Like clockwork?
By BOB WIENEKE
 Irish offensive guard Mike Gandy reacts in disbelief as Purdue players and fans celebrate their 28-23 upending of Notre Dame last September (ISR Photo/JIM RIDER) |
"It was the best feeling ever" Former Purdue linebacker Mike Rose.
Two locker rooms. Two entirely different moods. While Purdue's players were ecstatic after their narrow 28-23 escape from the Irish at Ross-Ade Stadium last September, Notre Dame's players sat wondering what went wrong after confusion eclipsed execution.
The questions still outweigh the answers.
In a 1999 season filled with close losses, none may have defined Notre Dame's 5-7 season more than the final fiasco in West Lafayette, Ind.
The loss to Purdue raised questions about Bob Davie's clock-management skills, especially considering the Irish were driving for a winning score the previous week before time ran out in a 26-22 loss at Michigan.
Things got crazy at Purdue with just over a minute remaining and Notre Dame driving for a potential game-winning touchdown:
First-and-goal at the Purdue 9: Fullback Joey Goodspeed took a swing pass from quarterback Jarious Jackson and lumbered down to the Purdue 2.
The ball appeared to come out of Goodspeed's hands before he hit the ground. Tight end Jabari Holloway recovered it in the end zone and one official raised his arms, signaling a Notre Dame touchdown.
However, two officials overruled him, saying Goodspeed was down at the 2.
Goodspeed: "I can't really remember exactly what the play was. All I remember is me running into the flat, and I remember Jarious throwing me the ball, a little bit behind me.
"But I caught it. And as soon as I caught the ball, some guy, a couple guys hit me. And I thought I had fumbled the ball. But apparently, the refs thought I was down."
Purdue linebacker Mike Rose: "I had come on a blitz from the other side, and Jackson had dumped it off on the other side to Goodspeed.
"I thought he was down. From reviewing the tape, there was just never really a good angle to see if the ball came out first or if his knee went down. I think our team was thinking the worst, obviously."
Second-and-goal from the 2: Tony Driver takes a hand-off and gains one yard up the middle behind a Goodspeed block.
Goodspeed: "I thought that if (Driver) would have went to the outside, he may have scored. But I don't see what he sees. So I'm sure he did the right move.
"I'm not sure where he went, but I blocked my guy. I pinned my guy to the inside, and I think that's where Tony ran to."
Rose: "I had the tackle on that play. It was kind of an inside blitz for me. I was playing the line kind of as an up linebacker, an outside linebacker, and slanted in and angled into the run and tackled him for a short gain."
Third-and-goal from the 1: Immediately after Driver's short gain, a Purdue player appeared to be calling a timeout, but the Boilermakers weren't granted one.
Rose: "One of our defensive players, I believe it was Jason Loerzel, had looked over to the sideline and thought he had seen some people calling timeout. He, at the bottom of the pile, began to motion it, but never really got to it. And luckily for us, the referee didn't see him."
Davie: "They (Purdue) called timeout and the clock never stopped."
Notre Dame allowed 15 more seconds to tick off before calling its final timeout.
Goodspeed: "That was just because we ... I don't know what Coach Davie was thinking. I'm sure he had his reasons for doing that. I'm guessing he was confident we were going to score, and he didn't want to leave any time for Purdue to get back on the field. That's what I'm guessing he did, but you've got to ask Coach Davie about that one."
Rose: "While we were waiting for them to call their timeout. We knew what they were doing. They didn't want our offense to have time to get on the field.
"Defensively, I think that gave us a little bit of a mental edge. We felt like they didn't have any confidence that they could just put the ball in at will on us."
During the timeout, both teams plotted their strategies. Jackson was given two plays, and was to decide which one to run when he saw how Purdue's defense lined up. The Boilermakers set up a run blitz, leaving only two defensive backs to cover the pass.
Goodspeed: "All we talked about is we've got to score, and we talked about the two plays we were going to call. So we went into the huddle with two plays."
Rose: "Coach Tiller came over and said 'Hey guys, we're going to blitz them -- it's an all-out blitz.' If they didn't run the ball, we had two guys to help if they threw the ball, and the rest of us were just planning on going on an all-out blitz after the ball."
When Notre Dame lined up, Ross-Ade Stadium was at its loudest.
Goodspeed: "When (Jackson) got to the line, it was pretty loud. And when it's really loud, with thousands of people screaming, it's kind of hard to do what you're trying to do."
Rose: "It was so loud down there, probably the best moment of any football game I've ever been in. It was an exhilarating feeling to be down there, because we had the band behind us. They were on the field, actually.
You had the entire student section to the right of the offense. It was just a really wild and loud time. It was the loudest football game I'd ever been a part of."
Third and goal at the 1: Jackson lined up with Goodspeed, Driver and Tony Fisher behind him. When Jackson got to the line, he was supposed to call one of the two plays that the team had drawn up during the timeout.
Goodspeed: "The thing is, we didn't know which play he was going to call. He was going to go up to the line and call either one of the two plays. We didn't know which one he was going to call. ...
"Jarious called one play and I thought he called another play and some guys on the line thought he had called another play. We had half the team running one play, the other half running another play, and it was all messed up. The two play calls were kind of similar. I think it was like one play was called like '15,' the other was called like '57.' "
Rose: "I think looking back on it, they probably gave the quarterback an option. We'd heard, going into that game, that he was a really smart quarterback and the coach put a lot of faith and trust into him.
"I think they left it up to him to call the play at the line, to see how our defense was lined up. I'm sure maybe the signals got messed up and therefore they had different guys running different plays at different times, I guess.
"I've read, I've heard that it was a designed option play, with an option to keep or hand off. Or I'm not sure what it was. I guess you'd have to ask them."
With Jackson rolling left and the backs going the other way, Rose burst through the line and dropped Jackson for a nine-yard loss. With no timeouts remaining, Notre Dame was unable to get another play off.
Goodspeed: "At the time, I felt like it was all my fault. But then after talking to some of the linemen, they heard the same thing I did, and it made me feel a little bit better.
"It was nobody's fault. I mean everyone had a little part in doing it. Then I was kind of angry that we didn't just call one play and just run it. But I wasn't the coach. Whatever he calls, we've got to do."
Rose: "I think if they ran the ball, we were pretty confident as a team we were going to stop them. Our only question was if they passed the ball, were we going to have enough guys to stop the pass. We went after it like it was a run, and we prevailed -- I guess."
Purdue 28, Notre Dame 23.