The Official Notre Dame Football Thread

[FirstTimer]

Bumped from last page:

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 consistent.

-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 looked tentative and it allowed 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 situation and 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

The officials......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.

 

[ram29jackson]

haha ND lost to a Big 10 middle range, mediocre, bottom feeder haha

 

[Irish]

Michigan beats ND. Ranked the following week.

Michigan St beats ND. Ranked the following week.

 

[Irish]

Michigan beats ND. Ranked the following week.

Michigan St beats ND. Ranked the following week.

 

[padman59]

Funny how that goes sometimes, Irish.

*EDIT*...Apparently last night's crew was from the Big East(?)..here's the explanation.

Color me surprised that Michigan State allowed on-field refs from another conference for a home game (I thought ND was one of the few that allowed visitors to bring who they wanted :smh. Jerry McGinn and his crew are Big East zebras. I still stand by my previous post though.

 

[JeremyHight]

Sucks, but I'd be more surprised if a Big Ten crew didn't screw over any non-B10 team with a few questionable calls. Those guys seem to be the worst conference refs in college football.

Except that these were Big East officials and they did the right thing. Delay of game isn't an instantaneous penalty like in a video game.

 

[padman59]

Except that these were Big East officials and they did the right thing. Delay of game isn't an instantaneous penalty like in a video game.

Refer to my edited post above yours. I still stand by my post about Big Ten refs.

 

[FirstTimer]

haha ND lost to a Big 10 middle range, mediocre, bottom feeder haha

haha. Your mom drank while she was pregnant. haha

 

[FirstTimer]

Except that these were Big East officials and they did the right thing. Delay of game isn't an instantaneous penalty like in a video game.

I see what you're saying but shouldn't he be able to tell while seeing the play clock that the ball hasn't been snapped yet? He's looking the same direction for both. Either way it kind of doesn't matter because who knows if he makes it and if the game continues how it goes. Plus Notre Dame had the play covered but Harrison Smith(I'm pretty sure that's who it was) slipped and fell.

 

[FirstTimer]

Jamoris Slaughter will be back in the starting lineup this weekend against Stanford

 

[padman59]

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.

 

[ram29jackson]

haha. Your mom drank while she was pregnant. haha

appears you take things a tad too personal ...


so, even though I dont believe in it, I'll just say your karma bit you in the ass and this time Notre Dame didnt just lose to another team.
They lost to one player yesterday = Marecic

 

[FirstTimer]

appears you take things a tad too personal ...


so, even though I dont believe in it, I'll just say your karma bit you in the ass and this time Notre Dame didnt just lose to another team.
They lost to one player yesterday = Marecic

LOL at you believing in karma from a message board helping determine the outcome of a college football game.

 

[ram29jackson]

LOL at you believing in karma from a message board helping determine the outcome of a college football game.

damn boy, you just ain't be literate at all, is you...? I just said I dont believe in it.

of course it has nothing to do with karma. It has to do with =they sucked yesterday

 

[Colonel Angus]

Notre Dame sucks.

 

[Woy]

Hopefully you guys will beat Pitt here in a few weeks.

 

[FirstTimer]

damn boy, you just ain't be literate at all, is you...? I just said I dont believe in it.

of course it has nothing to do with karma. It has to do with =they sucked yesterday

You fail at logic then...saying you don't believe in it...then citing it as existing yesterday is retarded.

 

[ram29jackson]

You fail at logic then...saying you don't believe in it...then citing it as existing yesterday is retarded.

you are an illiterate troll to say the least.

read the quote 100 times and then get back to me.

ultimately I thought ND was going to be better than this. But it looks like the new coach is still clearing out the previous coaches trash.

 

[FirstTimer]

you are an illiterate troll to say the least.

read the quote 100 times and then get back to me.

ultimately I thought ND was going to be better than this. But it looks like the new coach is still clearing out the previous coaches trash.

You said you don't believe in karma.

Then you said my karma bit me in the ass.

