Notre Dame’s defense continued its strong late-season play and the green-clad Irish flattened Army 27-3 at Yankee Stadium in New York. Cierre Wood rushed for 88 yards and Tyler Eifert caught four passes from Tommy Rees for 78 yards and one touchdown, while Darrin Walls scored on a 42-yard interception return. Both teams stood at 6-5 at the end of the evening and will move on to finish their regular seasons against their respective archrivals. For Notre Dame, this means a trip across the country to play 7-4 USC in the Coliseum.

The game began after a long opening ceremony in which nostalgia and patriotism took center stage. Although the teams involved in this historic rivalry are no longer national championship contenders, the atmosphere was electric at the outset. The Black Knights were able to make it interesting during the first quarter, but the Irish asserted control during the second quarter and removed all doubt before the second half was more than one minute old.

Notre Dame took the opening kickoff and drove confidently to the Army seven yard line. Once again, however, Coach Brian Kelly abandoned the run against the undersized Knights and Rees tossed a poorly thrown pass that was picked off in the end zone for a touchback. Army’s offense quickly moved downfield as the Irish could not adjust to the outside pitch game, and it appeared the Knights would score when they reached the two yard line. Army quarterback Trent Steelman lost a chance at an easy touchdown when he held the ball too long on a third down rollout, and his hesitation enabled the Irish to cover up his open receiver. The Knights settled for a short field goal by Alex Carlton and a 3-0 lead.

A 33-yard pass from Rees to Michael Floyd brought Notre Dame into Army territory, but kicker David Ruffer was summoned after the drive stalled. The former walk-on, who has not missed a field goal all season, drilled a 47-yarder to tie the game as the second quarter got underway.

The Irish defense returned to action and showed that the coaching staff had made the proper adjustments to Army’s version of the option, and started to hit the quarterback on every play for good measure. The result was a string of ten unproductive possessions for the Knights in which they could manage only 74 net yards in 35 plays.

Meanwhile, Rees and the Notre Dame attack began to find a rhythm. A poor punt gave the Irish the ball inside Army territory, and Rees found Eifert with a long heave to the one yard line. The play was initially ruled a touchdown after a great diving catch by Eifert, but replay review showed he was down at the one yard line. Robert Hughes scored on the next play to give Notre Dame a 10-3 lead with eight minutes remaining in the first half.

After a three and out by Army, Rees again found Eifert on a well-thrown deep pass, but this time emerging star at tight end caught the ball in stride and waltzed into the end zone. It appeared that Notre Dame might score again before the half as they marched across midfield with three minutes still on the clock, but the drive fizzled and the Irish settled for a 17-3 lead at intermission.

When the Knights took the second half kickoff, the question as to what adjustments they made to attack Notre Dame was answered immediately. Steelman threw incomplete on second and long before launching a third down pass into the hands of Walls, who brought it back with a convoy of Irish defenders for a 24-3 margin. Kelly adopted a conservative approach from that point forward, and Ruffer was able to add another field goal to his spotless resume before the second teamers finished up. A would-be touchdown and exclamation point on this victory was derailed early in the fourth quarter due to an offensive pass interference penalty on Floyd, but it hardly mattered in the final analysis.

The game did not deviate from the predicted script, as Rees threw only 20 passes for the second consecutive week and Notre Dame worked on its running game. The Knights were forced to improvise on offense when the Irish took away their bread and butter, and they imply did not have the athletes to challenge a defense that has become cohesive and confident during the past month.

Let’s review the pregame questions to see how this game was won.

Can the Irish break a few long runs and reach the 200 yard mark on the ground? Wood has a few nice runs, but the Irish managed only 155 yards on 38 carries. That’s not bad against a lot of teams, but a 5+ yard average and 200 total rush yards were reasonable expectations given the opponent.

Will fullback Hassin rush for 100+ yards? Hassin managed only 23 yards in 8 attempts.

Will Notre Dame dominate both lines of scrimmage? Yes, absolutely.

Can Rees continue to display the poise and accuracy he demonstrated last week? Yes, his careless interception was quickly forgotten and it was good to see him throw a couple of quality deep passes.

Will the Irish special teams make another significant contribution? Nothing memorable, but Notre Dame enjoyed a field position advantage all night.

Can Steelman and his tall receivers cause problems for the Notre Dame secondary? Not really. The Irish caught as many of his passes (2) as his receivers.

Can the Irish avoid injuries to key players? It appeared that Manti Te’o suffered a broken nose, but he should be able to play next week. Michael Floyd will finally get to battle USC for the first time in his three years at Notre Dame.

Although the Irish cannot replay the Navy and Tulsa contests and gain redemption for past blunders and breakdowns, they can show actual progress from the 6-6 regular season records in 2008-09 by whipping USC and breaking the Trojans’ eight-game stranglehold on this illustrious series. If that were to happen, Notre Dame fans would have a lot to be thankful for.