Vintage Notre Dame

[purguy12]

Have you seen USC play?

Louisville is nothing special.

They beat themselves today. I would be as negative as you are if ASU just kicked our ass but they did not.

They go 9-3 for sure and possibly 10-2

I agree

 

[poewelch84]

Have you seen USC play?

Louisville is nothing special.

They beat themselves today. I would be as negative as you are if ASU just kicked our ass but they did not.

They go 9-3 for sure and possibly 10-2

And I would agree with you if this team had shown some sign of turning the corner when it comes to shooting themselves in the foot. Let's be honest the team only played better in the 2nd half and specifically the 3rd quarter. In the first half they were out played in every way the defense never limited Arizona State to a field goal off of any of the turnovers and well Golson was crap. Right now the one consistent is this team will shoot themselves in the foot to keep bad teams in the game and hopefully pull off a win and shoot themselves in the foot and lose to any good team they play.They shot themselves in the foot against FSU as well because the holding call wouldn't have stopped Robinson if the players hadn't even bothered. Also I would expect at least a couple of guys to decommit Tillery seems like a likely player to flip.

 

[poewelch84]

Also maybe it's time to start having a bye after the Navy game because they have consistently played like garbage after that game under Kelly and with Weis.

 

[KnuteRoc]

That was rough.

I pretty much echo what everyone else is saying. I'm not sure I'd say that we're a better team than ASU, maybe more talented, but I'm not sure I'd say better. We got outcoached and outplayed, period.

There were some really bright spots and some absolutely awful low points.

A lot of Kelly's 1st 1/2 playcalling was just up and down. Hardly saw a screen until the 2nd 1/2 and even then not many and not very well executed. Now the wrinkle off of the 'screen' that got Carlisle so wide open that I didn't see an ASU player even on the screen was brilliant, this is a prime example of Kelly's up and down play calls.

The negatives: blitz pickups. I mean on the one hand I'll say I know it can be tough, especially if you're not reading the D correctly. On the other hand, this is Golson's achilles heal. I mean Golson executes everything else pretty much above average to excellent but I heard Spielman say more than once that Kelly doesn't use hot reads, they're relying on Golson to account of the un-accounted man. That doesn't always work. Sometimes you can't throw away from the blitz, sometimes you have to attack where the D vacated (where the blitz came from). This kind of says to me that Golson has a lot of maturing to do in reads still and it also says to me that Kelly should be making this THE ONLY focal point of practices offensively. Now of course ball security is the second one, I do feel for Golson a bit, that one where his body was just all contorted and he fell on his passing arm was kinda bad luck, but on the other hand he has to learn to take a sack too. That spinning out of the pocket is ok sometimes, but he and by extension KELLY, needs to learn how to SLIDE up in the pocket. But then again that also goes back to the line not getting blown up on the interior and leaving Golson with no lanes to step up into.

I'm sorry but this is a major flaw in this team. I don't see how any team that can, won't blitz the shit out of him from now until his last play at the ND.

The D. Well, I thought they played the same way, up and down. Again, very little pressure, as in, not enough to necessarily warrant the frequency of blitzes. I realize BVG wants to attack, but if you're not getting there and disrupting that play 50-60% of the time, you're giving up huge chunks for very little benefit. That possession after we brought it to within 3 was just plain pathetic; 5 plays, 75 yds and a TD just like that. I don't call that good D. There were bright spots but on the whole, our youth and the fact that we're not getting to the QB on blitzes is the Defense's achilles heal.

The positives: I really appreciated the effort and that they kept fighting. I mean I really didn't think we had much of a shot to even get to a position to be able to win while watching the first half. The fact that they did is really positive, damned near broke Montana's record 22 point comeback from '77, that's pretty significant, but you know close only counts in hand-grenades and horseshoes.

I do agree with the sentiment that every game we've played was winnable, but our own mistakes are just too costly. I will add though that things could've also been different even if we hadn't gifted them 28 points because Graham was clearly being conservative and running clock in the second half, if they'd have been running their normal O, which they appeared to go right back to after we cut it to 3, we might not have caught up as close as we did.

