Notre Dame will be too good for Tulsa

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Notre Dame quarterback Dayne Crist drops back to hand off against Michigan during the second half of an NCAA college football game in South Bend, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010. Michigan defeated Notre Dame 28-24. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Photo by AP

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Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4-4) stumble into this week's game after a loss at the hands of the Navy Midshipmen 35-17 at the Meadowlands last week. They face a ready Tulsa Golden Hurricane squad (4-3, 2-2 C-USA) that demolished the Tulane Green Wave 52 – 24.

It must be mentioned that heavy on the minds and hearts of the Notre Dame community and that of the NCAA at large is the untimely death this week of Notre Dame team videographer Declan Sullivan.

This game will be broadcast Saturday, October 29th at 2:30 PM from South Bend on NBC.

Here is this week's Notre Dame, Tulsa Preview

Notre Dame Offense

Dayne Crist had a less than stellar game against Navy passing for 178 yards and one touchdown. He also threw two interceptions late when the score was close.

It was difficult for Crist to run an offense missing its key parts in its passing arsenal of TE Kyle Rudolph, WR Theo Riddick and WR Michael Floyd . WR Duval Kamara (56 yards receiving), and WR T.J. Jones (53 yards receiving, 1 TD) attempted to pick up the slack last week to no avail.

The Fighting Irish running game was stopped short. It was paced by Armando Allen’s pedestrian 66 yards on 11 carries and no TDs. Notre Dame’s rushing attack is ranked near the bottom of all NCAA teams averaging a paltry 111 yards a game this season.

The team totaled a 360 yards of total offense or 30 below its average of 390.

The Fighting Irish bad luck on offense should be reversed with the probable return of star WR Micheal Floyd and his 624 yards receiving and 6 receiving touchdowns.

Notre Dame Defense

The Fighting Irish defense yet again showed its weakness against the run. The team let up 367 rushing yards (the most ever tallied by Navy against Notre Dame) including a 200 yard rushing day for FB Alexander Teich. Navy totaled 438 yards on the day and completed 10 of 13 conversions on third down.

The loss of Notre Dame Nose Tackle Ian Williams hurt the Irish defense in stopping the Navy run.

The team’s triple option proved too much against the Notre Dame run stopping defense that will be tested again against a superior running team in Tulsa.

This week the Irish hope to limit Tulsa’s scoring to their average yield of 25 points and 392 yards a game.

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