Whew

Notre Dame overcame two turnovers, absolutely atrocious special teams play, the 2004 version of Brady Quinn in the first half (e.g., firing the ball deep down the field every play even if the receiver is well-covered instead of throwing it to the wide-open guy ten yards down the field), poor pass protection and some shaky secondary play to beat Stanford 38-31. I have to say that the kicking game from last night was giving me flashbacks to Jim Sanson's performance at USC back in 1996 that cost Notre Dame an appearance in a big bowl. Notre Dame was able to overcome all of their mistakes due to outstanding production from the offense. Brady Quinn threw for over 400 yards again. Darius Walker racked up a career high 194 yards rushing. Jeff Samardzija had over 200 yards receiving along with setting a new team record for receiving yards in a season and taking the lead for most touchdown receptions in the nation with 15. Maurice Stovall had another 100 yard receiving day and became only the fourth player in Notre Dame history to have a 1,000 yard receiving season. Maurice Stovall and Jeff Samardzija also became the first 1,000 yard receiving duo in team history. In all, Notre Dame tallied 663 yards of total offense. That kind of offensive output will cover up a lot of mistakes.

The win should secure a bid in the Fiesta Bowl against either Oregon or Ohio State. While there was much debate late last night and this morning whether Notre Dame "deserves" a BCS bid, I think the debate is moot. The BCS is only about making sure the top two teams play for the national championship. The rest of the BCS games are basically competitive exhibition games meant to make large amounts of cash for the bowl organizers/sponsors and the big conferences. If the BCS were about getting teams that "deserve" a BCS bid, then they would just take the top eight teams in the BCS standings. Since the non-national championship games are almost completely about making money, then its in the BCS bowls' interests to select teams/matchups that will make them the most amount of money. Notre Dame will finish in the top 12 of the BCS standings, which qualifies them to play in a BCS game. Therefore, Notre Dame deserves a BCS bid. Notre Dame should not have to apologize for its national appeal or having a fanbase that travels and is willing to spend lots of money. In addition, I would be completely shocked if Notre Dame got embarrassed in the Fiesta Bowl (this ain't your Boob Davie's Fighting Irish). In fact, I fully expect Notre Dame to win whether it be against Oregon or Ohio State.

Now lets hope I get lucky in the ticket lottery or my friends at Notre Dame can score me a ticket (fingers crossed).