If the video of Harbaugh spitting his Chaw on ND isn't working, you can see it here. Kinda funny.
Wow. So now I'm not sure that UM and MSU are even decent. They may just suck. Or, we just played terribly today. I'm not sure which. I hope we just had a bad day, because if not this team has regressed.
One step forward, two steps sideways, one step back, and you're right back where you started. But now you're 1-3.
Stanford methodically beat ND today. They didn't out-muscle us, they didnt out-athlete us. They out-coached and out-executed Notre Dame. Less than 10 minutes in when it was 7-3 I knew this game was over. Stanford looked tight and together. ND looked like they were a step off, a bit behind, not quite sure of where they should be. NOt quite believing that the plan would work. Harbaugh is clearly a Dick with a capital D (who chews in 2010 and spits the chaw on the field as they run out of the tunnel?), but he's got a team that knows what they are and knows how to execute. It was very clear very quickly today that ND still has no clue.
Coaching
All week Kelly talked about having his offense ready to go against this Stanford D. That they hadn't seen what we'd be bringing against them. I have to admit, I bought it hook, line and sinker. I looked at who Stanford had played, how bad those offenses were, and figured it'd be different today. Wow, Coach Kelly and I were really wrong. They played us perfectly, and we didn't have an answer. Crist looked completely lost all day. Partially that's a young guy, new starter learning. Partially that's his coaches not getting him ready for what he would face, and not helping him beat it through the play-calling. Partially that's Stanford just kicking our asses.
Offense
The only bright spot today was Armando Allen. The kid is playing like a man possessed out there, picking up yards after contact like never before. He didn't have an amazing day statistically, but this is a kid fighting his hardest. And you can see it in every down - when he gets the rock, when he's blocking, when he's running a route. This kid is all in, and he knows his job and can do it. That's one guy. That's about it today for the good stuff.
Cierre Wood didn't show up, again, today. His kickoff return decision-making was bad, the returns themselves were bad, and his blocking from the backfield was absolutely horrendous. If that's him getting better at blocking, I'm afraid that he'll never be a complete back. Which means he can't play. Armando will carry the load.
Floyd and Rudolph were marginalized and shut down today. Maybe it was the scheme, but I also didn't feel like I saw much pep in their steps today. They seemed to be phoning it in, which is just inexcusable. This seemed to be the case with Floyd again today. I'm really not sure what's going on with the kid, but he just seems down, less aggressive, a bit slow. I hope that he can turn it around, and soon. I see him making some good down-field blocks, but I don't see the same effort and pep in his routes. It's just weird.
The Oline struggled today too. We didn't pick up a blitz all day. When they stunted and brought a man? Down goes Crist. The running lanes were very small and they were gone before you could blink. This was the OLs roughest performance, and Crist will be feeling it all week.
Which brings me to Crist. The kid is new and you can tell he's trying, but he just wasn't ready for today. His decision-making was way off, he couldn't get comfortable. Nothing seemed to go right for him all day til mop-up time when the game was already decided. He didn't see the field well, and the coaches didn't do much in terms of play-calling to keep Stanford guessing and off his back.
This was a whooping by Stanford. I wasn't all wowed and a-feared of their defense as some would have us be. They weren't some amazing unit that makes a team tremble. They had a good scheme and they executed it well. They made few mistakes and brought a lot of pressure. It's a well-coached Defense, and they're pretty darn good.
Defense
Despite the final score, the D played a decent game today. Certainly enough to get a W had the Offense helped them out at all, at any point in the game. Ever. The offense gave Stanford 10 points through turnovers. And when our D forced turnovers (hooray, 2 picks!) our O went nowhere. And at the end of the half when we need to just run out the clock (at least) we leave a ton of time on there, and special teams gives Stanford a short field. Brutal. Yes, the D needs to be stout there, but c'mon, they could've used just a little help from the Offense and Special Teams.
That said, this defense really, really needs to learn how to hold up on 3rd down, and especially 3rd and long. We have very little ability to get pressure on the QB with 3 and 4-man rushes, which is part of the problem. We drop back into zone coverage and the QB has all freaking day. That's problem 1. Problem 2 is our inability to communicate at the 2nd level. Teo had an amazing statistical game. Calabrese had some big hits. But man, those guys just can't seem to communicate on who goes where. Either that, or they're just forgetting how the coverage works. Because that underneath seam was open all. damn. day. TE's, WRs, RBs from Stanford would just run in there, 10-12 yards deep, pretty much cross the seam uncovered and pick up the nice little pass that Luck would put in there. Sure, we'd tackle the guy right away. Right after he passed that damn yellow line.
