4-0

[ChicagoIrish]

62-27

Looked good for the most part, played a complete game. Not too happy about giving up 27 to UMass, but all in all it was a good day. Offense looked great, more importantly, no injuries. Unless something lingers with Stanley.

Wimbush getting some snaps, almost the entire 2nd half. Adams and Williams getting plenty of carries. Prosise looked good, again. Has to be someone who's in the Heisman conversation.

On to Clemson

 

[jjc2009]

Coaches always say the most important 10 minutes of the game are the last 5 minutes of the first half and the first 5 minutes of the second half. That's when we won this game. Punt return score to end the half and then score on first possession in second half. Killed whatever momentum they had.

 

[Microwahevo]

My biggest takeaway from this game were the quality reps all of our young guys got. They weren't just 2-yd runs up the middle to kill 3 minutes of clock. They basically got to play the entire second half. That will hopefully go a long way to their development. Practice and live games are two different things.

 

[awclayton]

I didn't get to see much of the game but I did see that wimbush run.....sick. How did he look in the pass game? Early in the game it seemed like the d-line couldn't get off any blocks and we're getting pushed around a little.

 

[bksballer89]

Well College GameDay is heading to Clemson for the showdown next week.

We need to do much better than we did in our only previous road game

 

[bksballer89]

 

[poewelch84]

Well the thing I took away from this game is the by and large right now the offense is showing up ready to go and the defense wasn't looking at UMass as a real opponent. Like the UMass coach said at the start of the game Notre Dame was sleepwalking through the game and then they woke them up. That is the sort of thing that can't happen against teams like Clemson or really anyone left on the schedule or they'll have one in the loss column.

 

[poewelch84]

Also it's nice to see the team start to dominate a team that they should dominate rather than playing down the entire game. I was kind of hoping they learned their lesson from the Virginia game and I think the offense did but the defense didn't or maybe the DC didn't I don't know.

 

[Judge Fudge]

I don't know how to feel.

On one hand. Offense looked peak

On the other. FUCKING 20 POINTS TO CUPCAKE UMASS

 

[whywork2]

I didn't get to see much of the game but I did see that wimbush run.....sick. How did he look in the pass game? Early in the game it seemed like the d-line couldn't get off any blocks and we're getting pushed around a little.

He completed a bomb to Fuller which they eventually overturned, it was a very nice bomb and appeared to be a great catch but afterwards the replay showed the ball just nicked the ground. It was really close and pretty incredible never the less. I like the skills Wimbush showed, for a half I was impressed.

 

[whywork2]

I don't want a little bang in my ying yang. But I will be watching the big game.

 

[poewelch84]

I don't know how to feel.

On one hand. Offense looked peak

On the other. FUCKING 20 POINTS TO CUPCAKE UMASS

Well I think you saw the team not taking UMass seriously and they paid for it in the 1st half, the encouraging thing is they put them down in the 2nd half. However they can't play like they did in the first half against teams like Clemson, U$C, Stanford, and really anyone left on their schedule.

 

[ND_loyal son]

Glad to see the young guys get some reps. It's easy to see why people were so high on Wimbush. He looks like he's got the "skillz to pay the billz." I personally see a lot more long term potential in him than in Kizer. I don't know... he just looked the part to me.

However, stat wise, Kizer had a pretty good performance 15-22 for 207 with 2 passing TD's and a rushing TD along with 1 INT that bounced off of Fuller. All that in just over a half of work is not to shabby. I think my issue with Kizer is that he seems to have trouble throwing an out pattern. I feel like 8 out of 10 times his pass comes up somewhere between 1-5 yards short of his WR. His passes towards the middle of the field seemed accurate and on time. However, in a situation in which you need a score late with limited time on the clock you need to hit some out patterns to get out of bounds and stop the clock. I think this needs to be a point of emphasis for him this week with a tough opponent up next. It's been an issue for a few games in a row now.

Overall, offense is looking very potent and I feel like the defense will show up motivated from the start next week.

GO IRISH! ONWARD TO VICTORY!

