28 Dec | Pinstripe Bowl vs. Rutgers

[aubeirish]

I expect us to smack Rutgers. Like Emcee said, we are a few plays from being undefeated. Let's get them boys.

 

[philipm31]

We went 4-2 against Sagain's current Top 30 teams. I'm not saying we had a great season, but that puts things in perspective for me. This program has clearly moved in an "acceptable" direction, since this is as bad as a Kelly season is going to be for the rest of his tenure here. Stop being such a miserable person and enjoy your last chance to watch ND before the long offseason.

That is exactly my point. Kelly needs to average nine wins a year from here on out, period.

And you need to get off your high horse, son. ND was not even playing today. Are you even paying attention?

SMH.

 

[philipm31]

I expect us to smack Rutgers. Like Emcee said, we are a few plays from being undefeated. Let's get them boys.

Anything less and I will a little troubled.

We should be pretty healthy by then, too, I hope.

 

[Buster Bluth]

I expect us to smack Rutgers. Like Emcee said, we are a few plays from being undefeated. Let's get them boys.

Easy there with this kind of thinking. There are twenty teams who were a "few plays" away from being undefeated.

 

[aubeirish]

Easy there with this kind of thinking. There are twenty teams who were a "few plays" away from being undefeated.

I get what your saying, and I have watched enough college football to know that anybody can beat anybody in this sport. The games are played on the field. I don't think we have the best team in the country, but we have a very solid team. On a normal day there is no good reason for us to loose against a team like Rutgers. I strongly think we could beat anybody outside of the top5 if we play to our ability.

 

[Buster Bluth]

I get what your saying, and I have watched enough college football to know that anybody can beat anybody in this sport. The games are played on the field. I don't think we have the best team in the country, but we have a very solid team. On a normal day there is no good reason for us to loose against a team like Rutgers. I strongly think we could beat anybody outside of the top5 if we play to our ability.

I'm not sure the first bolded agrees with the second. Anybody can beat anybody, I totally agree. However if that's the case, and it is, then measuring "good teams" because an evaluation of consistency. Notre Dame is not a consistent team, so probably not a very solid team. There is very little that is indeed "solid," at least in a "dependable" sense.

But yeah I think Notre Dame kills Rutgers.

 

[Irish YJ]

We should have smacked Purdue, Navy, and Pitt as well. Just saying..... And we were no where near "a couple" plays of going undefeated. Be realistic people.

Now realistically we should smack RU around and win by 28. That said we have played up to, and down to our competition all year long. We did pretty well in 6 games. The others, meh....

We need to come ready and hammer these guys. This match up and geo region does matter for the Irish when it comes to recruiting. I hope Tommy goes out on fire.

 

[FearTheBeard]

Im willing to bet we whoop on whoevere we play!!

 

[BGIF]

Sagarin's 12/7/13 Predictor Model ranks ND #28 and RU #105.

ND is an 18 point favorite on a neotral field.

IF you give RU HFA for an hour drive to Yankee Stadium, ND is a 14.5 favorite.

 

[tko]

Can someone help me reconcile that playing in the Pinstripe Bowl is a good thing for our program?

 

[ickythump1225]

Meh I don't care who we play...lets play Rutgers screw it. 9-4 isn't such a bad season all things considered.

 

[IrishLax]

Can someone help me reconcile that playing in the Pinstripe Bowl is a good thing for our program?

1. Easiest bowl matchup we could probably get, which means we have the highest probability of stomping opponent.

2. Will be a sellout game in one of the best venues of bowl season.

3. Coming into this year knowing that we were in an unenviable position of having to dumpster dive for bowls with no tie-ins... this is the most premier bowl we could've realistically hoped 4.

Obvious not as good as making the BCS... but this is a best case scenario once you take that off the table. No Golson, 25+ injured players, 3 lost starters on OL, lost best player on defense, ravaged front 7, etc. etc. etc. I'll take it and be done with this cursed year.

 

[tko]

1. Easiest bowl matchup we could probably get, which means we have the highest probability of stomping opponent.

2. Will be a sellout game in one of the best venues of bowl season.

3. Coming into this year knowing that we were in an unenviable position of having to dumpster dive for bowls with no tie-ins... this is the most premier bowl we could've realistically hoped 4.

Obvious not as good as making the BCS... but this is a best case scenario once you take that off the table. No Golson, 25+ injured players, 3 lost starters on OL, lost best player on defense, ravaged front 7, etc. etc. etc. I'll take it and be done with this cursed year.

You, my friend, are a gentleman and a scholar. Thank you.

 

[Rudy89]

Can someone help me reconcile that playing in the Pinstripe Bowl is a good thing for our program?

