Official Notre Dame Football Thread

[FirstTimer]

The Aaron Lynch is a MOTHERFUCKING BADASS Stat of the Week:

Against MSU Lynch had five tackles, a sack with a forced fumble and six quarterback hits. To put that in perspective, Lynch’s quarterback hits total were been better than the team totals for every game the Irish played last season expect against Utah, when the Irish collectively had eight. In other words — Lynch did more damage getting after the quarterback than the Irish defense did collectively in 12 out of 13 games last season.

[Irish]

I think you mean against Washington State.

Oh yeah, it was played in Houston, my bad.

The Aaron Lynch is a MOTHERFUCKING BADASS Stat of the Week:

I think I read somewhere that the MSU beat writer wrote after the game that he expects Lynch to be a top 10 draft pick after his junior year, he was that impressed by him.

I remember watching the game and Lynch was unstoppable one on one. He always beat the tackle every play. Cousins just got rid of the ball too quick to get many sacks.

[FirstTimer]

As a bday gift my wife is taking me to the ND-Air Force game

[FirstTimer]

 

 

 

:moon:

 

Suck it.

I'll fly to Spain and kill you.


:ward:

[FirstTimer]

AS long as I get to be the sassy black ones.

[Sharkweather]

Amara Darboh goes down! Sidelined with an injury tonight, allowing my former H.S. to score an upset win over the defending state champions.

Any idea where he is leaning?

[Villain]

Facebookers go here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Theo-Riddick/275962269096867

[padman59]

At this point, I'm afraid that this is the team we're going to see for the remainder of the season: a team that commits lot of costly penalties and turnovers. I just hope the defense continues to hold up.

Rees looked lost for much of the game. I'm sure we're going to see a lot of teams doing the same thing as Pitt to disguise coverages and take away Floyd.

I did find it a little funny seeing all the Pitt fans leaving the stadium while their team still had a chance to win or tie the game.

[NAHSTE]

I'm amazed at how sloppy Notre Dame's execution is every week. If it's not a penalty or a turnover killing a drive, it's a botched snap on a field goal.

[FirstTimer]

LOL at Pitt's "fan base".

Some "rivalry" huh jahmmack.

Ugly win but I'll take it.

[FirstTimer]

Honestly, part way through this game I was seriously starting wanting to see Hendrix or Golson. A run threat off that option read with Wood or Gray would be fantastic.

[Irish]

At least we finally got an ugly win, instead of losing every close game.

[FirstTimer]

I'll have the G,B, U up today.

[FirstTimer]

PITT

The Good

-The Defense. Another top notch performance by the defense in general. Great run defense coupled with some really solid pressure on the passer lead to them only allowing 12 points. They gave up one long drive for a score but were in lock down mode most of the day. Really not much to find fault with here.

-Jonas Gray. After a terrible start to the season with the fumble that helped lead to the USF debacle Gray has become a very solid back. He flashed some of what made him a sought after recruit four years ago on his touchdown run. Vision, power, and then speed. Notre Dame has it’s best backfield combination in nearly a decade, and much of it has to do with Gray bouncing back after a bad start to the season.

-Tyler Eifert. Sure he should have come back for the football on the Rees interception but he was instrumental in the win on Saturday. Eifert made some big catches in some big 3rd down situations and at the goal line with the game in the balance. Eifert is a matchup nightmare and as teams attempt to take away Floyd more Eifert may have to become a much bigger focal point of the offense.

-Tommy Rees..sometimes…. He continues to make me nervous but on the final drive and for stretches he can look ridiculously efficient. The drive that ended in the Eifert score was great. He also had two other drives of almost 15 plays.




The Bad

-Gary Gray. I have never in all my years of watching football seen a player so inept at defending the ball when it’s in the air. Never. I have no clue what has happened to Gray this season. If Gray even plays decent defense on these passes none of them are completed. If he plays above average he leads the NCAA in interceptions. It’s baffling. Gray really needs to turn it around as Notre Dame gets deeper into the season against some better quarterbacking competition.

-Tommy Rees…sometimes….Rees can be madly frustrating. For as many decent calls he makes at the line checking into better plays he makes a lot of bad reads and seems to have a really scary habit of locking in on his target. It seemed like every other throw he made on Saturday, especially in the first half, had a cringe factor to it. While credit goes to Pitt for confusing Rees with some different looks Rees needs to get better vision on the football field. He is leaving a lot of throws and points out there.



The Ugly

-Special Teams. Kyle Brindza kicking off out of bounds. Marginal kick returns. Still no punt returns. A roughing the punter penalty that almost cost us the game. A missed field goal. Two bad snaps. The list builds. Mike Elston needs to get this fixed and fast. We have all seen by now that Notre Dame’s offense may not blow anyone off the field and we could be playing some tight football games as we move forward. We can’t have one phase of the team killing us in these instances. The punt block really bothers me. You have the worst punting team in the nation backed up kicking from their own goal line. Why go after the block? Why risk taking the penalty at all. Play the averages and take the ball in plus territory or near it. I guess I understand the point of trying to put the game away with a big play and create something for a sputtering offense but at what risk?

-Chris Spielman. Was it just me or did he keep calling Urban Meyer “Irving” the entire game? He adds virtually nothing to the broadcast and somehow comes off as really creepy.
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A bland write up for a bland game. It takes a lot for me to not get excited about a Notre Dame football game, and I spent most of this one glued to my chair rather than standing and watching the game as I normally do. It was an ugly win, yes, but after some of the losses we have sustained this season we earned the right to an ugly win. And I’ll take 12 ugly wins over a bunch of close losses any day of the week. We have Purdue on the road this weekend, then a home date with Air Force the week after. That should be two more wins to roll our record to 4-2 heading into the bye week before the USC matchup. Rees really worries me as we move forward and for the first time I really was interested in seeing Hendricx or Golson at quarterback because the offense really needs another dimension at times. It was odd but when Rees started playing badly I didn’t even think of Dayne Crist coming in. Maybe I’m undervaluing Crist a lot at this point. Maybe I’m overvaluing the freshmen. Or perhaps I’m not giving Rees, who is only a sophomore, a fair chance. Whatever it is the play from the quarterback position needs to get better, and fast.

[padman59]

As long as Jonas doesn't cough up the ball, he needs more carries. He only had three the entire game against Pitt. I'm not sure Wood will be able to hold up the entire season getting 20+ carries a game.

Also, here's a solid breakdown some of Rees' performance:

http://www.ndtex.com/2011/09/ndpitt-breaking-down-rees/