Loss to Irish a Building Block for Boilermakers

By Paul Smith
paul.smith@collegeblitz.com

Notre Dame, Ind. — If you are a longtime Purdue fan, you look at last Saturday's 35-21 loss here through a few prisms. The first — "They were just toying with us," one John Purdue Clubber moaned just before halftime, where No. 12 Notre Dame built a 28-7 after fulltime receiver/part-time extra point/field goal holder Jeff Samardzija raced 5 yards untouched on a fake field goal.

The words wafted through the air during yet another NBC commercial marathon, but on Purdue's next possession, junior quarterback Curtis Painter and sophomore wideout Selwyn Lymon opened wide a window to the Boilermakers' future, hooking up on a breathtaking 88-yard touchdown that pumped at least a few fresh breaths into the Purdue corpse. Through Prism No. 2, the view was decidedly brighter.

In fairness, Notre Dame defenders Darrin Walls and Tom Zbikowski bumped while trying to keep up with Lymon. But Lymon, a sophomore from Fort Wayne also hit the afterburners as he began to clear the two Fighting Irish deep backs.

Painter had just missed on a first-quarter connection after Lymon had evaded what would be a truly pockmarked Irish secondary, only to be overthrown on what would have been a 75 yard touchdown.

As it was, Lymon caught 8 passes for 238 yards that also included a fourth-quarter 9-yarder from Painter, one of the best receiving performances ever by a visiting player in Notre Dame Stadium. Toss in a more accuragtely thrown first-quarter pass and you have a receiving day for the ages.

"We're putting him in the Hall of Fame," said Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis as he evaluated Lymon's stunning performance. "He can stay home the next time we play them."

But Prism No. 3 offered a view of Purdue's ability to reintroduce competition to a game many thought the Irish would put in their pockets early. If you saw it entirely from an Irish perspective, they did just that.

But to some football purists and Purdue fans mindful of last year's pounding by the Irish at Ross-Ade Stadium, this game provided at least a couple of hooks on which to hang the rest of the season. "I think you can (use Saturday as a building block)," Painter told the Lafayette (Ind) Journal & Courier's Purdue beat writer Tom Kubat.

"At times we played well and did some things right." contineued Painter, who completed 23-of-46 passes for a typical Joe Tiller-era "Basketball on Grass" 398 yards and the two Lymon T.D.s "When you're playing a team of this caliber, you find out where your team stands and how good you are..."

Three key missed opportunities deep in Notre Dame territory killed the Boilers' upset dreams.

"I think we were in the game, but we kind of beat ourselves up a few times with some mistakes," Painter said.

"...We never felt like we were out of this game. But (fumbling away a great opportunity at the Notre Dame 30 after the Irish took the 35-14 lead) left us a step behind."

Despite the glitches, the Boilers grew up a little. They're 4-1, but not ranked because the opening foursome of I-AA Indiana State/Miami (Ohio)/Ball State/Minnesota aren't exactly going to jiggle the strength-of-schedule portion of the Sagarin ratings.

In the second half, Purdue began to find some defensive second wind, beginning with a revival of a pass rush long dormant after the Irish jumped ahead 35-14 on a Brady Quinn-to-Rhema McKnight T.D. pass with 9:38 left in the third quarter.

Notre Dame (4-1), whose offense cut through the Boilers' overworked defense with ridiculous ease for virtually the entire first half, provided the Head Curmudgeon, Charlie Weis, a few smile opportunities.

Quinn (29-for-38 passing for 316 yards and two short T.D.s) pumped some new life into his Heisman Trophy push, taking exactly what the Purdue defense gave him.

"They didn't let us beat them deep (in the first half)," he told the huge media assemblage. "We were willing to take some things underneath." One of which was involving versatile Darius Walker, whose football business card reads "running back," in the passing offense big time.

"Our (offensive) line did a great job today (particularly in the first half, when pass protection was more like a royal guard)," Quinn said, having gone 18-for-22 in the first half for 190 of his 316 total passing yards. "Darius did a great job today."

Walker had 40 touches overall, carrying 31 times for 146 yards that included a 14-yard first-quarter T.D. that broke an early 7-7 tie and gave Notre Dame the lead for good. He caught nine passes for 73 yards.

This after a colorful early-week dust-up between Walker and offensive coordinator Mike Haywood after the latter called Walker "NutraSweet" when the running back complained about an offensive drill, according to the Chicago Sun-Times' astute first-year Notre Dame beat writer, Vaughn McClure.

"I've encouraged them to have an altercation on Tuesday," cracked Weis ever the Jersey wizeguy.

In the end, the Irish had done just enough to assert their position just outside the nation's Top 10. Now they hit the soft 6-game underbelly that starts with winless Stanford at home this Saturday, then another home game against less-than-imposing U.C.L.A., followed by the three service academies,with North Carolina thrown in.

The next real challenge comes at Southern California. Nearly two months from now on Nov. 25.

Weis will have a chance to tune, retune, fine tune and dial up a game plan that every Kelly green t-shirt wearin', shamrock-bearin' loyal heir of Notre Dame hopes will knock the haughty Trojans off their elite pedestal.

For now, Weis wore what, for him, was a satisfied look after his team had rolled up 454 yards total offense.

"That's the way I like to call every game," Weis said. "I like to call run, play action, (take downfield) shots.

"No matter what happened, we were going to make the running game go...
Sometimes you give up yards, but yards can be misleading. The only play that really ticked me off was that (Lymon) touchdown rright before halftime."

Never mention "moral victory" to Tiller, the Boilers' 10th-year coach. But as Purdue looks ahead, the best news is a revisit to his memorable assessment of last year's schedule, which did not include either of the Big Ten's permanent elite -- Ohio State and Michigan. "We've got 'em right where we want 'em," Tiller told the media at the pre-season 2005 Big Ten Luncheon.

Same this year.

But Wisconsin, Iowa and Penn State are there, so the road to a high-visibiility bowl game will present some serious challenges.Sprinkle in Illinois, Indiana, Northwestern, suddenly-downtrodden Michigan State as well, though. But then add a visit to Hawaii which could include a classic hose job for which the striped islanders are famous.

An 8-5/9-4 finish seems likely, a nice step away from a rare non-bowl season Tiller and the Boilers experienced last year.