Yesterday, against BYU, the Irish offered up a complete performance, whether tribute to themselves as seniors or as apology for last game’s clanger against Pitt is for them alone to know. It was also perfectly balanced, on the production end, as forty-seven rushing attempts and twenty-eight passing attempts turned out 235 yards in each column for a total 570 yards. And, it was perfect, too, as seniors shared the highlight reels with underclassmen Jarron Jones, Jaylon Smith, and Sheldon Day.

It was imperfect, though, if you believe, as I do, that the term “home-field advantage” should begin, at least, with the actual field itself. Yesterday, amid the romance of swirling snow and the dying of a blue November light, chunks of turf gave way to stymie TJ Jones and stifle runs by Folston and Atkinson. The 2013 BYU game should be remembered for many reasons. The deplorable turf should be one of them.

Notre Dame’s defense, maligned for reasons valid and not this year, played certainly well enough. They contained BYU’s quarterback, Tayson Hill, when they needed to, and held the BYU offense to 13 points, one touchdown and two field-goals, spread over the first and third quarters. In critical spot after critical spot in the fourth quarter and with the contest very much in the balance, the Irish front four were as stout as they were in any magic moment in the 2012 season of magical moments. They shattered Hill’s pocket on BYU’s final possession. Stephon Tuitt , who harried the BYU line all game, notched his sixth sack on the season by fighting through the Cougars’ left tackle and causing a six yard loss from the Notre Dame forty yard line with three minutes left. Sophomore Jarron Jones blocked what should have been a gimme field goal. Senior Austin Collinsworth picked up a timely interception.

Jaylon Smith, who wore Danny Spond’s number in his honor, was bright future in a snow globe as he continued to show why he electrified the recruiting services not that long ago. He blocked a pass and picked up three solo tackles, being everywhere at once. That he failed to sack Tayson Hill is probably less due to Smith’s inexperience than it is to Hill’s ability to run. It bears noting that Hill ran for 101 yards in Notre Dame while Johnny Football only managed fifty-four yards in Baton Rouge.

The touchdowns, perhaps due to the turf, the snow, the dark of night, or Notre Dame, all came in the first quarter. Tommy Rees, in his final home appearance, connected for sixty-one yards to Davaris Daniels, who then stunned fourteen year old girls around the country by breaking out a Hunger Games 2 salute or something. That’s what the kids on Twitter said. Daniels appeared to be Tommy’s target du jour, but TJ Jones, also for the last time on the auld sod, collected a couple of long passes, the first of which was a thirty yard toss that set up a short touchdown run by Tarean Folston. From that point, it was Kyle Brindza’s day (or night) (however you classify a game played out under the lights in the pitch dark) and he responded by connecting twice from twenty-six yards and once from eleven hundred and six, with storm force winds in his face and icicles hanging from his facemask.

The Irish ran the ball well, despite the field conditions. Folston and Atkinson gashed the Cougars for long gains, with Atkinson specifically turning out a noteworthy and uncharacteristically tough run. Cam McDaniel had 117 yards on the day and was only denied a long run for a touchdown by his lack of break-away speed. That any of this, or Tommy’s day, was done against a very well-regarded defensive unit is credit to Zack Martin and the Irish offensive line, who are playing as well as any in the country.

As time expired along with their final appearance, emotions took over. For Schwenke and Fox, Shembo and Tuitt and Rees, this was the final singing of Notre Dame, Our Mother and for the fans, the last time to chant their names. That the crowd chose to sing for Tommy and whether they meant fond farewell or good riddance or some combination of the two is for them, individually, alone to know.

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The Middies executed a terrific game plan, rushing for 331 yards. Navy did not turn the ball over and had no penalties on the day. Navy’s quarterback Keenan Reynolds found advantage through the air in the Fourth Quarter, picking up thirty-four of Navy’s eighty-eight total passing yards on a dagger strike to Matt Aiken and a touchdown to take the lead 34-31. It was, though, a critical flub on second-and-five on the Notre Dame thirty-four that ultimately gave the game to the Irish.

The muffed pitch resulted in a nine-yard loss. Trailing 34-38, the Middies passed for ten yards on third down, setting up a fourth and four. Navy ran a reverse to the left, appeared to have the defense fooled, but Notre Dame’s freshman phenom Jaylon Smith exploded into the picture and corralled Navy’s Shawn Lynch for no gain. ND took over on downs and ran out the clock.