Our DL needs to figure out how to not give these guys an hour back there, and our LBs and Safeties need to figure out who they have, and when that pass comes 12-15 deep over the middle, someone needs to step in and make a play to knock it down. Draping oneself over the back of a TE after he makes the catch is fine and all. If you want to give them the first down.
In Closing
Balls. This was a step back. Stanford is a good team- the best team we've played. But man, did they outplay us. In every facet, Stanford beat ND today. And it's not because of some schematic fluke or that they're just so much more talented. Neither of those is the case at all. They knew their jobs, and they did them, and they did them well. They also played with more pluck and more energy and more passion than our guys. We got beat.
Week 1 looked decent. Weeks 2 and 3 were brutal and we could've won either game. Despite the losses, I could see progress and a culture building around effort/passion...and a silver lining.
The season's not over by a long shot, but man, I didn't see any of those today.
By enrique September 26, 2010 - 6:20 am
at this point, becoming concerned that ND will never turn it around. Perhaps their is some flaw in the way the whole institution at ND pursues football, as Stanford, of all teams, should not be kicking the crap out of ND. They made us their bitch and slapped us around. I can see UM and MSU being able to do it, as thy can recruit speed that cant spell and we cant, but Stanford? I had trust in Kelly, but he has been woefully bad so far this year. He has not been impressive one bit. not one.
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By borromini September 26, 2010 - 8:53 am
Absurd that it never will be turned around…it’s simple. This is Kelly’s first year where getting his team to the point he wants isn’t going to easily happen. So what if we don’t have a TW or CW first-year success?
All I’m looking for is where this team is at the end of the year to tell us if we’re improving. Four games and now come the silly posts. It’s going to be hard to tell which posts are from real fans and trolls enjoying the moment.
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By SterlingJames September 26, 2010 - 11:01 am
You’re kidding yourself. Bo Pelini of Nebraska took over a mess worse than ND and produced a 9-4 season his first year. That was 3 years ago. This year they have a true freshman at QB and he’s produced more wins than Crist. They run an option-spread. Granted they have a weaker schedule but Bo took the talent he inherited and produced. Now on their third year, they will probably make a run for a NC. ND WILL be lucky if its 4-8. I think enique (above) touched on it. If you want Alabama results then ND has to put winning first and everything else second. It’s the same argument fans and critics have since Holtz’s departure. I hope someone tells me they “told you so” after next year but given the 10+ years of middle-of-the-road results I doubt it.
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By Rocket89 September 26, 2010 - 10:17 pm
Pelini also beat Western Michigan, San Jose State, New Mexico State, Iowa State, Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Colorado and Clemson in his first year.
In other words, Pelini didn’t do shit in his first year. They also lost by 35 at home to Missouri and by 34 to Oklahoma. They didn’t even play Texas.
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By Todd September 29, 2010 - 12:16 am
The Alabama team that your referring to had a pretty bad first year under Saban including a loss to Louisiana-Monroe. Pelini of Nebraska did ok but had the advantage of a much easier opening schedule, and I would argue that Nebraska was more “messed” up than ND. You have to give BK time and forget about the past 15 years he had nothing to do with it.
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By the biscuit September 26, 2010 - 12:41 pm
Disagree that it ‘can’t be turned around’. It was game 4 and we didn’t play well. And we got beat by a good Stanford team. That’s it.
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By NWohioND September 26, 2010 - 7:12 am
Thank you Biz…my feelings regarding the THIRD DOWNS THAT WE COULDN’T FREAKIN STOP!!!!!!!!!!!! Unbelievable!!! I agree, I didn’t see the passion today and the offense was totally outmatched from a coaching perspective…I also love Kelly saying the stanford D hadn’t seen anything like our offense today but ouch was he wrong…battle, battle, battle this year…got to turn this around…
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By jnj nj September 26, 2010 - 7:55 am
I believe Stanford just brought in 2 Pro defensive coaches this year–they solved the Spread quite easily. Stanford also showed all future opponents how to stop ND’s spread.
I always thought coaches tried to calm their QB’s not yell at them. Kelly should have been screaming at the OL
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By borromini September 26, 2010 - 8:57 am
The only thing Stanford showed future opponents is that we do in fact have a green QB who hasn’t mastered the offense and that we really aren’t playing with the full playbook so yes…this season can be taken advantage of while Crist and the Irish learn and grow up.
There is nothing Stanford had in their defense that would have stopped us regardless had we not played so poorly offensively.
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By SterlingJames September 26, 2010 - 11:04 am
I have to say CW would have put up more points than Kelly. The game would have been closer. Similar to last years.
