Notre Dame coach
Charlie Weis was surprised as anyone that Purdue called timeout after
Robert Hughes was stopped at the 2-yard line with 36.9 seconds to play in the fourth quarter. The Irish, who had no timeouts left, were going up to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball after the play and win or lose on the fourth-down play.
"It kind of helped us out a little bit right there, because we were going to clock it," Weis said. "When when ran the ball on second down, we thought that we might catch them in their Cover-7 that they play and be able to walk in (to the end zone). And as a matter of fact, we did get the right coverage, we just didn't get it in there."
Weis said the timeout allowed the Irish to collect themselves before the final play.
Purdue coach
Danny Hope's explanation: "I wanted to leave enough time to run a couple of plays. I wanted to save some time and be able to run three or four plays."
The Boilers did get three plays after the Irish touchdown, for what it's worth, but they fumbled on the last one.
Here are a few more notes from Saturday night's game:
THE TOUCHDOWN PLAY
Kyle Rudolph was the first read on the winning touchdown, and the way
Jimmy Clausen put it, he was the only read.
“I broke the huddle and Kyle said, ‘Jimmy get me the ball,’” Clausen said. “I said, ‘You better get open and you better catch the ball.’ He made a big play, and after that I gave him a big hug and said, ‘All that work in the summertime out in California, it paid off.’”
Weis has sometimes been known to draw up plays, but the one that gave Notre Dame the victory was right out of the playbook. Rudolph’s job was to 2 yards into the end zone, turn inside, and if he’s covered, pull to the outside. There’s another receiver at the back of the end zone, giving the Irish a high-low option.
“I just used my body to make some room and Jimmy made a nice throw,” Rudolph said. “I just wanted to hold onto it and make sure I was in the end zone.”
CRIST’S NIGHT
Backup quarterback
Dayne Crist’s first play of the night was technically an option, where he could either hand off or run it himself. But there really was no option in Weis’ mind.
“I could’ve bet a million dollars he was keeping it,” Weis said. “I said that to a couple of my guys. I said, ‘I’ll bet every penny I have that he’s not handing this ball off.’”
Crist, in his first meaningful action with the Irish, rushed four times for 16 yards and completed 5 of 10 passes for 45 yards and directed two scoring drives. Weis called it a good start.
“I thought that he did a nice job,” Weis said. “There were a couple of throws he’d like back. We broke the corner’s legs, practically, on the one ‘Go’ (route) to start off the drive and
Golden (
Tate) runs right by the guy and he throws a line drive instead of putting some air under it for an easy touchdown. But other than that, I thought that he really managed the game very well.”
Crist thought so, too.
“I felt great. I was obviously very excited, very anxious,” he said. “I spent a lot of time in preparation through the week so I wanted to be as prepared for this game as I possibly could knowing that I was going to get some meaningful reps tonight, but I just felt great being out there tonight. Very comfortable.”
THE WILDCAT
Notre Dame got good production out of the Wildcat formation with Tate as the de facto quarterback in the second quarter, scoring a pair of touchdowns. But if Clausen and
Armando Allen had been healthy, the Irish never would have put in that package, Weis said.
It did catch Purdue off-guard.
“We had to adjust, and we did, but they did a good job early,” Purdue linebacker
Jason Werner said. “We did a good job of finally adjusting and had a good second half. We just needed to execute the entire game.”