For a delirious instant, Notre Dame’s quarterback was a gunslinging revelation. The defense danced in the end zone, gobbling up a mistake by the opponent’s purported Heisman Trophy-worthy quarterback and spitting out a score.
And if you dared blink, the moment passed and the soupy fog of Irish’s 2007 season greeted your reopened eyes.
A 27-14 loss Saturday to No. 4 Boston College was neither particularly encouraging nor uniquely dismal. It was merely another effort populating the purgatory of a 1-6 team stumbling toward any consistency — and in some ways stumbling into more problems than it had when the day began.
The crowd of 80,795 at Notre Dame Stadium was charged for perhaps four minutes of game time, and one of the sparks was Evan Sharpley relieving an ineffective Jimmy Clausen at quarterback early in the second half and promptly delivering a 79-yard, 59-second drive for the Irish’s first score of the day.
So compound a loss with a dilemma. Clausen completed just 7 of 20 passes with two interceptions. Sharpley was 4 of 7 on that first drive and then 7 of 22 thereafter, but the Irish nonetheless moved the ball some on his watch.
So what is Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis to do? Drop the freshman and risk shattering his psyche? Or stick with Clausen and possibly risk losing his team? And will it really matter anyway?
“I have to wait and see how it goes,” Weis said, labeling the quarterback play overall “hot and cold.”
“I’m never big on blaming a quarterback for the lack of production of the offense, but obviously he’s part of it. But I’ll have to wait until I take a look at the stuff.”
The stuff was a variation on the themes of a maddeningly inconsistent season. The defense could boast freshman linebacker Brian Smith’s 25-yard interception return for a score — immediately following the scoring drive Sharpley led — that jolted a stadium into some long-overdue frenzy.
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The defense also surrendered 263 first-half yards alone, 459 overall. And a celebration penalty after Smith’s score led to a short field for Boston College (7-0), which begat a frenzy-killing Matt Ryan touchdown pass less than two minutes later.
The offense demonstrated sporadic verve but amassed 27 net rushing yards and had a late touchdown — on a fourth-and-1 play, no less — nullified because of a holding penalty. With Notre Dame, no good deed goes unpunished.
“We do have a narrow margin for error,” tight end John Carlson said. “We can’t afford to make mistakes — at least not a lot of mistakes. We don’t produce enough on offense, so because of that, we can’t have penalties in the red zone. We need to take advantage of every opportunity.”
They didn’t, resulting in a fifth straight loss to Boston College. But of greater significance than futility landmarks is who will receive the latest chance to avoid them next week, be it Clausen or Sharpley under center.
Clausen was not made available for comment after the game. And the only thing brazen about Sharpley’s postgame appearance was his shoe selection, a pair of pink loafers to match his dress shirt. He was minimally effusive over the energy he brought in relief of Clausen, never mind campaigning for a gig.
“There’s a great quote: Nothing is accomplished without enthusiasm,” Sharpley said. “That’s kind of how I like to approach things.”
Of course, the Notre Dame problems continue to run deeper than one position, as intense as the glare on that position is.
The man with the pink shoes reinforced that point late Saturday. Someone directly asked Sharpley if, after patiently waiting this long in the quarterback soap opera, he would like to start for the Irish.
Replied Sharpley pointedly: “I’d like to start winning.”
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