Okay, so now that we know that we take the 3 and it’s not debatable, how about the other 99.9% of the game?
Despite the result and my dislike of those 2 decisions by Coach Kelly, this game wasn’t all bad and it’s not all doom and gloom for the Irish going forward. This is more of a general feel post, as I haven’t had time to dig into the stats that much yet. But anyway…
A few positives: The team didn’t give up. Through 90% of the game, we’d only given up 21 points. Crist put up solid numbers despite being out for 40% of the game. We saw some big play ability on both sides of the ball.
But there’s also bad: Literally no depth at QB. The team seemed to sag, on both sides, with Crist out (good that Crist is a leader, bad that we lean on him THAT much). Sloppy assignment play on defense. We gave up 500 yards to one (really talented) dude. Inconsistent play on offense and defense. Multiple turnovers. No one knows how to throw the ball in-bounds when anywhere near the goal line. We lost.
Offense.
Man, that first series was a thing of beauty. Crist had the game in control, and we just marched right down the field. With Dayne in there, we have a solid passing threat which opens up the run. Dayne looked poised and he made good choices and we just churned up yardage on that drive. It made me very excited about the future for this team should Crist remain healthy.
Unfortunately, he didn’t in this game, and this team fell apart. With Crist healthy, it’s a fully different game, I’d think. But we also need to be able to play with a backup in there. First, I think BK needs to make a decision on the backup. Is it the younger Rees, or is it the older but less naturally talented (and not that much more experienced) Montana? Neither made good decisions on Saturday. Maybe Montana’s supposed ability to run gives him the edge, but I didn’t see much out of either that would make me lean one way or the other. So BK needs to pick a backup, and then he needs to have a plan in place for what to do should that guy have to play meaningful minutes. Suffice it to say, I don’t think ‘flea flicker first play’ is the right plan, and I don’t think it’s ‘do what we’d have done with Crist’. I think it needs to be suited to the player, and we have to find a way to rely on the run game even if the D is stacking the box, and then make them pay with fairly easy to execute plays for the QB.
Overall, I found the offense from the second quarter and later a bit confusing, even when Dayne was back in there. We had a lot of inconsistent play, and never really seemed to get in a rhythm. Maybe it was Dayne’s injury, or the fact that we were trying to struggle back, but it never felt like we really got things going smoothly again. Course we had some huge plays and put up much-needed points, and credit to coach and the boys for fighting back, but it just didn’t look or feel as clockwork.
And the turnovers were killer. We needed to force Michigan to put together long, sustained drives. Instead, we give them a short field 3 times with 3 bad picks.
Defense
Defensively I felt it was kind of the same thing. At times, we looked awesome. We had plays where we were in the right position, we were shedding blocks and making solid tackles. And holding that offense to 21 through 95% of the game was pretty well done, especially when you take into account the turnovers from our offense. We had some great 3 and outs, and I do think our fundamentals, especially around tackling, are much much better than last year.
I also am not destroyed by our giving up so many yards to Robinson. First, the kid’s a freak. Straight up absurdly fast. Second, I think part of it was by design. No, we didn’t WANT to give him 500 yards of Offense. But we wanted to stop the quick strike/big plays. I think Diaco planned the game to try to force the young QB to put together sustained drives. Force him to lead the team down the field, and expect him or one of his teammates to make a mistake that stalls a drive. Give up yards, but don’t give up points. So I think the coaches knew we wouldn’t stop DR outright, but they thought he’d screw up enough that it would keep their score down. Until the last drive, despite some of the big plays we gave up, it pretty much worked.
We still had some performance issues. Missed assignments and sloppy OLB play at the LOS led to some big runs for him. The ginormous cushions and soft coverage allowed Michigan to throw those nice little 7-10 yard patterns and pick up meaningful and important yards/first downs.
Our ILB and DL play was decent. Teo and Calabrese looked good again for the most part, and I thought the DL played hard. Would have liked some more negative plays from them, but until late in the game when they got winded, I thought they held their own. But none of it was consistent enough. Two great plays followed by one missed assignment equals a 1st on 3rd and long. Too many times.
Overall
I’m a lot less miffed at this loss than I would’ve been had Crist played the whole game. His going down caused a gigantic shift in momentum, and really took the wind out of both our offense and defense. I think that’s on the coaches to ensure that that doesn’t happen – both in terms of execution and attitude.
But the team came back. They showed a lot of fight once Crist came back in, and he led the team down the field and got us the points we needed to take the lead.
And the D held Michigan to just 7 points in the second half, despite being dog tired after chasing little Denard all over the freaking place. That’s a pretty solid effort as well.
It just wasn’t enough, and that’s the part that sucks. It’s a bad feeling to lose a game that was very much within reach despite the bad luck with the injury. I still think we’re ripe to have a solid year, but I think all of those expecting an immediately-amazing product will just have to recalibrate expectations. 8-4ish still feels about right, especially with some of our foes down the line, like Pitt and USC, not looking all that great in the early weeks.
The worst part is that we just pushed UM up into the polls, and we’ve definitely lost 2 great opportunities in the last 2 years to beat UM and close that winning percentage gap. And that sucks.
Bring on Sparty, cuz it’s time to pay back the state of Michigan.
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Danno27
Agree for the most part with you Biscuit, especially agree that the 500 yard day isn’t nearly as bad as it looks given Michigan’s point total. Kudos to Diaco’s bendy defense except for the 87-yard run.
