fake field-goal pass.

Not me. I saw a USC team that was arrogant and reckless and this season, at least, does not have enough talent to get away with it. I saw an Irish squad that had a few warriors as opposed to "a bunch of fighters", as Weis noted afterward. I saw a team that needs a few more Tates and Te'o's, though those two were by no means the only death-or-glory types that suited up. But the Irish need more. And Weis, whose work ethic and knowledge are laudable, needs to light a fire under this team that has too often been absent since, well, 2005.

It remains his greatest shortcoming as a coach: his inability to develop a killer instinct within his team.

Does anyone work longer hours than Weis, who was arriving at the office last week at 3:50 a.m.? Doubtful. Does anyone absorb information more efficiently? No. I believe wholeheartedly that Weis has his players' respect, and I could not always say that. But is he able to inspire them?

It has to start this week. The Irish begin a three-game stretch against unranked Boston College (5-2, but 0-2 away from Chestnut Hill) and Navy (5-2) at home, and in between versus abject Washington State (1-5) in San Antonio. And, really, if the Irish want to be taken for anything more than a better-than-average unranked team -- which, at the moment, is exactly what they are -- they need to crush this trio.

They need to play like the Irish of '05 that led 35-7 at halftime of Weis' debut, at Pitt. They need to play like the group that, after that season's heartbreaking home loss to USC, won each of its next four games by at least 20 points. Show me Irish, please, that somewhere in your arsenal you have a knockout punch besides the one you throw at glass-jawed WAC teams.



Three games before the November 14 contest at Pitt, who should be ranked. A loss in any one of these games is, at this point in Weis' tenure, completely unacceptable. Even a game that is in doubt in the fourth quarter should be cause for alarm. These dates need to be more than simply wins; they need to be WAC jobs.

Listen, I'll be honest. There are entirely too many Domers I know who are bringing their iPods and portable televisions into wedding services and receptions because the Irish cannot take care of business before 6:30 p.m. Those dining out on cuisine fancier than buffalo wings are having to cancel their reservations. My friends, they're tired of the drama. They're sick of cliffhangers against Cliff Clavens.

And they're not alone. Last week someone asked left tackle Paul Duncan how his bye weekend went. "It was nice," Duncan replied, "not to have a knot in my stomach at 7 p.m. on Saturday night."

You and all of Domer-dom, Paul.