Fiesta Bowl: Notre Dame gets a scare from the Cardinals; Irish survive Louisville 17-10

Throngs of ND apparel clad fans hit the desert, to see the start of their march to a national championship.  Certainly the Irish would be psyched, and not suffer a performance reminiscent of struggles against Pitt and other teams of that ilk.

Well, the good thing that Brian Kelly brought to the Notre Dame head coaching position was bringing teams to the college football tournament twice.  The bad news was those Cincinnati teams were 0-2 once they were in the tournament.  And for a lot of the Fiesta Bowl, it seemed Kelly going 0-3 was a real possibility.

Though kept out of the scoring column, Louisville and QB Teddy Bridgewater looked to be the better team throughout the first quarter.  The first half was scoreless until the final minute, but Louisville's John Wallace hit a field goal, and the Cardinals were ahead 3-0 at halftime.

The Irish showed their fighting instincts by taking the ball at the start of the second half and moving downfield.  However, Irish optimism was put on hold as their QB Everett Golson threw an interception near the Louisville goal line to stop the momentum.

Louisville did not take advantage, and the Irish scored with four minutes left in the third on a Golson 2 yard run, and Irish eyes, well, were relieved. 

In the fourth quarter, the Irish scored again on Theo Riddick 6 yard TD reception from Golson to provide ND a 14-3 lead.  However, Louisville made Notre Dame fans collectively squirm as Bridgewater hit DeVante Parker with a TD pass, and the score narrowed to 17-14. 

Needing some breathing room, Notre Dame's Kyle Brindza field goal provided a 17-10 lead, and Louisville threats never came within range, and the Irish held on.

This game was supposed to be the easy tune-up for a Semi-Finals match, but things will only get tougher as Notre Dame faces high flying Oregon at Cowboys Stadium, as the Irish were the only Final Four team not to win by more than a touchdown.


Updated tournament results:

FIRST ROUND:

In Atlanta:
7 Florida State 21
10 Wisconsin 14

In Chicago:
8 Northern Illinois 10
9 Louisville 25

BCS BOWLS (Quarterfinals):

Fiesta:
1 Notre Dame 17
9 Louisville 10

Orange:
4 Oregon 35
5 Kansas State 17

Sugar:
2 Alabama 42
7 Florida State 17

Rose:
3 Florida 23
6 Stanford 34

Semi-Finals in Arlington, Texas: (January 12th)

Notre Dame versus Oregon

Alabama versus Stanford

BCS Championship in Miami:  (January 26th)