Never would guess that this was going to be a 79 yard TD run.(Via @bubbaprog )
Here is a quick look back at some of the highlights of Saturday afternoon’s victory over Pitt.
It Was Over When …
Tommy Rees successfully made the 1/2 yard on 4th down. With Pitt out of timeouts, the 1st down conversion allowed ND to just knee away the rest of the clock.
Turning Point
Down 12-7, Tommy Rees goes 8-8 and leads Notre Dame down the field connected with Tyler Eifert for a 6 yard TD pass to put Notre Dame ahead for good. A successful 2 pt conversion allowed ND to go up a FG. Thankfully, ND never looked back and 15-12 ended up being the final score.
Three Good Stats
- 5 for 5 — After the short yard debacle against Michigan, ND has responded admirably. They went 5 for 5 on 3rd/4th and short against Pitt. Including Michigan State, ND has converted its last 8 short yard opportunities. This success has to give Kelly confidence in his OL and probably contributed to the decision to go for it on 4th to ice the game.
- 5 Sacks — Another dominant performance by the DL. They harassed Sunseri all day and came up with 2 huge sacks on Pitt’s final drive, forcing Pitt into a 4th and 25 which was ND knocked down. ND took the ball over and ended the game.
- 89 yards — The Irish Defense held Ray Graham to 89 yards on 21 carries. Take out his 42 yard burst and that is 47 yards on 20 carries. The Defense continues to play strong (4th Q against Michigan nonwithstanding) and they have kept ND in all of their games so far this season
Three Bad Stats
- 2 More Turnovers — That’s 15 turnovers in 16 quarters for the Irish. This is a trend that cannot continue (groundbreaking analysis right there!) As Bruce Feldman pointed out on twitter, 15 turnovers is more than several teams committed all of last season. The fumble was one of Rees’ worst turnovers as he did not feel the pressure and should have held onto the ball after the sack. The interception was both Eifert’s & Rees’ faults. Rees threw the ball late and Eifert failed to come back and help his QB out. If he attacks the pass, it is probably a knock down at worst and more than likely a completion for ND
- 5.3 YPA — 41 pass attempts for 216 yards isn’t going to cut it. This was easily Rees’ worst performance of the year. Pitt seemed to be confusing Tommy with their coverages and he either failed to adjust properly or was too locked in on his primary read and missed open receivers.
- 4 Floyd catches — I know Pitt was double teaming Floyd all day but opponents have done this before. However, Tommy didn’t even seem to look his way after the first drive of the game. It’s unclear if this was Tommy’s fault, the design of the plays or both but 4 catches for Floyd against the 119th ranked Pass D isn’t good enough. Thankfully Eifert stepped up with his 8 catches
Three Stars
- Jonas Gray/Cierre Wood — 26 carries for 178 yards. Both players have been outstanding for ND all season and continued their good work against Pitt. Jonas’ TD run was the longest for the Irish in a long, long time. Both also seem to be extremely improved in their blitz pick-ups which has been a huge help for the offense.
- Tyler Eifert — 8 catches, 75 yards, 1 TD, 1 two point conversion. With Pitt doing everything in their power to take Floyd out of the game, Eifert stepped up in a huge way. He made numerous 3rd down catches to keep the chains moving.
- Darius Fleming — 4 total tackles, 3 TFL and 2 sacks. After a quiet start to the season, Fleming stepped up and had a huge game for the Irish DL. The entire DL played extremely well as noted but I wanted to single Fleming out for the great job he did on Saturday.
Next Week:
Notre Dame is at Purdue at 8 pm. ESPN has the game and they release their coverage maps during the week so you’ll know what channel the game will be on in your area then.
- Florida State 18, Notre Dame 14: A Quick Recap - December 29, 2011
- Stanford 28, Notre Dame 14: A Quick Recap - November 27, 2011
- Notre Dame 16, Boston College 14: A Quick Recap - November 21, 2011
What a fantastic screencap.
Within the game right now. Interesting how many hot-reads the receivers missed, I think.
