3rd Quarter Thoughts – Purdue at Notre Dame
- Did I say the passing game should be featured? Wow wo we wow. Where did this running game we are seeing this opening drive come from? Armando Allen is looked as good as we have seen him today. The OL opened up two HUGE holes on the last two plays of the opening drive and Allen exploded through them.
- Notre Dame ground game is finally starting to get going. Allen now has his first career 100 yard game running behind Sam Young and Chris Stewart a lot.
- Where did this #5 come from? Allen is running strong and through the kind of arm tackles that we have seen him go down on far too often. He is playing by far the best game of his young career today.
- 4th and inches. This should be a sneak and it should work. And it did. That’s a conversion that needed to be made and it was on a nice second effort by Clausen.
- 1st and goal and with the ground game clicking the play action works to perfection to Rudolph. Great to see Rudolph get his first career touchdown.
- The last three drives for Notre Dame (other than the one which ended the first half) have now ended in touchdowns for the Irish.
- With all of the momentum on our side, Purdue marches down the field and scores on a 55 yard pass from Painter to Tardy on a very ineffective blitz by the Irish defense.
- Love the decision to go for it on 4th and 7 and really liked the play call quite a bit. Everyone thought the ball would go to Tate or Floyd and Grimes was WIDE open down the middle of the field for touchdown.
- That is now 4 drives in row which have ended in a touchdown for the Irish.
- Irish defense is on its heels right now. Both offenses are doing pretty much whatever they want at the end of the quarter. With a two score lead and the way the Irish offense is playing, a stop or a turnover on this drive to start the 4th would be HUGE.
Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
WOW is right, They blew the whole right side wide open on two consecutive plays. I could have followed Allen through.
C-DOG, Looks like some favorable progress on the O-line today.
Boy, I hope they can keep the momentum going off this game. This one was fun to watch and the team is certainly moving forward now.
WOW again, a flash of when Brady & Company was around.
Gooooooooooo Irish!
Golden had a 40 yard block on a stretch play for Armando (sort of). He ran a go route with his arm up, “I’m open, I’m open!” Meanwhile Armando was running for double digits run up the sideline–rofl!