The Irish Roundup

It seems to me that a loss like this one is better left to message board rants (and hilariously angry blog posts - nice job, Jay) than detailed analyses of the sort I’ve usually given, but in lieu of another installment of Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear, let me just point out four crucial statistics that I think have been somewhat overlooked in the discussions I’ve been party to so far (both on IE and BGS).

338

That’s the total number of offensive yards that Navy had through four quarters and three overtime periods, their second-worst offensive output of the season. At the end of regulation, their rushing total was only 240 yards - a season-worst, and a full football field below their average through the first eight games - and their passing total stood at 38: a combined offensive output of 278 yards, their lowest of the year and over 170 yards below their season-long average coming in. Navy’s average gain of 3.9 yards per carry was also a season-worst, and by a considerable margin at that. The Midshipmen had to punt the ball twice yesterday, something that had happened only two other times all season, and they would have had to do it a third time if Joe Brockington hadn’t been called for a personal foul facemask penalty after a third-down stop on the second Navy possession. Add to that two forced fumbles (only one of which was recovered by the Irish, of course) and two drives where the Midshipmen were held to a field goal attempt - something that had been accomplished only once in each of their previous two games - and it becomes clear that anyone who wants to blame this loss on Corwin Brown’s defense has got another thing coming.

4

That’s the total number of sacks yielded by the Irish, to a defense that came in with only five sacks in their first EIGHT GAMES. Sorry folks, but all is not well with Notre Dame’s offensive line (on which see also “3.7,” below).

27

That’s the total number of passes thrown by Evan Sharpley, on a windy day when it was clear from the start that he was going to be woefully inaccurate. Add in the four sacks and the four (I think) other times where a pass play was called but Sharpley ended up scrambling for positive yardage, and you end up with what looks to have been about 35 pass plays called against a team that was obviously overwhelmed in the trenches when it came to stopping the Irish running game, a fact that Charlie Weis failed to exploit with any consistency until the end of the third quarter. Going through the play-by-play, I count NINE times that Sharpley was asked to throw the ball on first-and-ten. Offensive genius, my ass.

3.7

That’s the average yardage per carry picked up by the Notre Dame offense. It’s easy to look at the box score, see 235 net rushing yards, and conclude that the running game was a real bright spot yesterday. But it took SIXTY-THREE runs to get to that total, and nearly all of the Irish rushing efficiency seemed to be of the “fall forward” variety: the Irish offensive linemen stood up and shoved their massively undersized counterparts nice and hard, and the tailbacks ran through the wreckage they created. If you’re trying to build a D-I football program, that’s not much to hang your hat on.

The bell tolls, indeed. Now, off to find that fork …

If you go to the yearly “Statistics” pages on UND.com and ask for the box scores for the 2006 losses to USC or LSU, or for this year’s loss to Michigan, this is the page that pulls up (click on the image if you can’t make out the text):

I’m not sure if it’s the product of an overexcited intern, a glorious act of God, or just some beautiful mistake, but that seems about right to me. The same goes in spades for yesterday’s loss, and while I was disappointed to wake up this morning find that alcohol hadn’t been able to do the trick (I guess you have to get numbingly drunk BEFORE the event you want not to remember), I’m about to see what comes of a well-placed hammer blow to the head.

So no, no game breakdown this week. Too painful. If you really need such a thing, check out this solid - and actually somewhat positive - post by ColonialHead. Blogging may be a bit light this week as I recover from the hammer blow and try to take advantage of ND’s fall break (not mine, unfortunately). But I will have a Friday Night Lights breakdown up, hopefully by tomorrow, as well as some stuff thinking about what these past eight games mean for the future of ND football. Oh, and I plan to capitalize on this season’s one really positive thing and get the Trevor Laws Heisman campaign underway in full force.

But for now, the Irish Roundup is pleased to bring you … Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear.