I got to enjoy a beautiful day in Notre Dame Stadium yesterday, so this will be a slightly different review from any I’ve written this 2006 season. I’ve got a lot to rant about, so hang with me. I promise I’ll actually talk about the game at some point. It was sort of a strange game. While the game was never really in doubt, the “doubtlessness” of the game was in doubt quite a bit, if ya know what I mean. I’ve already heard a lot of people say that we “missed an opportunity” with this game by not winning by 50 or 60 points, and while I’ll admit I would have liked to have seen a lot more of Prince and Aldridge in “garbage time” and less of Quinn and Walker in “quality time,” I’ll bet you can guess my reaction to these people after reading the next section.
Notre Dame Fans: The Dumbest Fans Of All Time
Holy crap. It was one thing to hear, over, and over, and over, and over again, “C’mon Quinn! Throw it deep!” But my jaw’s bruised from hitting the floor yesterday when the f-ing fans started the wave mid-way thru the 3rd. Freaking. Quarter. You morons. We were up, what, 14 at that point? Against a team that was clearly not just gonna stop playing, and you guys think it’s the perfect time to just chill out and start participating in the dumbest group activity since dragging a mysterious, giant, wooden horse within the city walls? What the hell? I sat there, as the wave passed about 8 times, wishing that whoever started the wave would stumble and fall from the top of the stadium. I wasn’t wishing death on these people, just physical harm such that they could never again quickly stand up and raise their arms above their heads while going, “Whooo!” F-ing morons.
Now, back to those “Throw it deep!” comments. Shut up. All of you. You’ve clearly never run thru a passing tree or tried to catch a long pass when someone else was looking to hit you before, during, or after the catch, and thus your comments are invalid. You are no longer allowed to yell out anything advisory. You may yell “Yay!” when good things happen and moan, “Aw.” when bad things happen. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that you can differentiate the two. You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Why would Quinn ever throw it deep in a game like yesterday’s when the medium and short routes were for the taking? Was ND ever down? Did they ever need to rush to get a TD? Here’s a question, let’s say the most important part of the game is to control the ball, and there’s no defense on the field. You drop back, and you can either throw it 8 yards for an easy pitch and catch completion, or hurl it 30-50 yards to a guy streaking down the field. Which would you pick. If you picked the later, get up, go into the kitchen, pick up a frying pan, and commence trying to knock some sense into yourself. There’s little hope for you otherwise.
Something has happened to the fans of Notre Dame, and I swear I can find a way to blame it on Ty Willingham and Bob Davie. An entire generation of graduates attended Notre Dame when Notre Dame was playing piss-poor football, and I swear these never-ending, idiotic comments in the stands are some sort of result of that unfortunate period in our history.
Obviously, what I just said doesn’t apply to all Notre Dame fans, but it’s really, really sad that what I just said could be said at all.
Time to get back to the game…
Way to go Defense!
I’m just gonna break things down by general teams since I was in the stadium. It’s funny. When you’re there, you can see a lot more, but you also have a harder time focusing on things. I spent a lot of time watching our lines, but then someone would do something really nice somewhere else, and I’d get distracted. I should really go watch the replay online. Anyway, maybe I’ll do a position breakdown after that. Still, way to go defense! Sure, this Stanford team isn’t very good, and yeah, some key plays were simply drops by their receivers, but I’m still very pleased with what I saw on the field considering we were missing 3 starters from the defense. I was terrified when I first noticed the defense in a pre-snap situation, and Nedu was trying to communicate to the corners and the younger safety. There was clearly some confusion and/or communication issues without Zibby there. Still, the defensive backfield “managed the game” pretty well, not allowing Stanford’s QB to have a breakout game as, frankly, Notre Dame so often has against poorer competition.
The defensive line had a big day today, and that was nice to see. From what I could tell, Stanford should have been called for about 12 holding penalties, 8 of which would go to whoever was covering Abiamiri. 2 of his moves, the spin and a punch-and-shed were unblockable. He either got the sack or was held every time he used those moves. So where were all those holding penalties?
The linebackers were just ok. They’ve got a lot of work to do. That’s a pretty poor team right there, and they still managed to get some very, very solid runs in because the linebackers weren’t filling. It did seem like tackling, however, when someone was there to make a tackle, looked a lot better.
Our Offense: The Paper-cut Ninjas
The Sunday Morning QB is always referring to our offense as a group that tries to kill you via a 1000 paper cuts, and nowhere was that more apparent than in our game yesterday. Normally, when a team starts the game from their 9 yard line, there might be some level of worry on my part, but yesterday I thought, “Sweet. Here comes a 90 yard TD drive.” And it went exactly as I expected. It was beautiful. This team can kill you not just in multiple ways, but in every way. Quinn was great. One thing you see so much better when you’re at the game is a QB’s footwork, and Quinn’s ability not just to stay out of trouble, but to move thru a pocket to find a spot that is his most advantageous was just awesome. At the college level it seems like most QBs move to save their butts. Quinn’s already moving to create his own passing lanes and/or create real angle problems for linebackers and defensive backs in coverage. A QB who can move to create advantages + a TE that can really move around the field = awesome matchup problems. Fun.
