I’ve been really struggling to do a write-up of the Duke game. On the one hand: Wooooooooooooooooooo! We won! On the other hand: “Yeah, but it’s Duke.”
First, let’s get a sense of the strength of that “Yeah, but…” hand. Duke is monumentally bad. In the latest Sagarin ratings, Duke is 112th. To get some idea of how much worse they are than everyone else we’ve played: GT is 43rd, PSU 30th, UM(s!) 25th, MSU 46th, PU 55th, UCLA 37th, BC 15th, SoCal 10th, Navy 78th, and AFA 50th. Duke’s so bad that losing to them is even more unthinkable than losing to Louisiana-Monroe. Barely. Duke is a team that, despite all the “hype,” ND should out-class with their 2nd stringers, but until yesterday, ND hadn’t done much to make anyone think that they could out-class a Duke with 1st stringers.
That is, at least, for the first 10 games and 28 minutes of the 2007 season. And this is why I just don’t care about the “Yeah, buts…” Because, after a 1-9 season, after 10 games of looking inept in so many ways, after losing players to transfer mid-season, after 3 or 4 QB changes, after everything, 10 games and 28 minutes into the 2007 season, this Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Team still had some fight in them. 10 Games and 28 Minutes in, this team shook it all off and finally said, “enough.” And in a matter of 2 minutes, every Irish player on that field, at least in the moment, forgot everything that had happened in the 10 games and 28 minutes before.
Yeah, it’s Duke, but no matter how hard you construct a schedule, and this 2007 schedule was particularly brutal both in structure and timing, every team is going to play a Duke. It just so happened that ND played Duke 11 games into the 2007 season. Finally, ND was playing a team that would shoot itself in the foot at least as often as Notre Dame. Finally, ND was playing a team that could not match-up on a talent basis or be counted on to execute with high precision. And finally, the players of Notre Dame recognized this and took advantage. They got while the gettin’ was good. While Duke played pathetically, Notre Dame played a good, if not excellent, game.
As bad as this team has been, it was an amazing thing to see yesterday. What though the odds, this team has stuck together. 9 weeks ago, fans were wondering, rather loudly, whether or not Charlie Weis had “lost” this team. And maybe he lost a few of them, but this team is still a team and still capable of playing like one. It’s capable of getting 3 different running backs to try to out-do each other in the form of gutty runs. It’s capable of completing passes to 8 different players. It’s capable of running plays out of shotgun. And it’s capable of making the opponent pay for stretching out in the middle while going for a pass. In arguably the worst season in Notre Dame history, this team hasn’t closed up shop.
Yeah, it was Duke, but when you play a Duke and you yourself are 1-9, you hope for some improvement in most areas, and maybe one really bright, shining example of improvement in one specific area. We actually got quite a bit of improvement in quite a few areas.
As you can see, ND had very large levels of improvement in a number of categories against Duke over the rest of the 2007 ND season. They quadrupled rushing output and nearly doubled offensive production in total. They doubled up on their scoring average. They cut the opponent’s rushing total in half. They kept Duke to a very respectable 232 total yards, and it’s always good when the opponent only scores when you’re defending your end zone with walk-ons. Oh, and ND won a game in what could be considered a somewhat “normal” way. The UCLA win was largely helped by the fact that UCLA was playing without a QB in an offensive system that actually required a QB. This win against Duke was actually a better team beating a lesser team. Exciting stuff.
And stepping away from the statistics for a moment, it was just great to see players making plays, if you’ll excuse the Corsonian phrase. In previous games of the 2007 season, ND fans might have been able to point to a few “signs of hope.” Against Duke, we saw Clausen continue to throw with great accuracy, we saw Kamara out-physical smaller opponents, we saw Hughes rumble for over 100 yards, Allen break tackles like he had a cheat-code, Grimes lay himself out for a score, Wooden (!) stuff a screen, Smith hitting anybody and everybody, McCarthy breaking up passes, Laws disrupting everything Duke wanted to do, Bruton punishing receivers, Wenger swallowing up linebackers, etc.., etc.., etc… And the plays were being chained together to create productive possessions for ND and ineffective possessions for the Irish – something ND hasn’t done very much of in 2007.
Can we seriously look at this win as a big step forward? I think so. It gets a monkey off the backs of a very young ND team filled with players that are probably too young to know better than to read the headlines just yet. And in a way it was the passing of the torch. I’ve had the feeling all season that part of the problem has been that, in a way, this is still “Brady and Shark’s team.” It was being lead by 5th year seniors who were stand-outs in the “Brady and Shark team.” But there weren’t enough of them to do much other than live in that historic shadow that they helped to cast in the previous 2 seasons. But guys like Laws and Carlson have taught the young guys never to give up, and to keep practicing like you expect to win, even when you’re 1-9.
Ok, enough prose, or lame attempts at it anyway. Here’s a bunch of other thoughts in no particular order:
Blitz Pickup
All three of the main running backs, Allen, Aldridge, and Hughes, who, I may start to refer to as “Aldrhughen” (blame the Delawarapragueicago and Telerviserphonernetting commercials), look way better today in blitz protection than they did 10 weeks ago. WAY better. There’s still room for improvement, but they’ve all gotten steps 1 and 2 in blitz pickup improvement completed: sacrifice yourself for the good of the team and make the right reads. By and large, all three running backs are doing a very nice job. Now they just need to refine themselves on step 3: Take the block to the blitzer. Allen, in particular, is giving a lot of himself by taking on much bigger rushers, but he needs to take one extra step to both deliver the blow to the attacker and provide a greater perimeter to the pocket in which the QB may work. Go watch a few examples of Darius Walker’s wonderful blocking to see what I mean. Darius would make a good read, work himself laterally to get in position to make the block, and just before contact he’d take a step forward in order to deliver the hit and keep the blitzer outside of arm’s reach of the QB.
