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Notre Dame crushes winless Washington

Oct 26, 2008 - 4:41 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Notre Dame showed no sympathy for its former coach.

James Aldridge rushed for 84 yards and two touchdowns as Notre Dame rolled over hapless Washington, 33-7, on Saturday.

Michael Floyd had 107 receiving yards and a touchdown for the Fighting Irish (5-2), who held the Huskies to 124 yards of offense.

"That's as good a defense as we have played in quite some time," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said. ""Until that last drive when they scored, (Washington) didn't even cross midfield and that's a heck of a performance."

Former Fighting Irish coach Tyrone Willingham dropped to 0-2 against Notre Dame as his Washington (0-7) club remained winless this season. Willingham was 21-16 from 2002-04 at Notre Dame before he was fired after a 6-6 campaign.

"Obviously our offensive productivity was not very good, but at the same time, I thought our defense did some things for portions of the ball game to kind of give us a chance," Willingham said. "We just could not mount enough of an offensive standpoint to make it a ball game. It was a very difficult night."

Floyd put Notre Dame on top with a 51-yard touchdown reception less than 2 1/2 minutes into the game, and Golden Tate extended the lead to 14-0 on a 21-yard run with 7:48 left in the opening quarter.

"I was really concerned and wanted to make sure we didn't come out flat in the game," Weis said. "I put it on the coaches to be aggressive in playcalls early in the game so we could get on top of them early. We felt that today it was important in the first quarter to get on top of them."

Brandon Walker booted a 28-yard field goal early in the second quarter to extend the advantage to 17-0 as the Huskies failed to get anything going offensively.

Washington's inept offense mustered three first downs during the first half and totaled just 38 yards in the game's opening 30 minutes. Huskies quarterback Randy Fouch was 1-of-9 for five yards through the first two quarters.

Notre Dame virtually put the game out of reach in the third quarter as Aldridge scored on a 4-yard touchdown run and Walker kicked a 42-yard field goal to make it 27-0 with 4:31 left in the quarter.

"The line opened up some big holes, and I think I was just doing my job - just getting through them," Aldridge said. "Everyone was doing their job today."

Fouch finished 11-of-25 for 98 yards, connecting with D'Andre Goodwin on a 6-yard touchdown with 2:56 left to prevent a shutout.