Tommy Rees had some tough moments to go with his high-light material, which included pretty touches to TJ Jones and Ben Koyack. DaVaris Daniels and CJ Prosise had nice grabs, too. Corey Robinson, The Admiral’s son, did his best USS Zumwalt impersonation. Tommy had two picks on the day, one of which resulted in a Navy scoring drive. (Author’s note: when I wrote this post Sunday morning, Robinson was listed as Did Not Play. See the Comments, below).

It was the Irish running backs, and Folston in particular, who were the real story. GAIII jogged for thirty-three yards on the opening kick off and scored a touchdown on a forty-one yard run for ND’s first score. Illustrative of his second-half performance were Folston’s runs of 15, 15 and 14 yards in a single drive in the fourth quarter. He had a leaping one yard touchdown after almost scoring on the previous play to cap the day.

Injuries hit the Irish hard, who started the day without Big Lou in the middle. By the end of the game, Kona Schwenke, Sheldon Day and Ben Councell had joined him on the sidelines. Schwenke, it bears noting, had a huge day with eleven tackles, setting up Jaylon Smith for a huge tackle for loss on one particularly terrific play. Coach Kelly had little information post-game on the players’ status, though he referred to the locker room as “a triage.”

In any event, it was a win and another step closer to a BCS-berth. With Texas Tech and Michigan (hahahahahahahahahaha) picking up their third losses on the season, the Irish should rise in the BCS standings, where they sat at twenty-five going into Saturday.

Here are the highlights:

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Coming into this fifth iteration of the Shamrock Series, in which the Irish moved to 5-0, ASU had one of the more prolific offenses and was fresh on the heels of a sixty plus point shellacking of the USC Trojans. Notre Dame, on the other hand, was a team fighting for leadership on the field and in the locker-room, fighting turnovers, fighting to get the other team off the field, and fighting a withering storm of, at times, personal and vitriolic, criticism from its own fans. While last night’s win may not have been a strategic victory on all fronts, the case can be made that some of the fights were won inside the dome of decadence in Arlington.

Prince Shembo, whom I picked as the player to watch this season on defense, held a pass-rush clinic, netting three sacks against a very mobile, agile quarterback in ASU’s Taylor Kelly. The Irish D, overall, had six sacks and essentially shut down the Sun Devils’ running game, giving up only 65 yards. Notre Dame was also able to come up with turnovers at critical times, notably a Dan Fox interception and touchdown that should have iced the game at 37-27, with the PAT for you readers paying overly-close attention, and should have made the remaining minute sixteen a relaxing moment to finish your vodka and soda with limes.

But, it wasn’t, for as really good as the defense looked on most plays, ASU’s final drive was positively baffling. Starting on their own 25 with 1:08 on the clock, the Sun Devils moved down the field and into the endzone in under one minute and just seven plays, to make the score 37-34. That put the onus of victory on the hands team, and they and TJ Jones were up to the challenge.

In fact, outside of Kyle Brindza’s first FG attempt, which struck and badly injured a shopper in the stadium’s Victoria’s Secret, and a “punt” from Alex Wulfeck that Gisele Bundchen thought was kicked by a girl, the case can be made that ND’s special teams rose to the occasion in Arlington. Brindza connected from 53, to grab a host of superlative accolades, and had a 53-yard punt downed at the 1, which set up Dan Fox’s interception one play later.

On offense, Tommy Rees and the boys did enough to get the win. Tommy’s 7.3 yards per attempt was better against the Sun Devils than either Stanford or Wisconsin. TJ Jones was terrific and turned in eight catches for 135 yards and the aforementioned on-side kick recovery. Davaris Daniels had a quiet night, as did the backs, though local hero Cam McDaniel turned Irish legend, if you missed those bajillion remarks last night, put in another labor of lumber, accumulating 82 yards on 15 carries. Overall, it was enough to get the W.

So, what made the difference? A noticeably “better” defense? A competent offense that got the necessary first downs and only gave the ball away once? I think, given the circumstances, that the case can be made that, to answer the age-old question, it was, in fact, the shoes.

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