Notre Dame Still Searching For Signature Bowl Win

Notre Dame standout linebacker Jaylon Smith was helped from the field with an apparent leg injury early in Friday’s Fiesta Bowl.

Ohio State looked like a team that could repeat as the national champion but for a 17-14 walkoff loss to Michigan State on November 21 that snapped its 10-game winning streak and kept it out of the Final Four. After knocking off Notre Dame 44-28 in the Fiesta Bowl, Ohio State’s seniors will finish their careers having won 50 games. It wasn’t just in the game where Notre Dame was hindered by absences. They were scoreless in the first quarter for the first time all season. That theme continued on a day when Notre Dame’s offense totaled 405 yards. There’s so many guys who haven’t played – that’s going to be a hungry football team.

“The way we’ve been playing the (the past two games), I think we had a chip on our shoulder, and that’s really how we should have been playing all season”, defensive end Joey Bosa said. The previous mark was Alabama’s 42-14-victory in the 2013 BCS Championship. Defensively, the Cardinal held the Hawkeyes to 48 rushing yards while sacking C.J. Beathard seven times and returning an interception for a touchdown.

Elliott also threw the key block on a 7-yard third-down conversion run by J.T. Barrett during a second-quarter touchdown drive and sprung Jalin Marshall for 15 yards on an end around on the next series en route to Elliott’s third score. He also ran for a score.

Dobbs scored on runs 14 and 18 yards, and Jalen Hurd ran for 130 yards and one touchdown for the Volunteers (9-4).

But eventually, the offensive line of the Buckeyes, which featured two first-team Big Ten players, wore away at the Irish. Jerome Heavens had 756 in an 11-game campaign in 1975. Ohio State would punt again, but Notre Dame was finished. Nebraska is the next closest, with the last Irish victory against the Cornhuskers coming in 1948. Despite their geographical proximity, the teams have played only five times previously, the most recent being Ohio State’s 34-20 victory in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl when Buckeyes quarterback Troy Smith threw for 342 yards and two touchdowns….

For a complete recap of the game, I highly recommend you check out the coverage from our friends at Cleveland.com.

If Bosa is the second best defender, then certainly Elliott is the second best running back in program history behind Archie Griffin and ahead of Eddie Georgie.

Notre Dame wide receiver Chris Brown (2) reaches for a touchdown pass as Ohio State cornerback Gareon Conley (8) defends during the second half of the Fiesta Bowl NCAA College football game, Friday, Jan. 1, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz. With Ohio State’s top defensive tackles sidelined either because of suspension (Adolphus Washington) or injury (Tommy Schutt), and then consensus All-America end/tackle Joey Bosa ejected with 5:26 left in the first quarter because of a targeting call, there was an opportunity by the Irish ground attack to exploit those setbacks. His backup would eventually go down as well, and a roster stretched perilously thin all season finally couldn’t hold together enough to stick with the Buckeyes in a 44-28 loss. A few hundred yards later, Stanford’s sophomore star had smashed the oldest bowl game’s record for all-purpose yards while leading the Cardinal to a blowout win over Iowa.