A Quick Hitting Rapid Reaction to Notre Dame’s 15-12 Win over the Pittsburgh Panthers
Winning = Good …right?
Headlines:
Notre Dame squeaks out of Pittsburgh in sloppy, mistake-filled affair on both sides.
Defense racks up six sacks in, at times, suffocating showing.
Tommy Rees struggles mightily before going 8-8 on final drive with game-winning touchdown pass to Tyler Eifert in the 4th quarter.
Notre Dame faithful left with somewhat frustrating thoughts and concerns following win.
Reminder to Myself
The last “big win” of my high school career came against Anaheim High School in 2000. We improved to 4-0 on the season following a rabid comeback that ended with a hail mary touchdown on 4th down with a minute to go. After kicking it back to them I even sacked their quarterback on the final play to run out the clock.
Why do I mention this? Because I was furious following the win. I could barely speak on the bus ride home because we had played so poorly for three quarters of football that the win felt so much luckier than good. Our star running back would severely injure his ankle the following week and we stumbled to a 1-5 finish that left us out of the playoffs entirely. I wish I had enjoyed that win while I had it. Three more seasons as a collegiate starter brought even fewer reasons to celebrate as I was forever doomed to a football career with slow starting teams. (I need to fact check- I believe in 7 years as a starter my team was 1-3 six times.)
4-0 should have been my crowning moment, but I didn’t enjoy what I had.
Irish fans, Winning is always good. Winning sloppy is far superior to losing sloppy (South Florida). As a fan- ALWAYS take a day or two to enjoy wins and digest losses. (It’s why I submit reviews on Mondays). Notre Dame needs 10-2 to get to the BCS. We will take eight more 15-12 wins if that’s what it takes.Winning = Good…always
Go.Irish. -Steve Herring (Herring Bone)Comment With Facebook, Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail

Call me a glass half empty guy.
They just don’t look like a good team. Penalties, struggling against weaker opponents, turnovers and Tommy Rees. People say “Hey, they won; would you rather roll up 575 yards of offense and LOSE?”. No.
But the sloppiness tells me they are a mediocre team and more importantly, a POORLY COACHED mediocre team. THAT is disconcerting. You can make excuses for Rees (although I don’t) since he’s young. But how do you excuse the ridiculous penalties? Coaching is a HUGE disappointment.
Make no mistake: They will pay the piper – again – at some point. It could be Purdue, or Air Force or Navy.
I’m talking about a game with 5-6 turnovers (incl. 4 INTs), 100+ yards in penalties and a loss to an inferior opponent.
Count on it.
Nudeman, I am NOT making excuses for Tommy Rees and haven’t all season. This post is a reminder to enjoy winning. breakdown will be up in about 10 minutes. I’m not happy with Rees performance this season in any way and some coaching calls, decisions are becoming a trend