How could something that you don't believe exists bite me anywhere...let alone in the ass...............

 

[FirstTimer]

The Good

-The defense. I thought again Notre Dame did an excellent job on defense against the run. Never gave up anything big and they didn't get pushed around at the point of attack. The 3rd down conversion stat looks really bad but I thought the pass defense was improved as well. Robert Blanton, Darrin Walls, and Jamoris Slaughter all played good games and Diaco did some good things scheme wise with coverages. On both Luck interceptions coverage was rolling over late and dsiguised very well. Having Slaughter back makes a heck of a lot fo difference. Gary Gray was quiet...but he didn't get beat either.

At the end of the day the defense played well enough to win this football game had the offense done ANYTHING at all.

-Manti Teo. 21 tackles. That's ridiculous.

-Armando Allen. His stat line didn't show it but he played very good game and ran angry. He got hurt on what looked like it was going to be a bad injury and came back in. He hasn't turned into the big play guy we thought we were getting when he came in but he has turned into one hell of an all around back and a great leader.

-Michael Floyd. Seemingly caught everything that was thrown his way.

-David Ruffer. Still perfect.

The Bad

- The offense. The offensive line played it's worst game of the season. They didn't run block well and they let Crist get hit WAY too much. Dayne Crist played his worst game of the season. He looked confused, shaky, and really wasn't throwing the ball well. He got hit a few times early and I'm not sure if it rattled him or he was just having an off day but for the first time all season Crist looked like a first year starter for an entire game.

- Ben Turk. This guy has been bad all season. He seemingly has no leg strength.

- Kick off return team. I know Cierre Wood was the "hot button" guy for this and he had to run harder but this week what stuck out to me was how bad the blocking was up front on kick returns. Wood was getting to the 10 or 15 yard line and there was already 5 or 6 Stanford coverage guys on top of him.

The Ugly

- Kyle Rudolph's stat line. 1 catch 1 yard. Yikes. I'm sure Stanford schemed for him to take him out of the game but still. Yikes.

- The officials. The missed spot in the first quarter was ugly. Like really ugly. Armando Allen got the benefit of the doubt by about a full 1/2 yard as well in the first half but the Stanford 3rd and 1 "first down" run was ridiculously bad. Did it effect the outcome of the game? No. But it was still a hideous call. What makes it even worse is the fact that they went back and took a second look at it and upheld the call on the field......How? The fullback barely crossed the 30 yard line before he was stood up and pushed back. The yard line to gain was the 31. Not only did he most likely not even make it to the front side of the 31 but the officials actually had the ball spotted PAST the 31 with the back tip of the football just beyond the 31. Seriously? How the hell did they get that spot? What the hell did the officials in the booth see to actually uphold that spot? That drive ended up giving Stanford a lead they would not relinquish. Notre Dame wasn't winning that game no matter what happened on that call but it was still so utterly awful it needed to be mentioned here. Oh yeah..and Jonas Gray was actually tackled BY HIS HELMET and there was no flag. Again, not a game changing call but the defender actually had both of his hands on Gray's helmet/facemask and took him down and there was no flag.

-Oh yeah...and Harabugh going for two points while up 25-6 with 7:50ish left in the 4th quarter. Dick move.

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1-3. 1-3. 1-3. Another really odd game. Out of 4 games this season 3 of them have been weird games. I was talkign with my friend after the game and the only comparison I could make was this. It felt like I had just watched a 15 round boxing match. One guy was in control the entire fight. Never really knocked the guy out but won on points in each round. You were hoping the other guy could maybe land a haymaker and get a miracle win but at the end of the day you basically just watched a guy smother the other guy into submission over the long haul. Even when the game was only 16-6 and 19-6 you never really felt like Notre Dame had a chance because they could do nothing offensivly.

We go to Boston College this Saturday where we haven't played well in what feels like about 20 years. Then we come home to face a Pitt team that is reeling a little bit. 1-5 still looks like a very real possibility before Western Michigan comes to town October 16th.