DMQ: I noticed the hot-reads at least once as well. If the guy covering you becomes a blitzer, look for the dang ball!
Poot: Regarding Turnovers being a “trend that cannot continue,” I’d say this trend is looking pretty good:
USF: 5 TOs
Michigan: 4 TOs (I don’t count a fumbled return with 2 seconds left and the game effectively over).
MSU: 3 TOs
Pitt: 2 TOs.
The turnovers are getting better every single game. Against Pitt the two that we did have were just magnified because the Offense wasn’t putting up 400+ yards and our Defense didn’t get a single TO in our favor.
Rees’ INTs per attempt is improving too.
Against a better group of D-backs Rees would have had another 3-4 INTs added to his stats. If this trend continues it would not bother me in the least to get another look at Crist.
If the Pitt defenders had held on to the poorly thrown passes there would have been at least two/three more interceptions.
Actually, in Pass Efficiency D, Pitt wasn’t and isn’t that far different from the previous competition this season. And in fact, Rees’ rate of interceptions is improving. I’m working on a post that’ll show ya.
Yeah they are middle of the pack. But they are better after playing us than after playing Maine and Buffalo. Not good.
And Rees is still turning the ball over 2 times per game every game. He also threw 2-3 more balls that could’ve easily been picks Saturday. He’s been bad.
But against Maine and Buffalo they didn’t use the pre-snap shifting of the DBs. At all. Even against Iowa. Would be like ND never using their blitzes for the first 3 games.
Should that matter against Maine and Buffalo? If you’re 119th playing any defensive scheme/formation/etc against those 2 teams, I dont think you’re great. Regardless.
On turnovers, the team is cutting down on them, but is Rees? With most of the other teams we play, 3-4 of the throws Rees made yesterday should have been picked off – he got lucky that only one of them was pulled down, and it was ugly. I like the overall trend, but don’t see improvement from Rees.
Rees is still accounting for 2 TO’s a game though. Not better.
I’m giving Tommy one more game. Then I will judge him. He will either be our hero or our goat when it counts most.
One more game? I am not sure the Purdue game is the last to use for judging him. I would any QB can put up great numbers. Of course, if he has a few TO’s against Purdue, I will fully understand your decision.
I admire Kelly for sticking with Rees. I was ready to put Crist in at the end of the third. He has decided to hitch his wagon to Rees’ star, for better or worse.
It is weird to me that he had such a short leash with Dayne and such a long one with Tommy. Dayne has to be thinking “man, I wasn’t even warmed up in that game yet, and that’s all I get?” I feel for the guy, but understand Kelly’s catch-22 of bopping back and forth between QBs. He made the change, and now he kinda has to stick to it or look like a real flopper. Let’s just hope Tommy can keep it together and the team keeps winning.
100% agree. It’s an odd thing. But I get it – tough to flip flop.
Yeah, I’ve wondered just how bad did he think Crist was in the first half of USF (even though I watched it) to insist Tommy was better.
I was ready for Crist at the start of the second half. Rees had a really hard time checking through his progressions, and the confusing defense had marginalized what I had previously considered his stronger ability at pre-snap reads and checking out of plays. I really thought Crist would have given us the best chance to win by actually looking at more receivers.
I cannot get over the amount of criticism that gets thrown at Kelly and Tommy by so called supporters ( I do not mean this site or its contributors.) Tommy definitely played a bit worse than previous weeks, but Pitt must get some credit. That is is the first time he has faced a tough pass rush, and given that our O line is good, it must be because Pitt was doing a good job confusing the Oline.
Bottom line, Tommy led us down the field with the game on the line. He has now done it against USC, Michigan and Pitt.Clausen was not as good under pressure.
The most ridiculous comment I keep reading is “we have seen Tommy’s upper limit…”
I will tell you what Tommy’s upper limit is- 70% passing completion rate, 4 tds and .5 interceptions per game. Do you think we might win a few games with those stats!
