2017 Irish Football

[craigk217]

I wasn't aware it was a "doghouse" problem. I thought it was injury-related. We have an embarrassment of RB talent and we can use Dexter as a change of pace kind of guy. He's not the workhorse Adams or Jones is, but he can break almost any play for a score.

Tis part of the local buzz surrounding the 'mystery' of his lack of PT.

 

[jjc2009]

Tis part of the local buzz surrounding the 'mystery' of his lack of PT.

Those Fla. guys I swear!

Stepherson is just now getting out of the doghouse. Couldn't have come at a better time for him.

 

[craigk217]

Those Fla. guys I swear!

Stepherson is just now getting out of the doghouse. Couldn't have come at a better time for him.

Yah ... quite the surprise seeing him on the field, again.

Soooo hope he's got his head on straight by now. He seems more than ready to make some great contribution to a very iffy WR corps.

Still can't understand why they haven't been able to get CJ in the mix, either.

 

[jjc2009]

Yah ... quite the surprise seeing him on the field, again.

Soooo hope he's got his head on straight by now. He seems more than ready to make some great contribution to a very iffy WR corps.

Still can't understand why they haven't been able to get CJ in the mix, either.

Decisions like his first KO return to come out and then get happy feet at around the 10 might have something to do with it.

 

[craigk217]

Decisions like his first KO return to come out and then get happy feet at around the 10 might have something to do with it.

Ya, that was beyond dumb. I think that had a lot to do with not getting any PT and his adrenillin was pumping wanting to make a big bang.

I was talking more getting him into the offense from line of scrimmage. He's been pretty non-existent.

 

[jjc2009]

Ya, that was beyond dumb. I think that had a lot to do with not getting any PT and his adrenillin was pumping wanting to make a big bang.

I was talking more getting him into the offense from line of scrimmage. He's been pretty non-existent.

Yeah, he was a starter in the slot last year, no?

He was bumped from that by a grad transfer. He hasn't been inserted, even in garbage time. Stepherson seems to have taken his job on the jet sweeps, etc.

 

[craigk217]

Yeah, he was a starter in the slot last year, no?

He was bumped from that by a grad transfer. He hasn't been inserted, even in garbage time. Stepherson seems to have taken his job on the jet sweeps, etc.

Yup and was a huge factor to last year's O.

 

[ChicagoIrish]

CJ just isn't that good to me, he was replaced on punt return because his hands are suspect. He's also very undersized and I wouldn't be surprised if Stepherson replaces him returning kicks.

 

[idseer]

At the risk of jinxing it all, I'm starting to get a feeling I haven't had in a long time, specifically 1993.

No, I'm not saying this team is as talented or as good as that squad was. But they are very, very slowly starting to make me believe. In 1993, we weren't expected to compete at the beginning of the season. We had lost a lot of talent from the year before, including our two stud RB's (Brooks and Bettis), we were breaking in a new QB, in fact, Ron Powlus was slated to start before getting hurt pre-season, and Kevin MacDougal, previously unheralded, was thrust into the starting position (MacDougal wouldn't even start every game, having been injured himself). But they had to fight and claw their way up to the No. 2 spot before the showdown with pre-season ordained champ, FSU. We all remember what happened in that game (except the young pups here).

Even allowing for the let-down for the ages the following week, people forget that was a decent BC team that was ranked. But that was honestly the last time I was confident in every game, truly honestly believing we would win every one.

Its taken me a lot longer this season to start to come around, but Sat. night, we did something I have never seen. That was the widest margin of victory over USC I have ever witnessed. It wasn't a nail biter, and we've done what we have all season long, and that's win the games you're supposed to.

I'm not quite at the level I was at 1993, and next week will go a long way towards making me a believer again. This is a highly talented NC State team that has had two weeks to prepare for us, and has probably the best collection of DL we will face (and yes, that includes GA). We win this one after the hype from Sat., I'll start to believe we can win any game again. Even more so if we dispatch them the way we did our archrival.

Lets keep this gravy train rolling guys.

i like to keep in mind that sc did an awful lot to help in that victory. if we played them next week i doubt the result would look anything like this game. he had his best game but i can't say wimbush is reliably consistent all of a sudden. let's whip a few more teams first.

 

[ChicagoIrish]

i like to keep in mind that sc did an awful lot to help in that victory. if we played them next week i doubt the result would look anything like this game. he had his best game but i can't say wimbush is reliably consistent all of a sudden. let's whip a few more teams first.

49-14

And you're still not satisfied

 

[idseer]

49-14

And you're still not satisfied

who said i wasn't satisfied? get off my case! everything i said was fact!

 

[ChicagoIrish]

who said i wasn't satisfied? get off my case! everything i said was fact!

Everything was fact?

 

[idseer]

Everything was fact?

asking for a repeat on a blog is kinda silly don't you think?

 

[Irish7478]

Everything was fact?