The line looked pretty good yesterday, and that’s against a DL that was competitive, if outmatched. Sam Young, by the way, may already be our best OL. He’s still really raw, but his ability to move and then swallow someone is a lot of fun to watch.
Darius. I love Darius. I’m gonna go on mancrush.com and see if I can get him rated #1. He’s just great. And yeah, I can see the flashes of potential that Prince and Aldridge show, but man do I love me some Darius. He’s a very good rusher, an excellent receiver, and the most bestest blocker in pass protection ever, ever, ever. Yesterday, in a play that I think resulted in about 12 yards for the Irish, Darius sacrificed himself and was absolutely blown up by Stanford’s DE. He was absolutely destroyed. And really, it didn’t look like it slowed the DE very much, but it was one of my favorite plays of the day. It may have only given Quinn a blink of time, but it was long enough to complete the pass and save Quinn’s butt. Thank God for Darius.
The receivers had a good game again, but there’s still subtle little things they need to work on. Had Rhema not dropped a couple of passes, this game would have been a true blowout. And if Shark made the same pre-snap reads that Brady had made, then I think Shark’s day would have been much bigger too. Still, while far from perfect, the receiver squad was quite good. And that includes David Grime’s leaping catch to keep an ND drive going. David’s a vastly underrated asset on this squad.
They’re Special Because God Says So
The special teams still has that amazing quality of looking well coached and yet rarely doing anything to help and almost costing us a bunch. Overall, the decisions of the kick returners was good, but we sure seem to drop a lot of these kicks. And then on a really exciting, soul-crushing, momentum bursting 60+ yard return, we get called for holding. WTF? It was nice to see a solid field goal from this squad. It was also nice to see some solid tackles against Stanford’s returns, but we need special teams to be a true weapon given that our depth across the board sorta stinks right now. We need a couple of quality punches thrown by these guys.
Oh, and why the hell can’t we block a gunner? Stanford on at least one occasion only sent a single gunner down-field. We double-teamed this guy, and he made us look silly. What the hell is that? Why is a double-teamed gunner not tasting turf and chalk within 1 second of the snap? Why is this guy even on the field of play after the snap? Coach Polian, you’re on notice.
Robot Charlie And His Merry Men
Charlie has told the media that he’s “content” with this game. And I’m “content” with this staff. Apparently most of the starters who were out for this game were kept out as a precaution. It turned out to be a good move here. Still, in a game as emotional as college football, this is a much riskier move than in the pros, and I hope Charlie appreciates that. I do give him an A for bluffing. I’m pretty sure nobody had a clue that Zibby would be out of the game until he didn’t trot out onto the field for the first defensive series. Heck, I’m not sure Stanford even noticed in their first few series.
Overall the playcalling was solid. How can there be a complaint with that many long drives? Still, the substitutions seemed odd. We played a ton of players in the first few series, and Munir Price saw quality time at a key moment in the game. When playing a bad team, why not just take your best players and do what you do best until the other team is crushed? Would have been heartening to see so many young guys get such “quality time” in, um “garbage time.” This may, however, speak volumes about Charlie’s concerns about ND’s depth problems. Gotta get the young guys in there before it’s too late.
I want to give some kudos to Defensive Coordinator Rick Minter. Stanford took the ball right down the field for their first drive, and save some poor play by Stanford, should have scored a TD. After that, the defense, playing with a lot of inexperience, pretty much held Stanford in check the rest of the way (Stop Biting On That HB Option, Nedu!). They clearly made some adjustments to something. I’m not terribly sure of what it was, but what had been working terribly well for Stanford early on just stopped, and Walt Harris is too good of an offensive coach for me to believe it’s because Walt pulled a Johnelle Smith.
Finally, it’s time to make Ruben Mendoza the highest paid strength and conditioning coach in football if he isn’t already. I’m not saying just “college football.” I’m saying in all of football. Hell, in all of athletics. Because there was a moment yesterday where all of a sudden our offensive line was getting a ton of push against Stanford. And it was clear that ND’s guys could just keep on going all day long while the Stanford guys were sucking wind, kneeling down, and trying their darndest to “shake it off.” And that’s when, really, a game that was never in doubt stopped being in doubt. It was awesome to see in person. Combine that with the MSU comeback and the Georgia Tech win, and coach Mendoza has been largely responsible for 60% of Notre Dame’s wins this season.
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you’re out of your element.