Notre Dame suffers 7th straight bowl defeat
Dismal year for Irish ends with 38-21 loss to Oregon St. in Insight
Jeff Topping / ReutersNotre Dame running back Ryan Grant is stopped by a host of Oregon State defenders during the Insight Bowl on Tuesday.
updated 2:56 a.m. ET June 25, 2005
Notre Dame’s “win one for Ty” vow was only a fantasy. Derek Anderson’s arm and the leaky Irish secondary made sure of that.
Anderson and Oregon State finished off Notre Dame’s dreary season with a 38-21 beating of the Irish on Tuesday night in the Insight Bowl.
Anderson, in his final game for the Beavers, tied an Insight record with four touchdown passes, two to tight end Joe Newton.
The 6-foot, 6-inch quarterback completed 28 of 45 passes for 358 yards with no interceptions against Notre Dame’s leaky secondary.
Anderson, the game’s offensive MVP, moved ahead of Steve Stenstrom to No. 2 on the Pac-10 career yards passing list with 11,249. Only Carson Palmer (11,818) had more.
“Derek is a very, very good quarterback,” Oregon State coach Mike Riley said. “Since we’ve known him, he has constantly gotten better. It’s been really fun working with him, because he’s like a sponge. He just loves to learn and get better. I wish we had another year.”
The Irish (6-6) had talked about winning the game for coach Tyrone Willingham, fired at the end of the regular season. But Sammie Stroughter’s 52-yard punt return and Derrick Doggett’s blocked punt helped Oregon State to an early 21-0 lead.
“The short field position the first half just killed us,” Notre Dame interim coach Kent Baer said. “The blocked punt, and the punt return, you take that away, and it’s a much closer game — but that’s all part of it.”
Brady Quinn threw two touchdown passes as Notre Dame twice cut the lead to 10 points, the last on an 18-yard throw to Rhema McKnight that made it 31-21 with 4:52 left.
The Irish onside kick try backfired and left Oregon State at the Notre Dame 28. Dwight Wright’s 3-yard TD run with 3:19 left sealed the victory.
After a 1-4 start, Oregon State (7-5) won six of its last seven games.
The Irish, meanwhile, lost their seventh consecutive bowl game. Notre Dame’s last postseason victory was in the Cotton Bowl at the end of the 1993 season.
The skid is one shy of the all-time NCAA record shared by South Carolina (snapped in 1995) and West Virginia (2000).
Oregon State improved to 2-0 against Notre Dame. Five seasons ago, the Beavers pounded the Irish 41-9 just down the road at the Fiesta Bowl.
The Irish pass defense crumbled in three consecutive season-ending losses, allowing 14 TD passes against Pittsburgh, Southern California and Oregon State.
The Beavers had TD drives of only 26, 4 and 45 yards take their early lead, then went 90 yards in 12 plays midway through the second half after Notre Dame had cut the lead to 24-14. Anderson’s 1-yard TD toss to Newton capped the long drive and it was 31-14 with 12:17 to play.
“That was a big drive,” Anderson said. “We were talking on the sidelines and said, ‘Let’s go answer it.”’
With Willingham ousted, and hired as head coach at Washington, the Irish played under Baer, Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator. New Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots, takes over the Irish program when his NFL season ends.
“I’d be lying if I told you it didn’t affect some people,” Quinn said. “You try your best, at least as much as you can, and try not to look too far ahead or too far back.
“I think this team dealt with this situation that we were given as good as any team could.”
Anderson’s passes of 12 yards to George Gillett, 11 to Newton and 11 to Dan Haines had Oregon State up 21-0 with 7:49 left in the first half. But the Irish managed a 13-play, 84-yard drive, aided by a pass interference penalty against Brandon Browner.
On third-and-7, Quinn threw 13 yards to Anthony Fasano for the score to cut the lead to 21-7 with 56 seconds left in the half.
Alex Serna, who missed two field goals in the first half, kicked a 38-yarder to give Oregon State a 24-7 third-quarter lead. But the next time the Beavers had the ball, Jerome Collins deflected Saam Paulescu’s punt, and the Irish quickly went 49 yards in six plays. Darius Walker ran 5 yards to cut the lead to 24-14 with 2:40 left in the third.
The capacity crowd of 45,917 was the largest since the Insight Bowl moved to Bank One Ballpark six years ago. The roof was open at kickoff, but was closed in the first quarter as a light rain fell.
© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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