Horns downed in offensive shootout

JASON W. DUGGER
Daily Texan Staff

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- It wasn't the dominant, talent-rich Notre Dame of recent years.

And that's a good thing for Texas, or Saturday's game could have really turned ugly. Playing before a national television audience, the No. 13 Longhorns were outscored 36-7 over the last quarter and a half as the 21st-ranked Fighting Irish routed the Horns 55-27 in front of 59,075 at Notre Dame Stadium. The game lived up to its billing as an offensive showdown, with the two teams combining for 933 yards of total offense.

For the second straight week, however, Texas (2-1) battled itself as much as its opponent, turning the ball over (two lost fumbles, three interceptions), making mental mistakes and blowing crucial scoring opportunities in Notre Dame territory. Only this week it cost them."

[The Irish] clearly did things they wanted to," Texas coach John Mackovic said. "[Quarterback] Ron Powlus made some big plays when he had to. When you don't make the plays in a game like this, you generally don't win. We didn't make the big plays today."

The 55 Irish points were the most against Texas since Houston scored 66 back in 1988, and tied for the fourth-highest point total against the Longhorns, equaling Iowa's mark in the 1984 Freedom Bowl.

"The final score wasn't an indicator of how the game went," said Texas offensive tackle John Elmore. "We played hard for a long, long time. [Notre Dame is] a good team. I thought we were as good as they were. I can't say we should have won the game, but we had more talent."

The thumping dropped Texas to No. 21 in the Associated Press Top 25 football poll and No. 19 in the USA Today/CNN poll.

Texas quarterback James Brown completed 19 of 33 passes for 326 yards and four TDs -- three going to tight end Pat Fitzgerald, tying a school record.

The Irish defense contained Brown effectively in the pocket and didn't give him room to run, especially in the second half. More important, Brown was sacked five times, fumbled twice and threw two INTs.

Said Mackovic: "I think James was just trying to make something happen, and that's not unusual for a quarterback. The other part was that they pressured him."

"[Brown] didn't have a lot of time to throw the ball," Texas receiver Mike Adams said. "He really has to think quick and make big plays." But there's no reason we should hang our heads. We've got nine more games."

Adams caught five balls for 141 yards, but came away with a goose egg in the second half. Notre Dame's big play receiver Derrick Mayes wasn't about to be outdone and finished with six catches for 146 yards, including an 11-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter.

Texas, which was playing without its best pass rusher in defensive end Tony Brackens, did little to pressure Powlus. He matched Brown statistically for most of the game and finished 16 of 28 with 273 yards and two touchdowns.

The afternoon also saw uncharacteristically poor execution on the part of the Longhorns coupled with tremendous plays from Notre Dame (3-1) on special teams.

Emmett Mosley returned a punt untouched 64 yards for a score to extend the Irish lead to 10-0 early in the game.

Texas had an extra point blocked and run back for two points in the second quarter, botched the snap before attempting a field goal near the end of the first half -- and came up empty in the game of field position most of the day.

The blocked extra point ended Texas kicker Phil Dawson's consecutive PAT streak at 54, which tied the school record set by Jeff Ward.

"This is what the game is all about -- just competing," said Notre Dame interim coach Bob Davie. "We wanted to make [Texas] execute in every phase of the game for 60 minutes."

Davie, the Irish defensive coordinator, coached his second straight game in place of head coach Lou Holtz. Wearing a stiff neck brace after undergoing spinal surgery 12 days ago, Holtz watched the action from the press box and even came onto the field upon the game's end.

"I knew we would have trouble stopping Texas," Holtz said. "They do a lot of different things. They have a lot of athletes with big-play potential."

After trailing 17-7 in the first half, Texas grabbed its only lead of the day with 8:43 left in the third. On fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Brown froze the defense with a play-action pass and connected with a wide-open Steve Bradley in the left side of the end zone for a touchdown.

The Longhorns' defense responded by limiting Notre Dame to three plays and a punt on its next possession. Texas got the ball back with excellent field position at its own 45 and looked to extend its lead. That's when the luck of the Irish took over.