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By domer.mq September 26, 2010 - 10:25 pm
CW wouldn’t have had the tape to prep for it either. The Stanford D didn’t do anything they did this weekend at any point in the rest of the season.
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By BigE September 26, 2010 - 8:52 am
It’s painfully clear that Kelly’s 5 minute plan is not working and was overly optimistic. I expect ND will finish this year around .500 and bring a bunch of talent and experience next season.
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By DayBreakBoys September 26, 2010 - 8:55 am
After as long a dry spell as we’ve had (haven’t beat a ranked team in 11 games!) I’, beginning to think maybe we just don’t have the name or dare I say tradition with new players to be able to recruit anymore. What else could be the reason for have the worst secondary in college football for the past 6 or more years.
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By Joe Magarac September 27, 2010 - 9:54 am
Kelly didn’t say that his plan would work in 5 minutes. He said that he would implement it in 5 minutes (i.e., he would change things immediately instead of changing them gradually). He didn’t say how long it would take for us to see results.
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By domer_mq September 27, 2010 - 11:03 am
This is a great point, Joe, and if I could give you a “star” on the comment, I would. Quite a few of the “issues” we see today may be a result of not waiting to implement things fully. Hurts now, may pay off in the future.
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By SDI September 27, 2010 - 12:44 pm
MQ–i would like to hear you elaborate on
this at some point, because to me this
sounds like an effort to spin what he said
in a positive direction after bad immediate
results. The obvious interpretation of what
he was saying was he knows he needs to win
now, 5 minutes, not in year 3 or 4 or 5. Even
if that’s not what he meant, he is smart
enough to know that is how it will be interpreted.
I thin part of the blowback Kelly is experiencing now is the direct result
of him raising expectations with his words.
I think this reminds folks of his predecessor
and we all know how that turned out. I still like his chances of turning this program around, but I don’t think he has done himself
any favors with the big talk.
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By domer_mq September 27, 2010 - 1:02 pm
Yeah, but if he’d been “leveling expectations,” he’d be “like Davie.” If he’d been indecipherable, he’d be “just like Willingham.” If he’d been too quiet, that would be the worst of all situations. Just win, and you sound awesome.
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By TLNDMA September 26, 2010 - 9:27 am
It is against NCAA rules to use tobacco during a contest. Warm up time is considered part of the contest. Coaches used to have to sign a pledge. Is D-1 football the exception?
Got kick out of Mayock “Harbaugh will coach the way he wants, he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.” Isn’t that how most assholes operate?
Having read what he said to Clausen at the end of last yrs. game, I’ve lost all respect for the guy.
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By The Biscuit September 27, 2010 - 2:37 pm
yep, here’s the text: “The NCAA prohibits the use of tobacco products by student-athletes, coaches, and game officials during practice and competition in all sports. Student-athletes who use tobacco products during practice or competition shall be disqualified for the remainder of the practice or competition. However, it is not necessary to petition for restoration of the student-athlete’s eligibility for future participation in intercollegiate athletics.” Note consequences for the students, not for anyone else. I’d make a stink of it just to be a Dick to Harbaugh (given his dickishness) but since we lost it’d just come across as sour grapes.
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By SDI September 26, 2010 - 10:00 am
Nice post Biscuit. Couldn’t agree more.
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By Mike81 September 26, 2010 - 10:10 am
Stanford is who we used to be.
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By tjak September 26, 2010 - 10:45 am
I will never stop supporting this team, but i am going to just ease up a bit for the rest of this year. I just do not have it in me to get all fired up every Saturday. At least in the first three games, it seemed as if they cared. The offense was not there, I felt real sorry for our defense.
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By SterlingJames September 26, 2010 - 11:14 am
@tjak
I’ve tried to plan my Saturday’s around ND games for the last 20 years. I’m going to dismiss ND for 2 years and stop watching them play. I’ll catch their highlighted loses on youtube or something but it’s not fun rooting for ND anymore. Maybe BK can turn this ship around and I hope he does but the next two seasons will mirror each other. Same schedule, same players and more or less the same experience.
Good luck!
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By tjak September 26, 2010 - 9:42 pm
I feel your pain my friend!
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By Brendan September 26, 2010 - 11:43 am
I was thinking about how BK was saying that Stanfords defense hadn’t seen anything like ours. UCLA was a complete mess and got blown out 35-0. They were booed out of the Rose bowl. Just two weeks later they go into Austin and blow out #7 Texas. I keep hoping that maybe soon things will click and we’ll look completely different by year’s end. Or maybe that’s the Stockholm syndrome talking.
