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Friday, December 13, 2002
Frozen Moment: The bomb that broke the Irish
By Mike Diegnan
BCSfootball.com
TEMPE, Ariz. - If only Leon Lett were so lucky.
|  | | Chad Johnson turned a short pass into a 74-yard touchdown in the second quarter ... or did he? |
All season long, Notre Dame bent but never broke. Tonight, that all changed, as Jonathan Smith and Ken Simonton relentlessly shredded the Notre Dame defense for 25 minutes. But the Beavers had little to show for it in the 30th Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on Monday night. The first two drives lasted more than five minutes each, but resulted in field goals. Another drive inside the Irish 5-yard line ended without a score.
"They just played good defense," said Oregon State receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who caught six passes for 74 yards. "Take nothing away from them, but we might have had a few assignment errors."
Finally, after taking over from their own 10 midway through the second, the Beavers had their first real success in what would turn out to be a rout. Failing to score did not rattle Smith. The junior from Glendora, Calif. continued to pick apart the Irish defense, hitting Houshmandzadeh for a 14-yard completion after missing the wideout on the previous play.
After Ken Simonton ran for two on the following play, OSU had the ball on the 26. Smith looked left. Clifford Jefferson took a chance on the ball, but the junior Irish cornerback was too quick on his release.
"Clifford undercut the rout," Notre Dame coach Bob Davie said. "Maybe he could have intercepted the ball, but made a bad decision."
Instead of cruising in for six on a pick, the ball landed right in Chad Johnson's hands and the 6-foot-2, 187-pounder headed straight down the sideline.
"It was all over," said Johnson with a large diamond glistening in his ear. "There are certain things you can't do as a DB and he broke too early on the ball. Once he missed, I knew it was all over from there."
Johnson then pulled further ahead of Jefferson than Michael Johnson does opponents in the 400. Jefferson pulled up lame in his effort to catch Oregon State's quickest receiver. Nobody else on Notre Dame could catch up to Johnson, but something else did. As he neared the end zone, he began celebrating. As he reached the 5, he slowed down. By the 2, he didn't have the ball.
Wait a second.
"I had no idea," Johnson said.
In his best impersonation of Lett in a Super Bowl and lately, Steelers rookie receiver Plaxico Burress, Johnson let go of the ball on the 2-yard-line and raced into the end zone, where he celebrated a game-breaking, 74-yard score that gave Oregon State a 12-0 lead.
"They didn't tell me until I got to the sideline," admitted Johnson, one of many junior college recruits who helped make Oregon State a Top 5 team this season. "It was my fault. I was supposed to be focused on the game. I was worried about the celebration. So it was my fault."
"Yeah, I saw the replay," said Notre Dame linebacker Rocky Boiman. "But the bottom line is that they deserved that score. The guy scored a touchdown."
Cries for instant replay died early in the season after numerous game-breaking calls were made, but the sell-out crowd of 75,428 at Sun Devil Stadium roared in disapproval when Bob Davie pointed unsuccessfully to the Big East officials that they had missed the call.
"I didn't think he had fumbled it, personally," Houshmandzadeh said. "Excitement. You see nobody in front of you. You just know, what else is there to do? You are by yourself. I think he was in the end zone.
"I looked up, but only caught the tail end of it," T.J. said smiling.
Replays throughout the stadium showed that Johnson clearly dropped the ball before reaching the end zone. But no replay in college football ended any thoughts of Notre Dame winning the Fiesta Bowl, as the Beavers cruised to a 41-9 victory.
Although the Irish closed within 12-3 by halftime, it was clear who the dominant team was on the field. In the second half, both teams traded possessions before Oregon State's big-play offense broke loose.
"Sooner or later, they would have to challenge us," said Houshmandzadeh. "They know Chad can run. And I can run too. And (Robert) Prescott can run. Once we stepped on the field and ran at them, they had never seen it before."
"It was just a matter of time that we were going to (break it open)," McCall said. "Sure enough it did."
It left the Irish shellshocked.
"It was just one of those nights where we couldn't get it together the way we could all year, and it showed all year," said Boiman. "I'm pretty shocked with how the whole night went."
Mike Diegnan is the editor of BCSfootball.com.
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Chad Johnson scores on a 74-yard pass from Jonathan Smith -- barely.
Dennis Erickson is happy with the Beavers' Fiesta Bowl win against Notre Dame.