After a sack and an illegal procedure call against the Horns, Brown fired a strike to receiver Justin McLemore, who was wide open crossing over the middle. However, McLemore dropped the pass.

The very next play, Brown was picked off at the Notre Dame 28 by safety LaRon Moore, who was fortunate to hang onto the ball after a violent collision with teammate Jarvis Edison.

The Irish then answered back for the go-ahead score when they drove 72 yards on only four plays, including an impressive 53-yard pass from Powlus to Mayes in double coverage.

Tailback Randy Kinder took the pitch right and scampered in for a 2-yard TD run, and fullback Marc Edwards bulled over the line for the two-point conversion to give the Irish a 27-20 advantage at the 5:10 mark of the third quarter.

"We took this game as our biggest game of the year because we had to rid ourselves of some early-season demons," said Kinder, who rushed for 129 yards on 29 carries.

As a whole, the Irish racked up 249 yards on the ground versus a Texas team that has shown little against the run over the past two years.

"We went out and played smash-mouth Notre Dame football," said Edwards. "This is the way things need to be."

Only down seven, the Longhorns had a good chance to come back early in the fourth and thought they came away with the defense stop that would promote that.

Powlus scrambled left and under pressure threw a third-down pass intended for Mayes toward the sideline at the Texas 12. The Horns had opted to push the Irish back after a holding penalty, setting up a third-and-23 instead of a 40-yard field-goal attempt and a 10-point lead.

But in doing so, they kept the Notre Dame offense on the field, and corner Taje Allen was called for interference.

Five plays later, Edwards rumbled two yards through the right side for a touchdown and a 34-20 Notre Dame advantage. The 15-play, 5:53-drive was the longest of the afternoon for either team .

"We just never really recovered" after the pass interference call, said Texas defensive coordinator Gary Darnell. "We were in position to win the game when it fell apart. And when it fell apart, it fell apart."

When the Horns did get the ball back, another turnover resulted. Nose guard Paul Grasmanis forced and recovered a Brown fumble at the 12-yard line -- and another touchdown, but this one was a quick strike.

Powlus, again scrambling left, found Edwards all alone in the end zone at the 7:48 mark. Edwards caught his second of three touchdowns to complete the Irish's 22-point unanswered scoring run in the second half.

"[The loss] is no setback at all," Elmore said. "We've got to work just like if we'd won. We lost, and we've got to accept that."


Kinder ignites Irish to fourth-quarter surge

MATT YOUNG
Daily Texan Staff

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The Notre Dame offense had finally had enough.

The third quarter was about to end and the Irish were up only 27-20. That's when Randy Kinder stepped forward. The junior tailback asked for quiet in the Notre Dame huddle and gave everyone within earshot a piece of his mind.

"The third quarter was almost over," Kinder said, "and I told our guys, come on. 'Let's do it. Let's go back to playing Notre Dame football. We all came to Notre Dame for one reason, and that's to dominate.'"

For newcomers to big-time college football, "playing Notre Dame football" means employing a dominating, smash-mouth, run-till-it-hurts offense.

At that point in the game, 31 seconds left in the third quarter, the Irish had managed only 118 yards on the ground in 32 attempts. After Kinder blistered his teammates' ears, they ground out 131 yards on 22 carries in just over one quarter.

Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, calling plays from the press box, had already decided his team needed to establish the run more in the fourth quarter.

"Once they took the lead on us, we went into one formation and played Notre Dame football," Holtz said.

On the first drive of the fourth quarter, Kinder carried the ball five times for 36 yards, the same amount of yardage he picked up in the entire first half. He finished the game with 133 yards on 29 carries.

On the first two carries of that drive, Kinder showed just how diverse a back can be. The track All-American danced and juked his way to a nine- yard gain after blowing by the defensive line on the first carry.

Kinder then came right back and bulled straight ahead for another nine yards, this time showing his strength by dragging two Texas defenders behind him. The Irish then used a costly pass interference penalty call to get to the Texas 25, before going right back to playing smashing-mouth Notre Dame football.