Wenger = Chemistry
I’m done picking on Sullivan. I feel badly that he didn’t get to play in his last game at ND Stadium. And I feel bad that he probably wont have a chance to play this week against Stanford. I was very encouraged to see him coaching younger guys on the sideline, and I was stunned to see he and Clausen sharing a laugh in the 4th quarter. So much for the rumors. Winning makes everything better. That said, there’s something about having Wenger in at center. It may just be that Wenger is so much more comfortable at center than guard that he becomes a weapon rather than a bit of a liability. It may be that Sullivan had a much wider range of line-calls and protection decisions than Wenger is given, and so the scheme simplified as a result of Wenger being in there, thus the rest of the line has a better understanding of what to do. Whatever it is, since Wenger went in at Center in the 2nd half of the Air Force game, this offense has looked a lot more potent. Weis, like most coaches, wont sing Wenger’s praises, but I watched the entire game replay on NBCSports.com today, and for the most-part, the kid played like a beast and made very good decisions. If you’re going to line up in the interior against this ND offense for the next few years, prepare to need some aspirin in the morning.
Zibby at QB
I’ve now read and heard more opinions about this whole Zibby playing QB thing than I’ve seen or heard about the latest Democratic debates. And that, my friends, is incredibly dumb. ND fans have a knack for getting up in arms about the smallest of things. I’m still not sure how Northern Indiana can be so flat considering our fondness for making mountains from mole-hills. Seriously, if you can actually watch that scene, with this entire team that’s been through so much in the last year having such a great time, and find a reason to be displeased, then you are exactly the sort of tea and crumpets Notre Dame fan that makes it so hard for other football fans to take us seriously. And no, I don’t care if you have no idea what a crumpet is, you also have no idea of what was happening on that field. You probably shout things like, “C’mon Clausen!” right after Sharpley throws an incompletion. Half of you were probably wondering what happened to Quinn when he didn’t start the Georgia Tech game this year. If you’re worried about the “classiness” of it all and the way it reflects on the program, relax. Weis and company bend over backwards to treat their opponents with respect – far more respect than almost any team will ever afford Notre Dame. It was time to let Weis’ own guys enjoy themselves in Notre Dame Stadium for once rather than worrying about their guests. ND Stadium, frankly, has become a far-too-hospitable place to opposing teams anyway. I’d never endorse doing things against the rules or the law to make a team or their fans feel uncomfortable (Hello Ann Arbor, you whore), but worrying about the emotions of an opponent at the expense of providing some great memories for our own team is where I’ll draw a line, put up a barbed wire fence with guard dogs, big ones, and post some automated Gatling guns.
Dropped Passes
The Irish have a wee bit of a problem dropping passes. It wasn’t quite as devastating this week, but I think I know a great solution to the problem: Keep Jimmy Clausen out of surgery. Clausen’s little elbow problem, which seems to have healed really well, by the way, didn’t just cause Jimmy to fall behind. It caused the entire receiving corps to fall behind. One of the reasons, a big reason, that Quinn and Shark/Stovall/McKnight were so good is because they knew each other really well. Catching a ball from a QB isn’t that unlike catching a ball from a pitcher. Over time you get to know how a particular QB will throw a particular ball for a particular route in a particular situation. And every QB has their own particular arch, spin, and velocity. It’s not something that can be communicated in the huddle. But it can become understood over time, and Clausen’s elbow problem robbed the team of that time. Remember, Weis had Clausen rest his arm all winter so he could participate in Spring Practice. And then Clausen had to recuperate from his surgery all summer, unable to throw a ball. That’s hundreds of lost hours of practice and opportunity to build a raport between QB and receivers. It’s just another factor in this “perfect storm” of a season full of mistakes, miscues, and bummers.
Looking Ahead: Stanford
It may surprise you (or not, given this crazy season), that a team that managed to beat Southern Cal just weeks ago only has one more win than Notre Dame at this point in the season. Not only that, but the Stanford defense is actually worse than Duke’s (ranked 106th in total defense to Duke’s 98th). And Stanford’s offense is only slightly better than Duke’s (106th to 117th). Never mind ND’s rankings. ND hasn’t been playing anywhere near their potential for an overwhelming portion of the season. Duke was a good first step. Stanford is, without a doubt, a great opportunity to turn the end of this season into some real momentum for 2008. Hopefully Holtz will give us another pep talk.
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JB
Nice post . . . have to agree with you that, “yeah, but it’s Duke” (which Mark May HAD to point out to Lou Holtz Saturday night), but nevertheless, ALL teams have played their “Dukes” this season, and why shouldn’t Notre Dame do the same and feel good about the win. Here’s hoping for a great last game from the young guys (and Carlson, Laws and Zibby) against Stanford . Keep the ball away from TT, however.
GO Irish, beat the Cardinal!
ndgirl94
Thanks for the positive take! It’s nice to finally hear (and be able to say) some positive stuff about our Irish!