I have no voice left right now, but it’s not like I really need one since I have no words for what went down in the Big House last night. I’d rather let one of the other 114, 803 people in attendance comment on this one.
A picture is worth 1,000 words and all of prime time ESPN viewers got to see my emotions loud and clear. Stunned? Devastated? Sad? Mad? Answer: all of the above.
The thing is, this shot was taken with 1:12 left in the game, before the real high and low even happened. Coming back from that and taking the lead, 31-28, with 30 seconds remaining was the ultimate high. However, that was short lived because 28 seconds was all Michigan (Denard Robinson) needed to silence us all and score, finishing out the game 35-31. Defeated.
Just so you can get a glimpse of what it feels like as students to experience a heartbreaking loss like that, here are just a few Facebook statuses and tweets following the game:
- “Why?”
- “So confused right now!!!!!”
- “ND, quit playin games with my heart”
- “The Notre Dame Football Team: getting fans hopes up and then utterly destroying them since 1887.”
- “Depression.”
- “Two weeks in a row: no words.”
- “So much disappointment.”
- “Thank you, Irish…for making me cry”
- “’this year’s going to be different’…seems worse”
- From someone studying abroad in London: “5am and nothing to show from it.”
- “Each Notre Dame football game takes years off my life.”
So, here we sit, 0-2 to start the season. In total, we have put up 1,021 offensive yards. #6 ranked, Stanford, has 877 total offensive yards in its first two games. However, the difference maker, we’ve had 10 turnovers compared to only 1 by Stanford. If we could’ve protected the ball a little better, I’m confident in saying that we’d be 2-0 right now.
We have a lot of talent on this team. Cierre Wood has rushed for over 100 yards both against South Florida and Michigan. Michael Floyd has had over 150 receiving yards against both teams, as well. We have to find a way to turn this talent and efficiency into victories. I’m not the one to say what that’ll take, but I can speak on behalf of all of the students when I say that figuring it out sooner rather than later would be much appreciated.
Aside from the outcome of the game, the atmosphere for this historic Under the Lights game was incredible. As much as I love Notre Dame, I’ll openly admit that I’ve never been in an environment as electric, loud, and rowdy as the one I was in last night. Now as the opposing team, it was a little discomforting because in the 4th quarter, I could feel that momentum shift as the team was feeding off of the crowd’s energy. Here’s a small clip of the level of enthusiasm radiating from the stands during a timeout.
To make it even better, our seats were the first row in the end zone. Talk about some good luck! Being that close to the action was unreal. Everything in the stadium felt so much more alive when I could literally be within feet of the field.
So, even though it’ll be a long time before I can swallow this loss or even talk about the game without getting worked up, the overall experience for the first night game in the Big House was amazing.
And if I had to say one positive thing about Michigan (because it doesn’t happen…ever), they know how to have a good time. There was no better place to be on Saturday night than in the Big House…that is until the very end when it was the last place I wanted to be.
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