I’d had big plans to display some new analytical wizardry with this game this week, but fuck it. That game took on the stupidity of a Dora the Explorer episode’s plot-line. Even if we’d won, I’m not sure much could be learned from analysis besides DEFENSEWHUT? So just click play, and say whatever you feel you need to let out in the comments. We’ll try to muster up the will to give a fuck and analyze after MSU, which, rather than spending the weekend having it’s soul sucked from it, trounced FAU. So next week will be fun too, I’m sure.
Fire away.
Oh, and here are pictures that remind me of Notre Dame football…
Latest posts by Matt Q. (DMQ) (see all)
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oaknd1
I’m sure we would have soundly beaten FAU and in no way handed them a signature, program-defining win. I’m certain of this.
GQ574
I can hear Kelly now:
“I can’t tell if I’m a king pin or a pauper”
ShamRockNRoll
I’m really getting frustrated with the Kelly-bashing tonight. I mean, sure, he made some mistakes… but am I wrong to see this season so far as a failure due to individual mental fuckups, things that can’t really be pinned on the coaching?
WHY THE FUCK DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING!?!
Uhg.
DJ
Perhaps because he’s had more than a year with them and they make the same stupid mistakes repeatedly.
No team on campus gets more resources given to it (whether it’s money, facilities, or equipment), talks more smack, and delivers so little. Five failed coaching hires are merely one symptom.
ShamRockNRoll
It is far too early to call this a “failed coaching hire”. Give me a break.
DJ
Can you honestly say he’ll compete for a national title? (Not win, but get to the championship game) Win a BCS bowl? Get to a BCS bowl?
Now convince the rest of us.
JoeSchu
Yes, please do. All I see is another choke artist standing on the sidelines. If Ronald Johnson didn’t have butterfingers, that would be a perfect 0-fer in close games in the BK era.
DJ
Now in fairness, a close friend of mine is close friends with Ara (almost 50 years). He says that Ara is VERY high on Kelly. I don’t know if that’s still the case, but it is worth noting…
Brad
The failed coaching talk is bullshit. Kelly is the 3rd winningest active coach in college football. If he can’t win here, then no one can.
What we have is a team that is beating itself. We have a team that has a loser mentality, and has had it for a long, long time. Kelly can’t fix that in a season, or even two. HOLTZ DIDN’T EITHER. They just need to stop being their own worst enemy. This team ges the same ‘here we go again’ feeling that we all do. They just need to learn to fight thru it.
ShamRockNRoll
You’re a clown, DJ. Kelly has a proven track record and has taken poor teams and brought them to championship levels. He’s brought our defense back from non-existent, and developed a lot of these players really well. Could we have won these games? Sure. But no one in their right mind should be claiming Kelly can’t do it two weeks into his second year after taking over a broken team. There’s far more evidence to suggest Kelly will lead us to a BCS game in the coming years than there is to say that he won’t. I don’t know what you’re smoking, old timer, but put it the hell down.
ShamRockNRoll
And I’m not saying he “will.” I’m simply saying that he can, and we need to give him a chance. Watching these games compared to early last season it seems like we’re doing a lot more things right… unfortunately the mistakes that get made made up for those accomplishments, but that can be fixed. We should all be disappointed, and pissed, but I’m not going to throw Kelly overboard. If we let people start calling for Kelly’s head that will just be another distraction.
GB
I disagree. Kelly did better at Cincy after his first season and a sixth than he is doing at ND. Cincy has had a record of fails much longer than ND’s last 20 years with poorer players, less facilities and less of everything else. I don’t think it is too much to expect to see much better results at this point. Those Cincy teams would smash ND in my estimation.
Matt Q. (DMQ)
I can’t believe Gary Gray has a pick in this game and then allows about 400 yards of offense against him.
DJ
Even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut. But our defenders seem to enjoy making mediocre quarterbacks look All-World.
The Biscuit
Thanks. I can’t believe how happy I am about leaving the country in 72 hours. See you all in 2 weeks. I am out.
Greg B
It’s sad when during the third quarter I thought to myself, “I’ve read this story before and I know how it ends and it isn’t a good ending.” it’s really really really bad when you’ve watched so many games and you can pinpoint the exact play or series that started the freefall. I hate it.
Matt Q. (DMQ)
The 2 QBs were involved in 2 of the dumbest fucking fumble plays ever. Rees drops the ball while passing, untouched. Denard picks up a fumble and takes it in for 6. I mean, that’s some cosmically fucked up shit.
ShamRockNRoll
This is exactly why I keep telling everyone to STFU about Kelly. Coaching didn’t result in Tommy throwing the ball behind him, or Denard getting lucky as all hell.
DJ
Well, you could say that the wheel route was open all night long, and it absolutely killed us on 2nd and 10 with :25 to play. Someone with a fancy new emerald green polo could have picked it up.