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By MattM September 26, 2010 - 12:11 pm
Deep breaths people…
This loss provides a lot of clarity. The team and the coaches (and the obsessive, unrealistic fans) now have a much better picture of where we stand. It’s a lot easier to put a loss like that behind you and really get to work because now you have some good, hard data instead of a week where you’re looking back at last week and feeling sorry for yourself.
It will be interesting to see how Stanford fares against Oregon and U$C in the next two weeks.
Will we get back to where we once were? I think it’s still possible. Should we be there already? Really!? Come on people.
Despite the loss, I saw enough out there on Saturday to think that we have a good chance of beating BC.
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By Fenian Fox September 26, 2010 - 2:11 pm
Man I love power football, except when it is happening to me.
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By StewVee September 26, 2010 - 4:26 pm
We were beaten by a better team with better coaching and better attitude. Having a large smattering of 300 lbrs on both offensive and defensive lines helps too.
We play like we did against Stanford and we win two more games this season: Directional, and Army.
Congrats to Armando and Manti for playing their butts off. Kudos to Calabrese for tearing Macevic’s helmet off and hoisting it in air. But, man, if we can’t stop an opposing team on 3rd and long, and can’t convert on 3rd and short/long, we’re simply not gonna win games. Period.
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By Trey September 26, 2010 - 6:56 pm
Im with tjak. Im not even pissed about this gm because i really didnt thinknwe stood a chance anyway. Id like to think we could beat Backup College, but i dont really have any faith in it. I preducted 8-4 this year, now im PRAYING for a break even 6-6.
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By tjak September 26, 2010 - 9:41 pm
Trey, 6-6 would be fine if they played their hearts out and showed that there was progress. We cannot even use the academic card anymore as Stanford proved you could win easily with smart guys.
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By tjak September 26, 2010 - 9:52 pm
I do not know why I keep doing this to myself, but Clay Burton just committed to Notre Dame and that puts us ahead of Stanford at fourth on Scout.com recruiting for the class of 2011. Will good recruiting classes ever put us over the top. Apparently Kelly can recruit, can he get us to the promised land. Will this f*&^%king nightmare ever end???????????????
Go Irish!?!?
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By tjak September 26, 2010 - 9:54 pm
Sorry, one more thing, how do we keep losing games, but not recruiting battles?
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By The Biscuit September 26, 2010 - 11:42 pm
my guess? this team hasn’t had anything resembling consistency, ever. We had one approach under Weis, then we’d lose, and he’d change it. Then he’d change it again, then again. On offense he was Pro style, then he was spread-option, then he was Pro style. On defense he was 3-4, then 4-3, then who knows what. Bring in Kelly. New offense, new defense. These guys haven’t had a singular, focused approach at all. And I think that’s what they’ll need. Imagine if you were taught that 2+2 = 3, then 6, then 2, then 4. It’d take you a bit to really believe it’s 4, wouldn’t it? Or to ACT like it’s 4…this will be a post I think…
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By TLNDMA September 27, 2010 - 5:04 am
Agreed, imagine if you will that this team had another year of practice under Kelly right now. How much better would Crist be, How much better would each player be? But especially how much more depth would we have?
Depth right now is a major issue. DB’s ae playing hurt(Walls, Slaughter). DL ,starters ok, backups not so much. The depth at QB is definately changing the way Kelly calls a game.
It’s going to take some time.
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By Pat September 27, 2010 - 5:34 pm
Exactly. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
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By The Biscuit September 26, 2010 - 11:47 pm
Burton, by the way, was ND’s 10th commit a while back. He visited this weekend, but was already committed.
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By tjak September 27, 2010 - 10:41 am
Yes, missed that, on ISD he said he was all in and I got confused.
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By StewVee September 27, 2010 - 7:18 am
Anyone willing to bet BC rushes three on Crist this Sat? Why wouldn’t they?
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By canuck 75 September 27, 2010 - 8:33 am
Like everyone else I am unhappy about the result. I thought the O and D lines were not going to be gashed like that.
Crist had a bad day, and in a pass oriented offense that spells trouble.
But I am sick of the guys who state that every team we play is weak or mediocre and thus we are worse. As it turns out we have a killer schedule-maybe out toughest ever. We need to make a change to have a soft game before Michigan and then not play State the week after.This is Stanford’s best team in 20 yrs-so be it.
Lots of criticism of Kelly. I am standing firm, but here is what I need to see; Hughes earned some reps, and sadly, Woods should never see the field again.Goodman earned some more reps. Finally, (and Kelly alluded to this) Crist must run the ball 4-5 times as the designed play to keep the D honest.