 

[ND_loyal son]

Forgot to mention that in addition to getting our young guys some reps, our starters also got some rest. That worked out well with the big game next week with Clemson who is coming off of a bye week.

 

[Irish7478]

This game sandwiched between two ranked teams was always a concern. I'm glad the freshman RBs and Wimbush got some quality reps. Wimbush is as good as advertised. And word on Stanley's injury (was it an injury?). In any event, no major injuries (what about Luatua?) heading into Clemson is a good thing.

 

[ND_loyal son]

This game sandwiched between two ranked teams was always a concern. I'm glad the freshman RBs and Wimbush got some quality reps. Wimbush is as good as advertised. And word on Stanley's injury (was it an injury?). In any event, no major injuries (what about Luatua?) heading into Clemson is a good thing.

I think I read somewhere that Luatua may have had a concussion earlier in the week. He may have passed the concussion protocol, but they wanted to err on the side of caution and give him a week to get right. Supposedly Robinson tweaked a knee in pregame warm-ups. I think he wanted to go, but the coaches held him out as a precaution as well. He'll get an MRI just to be safe, but it seemed like BK thought he'd be back soon/next week. With Stanley, BK said it was related to a lingering tendonitis issue and they don't think its anything major.

 

[Microwahevo]

I think I read somewhere that Luatua may have had a concussion earlier in the week. He may have passed the concussion protocol, but they wanted to err on the side of caution and give him a week to get right. Supposedly Robinson tweaked a knee in pregame warm-ups. I think he wanted to go, but the coaches held him out as a precaution as well. He'll get an MRI just to be safe, but it seemed like BK thought he'd be back soon/next week. With Stanley, BK said it was related to a lingering tendonitis issue and they don't think its anything major.

I was wondering why I didn't see Robinson in there. Thx for the info.

 

[bbirish73]

just keep winning. I don't care how just do it.

 

[craigk217]

Defense pissed me off, especially in the first half giving up 20 fng point to UMass! They shut it down in the 2nd half, but dayum, these guys need to tighten up.

Was fairly impressed with Kizer. Takeaways are he gets happy feet too quickly and definitely has some issues throwing to his left. Passes were getting short-armed and off target. Needs to work on both.

As already stated, was really nice to see the 2nd/3rd teams getting some decent in-game reps. This woulda been a huge disappointment, to me, if they hadn't been able to play most of the 2nd half.

Next week ... HUGE test at a hostile environment on natl tv. Kinda reminiscent of FSU game last year. This one has had me worried since before season started. D better be ready to smack them in the mouth at opening kickoff.

 

[KnuteRoc]

I liked what I saw out of Dexter Williams, I really liked the design of the runs they ran with him. Some were the zone-read crap as usual but he had a nice run off-tackle with a diagonal crease straight to the edge that I'd like to see a whole lot more of.

Ditto about Kizer's weak areas. I am not thrilled with our passing game. After Mass scored to make it 21-20, the very next drive I believe we didn't pass it once, just ran it down their throat, which is fine don't get me wrong, but I saw it as cloaking the weakness of Kizer's youth with reads and the like. We pushed them around easily enough in the run game and scored but Kizer only tallied 200~ yards in the passing game. Some positives to be sure, but some definite weak spots begging to be exploited by a solid defense.

I put a lot of the first half stuff on the coaches. With the formation subtleties and such of UMass, ND was slow to adjust, but BVG should well have known what he was facing in the opposing coach's philosophy. Getting gashed for 85 on the ground all due to the LB missing at the point of attack? No safeties on that play, no corners, everyone tied up but Jaylon Smith?

We have a history of playing down to lesser competition but at least we didn't let it be a game longer than 30 minutes. They mentioned on Sportscenter the point total was the most since... you guessed it, the one game I attended, Rutgers '96; Lou's final home game, winning 62-10, and coincidentally, Autry Denson with one of his many 100 yd games, who is now back working with the team... I got his autograph btw, on my ND cocoa mug.

Clemson won't be a cake walk, they've probably got the best defense we'll face for the rest of the year. USC can score like crazy, but they've got no D.