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On Saturday, one block from Ryan Field, parking spaces cost $ 50 and neighborhood ticket scalpers celebrated the hottest market in years.
Pre-cut foods included food usually found in five-star restaurant menus, and alcoholic beverages were rarely offered as special beverages. The autumn mood was at the rendezvous when Notre Dame was undefeated for the first time since 1976 on Central Street. This is the perfect weekend for college football fans who have to set their clock an hour for this day to last as long as possible. This had all the ingredients of an opportunity to remember for years to come.
It is likely that both teams had forgotten as much as possible a few minutes after Notre Dame's 31-21 win over Northwestern in a match that offered more entertainment value than importance.
For the North West, coach Pat Fitzgerald immediately asked his team to "purge" him and focus on Saturday's game in Iowa that preoccupied the program, even while preparing for the Irish. For Notre Dame No. 4, moving to 9-0 simply represents the next step in an unlikely journey to consideration for the college football playoffs. Our Lady has done enough to survive a strong North West team to justify her place in the next CFP poll in third place after Alabama's No.1 has excluded the U.S. n ° 3.
The Irish do not need to apologize for winning a game on the road against a top Big Ten team, or heading towards the half-time tied at 7 or for having suffered Breakdowns of special teams. The emergence of Ian Book, a smart quarterback who knows how to win, and an aggressive defense that limits the total to 239 yards North West, gives Notre Dame reason to believe that he can defeat all unnamed opponents Alabama.
"I think our football team on a given day may be the best team at this stadium," said coach Brian Kelly in an interview with ESPN before the kickoff.
Then Notre Dame, a team better than the sum of its parts, demonstrated what Kelly meant by a serious effort and quality. If Kelly's team remains consistent, the Irish should stay in third place, allowing them to avoid Alabama until a possible national championship game. It may not have been Kelly's most talented team since the second national award, but it seems to be the most complete since.
Northwestern, meanwhile, keeps hope for a special season that has started terribly. Showing the impact of Fitzgerald on his players, only the Big Ten West ranking counts for the Wildcats.
Iowa loses against Purdue before 6:15 pm The kickoff gave Northwestern more opportunities to play the Big Ten Championship game on Dec. 1 in Indianapolis, a goal the Wildcats had strangely prioritized higher than to beat Our Lady. An aside: this makes no sense to anyone outside the North West football family. Here's a chance to thwart an undefeated national power, the kind of opportunity highlighted during the hiring, and does Northwestern really consider it the second most important game he will play this month?
Beat Notre-Dame would have caused a sensation, while winning the Big Ten West would create a regional shockwave, but each program would be his. In addition to the fact that Northwestern played overall, you wonder if the obvious lack of urgency was due to players who already knew that Iowa had already lost, psychologically placing the Big Ten goals above all else .
For some reason, Northwestern started slowly but reacted with the resilience typical of Fitzgerald's teams. The Wildcats staged the longest touchdown that Notre Dame's defense has made this season, a beauty of 18 games and 73 yards that ate 8 minutes and 36 seconds and ended on the touchdown run. goalkeeper Clayton Thorson. Thorson persevered in a way that was difficult to measure statistically, the way he was gaining time with his feet when he came back after limping under the medical tent for evaluation. The Brave Elder completed 16 of his 29 passes for 141 yards even though he was fired five times.
Northwestern gave his fans the reason to stay in the rain. Thorson made an NFL caliber throw on a 27-yard lean post to Riley Lees wide receiver for a touchdown that made it 24-14 with 11:16 left. A few minutes later, No. 18 made another big game – Redshirt cornerback Cameron Ruiz shares the number with Thorson – with a blocked punt that allowed Thorson to sneak in to narrow the gap at 24-21.
Book, his counterpart of Thorson, improved after his uncertain departure. On the fourth and second goal of Notre Dame's third quarter quarterback, Book successfully read the defender on a pass option – which Fitzgerald considers "communism" – to complement Miles Boykin. Three pieces later, Book hits Boykin in the back of the end zone with a 20-yard touchdown pass that indicates a precision that he missed early. With his confidence restored, Book delivered a 47-yard strike to receiver Michael Young, opening a 21-7 lead with time remaining at 2:33 in the third quarter.
From that point on, whenever Notre Dame needed Book to create a piece, he was doing it – little bigger than a 15-yard tilt compared to Boykin, after that a bad one Penalty produced points 15 and 15. The bookkeeper found himself around the left end of the area – Book shot the ball a fraction of a second after Northwestern defensive offense Joe Gaziano crashed against midfielder Dexter Williams.
Book finished 22 of 34 for a total of 343 yards and two touchdowns, which is good enough to pass 6-0 early in the season and send Notre Dame home satisfied with a highly anticipated event and up to of his popularity.
Funny, Northwestern left the same way.
David Haugh is a special contributor to the Chicago Tribune and co-host of the show "Mully and Haugh Show" on weekdays from 5 am to 9 pm on WSCR-AM-670.
Ian Book shines while Notre Dame holds 31-21 in the Northwest, but the Wildcats still have a great day »
Photos: Notre Dame 31, Northwestern 21 »
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