Both BC and Pitt looked horrible this week,surely we can handle them.
Hang in there everyone.
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By Brendan September 27, 2010 - 9:58 am
This isn’t even close to our toughest schedule ever.
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By Pat September 27, 2010 - 5:35 pm
So, we’ll run the ball to set up the pass???
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By Mark G September 27, 2010 - 10:35 am
We lost this game because of poor execution on offense, and mediocre special team preformance. Our D actually played well against a strong Stanford team (huge O line with 5th year seniors, etc.). Keeping Stanford’s vaunted offense to one touchdown through three quarters (and four field goals, two of which were the fault of our offense) was a great performance, even though our D was on the field all day. Agree that the defense’s 3rd down performance was maddening, and inability to put much pressure on Luck in first half killed us, but had we moved the ball on offense we would have been toe to toe with them going into the 4th quarter.
I suppose we can alwayws criticize the play calling on offense, but the principal problem on offense is still execution. Poor play on right side of line in picking up blitzes. Poor location of throws by Crist. Look, Crist may be a first year starter, but he is Junior and should be executing better than he is. (Maybe he just isn’t a spread offense QB, and we will have to live with him as a square peg in a round hole until someone beats him out for the starting role. Scary thought.) But he is not being helped out by his receivers (except Goodman, who was aggressive in coming back to get the ball and running once he had it — he will not start next week ahead of Floyd, but maybe he should be starting ahead of Jones).
Going into Stanford we all said that we needed to win 2 of the next 3 games. That logic still holds, but the pressure is on to perform against a BC team that will be very fired up against us, and against a not terribly frightening Pitt. I am not giving up hope yet on a 7-5 season, but more importantly, I am going to try to remain disciplined and focus on the test you all have been talking about for months — are we playing better at the end of the year than the beginning of the year.
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By JM September 27, 2010 - 10:41 am
I am certainly disappointed with how we played this week, but I am not surprised. Going in with a 1-2 record after two close losses where you beat yourself with turnovers is not usually the best mindset for beating a better team. I did expect a little improvement this week, and it sure seemed like a step back, but it was a step back against a better team with a coach who has had 4 years to install his system and his mentality. As Kelly said a couple of games ago, this team doesn’t expect to win yet, and you can’t change that until they start winning.
I get why Crist had trouble reading this defense as a very green QB; I get that our defense isn’t great, and our offensive line has two new starters and looked lost on every blitz.
What I don’t get at all is why we have the ability to stop teams for the first two downs and then hand them a third down conversion over and over again, just like last year! If we can stop them twice in a row, what’s the problem? Is it talent? Is it scheme? It is execution? I would really like to know what we keep doing wrong here to know what I should be hoping we can fix.
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By SDI September 27, 2010 - 3:05 pm
Just a thought, but the defensive backs are likely very gunshy given the huge plays they gave up last year. Even if they think they have the play read, it’s probably difficult to be aggressive and jump routes and pick off or knock down passes, because they don’t yet trust their instincts. I watched Earl Thomas pick off two Philip Rivers passes yesterday on deeper post patterns. He read the QBs eyes, broke on the ball at full speed and made the play. He didn’t hesitate for a second. He of course has tons of ability, but I think NDs DBs have more ability than they are showing because they are playing scared still.
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By The Biscuit September 27, 2010 - 3:34 pm
very possible. plus, i dont know that they feel super confident that they’re where they’re supposed to be (even when they ARE where they’re supposed to be). this goes back to learning a new system, being burned in the past like you say, etc.
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By Pat September 27, 2010 - 5:42 pm
I’m not ready to hit the panic button here. Stanford is a very good team, top to bottom, and very well coached — imbued with and completely sold on what Harbaugh is selling out there. And it showed. I was surprised though as to how poorly our offense played and was frustrated as anyone with the constant Cardinal third down conversions. It’s time to go up and beat BC and get this train back on track. Follow that with a win against Pitt and then the weaker part of the schedule sets in and the season is very much salvageable.
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By The Biscuit September 27, 2010 - 5:56 pm
It is, but our screwup margin is over. If we beat teams ranked below us, and lose to those above us, we’ll be 3-9. So we have to show up and beat some teams that are, at least by Sagarin, our equals or better. Granted, that’s kind of self-fulfilling, but the road isn’t super easy. We’ve used up our mulligans. 7-5 now looks like a ceiling rather than a floor…but I’d take it.
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By Pat September 27, 2010 - 8:02 pm
Yeah. The next two weeks are really critical if we are going to finish over .500.
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