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I'm not about to jump to that conclusion just yet. There are a good amount of winnable games left on the schedule. However, Brian Kelly does have his hands full trying to get the team to be more consistent on both sides of the ball.
As for the game yesterday:
-Not sure exactly what Stanford did differently than the previous three teams on the schedule, but they were able to get pressure on Crist at will the entire game. I guess the only (albeit very slight) positive is that most of the pressure seemed to come from someone coming in unblocked (usually on the outside IIRC) while there were enough blockers to theoretically pick it up. I call it slight positive because recognizing the blitz and changing protection is something that Crist can improve upon.
-Crist cannot throw well rolling out to his left. He needs to really work on this, and Kelly needs to reconsider having these plays called. They rarely result in good gains.
-D-line pass rush was nonexistent yesterday. Outside of a few plays off the edge, Luck had all day to throw.
-Corners looked solid. Blanton was harassing Owusu the entire game. They really held down the perimeter on passing plays. Also good to see Slaughter back. The defense looks better with him out there.
-Meanwhile, linebackers are not good in coverage.
-I was a little surprised when Ruffer beat Tausch for the place kicking job, but I really like the kid. He looks to be the best ND kicker in some time.
-Scrap the rugby style punt please. On the one play this was tried, I understand that Stanford got too close to blocking the previous punt, but don't change up to something that I'm sure is not practiced very much.
-NBC: How hard is it to position a camera lined up on the first down marker on ___ & 1? Calabrese had a nice play that might have stopped an early conversion, but NBC conveniently had their cameras positioned a few yards on either side of the marker.
-Speaking of conversions: If you had told me that Stanford would convert 11 of 13 third down conversions before the game, I would have thought you were joking. That seemed to be one of the few areas where the Irish defense was solid by only allowing about 20% of the conversions in the previous three games.
-Some kudos to Te'o though. 21 tackles is crazy. I think the last ND player to get close to that many was Ndukwe against Air Force in '06. I really hope Kelly's staff is able to get the defense turned around. I'd hate to see a guy as talented as Te'o have an essentially wasted college career.
The game against the Cardinal showed what I (and I'm sure many others) had concerns about when you get your QB beat up in Kelly's offense. As I mentioned earlier, I this this can be improved with Crist's experience and blitz recognition. This ultimately resulted in a tired defense that allowed the opponent to pull away late in the game.
As for the game yesterday:
-Not sure exactly what Stanford did differently than the previous three teams on the schedule, but they were able to get pressure on Crist at will the entire game. I guess the only (albeit very slight) positive is that most of the pressure seemed to come from someone coming in unblocked (usually on the outside IIRC) while there were enough blockers to theoretically pick it up. I call it slight positive because recognizing the blitz and changing protection is something that Crist can improve upon.
-Crist cannot throw well rolling out to his left. He needs to really work on this, and Kelly needs to reconsider having these plays called. They rarely result in good gains.
-D-line pass rush was nonexistent yesterday. Outside of a few plays off the edge, Luck had all day to throw.
-Corners looked solid. Blanton was harassing Owusu the entire game. They really held down the perimeter on passing plays. Also good to see Slaughter back. The defense looks better with him out there.
-Meanwhile, linebackers are not good in coverage.
-I was a little surprised when Ruffer beat Tausch for the place kicking job, but I really like the kid. He looks to be the best ND kicker in some time.
-Scrap the rugby style punt please. On the one play this was tried, I understand that Stanford got too close to blocking the previous punt, but don't change up to something that I'm sure is not practiced very much.
-NBC: How hard is it to position a camera lined up on the first down marker on ___ & 1? Calabrese had a nice play that might have stopped an early conversion, but NBC conveniently had their cameras positioned a few yards on either side of the marker.
-Speaking of conversions: If you had told me that Stanford would convert 11 of 13 third down conversions before the game, I would have thought you were joking. That seemed to be one of the few areas where the Irish defense was solid by only allowing about 20% of the conversions in the previous three games.
-Some kudos to Te'o though. 21 tackles is crazy. I think the last ND player to get close to that many was Ndukwe against Air Force in '06. I really hope Kelly's staff is able to get the defense turned around. I'd hate to see a guy as talented as Te'o have an essentially wasted college career.
The game against the Cardinal showed what I (and I'm sure many others) had concerns about when you get your QB beat up in Kelly's offense. As I mentioned earlier, I this this can be improved with Crist's experience and blitz recognition. This ultimately resulted in a tired defense that allowed the opponent to pull away late in the game.
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