On a related point, lets give our Coach some credit. If Golson or Hendrix are a better option next year, then they will play, much like Lovecchio was replaced many years ago despite having been great as a freshman. But if Tommy starts next year, its because Kelly is expecting what I see as the upper limit-300yds,4 tds per game, and the great play under pressure.
I cannot understand how many people seem miserable over the state of the team. We win against a solid opponent without our best game and guys want to change coach and qb.
I say sincerely, some of these guys need professional help. Do they really run their business/marriage flawlessly. Not likely.
That is why I love this blog and most of these posters. We at least seem to want to analyze objectively and the subjective comments are not too far over the top.
Is there anyone out there who would not sign up for another ugly win against USC?
Sorry for a bit of a rant, but I was really taken aback by some of the vehemence in the criticisms after the game.
In my opinion, Coach is a very good coach and the boys are responding to him.Look at his coaching up of Jonas and Cierre. Look at the decision to put Tuitt in at NG for pass rush at the end.
Go Irish. (Please give us a laugher this week)
But Pitt was 119th against the pass leading up to this game. It’s not like they’re a ‘good’ D against the pass. They played well Saturday, for sure, but they’re not some world-beating D.
What was their pass efficiency defensive rating?
Worse than 59th. Can’t go back to pre-this-weekend in the source I use, so not really sure. Either way, 60th or worse isn’t great. And that was against Maine and freaking Buffalo + Iowa.
Im surprised no ome has mentiome the horrible roughing the kicker call that prolonged a Pitt drive and resulted in a TD. That play looked almost exactly, if not lighter, than the same call against Pitt. I cannot imagine how what ND did was roughing and what Pitt did was only running into. Without that call, ND retains the ball minus 5 or pitt rekicks 5-yards upfield. That was a turning point in the gm
Also, wtf is with Ruffer this season? He finall gets a schollie and now he performs like this?? ANOTHE
missed chip shot FG. Unnacceptable
That FG attempt was off a horrible snap.
yeah, that sucked a lot
I feel the difference is that Collinsworth ended up underneath the Pitt punter who had to land on him with his plant foot. Turk had already landed when he got bumped into. Looked a lot more dangerous for the Pitt punter.
Either way, I’m not sold on going for the punt block there. We’re going to get great field position either way, so where’s the real reward?
I agree, way too many fans and media are down on ND after this win. It’s a win! On the road! Against a BCS opponent that was a 4th quarter collapse away from being 3-0! Let’s see how Pitt does over the next few weeks and then judge whether this was a quality win or not. These are the games we’ve almost always lost in years past.
So… 1/3 of the way through the season, we’re sitting one win better than this time last year. Over the next 8 games, what will constitute a successful season?
8-0, finishing 10-2, BCS game after defeating a highly ranked Stanford team. Obviously the dream scenario- we will have met this season’s stated goals and will have showed tremendous fortitude after an 0-2 start.
7-1, losing to either USC or Stanford. I’m still happy with the season, a 2 win improvement over last year’s regular season. Champs Sports Bowl.
6-2, losing to USC/Stanford, or lose to one of them with another loss thrown in there (Navy, AF?). Dissapointed, but still a slight improvement over last year, and the wheels didn’t fall off completely after the rough 0-2 start.
5-3. Not good. Treading water. I’ll probably still watch the bowl game.
4-4 or worse. Ugh. Please no. And please don’t let one of the losses be to BC. Extremely disappointing season. Long offseason ahead.
I want to see the Cotton Bowl this year…
For us to be truly ‘improved’ we’d better be 7-1 or better.
No doubt about it. No more moral victories! But that also means an ugly win is a good win. In theory, we should pound Purdue, but historically Purdue rallies to give us a good game, so 28-17 should not be a total shock.
On the other hand, if this is the week we go 0 turnovers, that’s about 10-13 points we have been leaving on the field, so it could be 35-10.
But I am in agreement that there can be no excuses. My observation of Kelly (contrary to most of his detractors) is that he is willing to change and adapt.
I bet Jonas gets 15 carries this week.