Nate
After tonight, I’m done. I can’t even care anymore. My whole life, my whole upbringing, ND was the one who made those plays. ND was the team that came back. ND was the team that, when it was on the line, forced the other team to make mistakes. Now, for whatever reason, we’re now the team that coughs it up after a 90 yard drive. We’re the team whose QB DROPS THE BALL when our AA WR is open for the TD. We’re the team that has an amazing goal line stop, forces a fumble, only to have their QB pick it up and run it in. We’re the team that has it’s best cornerback get burned for 3 TD’s on JUMP BALLS WHEN ALL HE HAD TO DO WAS TURN HIS HEAD AND HE WOULD HAVE KNOCKED IT AWAY OR INTERCEPTED IT. We’ve invented new and spectacular ways to fail. This is worse than 2007. At least in 2007 we could say we sucked. We could blame the lack of depth that Ty had left us with. We could blame Weis’s inability to teach the new kids how to play. We could watch the game and just admit we were bad. These past two weeks? There’s no lack of depth. There’s no lack of talent. There’s no lack of production–EXCEPT WHEN IT COUNTS. We went into the 4th quarter up 24-7, AND LOST?!?! Now I know how Michigan State felt in 2006. I was screaming at the TV, MAKE PLAYS!!!! Like I was Valenti melting down.
We’re 0-2, we shoot off our own feet with a nuclear missile both games, and nothing good that we did matters BECAUSE WE DICKED IT UP. There’s no excuses anymore. The offense moved the ball AT WILL in the first half. The defense had Michigan STUFFED except for one big play. Even going into the 4th quarter, we were up 17 and they hadn’t done anything. And yet, somehow. We know we’re going to derp it up. The fans know (I was pretty sick at some of the “well, we’ll screw it up” comments elsewhere on the interwebs) and the players know, and it becomes self fulfilling prophecy. I want to yell at people SO BADLY for typing crap like “well, what do you expect” or “good stop, but we’ll give them the first down on the next play”, yet I can’t, because….THEY ARE RIGHT. It’s completely psychological–derping it against USF has nothing to do with losing to Michigan, yet it has everything to do losing to Michigan. We beat ourselves. We continue to beat ourselves. We won’t win unless we stop beating ourselves. And after 20 years of utter shit, I’m starting to lose faith that Notre Dame will be the Notre Dame I grew up with again.
I don’t buy the excuse that we don’t have the players–we do. Those kids can play. I don’t buy the excuse that ND is too hard. I don’t buy the excuse that you have to look the other way and cheat, recruit thugs, pay recruits, or any of the other things that the Auburns, USCs, tOSUs, Floridas, etc. of the world do. You can be good and have a good graduation rate (Looking at you, Michigan). But dammit, if it’s not those things, what is it? You can’t tell me Kelly’s not a good coach–he got Cincinnati to two BCS bowl games, for crying out loud. You can’t tell me they can do it and we can’t. So WHY?!?!?!?!?!?!! WHY?!?!?!
And to top it all off, this dickdance between the SEC, A&M, the Big12, etc. is going to just keep going and going, and by the end we’ll have these stupid 16 team conferences and ND will have to join one if it wants to compete. And college football will be dead to me. I’ll still cheer on the Irish, but I won’t care like I do now. It won’t be the game I grew up with. It won’t be the game I love. I almost hope ND decided to stay in the lower bracket with all the non-BCS/Super conference teams, and competes at a lower level with other schools who try to do things the right way, and aren’t just feeders for the NFL in a semi-pro farm league. I love college football, but right now, I hate college football. I hate where things are going. And dammit, Tommy Rees, Gary Gray, Coach Kelly, if you aren’t taking the one thing in all of this that I still care about away from me by pissing the game away against MICHIGAN, of all teams. The team I hate the most, more than any other team in all of college football, you have to piss it away against MICHIGAN.
Maybe they’ll prove me wrong, but I don’t see us winning 8 games this year now. We’ll find new and unique ways to lose a few more games. We’ll win some, maybe go to a bowl, and maybe even finish on an upswing. And then next year we’ll get hyped up, only to do the same thing over again next year. THIS IS WHO WE ARE. And I hate it. I hate typing that out. I hate admitting it. I hate it with all of my being. But for crying out loud, the NDNationers are RIGHT. The idiots who here, or NDNation, or OneFootDown, who come on and all they ever say is “man, just like always” or “well, you just knew they’d give it away” ARE RIGHT, no matter how much I don’t want them to be right. No matter how much I HATE THEM for that attitude. They’re right until the team proves them otherwise. Those assholes WANT ND to fail because they didn’t get the coach they wanted, or he doesn’t run the ball enough, or because he explodes in anger on the sidelines. FUCK YOU. If you told me that he’d graduate players, keep them out of trouble, recruit well, and win games, I’d hire Qaddafi. I’m sick of being out of the picture by the end of September. The “we don’t set our goals at ‘conference championships'” idea is all nice and everything, but it requires you to WIN for it to make sense. I’m sick of it. I’m sick sick sick sick sick sick of it. I would rather just suck, because then I could understand it and say “well we just suck.” WE SHOULD NOT SUCK. WE DO NOT SUCK. SO WHY THE HELL ARE WE LOSING? That’s the hardest thing–I just don’t get it. All the normal excuses don’t hold water. We just derp it. How do you fix that? How do you change the psyche of a team, of a program, of a fanbase? I don’t know. I’m not sure anyone does.
