ND vs Purdue Game Day Thread:

[poewelch84]

just keep this drive going even with a penalty

 

[purguy12]

even if we win im still not happy with this D. they have alot of work to do

 

[jjc2009]

Come on, they're selling out to stop the run right now, toss it for another score put it away.

 

[poewelch84]

nah i just said that because it worked last year. i knew we were going to win. go check my guess your stat game. i picked niners

I'm sure I just remember you saying you had bad feelings about the game, honestly Kaepernick looked great without running the ball much, the rest of the NFL needs to look out.

 

[purguy12]

purdue D line is spent

 

[awclayton]

C'mon, get McDaniel in the end zone. He's been a workhorse.

 

[poewelch84]

The secondary just can't tackle to save their lives.

 

[poewelch84]

I love McDaniel, just the way he plays, it's great to see

 

[purguy12]

im a big kap fan. i hate when people say he is a running QB. he has a arm.

 

[poewelch84]

I remember watching McDaniel's high school highlights and he ran hard even when it wasn't for much yardage, really impressive tonight when they needed him.

 

[poewelch84]

im a big kap fan. i hate when people say he is a running QB. he has a arm.

He was drafted by the cubs as a pitcher out of high school for a reason.

 

[poewelch84]

McDaniel came up huge tonight

 

[poewelch84]

Damn Purdue always play Notre Dame tough, and the defense still sucks.

 

[jjc2009]

I think Kelly might have been on to something when he let Cam McDaniel run into the gauntlet machine backwards during camp. At least he can hold on to the ball when he's hit.

 

[poewelch84]

so far for all the skills Atkinson and Carlisle have McDaniel seems to be more consistent and less turnover prone.

 

[poewelch84]

They need to start getting McDaniel and Bryant more touches, Atkinson and Carlisle less.

 

[craigk217]

What ... no Tommy haters this week? I counted 5 dropped balls from his recievers in the 1st half alone ... I mean DROPPED!!!!

I told yall that the weakest links on this team were the coaches and the D and it showed tonite. None of these recievers deserve to be starting ... NONE!

I'm almost embararassed to call myself an Iriish fan after this absolute debacle and farce tonite! JFC ... Purdue ... really??????

 

[awclayton]

Daniels one of the best WRs in the country.

 

[KnuteRoc]

I had to break away from the game, I'm relieved they rallied for the W, but still concerned. At least Kelly achieved some balance in this game even being down 10-0 (yes SoCalJim I was thinking hard about your post on the book regarding Kelly) and ending with damn near even play-calling with respect to running and passing (37-33).

Now, I noticed someone posted that maybe our expectations are too high this year. No, I would argue that's not the case at all. I would argue that when Vegas makes Purdue a 21 point dog, in their OWN HOUSE, they're not doing that just for funsies. That means, in my mind, we're underachieving. Now, that's not to say that what talent we do have (upfront) is being negated by our lack of talent on the back-end. You can't expect Tuitt and company to make every play. Corners need to cover and tackle, linebackers as well. We're still running a 3-4 and probably should be running a 4-3, but with our secondary, that might not make much of a difference anyway. Point being, the 3-4 is predicated on outstanding LB play, otherwise you go with the traditional 4-3 so that you can have some hope of controlling the line. The LB's need to really step it up, else those 3 down linemen's work is moot.

I do commiserate with Diaco on this one. He's caught in a tough spot. He can't rely on the line getting pressure which means he has to bring an extra body or two and then the corners are forced to play man, but they're not doing that very well at all. What's he to do? I've been seeing some serious gaping holes. Tuitt getting double teamed and no ILB filling the holes or making the play(s). It is, simply, awful. This is part of why I think a 4-3 might be a better idea, simply because you might be able to get pressure without having to bring a LB or a CB, it's going to be that much harder in a 3 man front and it seems that teams are taking advantage of it.

I was reading the S.I. preseason issue and they list our D as being rated a 92 or a 97 and our Offense a 77. So much for numbers on paper eh? Our D has not looked like the strong suit of this team at all.

A closer look at the play-by-play though shows, we ran the ball 10 times on that final possession to run out the clock. Another thing I see is that in the first half Kelly did look like he was trying to establish the run, almost every drive started with a run, though not for much benefit. He switched it up a bit in the 2nd half passing on first down on quite a few possessions.

I saw some talk about Kelly not being happy with our RB's, Carlise and Atkinson and that was why we saw more of McDaniel and Bryant. I get that the fumble was one obvious thing, but I didn't see enough to be able to get an idea about GAIII, what gives with him?

I didn't expect this team to repeat last year's performance, not at all and certainly not after losing Golson. However, when a team like Temple and Purdue do what they did to us, even though we won the game, we have to realize that something is not right aside from talent. This Purdue QB never started a game before this one if I recall hearing that correctly. When you can't make an inexperienced QB's life a nightmare in his first game (as a D Coordinator) something is not right.

It reminds me of the Yankees and their seeming lack of scouting in being able to trounce on a pitcher making his first start, instead he gets 10 K's and looks like the next Sandy Koufax. That to me points back to coaching. Look at freaking Akron for crying out loud, no one can say they have more talent than we do on D, but they made Gardner's day hell. I really think they got jobbed in that game, they were so poised to win it wasn't even funny. Be that as it may though, it says something about our coaches and our unit and what it says is not something nice.

I suspect the Alums are going to be grumbling hard if we continue to play-down to these cupcakes we should be beating by halftime.

 

[idseer]

Now, I noticed someone posted that maybe our expectations are too high this year. No, I would argue that's not the case at all. I would argue that when Vegas makes Purdue a 21 point dog, in their OWN HOUSE, they're not doing that just for funsies. That means, in my mind, we're underachieving.

no, they aren't doing it for funsies. they do it to make money. anyone who thinks the strength of a team can be determined by oddsmaker odds is confused. it's a back-asswards way of looking at it (see usc last season). i didn't even read your whole lengthy post because it starts off with a complete fallacy. just what do you think oddsmakers know that everyone else doesn't? odds are based on bettors .... not teams! they gather "should-be's and oughta-be's from the sports world and take advantage of 'fans' inclinations to bet on which teams and presto! .... there's your odds.

this team was over-rated from the start. being over-rated does not mean they are underachieving. it means they aren't as talented as many thought (those thoughts being based on last season's fortune-filled squeakers by some pretty good players who are NOT with the team this year). all the skill positions on this team are now being handled by players who were not good enough to play much on last season's luck-filled team. it'd be nice if they were all as great as us nd fans would like to think they are .... but that's just not very realistic.