Notre Dame fans slogged their way into Michigan Stadium, ready to see a titanic effort by the No. 8 Irish.
The only Titanic sensation they came away with involved a sinking feeling. Michigan’s defense played iceberg, stopping Notre Dame cold.
The Irish, averaging a healthy 39.2 points per game coming into their showdown with old rival Michigan, didn’t score a legitimate point against U-M’s starters in a 45-14 pummeling. If not for a bogus pass interference penalty on the Wolverines, Notre Dame would have drawn a soggy donut in the downpour versus the front-liners.
As it was, Michigan’s defense made the Irish look all wet even more than Mother Nature. They came away with 180 total yards, roughly the walk they took up the Michigan Stadium tunnel back to their busses. Seventy-five of those were piled up on a drive against backups when the busses were warming in the rain.
Did the monsoon engulfing The Big House have something to do with it? Maybe … but the U-M offense saw no trouble ringing up 45 points on a rain-saturated evening.
