Happy Halloween!
See if you can figure out what isn’t right about this image. Look closely and watch carefully.
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October 31, 2007
See if you can figure out what isn’t right about this image. Look closely and watch carefully.
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Farewell, Robert Goulet
The only relationship I’ve found between Notre Dame and Robert Goulet, who died yesterday, is this: ND and USC are rivals. Will Ferrel is a notorious Trojan fan. And Will Ferrel played Robert Goulet in “Red Ships of Spain.”
And that relationship is reason enough to post something about Bob’s untimely end on HLS.
You can check out some other relationships between ND and Bob here. You can also see that I’m a moron.
Related Posts:October 30, 2007
Rush to Judgement
Quick, tell me the run to pass play-calling ratio of Notre Dame’s offense since Weis took over. No peeking down below. Just blurt out the first numbers that come to mind in the comments for this post.
We all know that Weis runs a “pass happy offense,” right? The guy clearly wants to pass to set up the run. He runs all sorts of exotic passing schemes. His play-book would give Google difficulty in indexing (nerd humor). So what do you think? How much does he run versus pass?
40% run, 60% pass?
35% run, 75% pass?
20% run, 80% pass?
45% run, 45% pass, 10% undecided?
Sorry, it’s an election year, ya know.
Answers after the jump… More…
Related Posts:Please Keep the Hughes Family in Your Prayers
Irish Envy provided a few quotes from Charlie’s press conference today, where Coach mentions that Robert’s brother died unexpectedly recently. As with Charlie, we don’t have any details, but we’d like to ask our readers to keep Robert’s brother, Robert, and his family in their thoughts and prayers during what is obviously an amazingly difficult time.
This is when the Notre Dame Family really means something. Since we can’t do much else, please take a moment to send something up on their behalf.
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Cheeseburger - Had One!
So there was this place in Chicago that I used to frequent between the hours of 4 and 7 am pretty regularly when I used to live there. Taco joint. Taco Burrito Express #2 was the formal name of the place. These guys were my boys. Most especially because they didn’t mind, and they didn’t mock me, for walking into a burrito joint once a week, buzzed out of my gord on Goose Island’s 312 or some redbull and vodka (I have graduated to finer choices in my old age, just let me tell you) and ordering a Cheeseburger. Ummmm, Cheeseburger. Had one.
ND sat around and ate Cheeseburgers Saturday. It was nice. It was relaxing. It was the second best performance of the season for the Irish.
And Sagarin’s Strength of Schedule ratings considered this a tough opponent - ND currently has the most difficult schedule in the nation, all thanks to the formidable opponent BYE (aka The Cheeseburgers). BYE is tough, tenacious. BYE never, EVER loses. The best you can EVER do against BYE is score a 0-0 tie, and that’s saying something.
And this week, BYE pushed ND’s SOS up to #1 most difficult in the country. Of course, it will dip a bit in the coming weeks. But so should opponents’ offensive yardage and points. And ND’s offensive woes should dissipate a bit as well.
The most difficult schedule in the country to date isn’t an excuse for Charlie or this squad. But it’s one piece of information to keep handy when you’re wondering what’s been going on lately. Keep it in mind too, when your friends throw their team’s 1-loss, 2-loss, 3-loss, 4-loss, 5-loss or 6-loss record in your face. It’s is 100% guaranteed that it was easier for them to get there. 100%.
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October 29, 2007
[TiVo Sound of Pause] + [TiVo Sound of Rewind] + [TiVo Sound of Play]
“New Coaching Staff”???
Not-so-noble-old-former-coach-who -built-a-program-with-farm-boys-and-thugs-say-new-coaching-staff?
HT: EDSBS
Related Posts:Good Bye Weekend
What I Did On My Bye Weekend:
- Felt my New England blood stir as the Red Sox won the World Series. My grandfather, who was a very, very old man when he died, used to swear he would “live to see the Red Sox win the World Series again.” I’ve seen them win it twice since he died.
- Started to think that the Trojan’s real problems have less to do with injuries and more to do with focus. Pete Carroll has no problem focusing when the Trojans are playing ND. I have to wonder if Pete Carroll has trouble not day-dreaming about San Diego while trying to prepare for Pac-10 games.
- Shook my head at how bad Penn State looked against Ohio State.
- Laughed maniacally as Tom Brady, the QB with whom I was stuck by the computers in my fantasy draft, scored 60+ points for my team for the seemingly eleventy-billionth week in a row.
