How will the Irish respond?

Gameday #12 Notre Dame (3-1) vs. Purdue (4-0) 2:30 p.m NBC
By Justin Albers
basketballss132002@yahoo.com
INDIANAPOLIS- There were high hopes at the beginning of the season. Everybody was saying "Quinn for Heisman" and "Notre Dame is going to win it all". That was close to changing after their first game of the season tested the Irish dearly. Notre Dame escaped Georgia Tech with a 14-10 victory that was not by any means pretty. The Irish came out still having something to prove against Penn State a week later, and this time they didn't dissappoint. Notre Dame's offense was moving on all cylinders as the Irish manhandled the Nittany Lions 41-17. Everybody was back on the bandwagon and ready for a huge matchup with Michigan.
The Wolverines changed everything for the Irish. They gave em a huge slap in the face and handed them their lunch in a 47-21 final. The game was never close, and you had the feeling that Charlie Weis would never let that happen again. Then just last week Notre Dame had a mathup with Michigan State in East Lansing. The Spartans were one of the 2 teams to beat Notre Dame in the regular season last year in a 44-41 overtime game. After the game Charlie Weis apperantly said "I will never lose to Michigan State again." We all assumed that he wasn't going to lose this game, especially after that pounding defeat they had just taken from Michigan. Well, once again we were surprised. Michigan State jumped out early, and absolutely controlled Notre Dame in the first half of the game. The game went into the fourth quarter with the Irish trailing 37-21, and many people were upset and giving up on Notre Dame. Thanks to Brady Quinn and a fabulous defense, Notre Dame was able to rally to a 40-37 emotional win. They kept their BCS hopes alive, and beat a team that they would have hated to lose to a second time in 2 years. The person Irish fans really need to be thanking is Michigan State WR Matt Trannon who got Notre Dame all fired up after walking into the Notre Dame sideline. Without that incident I don't think that Notre Dame would have won the game.
Now the question is, How will they come out against Purdue? We expected them to manhandle Michigan State last week, and that just didn't happen. I would expect Notre Dame to jump out early in this game due to the pathetic Purdue defense, but who knows. This Irish team continues to surprise us to the point that we never know what to expect. They better be ready though, because Purdue is going to give Notre Dame everything that they have.