The Good
-Theo Riddick. Kelly said he was going to get him involved and did.The kid is going to be electric
-Armando Allen. Another solid game from him. Still not a homerun hitter but a VERY good all around back.
-Dayne Crist passing. Outside of a lull here or there Crist had an excellent game overall. Didn't step up and make a play on the most important drive of the game(More on that later) but it doesn't erase the overall performance.
-Kyle Rudolph. He's the best tight end in the nation...and it's not close.
-Michael Floyd. Got into the endzone twice and showed why he had All-American hype around him.
-Manti Te'o week in and week out this kid impresses me. Yeah he will miss a play here or there but he's young and always around the ball.
-Ethan Johnson/Ian Williams. I thought both these guys played very good games for the Notre Dame defensive line.
The Bad
-Zeke Motta. As already covered by padman...seems to always take bad routes to the ball. He's pretty good in run support but if a play gets to the outside he's not that good.
-Kapron Lewis Moore. Disappearing act this week. He needs to be WAY more consistant.
-Dayne Crist running. On that 4th and 1 he needs to attack down field rather than worry so much about maybe making the pitch. He look tentative and it allwoed the Spartan defense to recover and make the play. You can complain about Kelly going for it, but the play was there....Crist needs to attack the LOS on that play and make the defense react to him rather than trying to react to the defense. Maybe Kelly shouldn't run that play with a guy who hasn't run the option once but at the end of the day it's on the players to execute the play...especially if it's there.
-The WR's and TE's not running routes deep enough. 2-3 times alone in the 4th quarter Notre Dame WR's or TE's(I'm looking at you Kyle Rudolph in OT on 3rd and 3 running a 2 yard out.) ran routes SHORT of the marker. You HAVE to get to the spot. That's basic football. It cost Notre Dame drives, possibly points, and very possibly the game.
-The team's ability to finish games. It's STILL not there. Last week it was the defense. This week it was the offense. The drive that lost this game for Notre Dame IMO was the drive after the ND touchdown that put them up 28-21. The defense comes out and makes a stop and the offense gets the ball back. You HAVE to move the ball in that situation. You have to make some sort of a drive and milk some time off the clock. You have to. It's clear Michigan State is completely inept at running any sort of offense in a rushed situationand you had a chance after a big stop by the defense to come out and step on MSU's throats and didn't do it. Hell, move the ball 30 yards...take some time off, swing the field position. Something..anything...the offense did nothing and it helped cost us the game.
The Ugly
Theofficials......Other than missing massive amounts of obvious holds on Ethan Johnson two plays stick out the most late in the game. First and foremost was the "block in the back" on Lo Wood...complete and utter BS. Lo Wood maybe should have bailed out but the official also needs to actually make the correct call...Lastly..the obvious fact that there was no time left on the play clock when MSU snapped the ball for the fake FG. Maybe the officials will dig up an explanation of the play clock not being accurate there or something but even still the play needs to be blown dead and the clock reset. There's really no excuse for that.
*EDIT*...Apparently last night's crew was from the Big East(?)..here's the explanation.
Notre Dame fans saw :00 on the play clock when Michigan State ran its game-winning fake field goal in overtime Saturday night. Now they're bound to see red, because the Big East says its officials acted properly in not assessing a delay-of-game flag.
The conference released a statement Sunday that said football officiating coordinator Terry McAulay reviewed the final play and determined it was not an actionable call.
"After review, the Conference believes that the game officials correctly applied the proper mechanics and guidelines that are in place to determine, in a consistent manner, when a flag should be thrown for delay of game," the statement read.
The league went on to explain the mechanics, as they saw it, at the end of the Spartans' thrilling 34-31 win:
"The responsibility is assigned to the Back Judge, who in this situation was standing beneath the upright. Proper mechanics dictate that his focus be directed to the play clock as it approaches zero. When the play clock display reads zero, he must re-direct his attention to the ball. At that time, if the snap has not started, a flag will be thrown for delay of game. If the snap has begun, no flag will be thrown.
"Under these procedures, there will always be a small amount of lag time between the time the clock reads zero and the time the Back Judge is able to see the football.
"On the play in question, this lag time created the situation where it appears the play clock expired just before the snap. We believe the snap occurred well within the normal lag time for the Back Judge to make this determination.
This play is not reviewable under current NCAA rules."
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I'm really starting to think Notre Dame is heading to a 1-5 start. However I think towards the end of the year with wins over CMU, Tulsa, Army, Navy, and USC that Notre Dame can still salvage a 6-6 season. Maybe we steal one from BC or Pitt along the way(I think we stand no chance against Stanford) and finish 7-5 but I think there are way to many early season tests for a young team in transition to expect them to do anything of real note.