You just can't expect to turnover the ball over that many times in so many bad field position circumstances as we do and expect to win, you just can't.

Louisville could certainly give us trouble, but I do expect us to beat the shit out of Northwestern, USC maybe.

 

[whywork2]

You can't exonerate Folston and Koyack on missed assignment leading to some of the Golson turnovers and the offensive line didn't finish their blocks on some of the batted balls. Golson played like shit but it fell on the others too. Coach Kelly deserves some of the blame to for not taking a timeout and making the correct adjustments and quit running such risky plays or at the very least run some play to beat the blitz like some screens or draws which he eventually did but it was too late by then. The funny part is that as soon as we started doing that our offense moved the ball very well. Bottom line there was a lot of blame to go around and as poorly as Golson played I simply have to spread the blame around to the appropriate players who also made boneheaded plays or missed assignments.

 

[KnuteRoc]

Indeed Whywork2. I know blocking assignments are part of the equation too, best exemplified by Cam over Folston. This is why I think this should be the focal point. I mean, I get that it takes time, some players develop at a different rate and all that but this is the primary fault to this offensive squad.

The O-Line, the TEs, the Backs and the QB all need to be on the same page. But if I'm to take the position that development only occurs between February and July then that's pretty sad. If it were me, that'd be the only thing the offense would be doing at practice, or I guess, it'd take up a huge % of the practice-time. The confused routes can be worked around, what can't be is turning over the ball so many times in the first half that you've essentially played your way out of the game.

Blitz pickup and recognition can be taught, of course Ds can disguise and trip you up now and then but as you probably saw, once we started doing things like moving the pocket, throwing away from the blitz, etc., as you said, we moved the ball with near-ease. Totally agree with you that Kelly has to recognize this and right the ship much, much quicker. Sure this team has the ability to comeback, but the better question is, why the funk would you want to if you don't have to? For style points?

 

[matthstl]

Smith what is wrong

Is the D set up different or something else happening but someone tell me what is up with Smith this year? He had so many opportunities in this game to make big plays and he seems like his aggresive style we saw last year is gone. Is there injury? Is his mind set not right? I need some help here. The ASU drive by when we cut the lead down to 3 Smith had two major opportunities to stop RB behind the line one major miss tackle and the other he held back and the RB just went right by him.

I notice big time in the Navy game but this was worse.

 

[Irish7478]

Purguy put down the pipe if you think this team is going to finish 10-2. They will be lucky to beat Louisville and USC. The only win I see is against Northwestern and who the hell knows.

Actually, I also think this team will finish 10-2. But I'm an incurable optomist. I would think(hope) we see some decent playtime allocated for Zaire this week against Northwestern, which will hopefully get him some experience as well as sending a message to Golson regarding ball security. He's no longer a rookie, he needs to lern to protect the ball when he's running. I have much greater concern regarding his fumbles compared to the interceptions, but maybe seeing Zaire out there will be the catalyst necessary to get him to address the problem.

 

[Lillyliverd]

Notre Dame is like a box of chocolates...

 

[idseer]

anyone have a link to any site where golson answers questions about yesterday's game? or does he or the team refuse to answer questions? i'd really like to know where his head is right now. or if he just falls back on stock answers

 

[whywork2]

Is the D set up different or something else happening but someone tell me what is up with Smith this year? He had so many opportunities in this game to make big plays and he seems like his aggresive style we saw last year is gone. Is there injury? Is his mind set not right? I need some help here. The ASU drive by when we cut the lead down to 3 Smith had two major opportunities to stop RB behind the line one major miss tackle and the other he held back and the RB just went right by him.

I notice big time in the Navy game but this was worse.

I also noticed on that drive Smith did whiff or runs himself out of a couple of plays. I watched it and said WTF. Overall I think Smith has had a pretty nice season. I don't think he had a good game yesterday. He's the least of my worries, the very least.

