Just don't ask Notre Dame coach Bob Davie about faith until junior Arnaz Battle gets a little more experience.

Notre Dame took the ball out of quarterback Arnaz Battle's hands in the final minutes of regulation.(AP)

No. 1 Nebraska escaped Notre Dame's monumental upset bid with a 27-24 overtime victory at Notre Dame Stadium, but there's more to it than that. Nebraska won because it had more of the Big F and an experienced quarterback in Eric Crouch who came into the game having played in as many bowl games (two) as Battle had starts.

The Huskers, two-touchdown favorites, blew a two-touchdown lead and even trailed in overtime. But the one constant was the faith that Crouch would get it done.

"Basically, if the offense was shut down, which is was," Nebraska coach Frank Solich said, "the plan was to get in front of Crouch and run."

Simple as that. Nebraska was up 21-7 in the third quarter and cruising. Then special teams broke down and allowed Julius Jones a kickoff return (100 yards) and Joey Getherall a punt return (83 yards). Both were for touchdowns and shifted the sellout crowd into full expect-a-miracle mode.

With the game in Battle's hands, though, Davie took it away from his quarterback, who was making only his third career start.

With 67 seconds left, Notre Dame had a first down at its 30, tied at 21. Instead of taking a shot downfield on his home field, Davie chose to run Battle twice and run out the clock.

"We have a young quarterback," Davie said. "There's one minute left. The ball's on our 30. That's why we run draws with shovel passes there."

On the other sideline at least a few Huskers were surprised.

"Usually in a ballgame like that, guys are going to take it down and throw a few Hail Mary's if you have to," Nebraska guard Russ Hochstein said. "You never know. Anything can happen in college football. I was kind of surprised they did that."

It was Nebraska's Big Red vs. Davie's Big Dread -- that the skittish Battle would do something stupid. Already Battle had thrown an interception and made enough other bad decisions to make Touchdown Jesus throw a flag.

The decision allowed Nebraska coach Frank Solich to put the game back in the hands of Crouch, the 1999 Big 12 co-offensive player of the year. After holding No. 23 Notre Dame (1-1) to a field goal on their overtime possession, Nebraska relied on its emerging star.

Crouch deftly hit tight end Tracey Wistrom with a third-and-9 pass for a first down at the Notre Dame 15. Two plays later, Crouch fittingly took the ball himself and scored untouched on an option run, his third rushing touchdown of the game.

"Coach Bob Davie chose to run out the clock and take his chances in overtime" Nebraska coach Frank Solich said.

"I can really see where Coach Davie was coming from on that. All it would have taken is a fumble recovery or an intercepted pass. There's a good chance that we'd be in field goal territory with a first down and then the game could be over. There wouldn't be a chance to get a win in overtime."

The problem is, don't bet against the Huskers in overtime. They've been there, done that with a 3-0 record in extra sessions. It wasn't a classic performance by the Huskers or even Crouch, who once attended a Notre Dame's football camp when he was growing up. He threw for 103 yards and ran for 80.

But Crouch was given control in almost every crucial situation, running himself or throwing on 31 of Nebraska's 74 snaps. Usually, that would take the home crowd out of it. On this day, the lines were blurred.

The last time there were more outsiders at Notre Dame was the first day of freshman orientation. There were estimates that 20,000-30,000 Nebraska fans had wedged their way into the 80,000-seat stadium despite the school getting only 4,000 tickets from Notre Dame.

"It looked like they stole tickets or beat people up outside to get in," Crouch said. "There was way more people than I anticipated being here."

In another mythical, magical time Notre Dame might have taken control of the final quarter. The reality was they were trying to survive it. Battle needs a lot of work. Sometimes he was avoid-your-eyes bad, completing only 3 of 15 for 40 yards. But there were flashes of brilliance, especially on the ground where he broke off a 44-yard run on his way to a 107-yard rushing day.

"I don't think there was any magic here today," Hochstein said. "Notre Dame doesn't play with magic. They play hard. We were grinding on them hard, wearing them down. They made up for it in special teams. There's no magic about that. That's pure hard-nosed football."

After running up 339 yards on Notre Dame through three quarters, Nebraska snapped the ball 14 times in the fourth quarter, gaining 14 yards. There was no panic for a team that is usually playing the third-teamers in the fourth quarter this time of year.

"It's good to go four quarters early in the year," Hochstein said. "It builds character with everybody. There's was no doubting anything. We knew we could do it."

The overtime victory portends both good and bad for Nebraska. The previous overtime victories over Missouri in 1997 and Colorado in 1999 sewed up a national championship (1997) and a spot in the Fiesta Bowl (last season).

But in each case Nebraska was hurt in the polls. It dropped from No. 1 to No. 3 after outlasting Missouri. The close game against Colorado cost the Huskers a last-chance shot at overtaking Virginia Tech in the Bowl Championship Series poll for a shot at the national championship.

"I look at it this way and I think the pollsters do too," Crouch said. "Not too many teams come in here rated No. 1 and come out with a victory. They had the momentum the whole second half. To be able to counteract that says a lot about our program. A lot of teams would have folded and Notre Dame would have run away."

But a lot of teams don't have faith ... or Eric Crouch.