LSU blows out Notre Dame in Sugar Bowl 41-14

Recap: JaMarcus Russell thoroughly outplayed Brady Quinn and made a compelling case that the mammoth quarterback's next pass should come in the NFL.

As for Notre Dame, it was a familiar meltdown at bowl time.

The Sugar Bowl returned to New Orleans with a Cajun-style party put on by No. 4 LSU, which dominated college football's most storied program in a 41-14 rout Wednesday night that had the Superdome rockin'.

It also gave the 11th-ranked Fighting Irish a most unwanted spot in the record book.

The school of Touchdown Jesus and Knute Rockne now has a more ignominious distinction: nine straight bowl losses, breaking a tie with South Carolina and West Virginia for the most in NCAA history. And this was like most of the others, a double-digit blowout that showed Notre Dame still has work to do if it wants to compete with the nation's best....more

Scoring Summary  FIRST QUARTER  LSU TD 11:16 Keiland Williams 3 yard run (Tigers 6, Fighting Irish 0)    LSU PAT 11:16 Colt David kick (Tigers 7, Fighting Irish 0)    LSU TD 6:03 Dwayne Bowe 11 yard pass from JaMarcus Russell (Tigers 13, Fighting Irish 0)    LSU PAT 6:03 Colt David kick (Tigers 14, Fighting Irish 0)    ND TD 1:26 David Grimes 24 yard pass from Brady Quinn (Tigers 14, Fighting Irish 6)    ND PAT 1:26 Carl Gioia kick (Tigers 14, Fighting Irish 7)    SECOND QUARTER  ND TD 2:25 Jeff Samardzija 10 yard pass from Brady Quinn (Tigers 14, Fighting Irish 13)    ND PAT 2:25 Carl Gioia kick (Fighting Irish 14, Tigers 14)    LSU TD 1:15 JaMarcus Russell 5 yard run (Tigers 20, Fighting Irish 14)    LSU PAT 1:15 Colt David kick (Tigers 21, Fighting Irish 14)    THIRD QUARTER  LSU FG 9:34 Colt David 25 yard (Tigers 24, Fighting Irish 14)    LSU FG 3:48 Colt David 37 yard (Tigers 27, Fighting Irish 14)    LSU TD 0:18 Brandon LaFell 58 yard pass from JaMarcus Russell (Tigers 33, Fighting Irish 14)    LSU PAT 0:18 Colt David kick (Tigers 34, Fighting Irish 14)    FOURTH QUARTER  LSU TD 7:27 Keiland Williams 20 yard run (Tigers 40, Fighting Irish 14)    LSU PAT 7:27 Ryan Gaudet kick (Tigers 41, Fighting Irish 14)      Statistics  Notre Dame Passing   C/ATT YDS LG TD INT Brady Quinn 15/35 148 24 2 2   Team 15/35 148 24 2 2    LSU Passing   C/ATT YDS LG TD INT JaMarcus Russell 21/34 332 58 2 1   Team 21/34 332 58 2 1  Notre Dame Rushing   ATT YDS AVG TD LG James Aldridge 3 7 2.3 0 4   Darius Walker 22 128 5.8 0 35   Travis Thomas 2 2 1.0 0 1   Brady Quinn 3 6 2.0 0 12   Jeff Samardzija 1 0 0.0 0 0   Team 31 143 4.6 0 35    LSU Rushing   ATT YDS AVG TD LG Keiland Williams 14 107 7.6 2 20   R.J. Jackson 1 7 7.0 0 7   Trindon Holliday 1 11 11.0 0 11   Justin Vincent 12 71 5.9 0 19   Craig Davis 1 8 8.0 0 8   Jacob Hester 3 25 8.3 0 12   JaMarcus Russell 5 16 3.2 1 21   Team 37 245 6.6 3 21  Notre Dame Receiving   REC YDS AVG TD LG Darius Walker 2 30 15.0 0 21   Rhema McKnight 3 22 7.3 0 8   David Grimes 1 24 24.0 1 24   Jeff Samardzija 8 59 7.4 1 15   John Carlson 1 13 13.0 0 13   Team 15 148 9.9 2 24    LSU Receiving   REC YDS AVG TD LG Justin Vincent 2 19 9.5 0 11   Craig Davis 4 50 12.5 0 17   Early Doucet 8 115 14.4 0 58   Jacob Hester 1 12 12.0 0 12   Dwayne Bowe 5 78 15.6 1 29   Brandon LaFell 1 58 58.0 1 58   Team 21 332 15.8 2 58  Team Stat Comparison   ND LSU  Passing attempts - completions 35-15 34-21    Gross passing yards 148 332    Rushing attempts - yards 31-143 37-245    First downs 17 31    Punts - average 5-47.4 2-42.0    Return yards 20 39    Fumbles - lost 0-0 2-1    Penalties - yards 4-40 9-95    Time of possession 28:14 31:46

Statistical Matchups

SMART CHART NOTRD   TEAM   LSU 32.4   PTS FOR 33.1 22.4   PTS AGNST 12.5 10.0   DIFF. 20.6 273.8 PASS YDS   244.5 124.3   RUSH YDS 159.7 192.7   PASS D 145.5 127.8   RUSH D 93.3 -0.4   TO DIFF 0.0

POWER STATS YARDS PER POINT TEAM OFF DEF DIFF NOTRD 12.3 14.3 -2.0 LSU 12.2 19.1 -6.9 YARDS PER PASS TEAM OFF DEF DIFF NOTRD 7.5 7.6 0.0 LSU 8.8 5.3 3.5 YARDS PER RUSH TEAM OFF DEF DIFF NOTRD 3.8 3.6 0.2 LSU 4.6 3.0 1.6