(Slightly Drunken) Gameday Thoughts
The Biscuit
PSU - IL
Wow. That White Out thing is sweet. Seriously, why can’t ND get a home field advantage so blatant? Can’t we just get ONE t-shirt color? Can’t we get such a crazy, loud crowd? But please please please never ever EVER play that stupid moronic song (over and over) and definitely don’t ever play such a cheesy sound effect as that horrid, horrid ‘cat growl’ thing. Lord, they’re killing me with that.
PSU will win the Big Televen.
They Still Suck
I don’t care if UM (sucks!) beat the #9 team in the country. They still suck. UW trying to run out the clock in the 2nd qtr is absurdly bad coaching. My call for the skunkbears? 6-6. Maybe. While DTK would love to think that the schedule gets easier, IU and Northwestern ain’t all that bad. And despite this win, UM (sucks) still sucks.
Georgia Learns that You Can’t Be Elite Just Because of the Skillz
Georgia was ranked highly largely because of the names at skill positions. Solid QB. Great RB. Good WRs. Flashy players here and there. What they learned today is that this game is very, very often won in the trenches in the college ranks. In the pros, everyone (for the most part) has a solid Ol and a solid DL. So the skill positions make the difference. In college, there is a great deal of difference in these areas. Alabama had a clear advantage in the trenches, and the result showed. 31-0 at one point? Wow.
SEC Madness
I was hanging with a guy from Georgia tonight, and it’s amazing how much these people drink the SEC kool-aid. Of course, USC losing fueled the fire. I dont get how USC losing means the SEC is better than it was on Wednesday, but that’s typical CFB fan logic. Meaning, there is no logic. Morinicalalysis.
The Top 15 has been dominated by the SEC, but that will change as the season goes on and impression is replaced by data. Yes, the SEC has good teams. But so does the Big 12 (Missouri, OK), Big Televen (PSU) and Pac-10 (USC is still pretty good).
Notre Dame Beats the Most Boring Program in History
Hellllllllllllllllllllllllll yes.
This is the team we’ve been waiting to see. Notre Dame came out and decided to suck it up for 15 minutes. Then, after about 2-3 minutes passing in the 2nd quarter, this team came alive offensively. The ball flew through the air. RB’s made blocks. Defenders played tight coverage and made things happen (can anyone say Blannnnnnnnnnnnnnnntoooooooooooon?). It was a sight to see.
This isn’t a perfect team, but improvement is there and there is NOTHING TO DISPUTE THAT.
Last year we won 3 games all year. This year we started 3-1. Last year we took a few games to get a passing TD. This year, Jimmy is on fire. Last year we looked lost and confused. This year we don’t look like a well-oiled machine, but players know their roles and what to do when for the most part. You know why? Because we’re no longer Frosh and Sophomores. Instead we’re Frosh, Sophomores and Juniors. We have 1 more year under our belts, and it shows. We’re better at D. We’re better at O. We’re better at emotion, at playing as a team, at execution of the game plan and at handling adversity.
We came out flat as hell this week, but we overcame it. Goooooooooooo Irish.
Jimmy Is Legit
I saw so many passes today where I stepped back and said “holly hell NYND (the only other cat in the chat room) did you SEE that pass?” Jimmy’s touch was beautiful today. He put passes right on the money, and with serious zip when needed. This kid will be a FORCE in 2 years. And we’re already seeing the emergence of a solid player with good, good skill.
The Running Game Comes Alive
Just when I was about ready to cash things in on that ‘vaunted’ right side of Stewart/Young, they come out and destroy some people, along with a little help from Rudolph. We were finally able to run with some consistency. Purdue’s DL isn’t the most amazing set of athletes, but this is still very encouraging. Loved to see it.
Armando’s Statement Game
The kid today showed what he can do. I think that AA fits Charlie’s style of game-planning better, and it may be that he’s featured more in the future. That said, CW plans for things based on the opponent, so this may be way wrong. But my guess is that this is the AA Show until there’s reason to believe that something else is a better call. Hughes and Aldridge will still get carries, but AA will be the featured back. Rather than the other way around.
Fresh Input
Kyle Rudolph, Robert Blanton and Trevor Robinson were BIG contributors today. These guys are freshmen. FROSH. Seriously, it’s their first college football season. We’re DEPENDING on these guys. And while they’re top-rated recruits, that’s a big ask. At USC, they’d have 2 years to develop before they were put under this kind of pressure. Those small mistakes and issues they’ve had, I’m okay with that. They’re growing up quickly, and I saw TONS of improvement in Rudolph’s blocking in particular. Can you imagine all these guys as Jr/Srs? Watch out.
Wow. This Combo WILL Be a Force
Jimmy at QB. Floyd, Tate, Walker, Rudolph at the WR and TE positions. Yards. Points.
Good QB Pressure
Though the sacks stat doesnt show it, we put a lot of pressure on Painter today to force some bad throws, and to keep him from setting his feet. The D wasn’t perfect, but they held when needed. The ability to shut down/disrupt Sheets early on was a key to the defensive gameplan. While he came back and was more affective later in the game, our ability to force them to be one-dimensional early was huge.
Tackle? Anyone?
I was disappointed in our inability to open-field tackle in this game. In the first few games I saw this as an area of strength. But we had troubles shedding blocks and wrapping guys up today. This was disappointing.