- Slept in Delaware, just miles from the school that put 59 points up on Navy while giving up 52 points.
- Tried to divine what the heck that meant for ND’s game this weekend.
- Carved the baddest-assed pumpkin ever. My jack-o-lantern could so beat up your jack-o-lantern.
- Ate sauerkraut for the first and last time.
- Drank a lot of Allagash Dubbel for the first of many, many times to come.
- Realized that Urban Meyer isn’t the evil genius that I thought he was; just evil.
- Saw a kid get chased by a ghost.
- Drove through a college campus on the Saturday Night before Halloween. Missed college terribly.
- Laughed Maniacally at Ty Willingham. (And no. I’m not going to “get over him.” The F-er implied that his firing had something to do with race. He’ll do the same when Washington finally fires him. Unfortunately for Washington, they saw what happened to ND, so they’re going to suffer longer. Then again, the Washington fans spent a lot of time calling ND fans racists, so they should probably get smacked around by Karma for another year or two.)
- Wondered where a man can find a XXXL, purple, velour warm-up suit.
HT: EDSBS
How ’bout you?
Related Posts:October 26, 2007
Take It To Another Level
Imagine for a moment a team ranked dead last in rushing offense in the country. Imagine that team only averages 1.09 yards per carry. Imagine that the rushing average is so bad that it’s almost doubled by the second to last rushing offense in the country - Duke.
Now, guess which defensive position has tallied the most tackles against that rushing offense. The defensive line, right? I mean, heck, 1.09 yards wouldn’t get you beyond arm’s reach of a defensive lineman. Those guys must be tallying tackles all day along with the linebackers.
Wrong.
Let’s face it. The Notre Dame rushing attack is terrible. So bad that you’d have to assume that absolutely nothing is being done right when Notre Dame runs the ball. But as this season’s progressed, I’ve been getting the feeling that the defensive backfields of ND’s opponents have been getting in on the fun quite a bit. And if absolutely nothing is going right for the ND offense on rushing plays, that seems counter-intuitive. Even accounting for blitzing defensive backs and exotic defensive schemes, if ND can’t even get 2 yards a carry, how on earth could those DBs be getting in on so many rushing plays?
I tabulated every tackle made by ND opponents against ND rushing plays and grouped those tackles by defensive position. (I counted solo and assists as “tackles,” so the tackle numbers may not mesh real well with the NCAA’s “rush attempts” which also include QB sacks and scrambles.) Here’s what I found…
With a 1.09 yards/carry average, one would reasonably assume that the defensive line and linebackers of Notre Dame’s opponents would dominate the tackling totals for ND rushing plays. After all, if ND’s only moving the ball 1.09 yards a carry, they’re certainly not getting to the “second level,” say, 5 yards off the line of scrimmage, very often. But the fact is, the tackling on rushing plays has been rather evenly dispersed between the “front 7″ and the “second level.” The “front 7″ have been credited with 69% of the tackles against ND rushing plays this year. The “second level” guys have actually accounted for more tackles (71%). Now, both groups include linebackers, and as anyone might expect, the linebackers account for more tackles than defensive backs or defensive linemen. But it doesn’t seem far fetched to expect that the average defense against such a horrible rushing offense would have very lopsided success against the rush with their “front 7″ relative to their “second level.” And that’s just not the case.
When you’ve got a really good rushing attack, you’ll actually find that defensive backs, especially safeties, are involved in a lot of the tackles. After all, they’re the “last hope” for a defense. But Notre Dame hasn’t managed to execute on 15% of their plays well enough to reach the “second level,” be they rushes or passes. So it’s pretty incredible that DBs have managed to account for 31% of the tackles made against ND rushing plays.
Two things probably account for this weirdness.
- Notre Dame’s receivers are small and/or young, and don’t do a very good job blocking. ND has been spoiled the previous 2 years by excellent blocking by Samardzija, Stovall, and McKnight. All big and strong guys relative to the current ND receiving corps. And the young receivers like Tate and Kamara don’t use very good blocking technique at this time.
- Nobody fears Notre Dame’s “big play potential.” Even with the “emergence” of Golden Tate, ND hasn’t proven that it can throw the ball well enough to pose a consistent deep threat. As a result, ND opponents can “stack the box” with a safety, crowding the line of scrimmage, practically turning a DB into an extra LB.
As much grief as the Notre Dame offensive line gets, and deservedly so, the anemic ND rushing attack is a full “team effort.”
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