By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Chalk up another mark in the loss column for the Fighting Irish football team after Air Force defeated Notre Dame 41-24 on the Irish home turf.
The loss dropped Notre Dame to 1-9 while the Falcons improve to 8-3.
Coming into the Saturday game, the 28th meeting with the Falcons, the Fighting Irish held a 22-5 edge in the series.
The Irish opening drive lasted just one play. After a 28-yard Jimmy Clausen pass completion to John Carlson, Carlson fumbled the ball at the Air Force 42 just 28 seconds into the game. The turnover resulted in a 19-yard Falcon field goal by Ryan Harrison and a 3-0 lead.
As the first quarter was winding down the Irish troubled season continued to spiral downward when John Rabold picked up Notre Dame's second first quarter turnover and returned it for a 19-yard touchdown after Asaph Schwapp coughed up the ball at the Irish 19.
After falling behind 10-0 in the first quarter the Irish afternoon brightened. Brandon Walker got his team on the board with a 28-yard field goal. The Irish tied the game at 10 on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Clausen to Carlson with 2:32 remaining in the first half.
The Notre Dame defense failed to stop the Falcon's next drive as Spen Armstrong punched in a 8-yard run on a seven play 66 yard drive that took just 1:23 and Air Force held a 17-10 halftime advantage.
It is the consistency, or lack of, by the Fighting Irish that has Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis concerned.
"One of the things as a coach I would like to see is more consistency. And that is one of the things that I am most disappointed in. As a coach you really have to identify what your major goal is and when your goal is to teach, and when you have intelligent young men, and if your teaching your going to think as the year goes on there would be some more consistency that progresses from the beginning to the end. I'm still feeling that we are way to inconsistent in how we play so therefore you have to go back and evaluate the teacher and evaluate the students and see why you can't progress to a more consistent game."
The Falcon's opened the second half with a 67-yard scoring drive capped off with a 7-yard Shaun Carney pass to Sean Quintana in seven plays to pad their lead to 24-10. The Irish offense continued to struggle to move the ball against the Falcon defense while the Falcon offense continued to add points taking advantage of a strong running game to take a 31-10 late in the third quarter.
Notre Dame cut into the lead on a 21-yard pass from Clausen to David Grimes trailing 31-17 but again Air Force was able to add points with a 37-yard field goal by Harrison with just over 10 minutes to play.
The Irish responded with another scoring drive on their next drive to close the margin to 10 with a eight play 71 yard drive finished off by a 9-yard Clausen pass to Armando Allen and 7:56 to play.
After an Irish stop of the Falcons at the Air Force 44 forced a punt, Notre Dame took over at the Irish 16, but were stopped on a fourth and one at the 25 with 4:47 to go in the game. The Falcons sealed the victory on a Carney 1-yard rush with 1:55 remaining for the 41-24 final.
Clausen finished the day 22-of-40 for 246 yards passing while the Irish ground game could only pound out 58 net yards rushing. Clausen was sacked six times in the game.
Air Force 10 7 14 10 – 41
Notre Dame 0 10 0 14 – 24
AF – Harrison, Ryan 19 field goal
AF – Rabold, John 19 fumble recovery (Harrison kick)
ND – Walker, Brandon 28 field goal
ND – Carlson, John 2 pass from Clausen, Jimmy (Walker kick)
AF – Armstrong, Spen 8 run (Harrison kick)
AF – Quintana, Sean 7 pass from Carney (Harrison kick)
AF – Madsen, Keith 10 pass from Carney (Harrison, Ryan kick)
ND – Grimes, David 21 pass from Clausen (Walker kick)
AF – Harrison 37 field goal
ND – Allen, Armando 9 pass from Clausen (Walker kick)
AF – Carney 1 run (Harrison kick)