The statistics indicate that the Gold team (Offense) actually defeated the Blue team (Defense) 17-2. In reality, the score was 54-43 in favor of the Blue team. But, the fact that it was even that close was not an indicator of the how the game was played.

Notre Dame’s Offense had been touted for its improvement during the spring but that failed to show up on Saturday. The improvement surrounded around Everett Golson who had up and downs during the game. He finished 6-of-13 for 98 yards and 1 interception. In addition, Golson was sacked four times for 30 yards.

Even projected Starter George Atkinson did not look like a player who had turned the corner. Atkinson runs with high pad level and tends to run around instead of through defenders. He showed those same flaws again. Atkinson ran for 49 yards on 10 carries. But, most on one 17 yard run against the second team Defense. Without that run, Atkinson had a 3.55 yard average.

A few bright spots on Offense were CJ Prosise and Troy Niklas. Prosise caught the only touchdown of the game. Overall, he had 2 catches for 40 yards. Niklas grabbed two passes for 46 yards.

Notre Dame’s Defense has more quality depth than the Offense. That was clear throughout the game. An interesting development with the Defense is the amount of 4 down linemen that the team used during the game. This could be a trend for the rest of the season.

Notre Dame clearly needs improvement on the Offensive side of the ball but again it is just a glorified scrimmage. There is no need to panic. Reinforcements are coming in about two months.

This most recent battle was “The Grant Game”. The Super Bowl featured Jim and John Harbaugh. This game had Jerami and Jerian Grant. Their father Harvey watched the game with an enormous Carrier Dome crowd.

In the first half, the Irish trailed but hung tough with the Orange. Brey utilized his typical 7-man rotation with Freshman Cam Biedscheid and Zac Auguste coming off the bench. Atkins and Grant had 6 points each in the first half. Notre Dame trailed at halftime, 30-24.

The Orange jumped all over the Irish in the beginning of the second half taking a 13-point lead around the 11 minute mark. Notre Dame struggled to score throughout. They were patient and got good looks but failed to knock down their shots.

With 7:17 left, Notre Dame cut the Syracuse lead to 8 points. From that point onward, the Irish failed to get any closer to the Orange.

Notre Dame was lead by Junior Jerian Grant with 15 points. Jerian, with 15 points, won the battle with his brother who scored a career high 14 points. The loss drops the Irish to 18-5 (6-4). Notre Dame moves on to play to the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday in South Bend where College GameDay will be as well.

In what was a tale of two halves for Notre Dame, was a great come-from-behind victory for the Florida State Seminoles. It was 14-0 at one point for the Irish, but they couldn’t hold on, as the Seminoles scored 18 unanswered points in the second half to win the game 18-14.

First Half-

As I predicted, it was a low scoring first half. Both defenses played great, but the Irish got lucky when Manti Te’o had a forced fumble that was picked up by Zeke Motta for a 29 yard touchdown. Florida State punted 6 out of 8 possessions in the first half and the other 2 possessions were the fumble return and a failed 4th down conversion.

For FSU’s defense, they were just as strong. Notre Dame punted 4 out of the 7 possessions and the other possessions were the interception thrown by Tommy Rees, a field goal missed, and a kneel-down for the end of the half. Each Notre Dame Possession didn’t surpass 10 yards of total offense.

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