Ray Glier

ATLANTA - The Notre Dame defense will hear hosannas all the way to Mass this morning. Charlie Weis shouldn't be too happy with that.

The Notre Dame coach won't have '617' to smack the defense in the face with this week. He can't be too happy about that either.

Remember that number? It was Ohio State's total offense in the Fiesta Bowl rout last January and Weis used it to incite his defense throughout summer camp.

But after the Irish held Georgia Tech to a touchdown and a field goal in a 14-10 win, there will be a rush to declare the Notre Dame defense fixed.

Now what Charlie?

Well, here's what.

Georgia Tech's offense stinks. Tell your team that.

The reason All-American wide receiver Calvin Johnson makes a lot of acrobatic catches because quarterback Reggie Ball can't hit a receiver in stride.

Here Calvin catch this pass flung over your head. Here Calvin snatch this pass off your shoe tops.

Notre Dame's defense looked pretty sharp from your view on the couch, but you should want to see more.

You want to see the Irish on defense when the other team has more than one stud on offense. Tech had Calvin Johnson, not much else.

You want to see Notre Dame hold a running back from Michigan to 54 yards, not a running back from Georgia Tech, Tashard Choice, who was a backup at Oklahoma, albeit to Adrian Peterson.

Ball is as tough as they come, a quarterback who runs and doesn't slide. But he completed 12 of 24 passes for 140 yards and if Johnson (111 yards receiving) wasn't catching seven passes, Tech's offense was no threat.

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It was interesting to hear Weis say after the game, "They are a good football team on defense."

He said nothing about Tech's offense.

I bet Weis will say something this week about Georgia Tech's offense. The guy pushes buttons and what he should tell his defense is don't get too taken with yourself.

Sure, he wants them to have confidence, but if he is honest he will tell his team it will see six or seven better quarterbacks this season than Reggie Ball. It will see better offensive lines and swifter running backs.

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Weis knew how inefficient Tech was with Ball. After the Irish got to the 50 with 10 minutes to play, the Notre Dame coach called three running plays. He said he wasn't running the clock, but it sure looked like it.

It looked like Weis was content to try and land a punt inside the 5 because he knew there was no way Georgia Tech was going 95 yards to take the lead.

As for Notre Dame on offense, you wanted your money back at halftime. Everyone came for a circus and got a book reading.

Quinn looked like he hadn't seen a blitz before. Balls floated or were not thrown hard enough. Running back Darius Walker kept running headlong into blitzes.

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