 

[NDHoosier101]

I honestly wish we didn't come back in that game. That's what was so shitty, it was our game to win, we just couldn't get out of our own fucking way.

 

[poewelch84]

Actually, I also think this team will finish 10-2. But I'm an incurable optomist. I would think(hope) we see some decent playtime allocated for Zaire this week against Northwestern, which will hopefully get him some experience as well as sending a message to Golson regarding ball security. He's no longer a rookie, he needs to lern to protect the ball when he's running. I have much greater concern regarding his fumbles compared to the interceptions, but maybe seeing Zaire out there will be the catalyst necessary to get him to address the problem.

I'm glad you do and sure they could beat Northwestern, Louisville and USC but their track record shows they will try to give the game away and they might not be able to come back against any or some of those teams if they do that.

 

[jjc2009]

I'm glad you do and sure they could beat Northwestern, Louisville and USC but their track record shows they will try to give the game away and they might not be able to come back against any or some of those teams if they do that.

I think all three games are equally win-able and loseable. Nothing about any of these teams particularly scares me. If we prepare, and Golson stops turning the damn ball over, I don't think we will be out-played by any of them.

Of course, Northwestern doesn't have much to play for except local pride. They are going to be up for this game like no other. They hate ND and ND's market share of fans in Chicago. This is their de facto bowl game, given their record. Expect them to look like a totally different team than the crap-fest that bored fans to a 10-9 loss against Michigan last week. If only

Louisville is a lot like ASU in terms of aggressive defense. They will be flying all over the field. Also, I believe this is their first visit to South Bend, I expect them to want to make a statement there. Hopefully they learn to exploit their over-aggressiveness.

USC is, well, USC. Our rival. Its on their turf, so anything can happen. They aren't playing to ruin our season anymore, so I don't know what the motivating factor will be other than pride. The key will be to keep the game close to the fourth quarter, where they will run out of gas. Interesting to see how badly beat up they will be after playing UCLA the week before too.

 

[jjc2009]

Forgot to finish my thought and moved on to other things. RE Northwestern, if only this team would learn to bury teams that they should know they outclass, I'd feel a lot better. Going even back to the end of Lou's days, it just seems there is a culture at ND to not run up the score and they go out of their way to do it. We just don't finish off teams early enough. People want Zaire to step in, but he hasn't had any safe reps, with a big lead, because we can't give him one.

Graham had no problem taking that last TD run, even after Kelly conceded the game by not calling any TO's. I don't necessarily blame ASU for scoring, its our job to stop them, but a naked bootleg call instead of a play up the middle shows that they WANTED the last TD to make a statement. And why not, they need to get into the playoff conversation too. Style points apparently matter. (That's why Ole Miss won't get punished for scheuling Presbytarian. They blew them out and shut them out. In a fair and just world, they would be punished for even bothering to schedule such a weak sister opponent, especially this late in the year, and regardless of the outcome.)

ND can still manage a BCS level bowl if they win out. But, style points will matter. Northwestern basically played Michigan to a draw (a failed 2-pt. conversion for the win), and we shut out Michigan 37-0. Any score that doesn't reflect a similar result will show the utter lack of focus and discipline of the team, and the voters will take notice. A surprise loss and, well, they get what they deserve.

 

[matthstl]

I take some what of exception vintage what do we mean by that prior to Kelly like the 4 other coaches Faust, Davie, Willingham and Wies? If that is case lets be honest we would have 4 losses and struggling to even be in the game with FSU.

Lets all be honest here two pick 6's you are not going to recover from that. Botch snap on F.G. are we really going to keep this guy in the lineup?

This is young team and for some reason as good as Golson is he cannot stop making huge mistakes! When is his learning over because the learning pains are very big right now. After all this he brought his team back to be behind by 3 and D laying down after was unreal. The other pick 6 was a gift right into hands of defender after Robinson just completely flub the catch something I have not seen from him all year.

There are too many postives this year with all that has happen I am not going throw the white flag and compare it to pre Kelly years.

 

[craigk217]

Notre Dame is like a box of chocolates...