DJ
You KNOW they gave the mindset that when something goes wrong, they crumble. If things are going well, in the back of their minds, they’re wondering how they’re going to blow it this time.
Change the attitude to “I don’t give a damn what happens — if the refs are cheats, the ball refuses to go my way, whatever — I’m going to win.”
Far, far easier said than done. And don’t think this staff can do it, either.
IrishLion10
What staff can do it? Do you have one in mind?
Red
Nate, you summed up my thoughts and emotions exactly. Notre Dame has become a universal foil in story of modern college football.
It’s so enormously frustrating! But I think I know why it is happening. They don’t have team leaders.
I can remember watching Mike Hart practically WILL Michigan to victory over a superior Florida team in 2008. Mateen Cleaves did the same for MSU during their championship run in basketball. Then there is Joe Montana, Chris Zorich, Rocket Ismail, and so many other legends who did the same for Notre Dame. These guys pushed their team mates and kept them pumped up through the whole game. I don’t know if it is sorcery, karma, or pixie dust at work but somehow the bounces go their way and role players make critical plays. We saw a little bit of this from Robinson yesterday, and look at how his crappy receiving core managed to come through in the clutch.
That’s the intangible that I believe Notre Dame is missing. They are playing for their coach and not enough for their teammates. A team captain is supposed to be constantly rallying his troops, even when he’s on the sideline. Kelly needs to identify who has these talents and encourage them to do more cheer leading. It sounds silly to think that a little rah rah would have prevented Rees and Wood’s fumbles but the more sports I watch the more importance I see in the spirit of the players.
Michigan and USF both showed more heart and more spirit. They got more breaks and beat a well-coached team with superior talent. It’s not dumb luck. It’s what Notre Dame had when it built itself into the greatest football program in the country. It’s what recruits talk about when the visit campus. They feel it there, but where is it come game time? If the team leaders grasp this concept of spirit, and Kelly encourages them, they can win out. I have no doubt. They are good enough in all other aspects of the game.
One4theGipper
My thoughts exactly….to a “T”
irish96
Checking to make sure it will let me post- because I need to vent
irish96
Good. Completely agree with all above, but especially Nate. It’s 4am and I woke up again, and I just have this horrible feeling in my stomach. I hate feeling like this. I hate how much I care. I HATE MICHIGAN!!!!! A fucking 3 game losing streak to these idiots, and we should have won EVERY ONE of them! Robinson can’t pass for shit, and we won by throwing a bunch of fucking JUMP BALLS down the field. Yes, the secondary had 2 picks, but they should have had 6 the way he was throwing! His touchdown run was a joke, the kind of fluke bounce that we never seem to get anymore.
I let myself get sucked in this summer, believed that we had a great chance of making a BCS bowl this year. I’m not one of these “National Championship 13-0 this year!!!” guys, but I could see this team had talent, and I thought that with all the teams showing how corrupt and dirty they are, that this was the perfect year for a great ND team to emerge and show that you can win without bringing in thugs, taking them to strip clubs, handing them envelopes of cash, and letting someone write their papers for them.
But no, we find new, obscene, grotesque ways to lose time and time again. We keep providing season- and program-defining moments. 9 turnovers in 2 games??? And aside from the first fumble against USF, where the defender made a good strip, the rest have basically all been “Here, would you like the ball? Because I don’t want it.” Balls bouncing off helmets, Wood bumps into his own lineman and coughs up the ball, Rees pulls a classic “football follies” with Floyd wide open, etc, etc, etc. And you could see it coming. The game started perfect, but once again we could not put our foot on a team’s neck and finish them. We should have won this game 38-7. That’s how much better we are than Michigan this year, and we showed it in the first quarter. We just do not have that nasty streak winners have where you keep a team down and PUNISH them for daring to step on the field with you.
Instead, we add another chapter to the unending novel entitled: “How to derp it up: Notre Dame Football, 1993-present”. Here are the heartbreaking, soul-shattering losses we’ve endured. This doesn’t include all the 38-0 losses we’ve had to go through.
’93 Boston College- Pete “stone hands” Bercich drops a potential interception which would won the game after a great comeback. The Seminoles win the NC that should have been ours.
’95 Northwestern- Ruining my hopes for a great season my senior year at ND, the team comes out and lays a fucking egg against the WILDCATS, on a game that I can only remember as being hot and miserable. (And my long-time girlfriend dumped me that night, so that one may be a little more miserable than it was for you guys)
’99 Michigan- Lose by 4 because Bob Davie doesn’t know anything about clock management.
’00 Nebraska- Thousands of fans betray ND by selling tickets to the enemy, turning the House the Rockne Built into a sea of red. We blow chance to upset #1 team in the nation, losing in OT.
’00 MSU- Game winning 68 yd TD pass with less than 2 minutes to go.
’02 Boston College- We come out in the Fucking Green jerseys and piss away a perfect season. Pat Dillingham plays like shit.
’04 Boston College- Up 20-7 at halftime, we gag this game away, giving up the winning TD with less than a minute to go.
