September 9, 1995

Notre Dame at Purdue Final Stats

By Jake Schaller, The Scholastic 1996 Football Review

Notre Dame football has always had a flair for late-game heroics. Irish teams are de­fined by their last-minute comebacks and nail-biting wins. But this year’s edition of the Irish might love them too much. Why else would Notre Dame let the Purdue Boilermakers back into their second-week showdown, making a last-minute de­fensive stand necessary? And nearly making CPR necessary on the shocked Irish faithful who traveled to Purdue’s Ross-Ade Stadium.

With a mere three minutes to play in the third quarter, the Irish struck what looked like a devastat­ing blow. On second and six from his own 49-yard line, Ron Powlus dropped pack and faked a reverse to Derrick Mayes, a play he had run earlier. While Purdue defenders keyed in on Mayes, flanker Emmett Mosley slipped behind the safeties. Powlus then lofted a 51-yard bomb to the wide-open Mosley who gathered the ball and continued into the end zone.

“Basically, we knew they were keying in on Der­rick so we ran the fake reverse,” said Mosley. “The safety came up and tried to fill quickly and we got him coming up. The line gave Ron plenty of time.”

After trading punts, Purdue took a stab at the Notre Dame lead with a six-play; 80-yard drive that tailback Ed Watson punctuated with a 13-yard touchdown run right through the middle of the Irish defense. The drive was aided by a 10-yard pass interference pen­alty against cornerback Allen Rossum and a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty called against linebacker Kory Minor.

With the offense churning, Irish fans were expect­ ing a long, run-oriented drive that would milk some time off the dock and end any Wildcat-like upset thoughts that the Boilermakers might be entertaining. But what happened bordered on disaster.

Three plays into their drive, on third and six, Powlus audibled out of a sprint draw play and tried to hit Mayes on a post pattern. Northwestern safety Derrick Brown broke on the ball, however, getting there a step before Mayes. “If [the ball] had been there one one-hundredth of a second earlier, it would have been a touchdown,” Powlus said. It wasn’t, and Brown capitalized.

“We had worked on that particular play in practice so we were looking for it all the way,”Brown said.”It happened just like it was supposed to. I stepped in front and I was in the end zone even before I got to the ball.”

Fifty-four yards and a two-point conversion later, the Irish found themselves in another dogfight, tied at 28 with nine and a half minutes to play.

The next play from scrimmage was absolutely critical. After the loss to Northwestern, the team’s confidence was obvious!y shaken. Now, after blowing a 15-point fourth quarter lead against Purdue, its confidence bordered on shattered.

But it didn’t show. “At that point we just came back and answered,” said Mosely.

After Robert Farmer took a short Purdue kick 26 yards to the Irish 48, Powlus entered the huddle and asked for some help. “I told the guys in the huddle, ‘OK,I made it interesting,”‘ the junior said. “Then I said, ‘Let’s make a big play.”‘

Tailback Randy Kinder came through for Powlus and the Irish. Kinder took a pitch to the right side, stretched it out, used a superb block from Marc Edwards, cut back and then raced 52 yards for a much-needed Irish touchdown.

“Marc got his guy down, I cut back, and it was just open field,” Kinder said.

It was a relief for Powlus, whose previous miscue had knotted the game. “Kinder’s touchdown was huge,” he said. “I ran up to him afterwards and said, ‘Thank you.”‘

The whole team should have said “thank you.” Kinder had  game-high 142 yards on the ground.

Despite these Irish efforts, Purdue just wouldn’t lay down. After a Mark Monahan interception and a 45-yard drive, the Irish put Kevin Kopka in position to put the game away with a 41-yard field goal. But that would have been the easy way out. Kopka missed it, and Purdue had one more chance. “I really, truly thought he would make it,” Holtz said after the game.

Taking over at their own 23, Rick Trefzger’s passing and Watson’s running brought the Boilers to the Notre Dame 47. That’s when the A-Train took over. Mike Alstott, Purdue’s Heisman Trophy candidate fullback, rambled 34 yards to the Notre Dame 13. It would be the last run of his impressive 118-yard performance. With first down on the Irish 13, Purdue Head Coach Jim Colletto called for four straight passes. The first three were incomplete, and Bert Berry and Ivory Covington stopped Watson three yards short of the first down on-the fourth attempt.

Despite giving up 478 yards to the Boilers and almost giving them the game, theIrish were glad to leave with a win. The win also began to answer the questions of critics. “Our defensive coordinator Bob Davie said it best,” said Holtz. “We’re sort of like the OJ. jury. We’ve been sequestered and everybody on the outside has their own opinions and voices them. But the only thing that matters is the people in the room. The only thing that matters to us is our people in the room.”

”To get this win was huge,”Powlus added after the game. “We needed a win and we needed it now. An 0-2 start would have really hurt us. “

Powlus’ performance, though tainted by the interception, was im­pressive. He put up great numbers (17-25, 252 yards and four touchdowns), and he also moved the ball around, hitting Scott Sollman, Kinder, Mayes and Mosely for his record-tying four touchdown strikes.

And so the Irish won another pull-your-hair-out-victory. Though it was not as aesthetically pleasing most Irish fans would have liked, it was at least a step in the right direction. With nine games left against good competition, a Tier One bowl game was still a possibility. But it was obvious the Irish could not take anyone lightly, and this win was only one stop on the road back.