BALTIMORE -- It's the basic rule of the jungle for all cornerbacks: let it go.

When something bad happens, quickly expunge it from your memory, lest it prohibit you from performing the next task. But as of late, both Shane Walton and Vontez Duff have taken to ignoring that tenet, choosing instead to hold on to the bad stuff.

On Wednesday afternoon, Walton was still pissed at having lost to Boston College. "I'm still not over it," he said. "Its one thing to get beat. But to lose. . .and to lose to that team. . ."

This afternoon, in the third quarter, Duff decided he wasn't about to forget what had just happened seconds earlier. After Navy scored to make it 13-9, Duff decided his team wasn't about to lose to this team. As Eric Rolfs set up to kick the conversion, Duff came off the corner, got some serious air and barely missed blocking the kick. The effort screamed "big play coming soon!"

So it came as no surprise when Duff took the ensuing kickoff 92 yards to the house. Shaking his head incredulously, he said he had no choice but to get fired up.

"I had to," he said. "No one was having fun."

True that. With huge, team-gelling, credibility boosting wins over Air Force and Florida State, the Irish had forgotten who they had become in October and reverted to the team they were in September. Struggling on offense, it was defense, special teams, and fight that defined their effort Saturday -- just like they had the first three weeks of the season.

But in the final two minutes, when Rashon Powers-Neal bum-rushed the goal line, and when, only seconds later, Carlyle Holiday hit Omar Jenkins on a quick game-winning score, we may have seen the latest version of the Irish. And the Irish in November just might reflect the traditional rules of the cornerback.

After the BC loss, Duff, eager to forget the ugliness that had just transpired, filled the locker room with his words: "Take it like a man," he told his teammates. "Take it like a man."

Tyrone Willingham begins each team speech with the words: "Now men." He calls them men with the hope they'll carry themselves that way.

They've endured struggle, doubt, loss and now success again. And they've handled all of it quite well. Handled, it well, like men. Perhaps they've figured out how to just let it go.

Alan Grant, a senior reporter for ESPN The Magazine, is spending the season in South Bend. Look for his regular reports on ESPN.com. E-mail him at alan.grant@espn3.com