Atlanta, Georgia - O wait, that wasn't Notre Dame, but itsure as hell looked like the Notre Dame-Michigan game from September.  Don't know ifanyone else noticed it, but the similarities are uncanny.  From the scoring, to thegame plans, to the ending, among other things.  With recruiting almost over I figuredI'd expand on this a little.

First off, Tennessee was the under dog even though theybeat St. Louis earlier in the season.  In the Notre Dame game, the Irish were theunder dog even though they had beat Michigan handily the previous season.  This wasthe first similarity between the two games. 

Tennessee's game plan was to pound the ball and wear St.Louis down early, just as was Notre Dame's plan against Michigan.  In both instancesthe teams strayed away from their game plan.  Tennessee was passing way too muchearly, as Notre Dame did when they traveled to Ann Arbor. 

Both St. Louis and Michigan had driven inside the redzone early without scoring a touchdown.  It took the Rams five trips into the redzone before they put it in the end zone.  Early on in the Notre Dame-Michigan game,Michigan settled for field goals from 21 and 35 yards instead of scoring touchdowns.  Both St. Louis and Michigan had chances to take big early leads, and both teamsfailed to do so letting the underdog stay in the game.

Tennessee found itself down 16-0 in the third quarter.  Then Blaine Bishop had a scary injury.  Bishop was the only starting safety inthe game for Tennessee since Marcus Robinson was out with injury leaving the Tennesseesecondary susceptible to the potent Ram passing game. 

The Titans responded by scoring 16 straight points to tiethe game.  Notre Dame was not down 16 in the third but it seemed like they were downmore than the five points that they were actually trailing by.  In both games, thefavorite basically dominated the game up until the third quarter.  Michigan and St.Louis both had controlled the tempo of the games, but failed to deliver a knock out punchand wasted opportunities which allowed their opponents to stay in the game and eventuallylead or tie the game.

With just over two minutes remaining, the Titans' Al DelGreco kicked a 47 yard field goal to tie the game.  Notre Dame scored a touchdownwith little time remaining as well to take the lead.  As well all remember they alsowent for and converted a two point conversion which was followed by a very questionable"excessive celebration" call on Bobby Brown.  Both the Irish and Titansscored late to either tie or take the lead which would be short lived.

On the Rams first play after the kick return, they scoredon a 73 yard touchdown pass from regular season and Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner.  Michigan didn't score on their first play, but they marched down the field withease en route to an Anthony Thomas 2 yard touchdown run. 

Now we get to the most obvious similarity.  BothJariuous Jackson and Steve McNair were given the ball with over a minute remaining with 80some yards to travel in order to win or at least send the game to over time.  Bothquarterbacks rose to the occasion as well.  Jarious and Steve marched their teamsdown field and got into scoring range.  Both quarterbacks also came up one yardshort.  Mc Nair was one yard short of a game tying touchdown while Jackson was oneyard short of a clock stopping first down.

In both games, the "under dog" showedtremendous heart by battling till the final whistle, but came up just one yard short.  The only real difference between the teams was that the Titans were 13-3 while theIrish were 5-7 - maybe Notre Dame will be playing in it's own "Super Bowl" nextyear in Miami, Florida?  Maybe not, but hey, it's till January and optimism is stillsky high!