Scarlet Knights drop ball on upset
Kerry Smith
Sports Editor
PISCATAWAY, NJ
It was one of those moments defenders in the secondary play for.
The timing was perfect and as Irish quarterback Matt LoVecchio's pass attempt to tight end Dan O'Leary sailed through the air, Scarlet Knight cornerback Tony Berry stepped in its path.
He felt the ball in his hands and thought about the wide open field heading toward the end zone.
Not so fast.
Bobbling the ball for five yards, Berry's plan to tie the game at 24 with a trip to the end zone slipped away like the ball from his hands.
Forget touchdown — talk about letdown.
"You have to have that play," Knight head coach Terry Shea said. "The emotion of the game changed so drastically and so quickly [on that play]."
Berry's inability to capitalize on an opportunity typified the problem Saturday with Rutgers football.
Great teams have playmakers and dazzling athleticism; good teams make do with what they can get and take advantage of their opponents' mistakes. The 3-7 Knights showed a split-second of great and two quarters of good. They had every opportunity to take the No. 11 Irish down to the wire and they squandered them all in the second half, suffering a miserable 45-17 defeat.
For two quarters, the Knights put on their armor for battle, never letting the Irish get out of striking distance. In just four quick minutes, they did what Rutgers teams before them had failed to do — not only score against the Irish but actually hold a lead in the game.
But for all the emotion tied to the Knights last home game, they could only play over their heads for so long.
"We were right in the mix of things and during halftime we definitely felt like we could come back," defensive back Garret Shea said. "But they made the plays when they had to make them. Good teams find a way to do that."
But for the Knights, great turned to good and good turned to mediocre. And before the last seconds ticked off the clock and almost every single Rutgers fan evacuated the stadium, mediocre turned to downright bad.
When a team cannot even keep their fans in the stadium on the seniors' farewell game and the head coach's final game, it is glaring evidence of a program gone awry.
Not even the Rutgers' student section, which in the first two quarters displayed half-naked men in freezing temperatures baring the cold as their counterparts bore the heat on the field, could be convinced that their team was worthy of their attention for a minute passed the opening drive of the fourth quarter.
Talk about letdown.
"In the second half the game fell through our hands, literally." said Terry Shea.
The Knights game plan fell through and fell hard.
After two quarters of surprisingly tough play, the Knights came out of the locker room revved up, scoring in the third quarter on a 65-yard touchdown run by Dennis Thomas to cut Notre Dame's lead to 24-17.
On the very next drive, Berry could have tied it up but did not.
On the following four plays the Knight offense could have made it close but did not.
Four drives equaling four turnovers spelled defeat for the Knights — a defeat they could have avoided.
It was not so much that the Irish turned up the heat on defense as it was that the Knight offense collapsed.
The Irish were sloppy — far too sloppy for a nationally ranked team — and left themselves wide open for an upset.
"We certainly did not play our best game." Irish head coach Bob Davie said. "We were sloppy and just played a sloppy kind of game. I'm just glad to get out of here with a win."
Glad to get out with a win because without a few missed Rutgers opportunities momentum would have swung the way of the Knights and the Irish would have been faced with a whole different ball game.
Would have. Could have. Should have.
"They're America's team but we practice all week just like they do," Rutgers running back Dennis Thomas said.
Rutgers might practice, but they do not execute.
And that makes all the difference.
The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Monday, November 20, 2000
