Lore goes wanting

 For the better part of three quarters in Columbus last night, the ghosts were walkin' again. Wayne Millner was again catching that pass from Bill Shakespeare. Joe Montana was drinking chicken soup and leading an epic comeback in that icebox they called the Cotton Bowl. A bunch of gold hats were getting in Earl Campbell's way, and, down there in the desperate Sugar Bowl darkness, Tom Clements was throwing out of the end zone to Robin Weber.

And then ...

And then, well, lore ran out of gas.

This was not going to be another evening demanding statuary for the sons of Notre Dame. Marcus Freeman's first game as head coach was not going to be an epic takedown, on the road, as a 17-point dog. Reality was going to set in, or descend, or whatever it is reality does.

And the reality is, Ohio State is just that much better than Notre Dame. Just took the Buckeyes awhile to show it.

Took 'em, finally, until there fewer than 20 minutes to play in the game last night, at which point Notre Dame led 10-7. Forty-plus minutes football, and the gold hats had held an offense expected to turn scoreboards into pinwheels to a measly touchdown. How was that for an entrance for Mr. Freeman?

Unfortunately, less noticeable was that the Irish offense wasn't lighting any sparklers, either. They couldn't run the football. Tyler Buchner, the new QB, looked serviceable in the first half, and somewhat less so in the second. The avalanche was about to commence.

The numbers t'weren't pretty. 

From the time Ohio State took possession on its on 30 with 4:52 to play in the third, it ran 30 plays to Notre Dame's, um, eight. It had the ball for 15:31 to Notre Dame's 4:29. It gained 185 yards to Notre Dame's 29.

And of course the Buckeyes scored twice to win the game, 21-10.

They got the go-ahead score with 17 seconds to play in the third quarter on C.J. Stroud's 24-yard pass to Xavier Johnson, a fifth-year former walk-on. It was one of the first real openings Stroud had all night, and he had the Irish to thank for it: They unaccountably brought a blitz and left a freshman DB on an island against Johnson.

After that, the Irish ran five plays and punted.

After that, Ohio State went 95 yards in 14 plays, chewing up half the fourth quarter and grinding down the weary Irish D with some stellar Woody Hayes three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust-ing:  Ten of the 14 plays in the drive were Stroud handing the ball to TreVeyon Henderson or Mylan Williams, and Williams lugged it five straight times to finish it off from two yards out.

Game. Over. Lore, over.

Or just deferred, perhaps.

Listen. Overselling Notre Dame is an American cottage industry, but if last night revealed nothing else, it's that Notre Dame will have a fair amount of gumption going for it this year. That's because Freeman, pretty clearly, is a gumption guy. He's, like, chock full of gumption. And so you figure his football team is going to play that way.

Now, how does that translate to Ws?

We shall see. The offense is not going to wake up any echoes, nor even the scoreboard operator; its best weapon is tight end Michael Mayer. Buchner, at least not yet, is not Montana or Hanratty or Rice or Theisman, all those ringing names. And the running game wheezed out an average of 2.5 yards per carry last night.

"But Mr. Blob," you're saying now. "They're not gonna be playing Ohio State every week. They'll get better in a hurry when Marshall rolls in next week."

True. And after that, there's beatable Cal and North Carolina, which almost lost to Appalachian State. And, down the road, UNLV and Navy and Boston College, which lost to Rutgers yesterday. 

Gumption alone will win most of those. The rest will come, at least to the extent it's capable.

Conclusion: The Freeman Era didn't open with a W. But it showed enough to make you think there are more than a few on the way.

Which is all anyone who's not an unreconstructed Domer expected this season, right?