Sounded more like an opinion, (at least the part about the result being different if they played next week) but maybe that’s just me.

 

[jjc2009]

i like to keep in mind that sc did an awful lot to help in that victory. if we played them next week i doubt the result would look anything like this game. he had his best game but i can't say wimbush is reliably consistent all of a sudden. let's whip a few more teams first.

I'm not sure I follow. What exactly did SC do to help in the win short of laying down after getting punched in the mouth.

We were moving the ball at will on them. We could have run all day. For this reason alone I think if we played then again you'd see a similar result.

I agree Wimbush still is inconsistent. I said as much in the game thread. But USC didn't show me anything to suggest a different outcome if we played again. That's how thoroughly dominant a win it was.

Still a lot of football to go and I am not drinking the kool aid yet. A solid win again and I just might though.

 

[Judge Fudge]

NC State has the #6 rushing defense, 91.3 yards per.

Notre Dame has the #7 rushing offense, 317.9 yards per.

 

[idseer]

I'm not sure I follow. What exactly did SC do to help in the win short of laying down after getting punched in the mouth.

We were moving the ball at will on them. We could have run all day. For this reason alone I think if we played then again you'd see a similar result.

I agree Wimbush still is inconsistent. I said as much in the game thread. But USC didn't show me anything to suggest a different outcome if we played again. That's how thoroughly dominant a win it was.

Still a lot of football to go and I am not drinking the kool aid yet. A solid win again and I just might though.

ok, usc fumbled the ball on their first snap giving the irish great field position then scoring. usc blew an easy field goal. another fumble give nd the ball at the 9 and they score. then an interception and nd scores again. second half with no turnovers leading to scores, score was nd 21-14 with darnold sitting most of the 4th quarter.

because of the poor way sc played the first half they were on their heels the whole game. imo this probably doesn't happen if they play again ... not that anyone can know that. i'm also not saying the result would have been different but i very much doubt a 49 - 14 victory against this ranked usc.

 

[jjc2009]

ok, usc fumbled the ball on their first snap giving the irish great field position then scoring. usc blew an easy field goal. another fumble give nd the ball at the 9 and they score. then an interception and nd scores again. second half with no turnovers leading to scores, score was nd 21-14 with darnold sitting most of the 4th quarter.

because of the poor way sc played the first half they were on their heels the whole game. imo this probably doesn't happen if they play again ... not that anyone can know that. i'm also not saying the result would have been different but i very much doubt a 49 - 14 victory against this ranked usc.

Well, I'd argue that the ball was taken from Darnold more than he fumbled it on that play. So heads up and opportunistic defense won that battle. It wasn't a gimmie. Same thing with the INT. That was good defense, not a fluke. Watkins didn't bite on the fake so he was in perfect position to make a play on that ball.

Even allowing for the muffed punt, USC wasn't exactly moving the ball at will. The only time they really moved the ball was when we were playing really soft and loose defense. We were basically giving those 8 yard outs and SC's game plan seemed to be, make the first guy miss and use your speed to rattle off chunk plays. We tackled well enough to stop that.

And that still doesn't account for the fact that we drove the ball at will on their defense. Even if they managed a few more scores, there was nothing they could do to stop the run, and that only would have gotten worse in the second half since they were thin on the DL.

And lets not forget why Darnold was sitting. Our pass rush was getting to him and he was getting knocked around. It wasn't worth the risk of injury to leave him in.

 

[idseer]

Well, I'd argue that the ball was taken from Darnold more than he fumbled it on that play. So heads up and opportunistic defense won that battle. It wasn't a gimmie. Same thing with the INT. That was good defense, not a fluke. Watkins didn't bite on the fake so he was in perfect position to make a play on that ball.

Even allowing for the muffed punt, USC wasn't exactly moving the ball at will. The only time they really moved the ball was when we were playing really soft and loose defense. We were basically giving those 8 yard outs and SC's game plan seemed to be, make the first guy miss and use your speed to rattle off chunk plays. We tackled well enough to stop that.

And that still doesn't account for the fact that we drove the ball at will on their defense. Even if they managed a few more scores, there was nothing they could do to stop the run, and that only would have gotten worse in the second half since they were thin on the DL.

And lets not forget why Darnold was sitting. Our pass rush was getting to him and he was getting knocked around. It wasn't worth the risk of injury to leave him in.

it wouldn't be a very good argument seeing as how the ball popped out of his hands directly from the snap when no nd players were near him. i won't argue that nd didn't take good advantage of it cause they did. in fact they took good advantage of just about every mistake sc made which i certainly give them credit for. i also agree nd looked almost unstoppable on offense which is why i say they probably win that gave anyway.
in any event i'm just a little cautious about the blowout win. it seemed everything went right and we both know that doesn't happen very often.

 

[craigk217]

Anybody else 'concerned' about one of our famous letdown games against tPack, today?