’05 Michigan State- Lost in OT. MSU plants a flag at midfield
’05 USC- 4th and 9, the secondary chokes. Then, we stop Leinert at goal line, but he fumbles the ball and it BOUNCES OUT OF BOUNDS to stop the clock. Bush Push, winning TD with 3 seconds left.
’05 Ohio State- 7 point game in the 4th quarter, the Buckeyes convert two 3rd and longs to keep possession and then break a long TD run. The media warps this into “Notre Dame got blown out in the Fiesta Bowl” (Defense gives up about 900 yards)
’07 Navy- Lose in triple OT to break nation’s longest winning streak against one opponent. Thanks Charlie. (As an aside, I would take 5 loses to Navy over a single loss to Michigan. Because Michigan sucks, and I respect Navy)
’08 Pitt- Lose in triple OT again
’08 Syracuse- Blow 13 point lead at home to a 2-8 Syracuse team. Winning TD with 42 seconds left.
’09 Michigan- We make Tate Forcier look like a legitimate college QB. Winning TD with 11 seconds left.
’09 USC- 3 chances from the goal line to tie the game. Clausen can’t do it.
’09 UConn- We provide “program-defining win” to the Huskies in double OT
’09 Stanford- Give up 2 TDs in 4th quarter to complete 4-game losing streak
’10 Michigan- “Game-winning TD” to Rudolph leaves too much time on clock, Robinson scores winning TD with 27 seconds left.
’10 MSU- “Little Giants”
’10 Tulsa- We try for game winning TD (Hey, it works for everyone else), INT in end zone. “Program-defining victory”
’11 USF- We double them up in yardage but commit 5 turnovers. “Program-defining victory”
’11 Michigan- First 3-game losing streak since 1908, “Game-winning TD” to Riddick comes with too much time left, Robinson throws game winning TD with 2 seconds left. “Statement win” for Hoke.
What do we have in terms of great, dramatic wins to balance this sheet? ’93 Florida State, ’06 MSU, ’06 UCLA, ’09 Purdue, ’10 USC? It’s not nearly enough. I would need to see 2 national championships to make me forget about these 18 years of misery, and that’s never going to happen.
I’m done this year, and maybe for good. Time to focus on things in my life that make me happy, not things that make me miserable.
JoeSchu
I’m done too. I was in the seats for Bersich setting up the luckiest career-long FG in history in 95. I actually had to go and unplug the #1 sign on Grace that night.
These aren’t guys to be proud of. They’re not the scrappy hard-working team that makes its breaks and plays smart, tough, opportunistic football. They are prima donnas who choke with shocking regularity. We’ve been beaten by Navy more often than we’ve beat Mich and USC (combined). Think about that. In 95, that would have made you laugh.
I wish I had a time machine to smack every single jack ass who said Lou’s time had passed. Those teams were guys you could be proud of. These guys just break your heart by losing and losing and losing some more – finding increasingly more spectacular ways to screw it up.
I’d love to see a list of ND coaches’ records when favored. I only wish I could have made some money in Vegas by being honest with myself a long time ago. They suck, they’re over rated, and they’ll choke every chance they get.
notredamegrad
Good bye. Good luck.
No need to stoop to the level of insulting the passion and commitment of the young men playing for Notre Dame – they give and give and support each other and labor for the team and the university, play a few rough games against good teams, and you call them choking prima donnas? They work so hard for this and want to win as much as anybody else. Thank God they won’t quit on each other like you’re ready to quit on them. Go Irish.
DagerOne
I don’t think you did all that in 1995. You might have done it in 1993, but of even that I’m not so sure.
daybreakboys
The only conclusion I can come to is we are cursed. This can only be explained by a curse! Like the Cubs and Steve Bartman. THIS IS A CURSE. However I cannot figure out what happened to cause the curse.
Notre Dame football is the only thing I give a shit about. Its one of my only enjoyments in life. I could give two shits about pro-ball, or any other college team. I dislike all other sports. This is all I have and its just cruel and merciless.
Its as if Notre Dame only exists now to bring happiness to other teams by them pulling off miracle, video-game-like, victories.
DJ
Speaking as a White Sox fan, let me just say that there’s no such thing as a curse. Either you’re not trying (the Cubs in the P. K. Wrigley days), or you’re not good enough (the Cubs ever since).
daybreakboys
I despise baseball but thats the only good of example of “WTF was that? Thats not even possible” that typifies how Notre Dame has lost these last two games.
Its as if fate steps right and says, “Naaaah.”
BW3s retarded commercials where someone pulls a lever and a sprinker comes on and ruins a field goal…they could base their commercials on Notre Dame football now. We’d save them a FORTUNE in production.
TLNDMA
UGH! I just don’t know if I will recover from this anytime soon.
This was like the Bill Buckner game in 86.
shadden freud
I can’t believe this team has robbed me of my excitement for opening day nfl. F you guys.
shadden freud
Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ve owned cars that couldn’t go 80 yards in 30 seconds
daybreakboys
“To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart.”
~ Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Griffin
What a pathetic bunch of losers. I hope Kelly had them walk home. They should have every privilege they’re extended revoked until they earn them. I’m sick of seeing these idiots strut around with all sorts of shit under the guise of “swag”. Swag’s for winners not frauds. EAT SHIT AND DIE SECONDARY.
daybreakboys
I’m utterly disgusted with being a Notre Dame fan. Trying to think of some t-shirts to sell on campus next weekend:
Notre Dame: Making Your Team Look Awesome Since 1997!
Denard Robinson – Destroying More Irish Lives than the Potato Famine
Welcome to Notre Dame Stadium: Come on in, beat the shit out our team, f*ck our women.
Want Heisman Buzz? Humiliate our team!
Notre Dame: Tin Man of NCAA Football. All talent. No Heart.
Vairish84
I am sure it was a long bus ride home. Time to play for next year. Gary Gray needs to see some pine time. Wood or Bennett can’t be any worse, and they will be starting next year. That said, this was a team loss, and their is plenty of blame to go around. Failing to convert 3rd and 1s, badly.
I think Nate said it best. We keep finding new an innovative ways to lose. The game was not quite as one sided as some of you say, there were a lot of passes on UM receivers hands that were dropped in the first three quarters, but still. We should be 2-0 now. Perhaps we are the best 0-2 team in the country, but the fact of the matter is that we are tied for worst team in the country, and no stats or silver lining searches can save that.
The most dangerous part of this start is that it CAN snowball, if it has not already. It WILL cause apathy among the fan base.
daybreakboys
it already has. I think our fan base, what remains of it, was significantly reduced last night. I’m willing the bet the median age of a Notre Dame fan is in his early 50s. 15+ years of suck doesn’t earn fans. We’ll be lucky to stay with NBC another 5-10 years or so. A fine decay its been.
I’ll admit if we pull of a miracle win next weekend we might salvage the season and end up 9-3 or so but I do NOT see that happened. We suck at home.
notredamegrad
Goodness – go read the comments on other CFB blogs! People LOVED watching this game – non-ND and non-MI fans are calling this a classic, the best game of the season, what makes college football great. They’re lauding the fight and passion of both teams, saying ND looked surprisingly excellent despite some crucial errors. The only people despairing hysterically about this game are ND fans livid enough to bring their misery to ND message boards. Even the guys on the team are voicing their solidarity and faith in each other this morning! Pull it together, fans. I’m all Irish.
Griffin
What blogs are you reading, because the ones I’m reading are ripping ND, and rightfully so. Yeah, the team showed such passion as they fell apart in the 4th quarter. Their participation medals are in the mail. It’s ok, the score doesn’t matter as long as your show “fight”. Nobody’s better than anyone else and everyones the best at everything! HOORAY!
GQ574
Home games are like away games for ND now. The fanbase is getting sick of what they see.
GQ574
To make matters worse, I told the wife I would be in bed to “play” only to sit and watch these GOLDEN GIRLS drop another game! NEVER AGAIN WILL I LET ND KEEP ME FROM SOME ASS! This team sux and almost made me so mad I didn’t even want sex, just puke all night in the damn toliet. I am done reading many stars a recruit is,
ND is the FUCKING Bermuda Triangle!!!
Where 5 star talent goes and is never seen again!!!!
WTF!
TLNDMA
This sucks!
GQ574
CAUTION:
When putting a gold helmet on, you could experience the following:
Brain swelling.
Amnesia
Dementia
inability to locate a football.
Think you are gods gift only to be woke up by the op when they score on you.
I think that pretty much covers the past 20 years.
JAngry
I’m just as pissed as the rest of you, and there is no doubt that this ineptitude is a disease. When we score what should be the game winning TD and, as I fan, I still have the ‘I know were going to get fucked’ feeling in the pit of my stomach…that’s when you know this script has been chiseled in our psyche. And I guarantee if the fans are nervous we can’t pull it off with :30 left, the team feels the same way.
But we can’t discount the fact that this team HAS the talent, they have the ability, and it should be fucking impossible for them to continue to implode so f’n fantastically with the level of play they are capable of. They WILL get it together, and then everyone that’s whining and crying with this whole “I’m done with this” dance will be pissed at themselves that they jumped ship right at the point where they should have been standing tall.
Going to grab coffee this morning, I wore my Irish garb. Head to fucking toe. And I felt like everyone was whispering, and looking at me and pointing. Women were shielding the eyes of their children, and I knew everyone must have been saying “Look at that poor tormented bastard. What a sad, delusional existence he must lead.” But you know what? Fuck that. Yeah the Irish have broken my heart more times than I can count, and yeah, this script is too familiar. But fuck it…what are my options? Jump ship and start cheering for an SEC team that I have no stake in and that can’t graduate half of their players? Leave the college game altogether and pretend like the NFL means something to anyone other than people who DIDN’T have a program to get behind in college? No thanks. I’ll be right here waiting for this team to start believing in themselves and living up to their potential. And the rest of you should do the same.
