i agree it was bad to watch
this is an example of stats not showing what you see on the screen....yes we had a lot of yards but we could barely score..and there were soo many deflating plays which sucked any momentum we had which to me seems to make everything that much worse
The score IS part of the stats. We all saw the score. Some of us also saw the right things that ND did including bouncing back from adversity which included the flu and injured players, oh yeah and the adrenlin let down in the Trap Game. For most of the past two decades ND would have lost rather than pulling away for the win.
There were a couple of plays on each side of the ball resulting in big plays for Pit and no score for ND.
Farley tried to make a one handed tackle on Graham and didn't succeed giving up a score. Farley had surgery on the other hand 4 days before that game. In another year with depth he wouldn't have even suited up. This year with all the injuries he not only suited up, he started ... out of necessity ... with a cast on one hand. It wasn't sloppy tackling, it was a gamer giving his all.
Some posters here still see Golson as a 4th year starter rather than the 8 game starter he will become tonight. Golson has a career QB Eff of 119 that's not very good. He still has problems with defensive reads and progressions and that's why he gets pulled for the coaches to counsel him. Golson's a work in progress. So are most of his receivers.
Nix in another year also would not have been playing in another year. He was hospitalized with the flu 4 days before the game. He had to play when Kona went down with a shoulder injury. Nix was far from 100% but another gamer.
We don't know who else had the flu although it was noted several did. Rees threw a pick when he couldn't step forward on a pass because there was a defender in his face. A defender who blew by the RG. The RG looked overpowered to me. Flu or bad techinque?
Wood lost the ball in a goal line scrum. Golson threw an INT to kill another long drive. I saw Bettis and Montana do the same thing.
ND made mistakes but executely correctly far in excess of the mistakes.