35-21

It isn't even close. This is by far Notre Dame's best quarter of the season because they've been doing it without benefit of their opponent's mistakes. Three offensive drives, three touchdowns.

The latest came on a 4th-and-7 30-yard touchdown toss from Clausen to Grimes. The Greyhounds brought the house at Clausen and he was able to located Grimes in single coverage running a post route. I hear people criticize Clausen nearly daily, but I don't understand why. On this play, for example, he lofted the ball high so as to allow Grimes to run under it. That's Grimes' 2nd touchdown of the season.

The headiest play of the drive, though, was by left tackle Michael Turkovich. The Purdue defensive end jumped way offsides, but Turk did not move. As the Appletini player tried to get back onside, Turk leaped out of his stance. That wasn't a reaction, at least I don't believe it was. That was just a solid awareness of the rules. When Turkovich flew out of his stance, he compelled the referee to toss the flag on the Purdude for causing Turkovich to fly out of his stance.

Funny thing about Clausen's TD toss. After he threw it, Clausen walked downfield to the celebration as matter-of-factly as if he were walking to class. No excitement. No leaping up-and-down. Almost too cool...until he came across Michael Floyd and the two of them hugged.

Another nice touch...Clausen walks out past the yard-line numbers on the PATs and slaps hands with every member of the PAT team. Brandon Walker kicks so much better when the preceding play is a touchdown and not a third down.