And stop fucking calling for Coach Kelly’s job. Fire him, and no one is going to touch this program with a twenty fucking foot pole. This kind of talk sets us back 10 years, right at the point in time when we finally have a chance to shake it all off. Get behind Coach Kelly and get behind the team, or just shut the fuck up. It’s embarrassing to have this kind of discontent in our fanbase after week two, and it only gives the ND haters that much more satisfaction to see us lose AND see our fans throwing our boys under the bus.
notredamegrad
Amen. Fight on, Irish. As Toma put it after the game, “through thick or thin.” I’m in.
Wilhelm ND '80
That’s right the VICTORY MARCH says, “what tho’ the odds . . .” We are ND, stay with us or get the f— outta Dodge. DO NOT BE A FAIRWEATHER fan. Those people are called [here insert team du jour] fans . . .I was born a fan and will die one and will support every team 13-0 0-13 and everywhere in between. Will I hurt, be angry, wonder WFT? You bet – but at the end of the day, I will still bleed blue and gold and let everyone else know it too.
daybreakboys
Couldn’t agree more with the Kelly stuff. People calling for his job are idiots. Our game plan was excellent. Other than a few times where he should have just RUN the ball instead of being so pass-happy, it was a well coached game.
The players failed us, and themselves. Its all in their heads. And I dont know how you fix that.
However, I will not be wearing Notre Dame garb for some time. Its just too god damn embarrassing and I’m worried I might end up hitting someone.
JAngry
Subconsciously I’m wearing because I’m hoping someone will fucking engage me. Gotta let the rage out somehow.
canuck75
As always, too many of you are way over the top. I am just as sick at heart and also woke up in the middle of the night cursing, but here is my take on a few points,( and I am sincere when I say I tend to be more right than wrong and am not naive.)
1. Tommy is our boy. He is fantastic. Yes he made 2 bad errors, but wow did he thread the needle. He has played all of about 7 games in his career. I called it when we got the ball back that he would do it, and it was a thing of beauty.
2) This is not on Coach. As someone else said, the karma of one goalline fumble being picked up and run in whereas Tommy’s is recovered by them is simply beyond credibility. And the pass D was pathetic.I think we would all accept 12 games of being up by 3 with 30 sec to go and the opponent needing 80 yds. Now I do expect changes made. Gary Gray could be fairly said to have lost both games, even though there were obviously many other contributors.Bennett Jackson is the best athlete not on the field. He needs to get in there and play the ball in the air.
3. Jonas Gray was great and is great. He will continue to average 6 yds a run all season.He needs more carries, not just power runs.
4.Floyd can’t be stopped, and as soon as Tommy finds Eiffert a bit more plus Riddick we will score at will.
5. I acknowledge there is some kind of a losing mentality on the team. I honestly thought that Clausen was a bit of a loser in that sense, as is Crist, but Tommy is a winner like Montana and Tom Clements.
6. We will win this week and be fine, albeit 9-3 or 8-4. There was a legitimate chance to be 11-1 but that why they play the games.
7.And for those of you who call for more running, we are a passing/play action team. We should pass on 3rd and 1 every time.
8. Keep your heads up. Go Irish!
Shoutboxx
I will admit I was in the “I’m done, I’m through with this” crowd right after the game last night, but I’ve rebounded this morning.
Objectively, based on the first two weeks, we’re a bad team. You can’t give up 9 turnovers and lose the way we have and not be a bad team.
But, unlike the Weiss era, we’re a bad team that does a lot of things right. Case-in-point: Rees’ final drive — in the Charlie/Ty eras, more often than not, in those situations we would have gone 4 and our or coughed up an interception, and wouldn’t even have been in a position to have our hearts broken by Denard Robinson.
What’s infuriating so far this year is knowing that while we suck, we don’t have to. We have the pieces in place to be good. Now, we just need to go out and do it.
Friends, I’m here to agree with canuck75 that we will do it. Yes, we may very well go 0 – 3. But we’re going to beat MSU. At home. Probably ugly, maybe pretty; but we are going to win. This coach, this quarterback, this team, is not going to quit.
We’re going to lose at least 2 more games. 8 – 4 is about as good as it is going to get. But we will make fewer mistakes, Rees will mature, and we will get better as the season goes on.
daybreakboys
Thanks for a good level headed post.
I choose to excise a lot of demons here and I will continue to do so.
Frankly I agree with you. This game was mostly just bad juju. Bad Karma. Bad luck. Call it what you will. But that does badly affect the teams mentality.
Perfect example? Our punter. Turk is horrendous. How is it possible for him to be so badly shaken?
I fully expect MSU to GUT us next weekend. We might still be lucky enough to finish 8-4 though.
…Can you imagine what Andrew Luck is going to do to Gary Gray?
notredamegrad
Amen, Canuck75. Enough with the quitting on this team. Show some faith that they can get right back to it. Are you for ND, or not?
Fight on, Irish!
Craig
Jonas Gray is NOT great. In fact, he’s barely serviceable. He does a fine job of running through a gaping hole, but he’s poor at finding and running through creases and he’s poor at pass protection. Both issues hurt us time and again last night.
Anon
I don’t think ND has the talent. The results over the past several years bear that out. There’s no curse. Lots of penalties (maybe leading the nation in unsportsmanlike conduct penalties) and lots of turnovers make it impossible to win. Those problems are, I think, consistent with being less talented than the other team.
