Did I miss it? Was something hilarious taking place on the Notre Dame sideline?
Did Jimmy Clausen tell a risqué joke? Was Golden Tate doing a moon dance in cleats? Was Pat Kuntz performing cartwheels?
Because if something very amusing wasn't going on, then I for one can't figure out what the hell Charlie Weis was laughing about in the waning seconds of ND's escape in Baltimore against Navy.
Instead and more appropriately, Weis should have been reacting in a polar opposite manner. He should have been boiling over with frustration, irritation, anger and even disgust over what he had just seen.
If he had gone off, it would have been understandable. If he had been prowling the sideline like a wounded animal, chewing on ears left and right, that I could have gotten down with. If he had become a raving and seething maniac, even that I could have related to.
But to laugh, smile and yuk it up. Sorry but I just don't get it!
Weis' Irish had just come perilously close to having suffered what would have been one of the most ignominious losses in college football history, let alone in ND annals. It would have gone down as one of the all-time choke jobs ever. It would have been a defeat the Irish would have never lived down.
Yet, here was Weis wearing anything but a dour countenance. Quite the contrary. He was looking like a guy who had just won the lottery. Given what had just happened, I found Weis' reaction out of place if not downright disturbing. It was truly off-putting!
How could he have mustered any kind of grin after witnessing what, inarguably, was one of the worst nine-minute stretches an Irish team has ever played? This was grade school stuff, not even fit for Pop Warner ball.
The mistakes came fast and furious. Jonas Gray's fumble inside the Navy 5-yard line was just the first in a series of blunders and miscues that were incomprehensible and mind-boggling.
There were culprits to be found everywhere.
A heretofore stout defense started taking on water like a destroyer that had just been torpedoed. Cornerback Raeshon McNeil committed a heinous boner when he allowed a Navy receiver to beat him deep when the Midshipmen were low on both time and timeouts.
Unbelievably, McNeil forgot the most basic of defensive tenets. That being to keep the play in front of you when your opponent doesn't have much clock to work with. This quick strike set up a Navy score on the ensuing down and got the Middies to within 27-21 with still time to do some damage and pull off the most incredible of comebacks.
But culpable as was the defense, they had nothing on the special teams. Notre Dame's onside kick unit was beyond pathetic. They totally embarrassed themselves. Not once but twice they allowed Navy to seize the initiative and recover kicks.
Everyone on the ND side seemed completely lost. The only thing they did was to stand around, shy away from contact and flat out refuse to engage the Navy players who were on a search and destroy mission to get to the ball.
Not only didn't the Irish special teams have a clue but even worse, they played scared. Their approach was one of utter hesitation, timidity and fear. I was looking closely to see if any of the Irish players had wet their pants.
Throw in a couple of idiotic penalties for good measure and you had the perfect storm for an epic collapse. Before Gray's fumble, the Irish were poise to make it a rout. But minutes later, they were undergoing a near-death experience.
Fortunately for ND, Navy's passing attack doesn't exactly rival that of Texas Tech's and the "D" stiffen enough in the end to salvage a win. But boy, did the Irish ever have to sweat it out over a game that should have been in the bag long before.
The Irish may have survived with their lives but there wasn't a damn thing to rejoice over or feel good about. Though the scoreboard reflected an Irish win, ND's late stumbling made this feel as if it were a loss. Victories don't come any more empty or hollow.
So you tell me, what was it that tickled Weis' fancy? What may have struck his funny bone? Because if he didn't hear a knee-slapper for the ages, then Weis' reaction was as dumbfounding as it was inappropriate.
Do you think Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian or Holtz would have found humor in such a circumstance? Rather than laugh, they would have been breathing fire, venting hard and searching for butts to ream. Their tolerance level would have been zero.
But not Weis and perhaps that's part of the problem with Charlie. Being from Jersey, he's inbred with a wise guy shtick that sometimes can be misplaced and unfortunate. Often it sends the wrong signals.
Maybe that was just a smile of relief or a reflective grin knowing that he'd just dodged a major bullet. But the point is there shouldn't be any kind of laugh to begin with. A serious demeanor was the face Weis should have been presenting.
It's all about image and reacting appropriately to the moment. By joking around, Weis sent a horrible message to all that were watching, including his own team.
Yes, Weis' response was truly out of bounds. Because if he found any levity in the way his squad acquitted themselves versus the Middies, then Notre Dame is a lot worse off than imagined.
And Charlie Weis has no business running the show in South Bend.