The Irish Nation has been enjoying Saturday's thrilling victory in the only way we football-obsessed know how to do: Breaking down how incredibly sweet the last play was.

HouseRockBuilt does some beautiful Microsoft Paint (I can assume) on the formations that Weis and Dorrell threw out there and the totally awesome chaos that ensued once the play started.  Seven men in protection.  Game saving blocks.  Sleight-of-hand, discipline-destroying pump fakes.  A great success.

If you want to look at, with photographic evidence, the wondrous nature of Brady's pumpfake, please look no further than here or here.   People can bash Quinn's season all they want, but he has a team with obvious problems sitting at 6-1 and looking at, in all likelihood, a BCS berth.  I've realized that I expect perfection every play from Number Ten, and only after extensively watching other great quarterbacks, both in college and the NFL, do you realize that very seldom are they perfect.  Mistakes happens.  Bad reads, drops, great plays by the defense, missed blocking assignments.  Quinn's put together a damn fine senior season so far, although we're all going to remember him for the events that happen on the evening of November 25th, regardless.

I love the use of the words "would" and "should" in relation to college football.  Per Kyle's BlogPoll ballot:

For a quick rebuttal to Charlie's genius, we'll go to...so many options here....EDSBS:

Everyone, save for those occasional juggernaut teams that nobody touches once every few years, "should" and "would" have losses.  What makes them good-to-great teams is that they don't.  Yes, Notre Dame probably "should" have lost four games already this season, but whether that be total incompetence from the other sideline or, I don't know, Notre Dame making plays when it counts, they haven't.  Just to point at Kyle's team, the Georgia Bulldogs, they probably "should" have lost to Colorado and Mississippi State -teams that have combined to be God awful this year - at home, and if a hold on a punt block here or deep ball there go the other way, they might have lost at Ole Miss.  Then again, if a couple of balls don't get tipped and the defense can get one break to go their way, UGA "would" have possibly beaten Rocky Top and not been in such a distraught state they lost to Vanderbilt the following game.

Southern Cal last year, by all intents and purposes, "should" have lost three games (Notre Dame, Fresno State, Arizona State) last year, and if you want to play it the other way, they also "would" have won the BCS Title for the second consecutive year if the play call on fourth down had been a little more creative or if someone informed Pete Carroll of the concept of a quarterback spy.  You can go on like this forever, but doesn't it seems that certain teams (Ohio State from 2002 on, USC under Carroll, Notre Dame under Weis) don't lose that many close games?  There's a lot of games they "should" lose, or "would" lose if certain things hadn't gone their way, but they don't, and that's why they're all on pace for BCS bowls in consecutive years.

I won't doubt that anyone that has Notre Dame anywhere beyond the upper boundary of the top ten is overrating a team that can't run the ball and has at least two mental lapses a game in the secondary, but the fact remains that they "are" 6-1 with a handful of nice wins despite a lot of teams - ask Dorrell - treating their regular season game like the national championship week in and week out.

BlogPoll Ballot: Week Eight

My thoughts generally get put into the final summary anyway, so we'll just do this all quick-like.

1) Lamarr Woodley

2. Troy Smith
   
3. James Davis
   
4. Calvin Johnson
   
5. Brady Quinn

 Penn State fans are an interesting brand.  Despite all the evidence to the contrary, they alone thought their Lions would compete for another Big Ten title.  It wasn't like some serious injury happened or one unit clearly didn't live up to the national, non-State College expectations, but replacing your 5th-in-Heisman-voting quarterback, four offensive linemen and most of your secondary and defensive line - with road games in Columbus and South Bend - proved to be as difficult as everyone not wearing blue and white thought they would be.

Still, in an attempt to recover from the Michigan loss and near home upset to Juice "That Was A Good One" Williams, they're talking championship next season.  Yes, your non-conference schedule is so ridiculously easy outside of Notre Dame you should fire your athletic director, but just because you're returning talent doesn't mean that it will be any good.  Anthony Morelli might still look mildly retarded at the quarterback position and with the loss of workhorse Tony Hunt, the offense could either be a high-flying show or a trainwreck fueled by an offensive line that didn't get any better with the loss of Levi Brown and a quarterback who still locks onto receivers and can't throw a consistent deep ball.

Penn State fans: like a grandmother talking about their only grandchild since the beginning of time.