Loved the helmets.
Mark
I am not quitting on the team. I will watch every week.
However, it’s time to finally admit. This will never happen. We will NEVER win a national championship again.
We have great players, coaches and facilities. If they can’t win with all this, it’s not in the cards.
Shoutboxx
Mark, respectfully, I think that’s going too far. We can, and will, win a national championship again — some day.
For a long time, our problem has been that we think we should be in the running for a NC each and every year. It’s true that those days are long gone; not just because we have been down, but because the landscape has changed. In an era when teams like Boise State and TCU (last year, at least) can make an argument they deserve to be in the NC game, when the (as much as it pains me to admit it) best conference, the SEC, is so stacked with talent that their best teams can lose 1 – 2 games and still legitimately be consider the best in the country, no one team can reasonably expect to be in that game year in and year out. There is too much talent, in too many places, in too many programs.
But that doesn’t mean that we can’t contend for, and win a NC. And I think that will actually happen before BK is through. It just may take longer than we would like.
ShamRockNRoll
I agree. I was pissed as everyone Saturday night, but some of the defeatist comments running into today are just off the wall. It’s just as ridiculous to say that we’ll never win a NC again as it is to go into this season having thought we’d be in the running for it.
I think we would all benefit from lowering our expectations a bit–for now–and focusing on the good things this team has accomplished in a year and a half under Kelly. I’m confident that if we give him some time to recruit his guys, and continue to develop the team the way he has, we can expect to be a contender again before too awfully long.
Shoutboxx
I agree absolutely.
Brad
I’m hurt and pissed. I am tired of feeling like charlie brown, wiffing everytime lucy tees up the ball, and continuing to try knowing it will happen.
The only team that has beat us this year is Notre Dame. Seven turnovers inside the redzone in two games? I don’t even know how to comprehend that.
We’re snakebit. This team learned how to win last season. But they are still engrained with a loser mentality, just like we are. We wait and expect something terrible will happen…and it does.
With that said, we have the same problems now that we did last week. If this team can stop the turnovers, dumb penalties, and horrible punting game, it can still be a really, REALLY good football team. But that’s a big if.
These kids need to toughen up, develop an attitude, and gain that winner mentality that will allow them to fight through the quicksand moments. Hell, even if all they did was fix the redzone turnovers, these last two games would have been blowouts. I don’t know how they do that though.
Maybe the priests should perform an exorcism.
Brad
And I feel like I should add one peice of Holtzian wisdom.
Being reknowned for turning around losing programs, he was once asked how he did it. He said that the easiest way to change the losing mentality of a team…was to simply get rid of the losers, and put more winners in the lockerroom.
I have faith in kelly (I should repeat, the 3rd winningest active coach in college football). But we have been losers for a long, long time. It takes time to fix that. Holtz still lost a lot in his second season. I don’t think there is a team on our schedule that can beat us unless we beat ourselves, and Kelly has to somehow teach these kids how not to do that.
GB
Why was Kelly able to turn a perennial losing program at Cincy into a winning program with less resources, worse players, etc. at the same time in his time at each school and have ND, one of the winningest programs of all time being a loser in his time at ND is a head scratcher for me. I want to associate myself with a more positive program and work on my own stuff and be productive. I have better things to do on Saturdays than watch the team blow it.
IrishLion10
Gary Gray was responisble for giving up 3.5 TD’s last night. That’s all my brain will allow me to think at all right now, still, even though it has been almost 16 hours since the game ended. I count the last drive as 1.5 TDs because he messed up coverage on the wheel route and then interfered with a receiver and STILL ALLOWED HIM TO CATCH THE WINNNING SCORE. GARY GRAY IS OUR BEST DEFENDER NOT NAMED MANTI TEO AND HAD THE WORST GAME OF HIS LIFE AGAINST MICHIGAN. MICHIGAN SUCKS AND LAST NIGHT SUCKED.
I still believe in Gary Gray, and the team as a whole. If you cut our avg. turnovers to 2-per-game, this team is one of the best in the nation, and I really do believe that
kyndfan
@notredamegrad thanks for your faithfulness. To all you cry babies, listen up.
I’ve been reflecting for most of the day. I went to church this morning and got a good dose of reality. You know that stuff that matters most in life. Last night my heart was ripped out of my chest. This morning God reminded me it’s just a game. Being passionate is fine, wanting to jump off a cliff or cuss out a 20 year old for making a mistake is uncool.
My wife got mad at me last night when I jokingly said,”I wonder how much we can get for our tickets.” Refering to the tickets we have for next weeks game. Although I was joking, it was still in bad taste. This Saturday I will go to ND. I will visit the Groto and have my moment. I will walk through the Basillica and have another. I will stand in the Dome and hear the trumpets. It is at that point that I will get jacked up. From that point on I will cheer for Old Notre Dame. I will walk along side the band all the way to the stadium jumping and skiping like a school boy and I will find my seat and cheer and yell until the final whistle blows.