Defending the Slant
We couldn’t do this last week. We couldnt do this early this week. We could do this later in the game this week. Yay adjustments.
The Refs Owe Us Another 7 Points
That was a freaking catch.
Summary
Solid game from 5 minutes into the 2nd qtr to the final whistle. We need to come out and play fast sooner. We need to wrap up better and avoid costly penalties. But this team had rhythm on offense. This team had confidence and swagger. It had a balanced offense, and these guys had fun today. It was great to see.
Can someone please gag and bag every tool that called for CW’s head in the past week? Thank you.
GO IRISH.
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18 Comments
Right on. I wonder if John Walters still thinks it’s a good idea to can Weis and hire Skip Holtz.
Do people really think that Weis forgot how to coach between 2006 and 2007? This was and is an incredibly young team but the worm has turned for them.
I was also angry about how we weren’t shedding the blocks downfield. But the fact that our frosh/soph classes are doing what they’re doing. We are going to win, and big. GO IRISH
Forgot an important part of my summary. I’m still at 7-5 for this team, but now leaning more towards 8-4 than 6-6. I see tough games with USC, BC, UNC for sure. Another could sneak up on us. Let’s hope not. I would looooove 8-4.
I don’t see the Irish losing more than 4 games this year. They’re a young team, and they might blow one or two more games they should win–most likely UNC or BC–plus a loss to SC in the Coliseum. I think 9-3, but 8-4 wouldn’t surprise me.
There was a guy who wrote an article in the Observer that he thought it was time for Weis to go. We need to just turn our backs on these kind of people. I cannot possibly imagine watching an Irish game with these malcontents. To be sure the Irish still have a ways to go, but we are getting there.
Why no comment about the play of the OL? John Ryan was an absolute FORCE in this game. I can remember vividly 3 blocks that set up AA for huge gashes and Ryan was the main man responsible for them. Also, Jimmy a force in 2 years?? Heck, he’s gonna be a force in 2 weeks! This is seriously a BCS-quality QB in the making. Give him a little more time to connect with guys like Rudolph(was really impressed with his emergence too) and Jimmy will be a Heisman list QB. What impressed me most about Jimmy this week was his decision making. In the SDSU game, he was still trying to fit balls into double coverage and getting eaten alive. Now, he finally seems like he’s realized that there is such a thing as a check-down and he’s taking advantage of it. As I said earlier in shoutbox, thank God this week is over, lets go play an exciting game this weekend. GO IRISH!! BEAT CARDINAL!
Charlie and Haywood need to absolutely positively get rid of those dumb dumb dumb stupid scripted plays at the beginning of every game.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved everything I saw yesterday after the first fiftenn offensive plays. I think Charlie is at his best when he is calling plays in the moment.
Trey: John Ryan plays defense dude.
Tony, I’m almost positive trey knows that. He’s a pretty strong follower of the team. Probably just slipped because he was too excited/too hopped up on celebratory craft brews.
I admit that I had one foot off the CW bandwagon after the first half, but I’m back from the brink. I still think 9-3 is likely with losses to UNC and USC, but if we can make the strides like we did from the first half to the second half of the Purdue game, we could surprise.
WOOPS. Meant Sam Young, my mistake. Momentary brain relapse. Thanks Tony.
Biscuit,
Since UM does not have either IU on the schedule this year, not quite sure what that means. To your original point though, both IU’s (Iowa and Indiana) are in fact terrrible, Iowa will probably bottom out next year and maybe even face some serious NCAA infractions.
Northwestern is off to a nice start though, you’re right. No gimmes for UM this year, but since that one is at home I still think UM wins that one (but in a close one).
The game on Sat does not do too much to my initial prediction for UM (7-5, maybe now a very outside chance at 8-4).
Sorry DTK. IU/UI/whatever. My intention was that the Big Televen will be a lot harder this year for you guys than a lot of you think…the ‘easy’ games are tough, when you struggle to beat Miami (Ohio) and aren’t showing much improvement week to week. Yeah, the UW win was huge, but the same problems still exist. I say 6-6 if you’re lucky…
Biscuit, I get what you’re saying though in my defense I think I’ve said repeatedly “no gimmes for UM this year”. My prediction is not that far off from yours.
I dunno…6-6 at best (from me) feels pretty different from maybe 8-4 (from you). i guess i’m saying sub .500 is likely, and you’re saying above .500 most likely. so i don’t know that we’re that close. but at least we agree that there’s stiff competition for the ‘bears…
As far as the white out, it is a little bit easier when you have over 42,000 students (grad and undergrad) rather than 10,000 (undergrad and grad). Now granted, they only issued 21,000 student tickets this year, but assume that 8000 ND students go, that is about 10% of the total stadium size. With the 21,000 tickets at PSU, that is about 20% of the stadium, plus whatever students get tickets outside the lottery. Add the young alumnni (within 5 years of grad), and you probably have closer to 30-40% loud, racous fans. You probably get another 10-20% of alumni that will join in when the action is good. Figure 10% for visiting fans, that leaves 30% fuddy duddies. At ND, it is almost 50-60% fuddy duddies.
It’s all in the math!
Great call Wertzy. But, even if our fans arent loud and crazy, they could at least all be Blue. Or Gold. Or Green. The fact that The Shirt changes color every year increases sales - but it hurts the look of solidarity in the stadium. And that bothers me.
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