Quarterback Ron Powlus ran the option to the right for five, Kinder barreled up the middle for 11, then junior fullback Marc Edwards busted across the goal line for a two-yard touchdown run. This 15-play, 5:53 drive put Notre Dame up 34-20, an insurmountable lead that continued to grow.

"We felt by going into one formation, we could zero in on what we wanted to do," Holtz said. "We needed to run the ball and our offensive line let us do that."

Although the likes of Kinder and Edwards may get the glory of romping in the end zone, it was the huge Notre Dame offensive line that opened up the running lanes.

The line, led by All-American candidates Ryan Leahy and Dusty Zeigler, averages 6-foot-6 and 289 pounds. They easily outweighed Texas' defensive line by almost 30 pounds a man, and were just too strong for the Texas linebackers. Not to mention the fact that Kinder, 210 pounds, and Edwards, 235 pounds, outweighed every member of the Longhorn defensive backfield and most of the linebackers.

The offensive line returns all five starters from last year's squad. The fact that they have worked together for so long is a big factor in their success.

After allowing four sacks in a first-game upset by Northwestern, the offensive line has surrendered only two in its last three games. Texas' Tyson King recorded a sack in the third quarter, but it was due to excellent coverage downfield by Texas' defensive backs.

"I was only on my back once today, and that's always great," Powlus said. "On that sack, I couldn't find anybody [open] so I thought about running. Their linebacker got to me first, but I wouldn't blame the line for that one."

In the aftermath, Texas players were forced to think of what might have been.

"We definitely would have earned some national respect [if we had wonthe game]," cornerback Taje Allen said. "Teams would have looked at us differently. But it didn't happen."

"We felt this game could tell us exactly where our program is," King said. "Even though they killed us on the scoreboard, it wasn't as bad as the scoreboard looked."

But after the Irish's 28-point fourth-quarter barrage was complete and victory was in hand, the Notre Dame student section provided the Horns' critics with another question by chanting "OVERRATED! OVERRATED!"

The question is, are they right?


Texas        7  6  7  7 -- 27
Notre Dame  10  9  8 28 -- 55

ND --FG Kopka 27
ND --Mosley 64 punt return (Kopka kick)
Tex--Fitzgerald 1 pass from Brown (Dawson kick)
ND --Mayes 11 pass from Powlus (Kopka kick)
Tex--Fitzgerald 15 pass from Brown (kick blocked)
ND --Rossum 80 blocked extra point return
Tex--Bradley 1 pass from Brown (Dawson kick)
ND --Kinder 3 run (Edwards run)
ND --Edwards 2 run (Kopka kick)
ND --Edwards 12 pass from Powlus (Kopka kick)
Tex--Fitzgerald 19 pass from Brown (Dawson kick)
ND --Edwards 27 run (Kopka kick)
ND --Rossum 29 interception return (Kopka kick)

A--59,075.
                        Texas       Notre Dame
First downs             23          28
Rushes-yards            37-87       54-238
Passing                 335         273
Return Yards            118         134
Comp-Att-Int            20-37-3     16-28-1
Punts                   4-34        4-37
Fumbles-Lost            3-2         2-0
Penalties-Yards         8-60        10-85
Time of Possession      26:13       33:47

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING
    Texas - Williams 14-72, Mitchell 9-67, Walton 1-(minus 3),
            Brown 12-(minus 14), team 1-(minus 35).
    Notre Dame - Kinder 29-129, Denson 10-61, Edwards 8-44, Stokes 1-4,
            Powlus 6-0.

PASSING
    Texas - Brown 19-33-2-326, Walton 1-4-1-9.
    Notre Dame - Powlus 16-28-1-273.

RECEIVING
    Texas - Adams 5-141, McGarity 5-75, Fitzgerald 4-42, Wallace 2-32,
            McLemore 1-24, Davis 1-11, White 1-9, Bradley 1-1.
    Notre Dame - Mayes 6-146, Edwards 6-72, Kinder 3-35, Mosley 1-20.