I will do this because, although I am a mere subway alum, I love the Irish. It’s that place. It’s that feeling I can not put into words when I go up there. You need only to sit in that stadium and look up. Look at that sky, that big Indiana sky. I look up at that sky and realize that God put that sky there for the very purpose of having football played underneath it. 6-6, 10-2, or national champs they are my boys and I will cheer them on every time.
Am I a gluten for punishment? Maybe.
Do I love the Irish and everything they stand for? Abso-freakin-lutely!
God bless and Go Irish
Shoutboxx
There’s no such thing as a “mere” subway alum :-). Subway alums are a big part of our past, present and (hopefully) future.
Thank you for the post.
Brad
Lastly, I like Rees. I think he is a much better qb right now than he was last year. I liked the way he marched his team down the field and into the endzone when the game was on the line. I think he is a winner.
But winners do turn the ball over 5 or 6 times in three halves of football, and regardless of how plucky he is, if he cannot stop turning the ball over, then Kelly needs to bench him too, and put someone in who limit turnovers. I hope Rees can do that, and do it quickly.
IrishLion10
Also, can’t see why people blame BK for the loss, or are saying he is already “out.” There were two times I questioned BK last night: First, when he called for a run on 3 and 1 after having been stuffed two previous times, and second when he AGAIN called for the same run (with the same pre-snap motion, no less) on 3 and short for a fourth time. Short yardage situations are coming to a level of predictability that we saw under Charlie Weis
daybreakboys
Yeah there were some questionable calls but we were competitive to the end. Had that of been Weis we would have given up by halftime.
Shoutboxx
Absolutely right. We’re still better off than we were under Weiss (that last drive by Rees never would have happened, we would have be 4 and out or given up an interception), although at the moment that almost makes it worse, because I feel like we really SHOULD be winning these games.
GB
People are blaming BK for the loss because the psyche of the team is “Losing or Losers” that needs to change because it is not one person. It is almost every player except maybe the O line.
NWohioND
Thank you DMQ…I’ve avoided all ND sites today, any highlights and all sports related activities due to last nights fucked up game…I’m so at a point that I don’t know what the fuck to say anymore…your post with pictures is exactly how I’ve felt….what the fuck happened last night I still don’t know…
AKMatt
So um… I had to promise my wife that I’d go see my doctor this week and a counseling referral. Maybe I’ll be on Zoloft for the rest of the season. It makes no sense how so much of my self worth and identity is wrapped up Notre Dame football. It couldn’t be more apparent how stupid and selfish that is. There are literally billions of people on this planet that would love to have my “problems”. Yeah, there it is, plain as day, but “Whatever, fuck it” is all I feel.
Jeremy
I started worrying as soon as we went up 14-0 because the very next drive I felt like there wasn’t as much intensity. They came out with something to prove, but as soon as they got a good lead, it is like they thought they had already proved it. Then of course they fell into the second half mental trap several have already mentioned that we all feel we will find a way to mess up. I felt like the foot was off the gas only half way into the first quarter. Maybe it was just me and not the team, but that is a big mental problem that has also been in the program for a long time. I don’t know how to fix that either, other than making them watch last year’s MSU game and last night’s game repeatedly until they understand they need 60 minutes of something to prove, not two drives.
I will still watch every game. I can’t help it, and I will be screaming my head off in the stands next week — though I am still looking for three tickets that unfortunately might be a lot easier to find now. I would rather be watching from outside the stadium and be 2-0.
canuck75
coach Kelly has provided a reasonable answer to the question of the 3rd and 1 runs (of which I am a critic) Apparently each play has an audible pitch/throw component. Probably Tommy should have pitched out at least once, if not twice. This is part of the learning curve. I bet he will not make that mistake again.
BSweet'00
I am disappointed in this team and was physically sick last night. However, I think I’m more disappointed by some of the ‘fans’ on this site. Of course we’ve under performed in the past two games, but there is still a lot of season left and we all need to collectively stay behind these boys. I bleed blue and gold, just like you, but I’m not giving up. I still think this program is headed in the right direction, and am wearning my ND schwag with pride today (and I always will). This team is talented and we’ll still win a lot of games this season. Aren’t we supposed to be Her ‘Loyal’ Sons? Go Irish!
notredamegrad
Yes!!! Thank you. Go IRISH!
kyndfan
Exactly. If you are not willing to support them now, don’t bother coming back when they make it to the BCS.
Loyal, win or lose, loyal.
tjak
Your right, I am sorry. Through thick and thin.
www.southbendblarney.com
Well, I cried after the loss, then cried some more, then masturbated, using my own tears as lubrication, then went to sleep. Then, I woke up and took two Advil in the morning, I don’t know why, I didn’t need them, it just seemed like the right thing to do after such a rough night.
Seriously, I don’t even know what to think anymore. I don’t know exactly why I’ll be glued to a t.v. next Saturday against Michigan State, after having nothing but disappointment every season, but I will be. And, if they lose, I’ll be glued to the t.v. the Saturday after that, and so on. I don’t know what it is, hope, maybe? Idiocy?
All I know is that I am so damn scared, because I agree with the post about Kelly being the right guy (Cinci has no business being in BCS bowls, and Kelly took them there). If he can’t do it, then what next?