I still worry about the lack of spreading it around that Crist has been doing – where is Theo Riddick? Also, I know Mayock gets excited about Michael Floyd blocking not receiving, and rightly so, but can’t they get him involved (with the ball in his hands) earlier in the game? Lastly, Dayne needs to figure out the back-of-the-endzone pass, and soon.
Brad
Defense: Other than the last drive, and two or three blown plays, I thought they played very well. DRob is a crazy athletic player. I still am not terribly impressed with UM, though. I think they will still lose 4-5 games this year, if not more.
Offense: Showed a lot of life in it when Crist was in. To put up 530 some yards when your starting QB only plays 6-7 plays in the first half….thats pretty good. To be losing in poor fashion and claw back to having a chance to win at the last play? Thats great.
I feel like this is a team that is still improving, and I feel like ND is going to be a much better team at the end of the year than UM will be.
DCIrish7
I am very glad that this post gives credit to the D. Far too often ND fans blame the defense based on numbers and not by performance on the field. Our defense did their job and put us in a solid position to win the game. The Crist-less offense and the big Mo is what killed us in this game, not the D.
TLNDMA
Moot point but, we can be fairly certain that the Crist injury changed the outcome of this game. Fewer turnovers, more time of possesion and more points, if he had played all game. Not an excuse UM, you won the game.
It will be interesting to see how the defense plays against a more conventional offense this week. Can they stand up to the MSU power game.
As far as Robinson and UM, I think his play will suffer as the season progresses and he gets more and more dinged up. A half step slower or a sore shoulder could make a big difference in his game. That’s what Tate Forcier if hoping anyways.
Go Minutemen!!!
TLNDMA
You know if Montana had made a better throw to Riddick on previous play, we wouldn’t have had the field goal- touchdown debate. He would have walked into end zone, instead of going out of bounds. Michigans Dbs are terrible. and oh yeah, they suck.
Pat
Not to drag Montana through the mud, but that’s exactly right.
TLNDMA
yeah, I’m not saying it was a bad throw just not the perfect throw.
Brad
I disagree. If you go back and look at that throw, if he had thrown it a couple feet to Riddicks right the safety would have had an opportunity to make a play on the ball.
Now if you are saying “if he had thrown the ball 40 some yards downfield and it was 1 foot to the right we would have had a TD”, well yeah, maybe, but he is a backup, not Clausen.
TLNDMA
So you agree? A little lower and quicker, a little bit to the right, TD.
Mick
The thing that got me about this game was the sheer number of possessions for each team…this was like the opposite of a game against Navy. I’m not sure of the exact stats, but I think Michigan had something like 7 or 8 punts in the first half alone…seeing as they had TDs on 3 other possessions…that means we held them to a 3 and out or minimal yardage and a punt at a fairly successful 73% of the time in the first half.
Then in the second half we know that they only gave up the tough 7 at the very end.
Yes, they got gashed for some big plays, but I don’t think it was the time of possession as much as the sheer number of plays and possessions that both offenses got. I guess that is a result of 2 fast paced, spread attacks.
StewVee
Robinson is talented, yeah. But 500 yards of offense and only 28 pts doesn’t make much sense. He’s UMich. They have no other threat on offense. It’s a joke.
Even funnier is their defense, which we could have rung up for 40+ had we exploited their awful secondary, which we did only three times.
SHOULD have won this game by two TDs. EVEN with Crist out for 40% of it.
Still frustrated.
tjak
The loss is one thing and I although I understand the great playcalling debates, I am more sick and tired of dealing with douchebags on Monday morning, who know nothing about college football, but love getting in your face about another Irish loss. I have worn my love for the Irish on my sleeves since I was old enough to know what football was. I suppose, therefore that I have become an easy target. I am sick and tired of the pundits saying we are going to lose and the Irish proving them right. I am tired of losing. Come on Brian Kelly and the boys; make next Monday morning a joy, beat Sparty.
Pat
Sparty’s dead. I hope we play with a chip on our shoulders this weekend and make ’em wish they were never born.
Irish win by double digits.
DCIrish7
This whole “500 yards of offense by one player” thing is out of control. Im sorry but Crist had 307 yards of offense himself in one half!
tjak
Spot on DCIrish7,great point, unfortunately the media and anyone not connected to Notre Dame won’t give a damn. I say Crist if Healthy will have an amazing year.
The Biscuit
I agree with the overall sentiment, but not the reasoning. Crist having 300 in a half just means that Michigan’s D stunk too, really. My take is that the 500 was meaningless, bc we didnt let them score much. I am fine with giving up 7000 yards a game if the other team gets 0 points. And I think that was Diaco’s plan.
StewVee
I don’t know if you guys saw Mark May get in Holtz’ face after the game, but it was ludicrous. May could barely contain himself, turning Robinson into near parody of hyperbole. “The most electrifying player in the game today… yada yada yada.”
You know, I remember when pundits were saying the very same things about Tate Forcier.
The Biscuit
The DR hype will die dows as he gets hurt/tired and they start to lose games. They almost lost to an ND team that is just getting started, that didnt have its starting QB for a half. You take DR out of that game for half and leave Dayne in and ND wins by 40. The fact that it was close belies the problems with UM. They’re going to be decent bc of DR, but he’ll be less and less effective as RR runs him 30 times/game over the season. Just really tough to keep that pace up….