The Good
......
- Duval Kamara I thought he did a good job of filling in for Floyd. We all know he isn't Floyd but he made some nice catches played physical and did what he was asked to do.
- TJ Jones. Had one drop late in the game when it didn't matter but otherwise played a very good football game. Seemed to be one of the few Irish players who played with any sense of urgency.
- David Ruffer. Still perfect.
- Armando Allen. Ran hard and still had a nice game on offense despite most likely playing at less than 100%
The Bad
Where to even begin....
- The entire team outside of those mentioned above. We came out and played flat uninspired football. For whatever reason this team came in to town with the attitude that they were 7-0 rather than 4-3. We looked almost disinterested in being on the field at times and seemed bored playing against Navy. Not that "fire and passion" would have made a hell of a lot of difference but the teams attitude was a bit scary to say the least.
- The defense just looked awful. Pathetic. Ian Williams did nothing for the first time all season. Te'o had one good play and then got manhandled the rest of the way. The OLB's looked completely lost. Brian Smith overrunning an OBVIOUS screen play on the first Navy TD was ridiculous but par for the course with this kid. I guess I don't have much to say about the secondary because Navy rarely passed and they had to deal with fullbacks running full speed at them nearly untouched but the front 7 of Notre Dame today looked terrible.
- The coaching staff. I really saw no major adjustments in the game plan and it seemed our kids had never seen a cut block before. I wasn't at the practices or at the meetings all week but our defense looked ridiculously unprepared and not "uncoached'
- Dayne Crist. Wow. Amazing how a loss really starts to brings out all his weaknesses even more so. He had a nice scramble or two but his accuracy was again off and something needs to be done about his throwing motion. He has an odd hitch in it and he takes too long to get rid of the ball. I'm not suggesting a large change but he seems to have a bit of a looping throwing motion and we need to do something to quicken his release. Any pass over 10 yards seems to float and his down the field accuracy is really bad. The interception at the end of the first half was a huge mistake. Getting to the half down 14-10 or 17-10 after a punt and keeping it a one score game at the point would have made a huge difference rather than being down two scores walking out of the locker room. Maybe it winds up not mattering at all because the defense couldn't stop Navy all day but you can't turn the ball over there. You jut can't.
The Ugly
- Navy 35 Notre Dame 17.
uke:
- The CBS announcers. Holy hell was it bad. David "Ruffner", John "Goodwin", etc. Seriously? Maybe have it happen once and have the producer get in your ear you're saying the kid's name wrong....Nope. All game. It's like this crew showed up after an all night bender sat in the booth with a roster card and just raved about Notre Dame's "size" and Navy's "heart".
- CBS's wide camera angle. We get it. Notre Dame runs a spread but having a camera angle for them on offense that seemingly puts you in the nose bleed section is terrible presentation.
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The most embarrassing loss I can remember in my 20+ years as a Notre Dame fan. That includes the 2007 debacle season that we all really saw coming to some degree. I mean even in 2007, our worst season, it took Navy three overtimes to beat us. If someone has a more embarrassing loss I'd like to hear about it. This team, even in transition, had more expectations. We were one play from beating the #7 team in the country. One play from beating Michigan, and beat a solid Pitt team. This is a team that many saw as possibly winning 8 games all of a sudden with the way we had played recently after a 1-3 start.
We got dominated by a service academy. Pathetic.
I almost turned off the game about 5 times but stuck it through. For what reason? I don't know. But in some odd way I expect this team, program, and school to not give up so I'm not going to.
Brian Kelly's honeymoon/new coach/new coach grace period is officially over. How this team and this staff respond from this next week will show a lot. I think we all expected to have a "thud" game on the schedule at some point....but not to
Navy.
Hold on to your hats Notre Dame fans.....here we go.
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I've not been a proponent of Kelly since they hired him...but I hate him even worse after yesterday. One of the biggest things that pissed me off was punting with 12 minutes left in the game on 4th and 3. I know we sucked all day, but you don't just give up. It sends a bad message to the players and the fans. I know that overcoming a 25 point deficit with that much time left would be nearly impossible, but I've seen crazier things happen. One of the things I enjoyed with Weis is that he never gave up. I think that's why all of our losses last year came by 7 points or less. I lost a lot of respect for Kelly yesterday.
If the defense had shown ANY ability to stop Navy I might agree but they hadn't. I don't think it was so much Kelly giving up..but having to play with the cards he was dealt and making a decision based upon what had happened for the previous 48 minutes.
I didn't lose any respect for Kelly yesterday. I think the team and the staff laid a collective turd but it doesn't make me respect the man any less.
As far as Weis' philosophy goes, he always gameplanned to put points on the board quickly to build a lead because he knew that Navy's offense will just chew up clock and limit your opportunities if they're still in the game. Offensively, you have to be aggressive and mistake free due to that reason. I honestly think Kelly underestimated how hard Navy fights to win ballgames based on his comments during the week.
The offense was a nightmare. That opening drive set the tone for the rest of the game. I didn't understand the gameplan at all. Why try to pound the ball and run the clock against a team that specializes in it. IMO ND needed to score early and score fast to take Navy out of the game, and only then would I want to see them run the ball.
I think they tried to..the best they could. That's why you saw Kelly go for it on 4th and 1 on the first possession rather than kick the field goal. I liked the decision and all but I also think Kelly knew he needed to play from a lead and was trying to play from the largest lead possible.
Also, I don't think Kelly could run his offense at the faster pace he wanted to. He was missing basically his three best players on offense in Floyd, Riddick, and Rudolph and his other best player on offense(Allen) wasn't at 100%. I think that really limited what Kelly could do on offense and how quickly he could do it as well.
Yeah Notre Dame's first three drives were all long but they also all resulted in points or at least should have. The first drive should have been a TD if the OLine gets any push on 4th and goal from the 1. The next drive was a FG and the drive after that was a TD. Crist threw an interception on the last drive of the half and the wheels came off after that. I don't have so much of an issue with the offensive game plan as I do with Crist's poor play and the defense looking terrible. Not that the offense played well enough to win that game yesterday but with the game Crist had after the middle of the second quarter I really think any offensive gameplan was a moot point.
I will not be surprised when there are rumblings of a QB controversy this offseason.
Still a bit of season left and it depends on who they bring in or what Rees, Massa, Hendrix, and Montana do in the offseason as well.