How is ending the season on a heart breaking rival loss any better for the program? Outside of this fan base and a few others no one will ever respect us so we might as well try and go out on a good note and build to next year. Sure this bowl isn't a great one esp after last year but how can winning this be a bad thing for this program?

 

[ThePiombino]

1. Easiest bowl matchup we could probably get, which means we have the highest probability of stomping opponent.

2. Will be a sellout game in one of the best venues of bowl season.

3. Coming into this year knowing that we were in an unenviable position of having to dumpster dive for bowls with no tie-ins... this is the most premier bowl we could've realistically hoped 4.

Obvious not as good as making the BCS... but this is a best case scenario once you take that off the table. No Golson, 25+ injured players, 3 lost starters on OL, lost best player on defense, ravaged front 7, etc. etc. etc. I'll take it and be done with this cursed year.

THIS any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. Perfectly put.

 

[IrishSteelhead]

I fail to see where the animosity is even coming from. Wasn't the Pinstripe our only option anyways other than BCS for all intents and purposes?

 

[Buster Bluth]

Meh I don't care who we play...lets play Rutgers screw it. 9-4 isn't such a bad season all things considered.

It's just depressing that Pittsburgh stood in the way of a much more impressive 10-3. Double-digit wins looks better.

 

[Emcee77]

I expect us to smack Rutgers. Like Emcee said, we are a few plays from being undefeated. Let's get them boys.

Well, that wasn't my logic though. We are a few plays from being undefeated, but we are also a few plays from having a losing record.

All I was trying to say is that this is a year we can be proud of, if not satisfied with. I just like to see us compete, week in and week out. I'm still scarred by the Willingham and Weis years, when we would get blown out regularly. In the last three seasons, there's been one (1) game that got out of hand on us, and it was against the best football dynasty in decades. Just trying to keep things in perspective.

I'm not sure the first bolded agrees with the second. Anybody can beat anybody, I totally agree. However if that's the case, and it is, then measuring "good teams" because an evaluation of consistency. Notre Dame is not a consistent team, so probably not a very solid team. There is very little that is indeed "solid," at least in a "dependable" sense.

But yeah I think Notre Dame kills Rutgers.

I don't know if I agree with that. Our effort was pretty consistent this season, with one exception, the Pitt game. The squad didn't always execute perfectly but they were basically focused, organized and prepared, and that's reflected in the closeness of the games. I would say we are basically consistent and basically solid, but obviously have room to improve, especially at QB.

 

[texbender]

We should have smacked Purdue, Navy, and Pitt as well. Just saying..... And we were no where near "a couple" plays of going undefeated. Be realistic people.

Now realistically we should smack RU around and win by 28. That said we have played up to, and down to our competition all year long. We did pretty well in 6 games. The others, meh....

We need to come ready and hammer these guys. This match up and geo region does matter for the Irish when it comes to recruiting. I hope Tommy goes out on fire.

+1. Irish SHOULD be able to take care of RU with no problem, but this year has seen ND jack around with teams that that should be dismissed by halftime.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Average temperatures for Dec 28. Not as bad as one would think.

 

[Rudy89]

Maybe it's because I'm young but I have ony seen us win a bowl game 3 times in my life I'll always appreciate winning a bowl no matter what the name of it is or when it is played.

 

[IrishLax]

+1. Irish SHOULD be able to take care of RU with no problem, but this year has seen ND jack around with teams that that should be dismissed by halftime.

FWIW, all objective measures say that Rutgers is substantially worse than both Pitt and Navy, but better than Purdue. They're about equivalent to Temple.

Purdue and Michigan illustrated just how bad our schemes/play calling were in the beginning of the year. Really turned a corner in the middle of the season, IMO.

I'll be shocked if we don't beat Rutgers by at least 3 scores.

 

[Fbolt]

IMO, ND was not a few plays away from being undefeated.

 

[IrishLax]

IMO, ND was not a few plays away from being undefeated.

The "few plays" thing is always silly to me because football is a game of a "few plays"... almost like someone looking at a soccer game they lost 2-1 and being like "we were just a kick away!"... yeah, that's the sport....

Michigan and Oklahoma games were both sound losses. Michigan game we were a bad PI call away from being in position to drive for the W, but it's not like that game came down to a singular fluke play OR that we "should've" won. Oklahoma we just played like crap and were flat out beat.

Stanford, despite getting largely dominated, we were legitimately 1 underthrown ball away from a tie ball game. That's kind of crazy to think about.

Pitt... now that is a game where if any one of 5 or 6 bogus calls or unfortunate plays go our way we win that game. They didn't score a single point that wasn't off a stupid turnover or bad call from the officials... and on the flip side, we squandered a bunch of scoring opportunities AND had Tuitt ejected on pure garbage. This is the only game I think we "should've" won.

 

[Mavericknyc1980]

Anybody going. I live in NC and would like to sit with some Iriah fans.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

IMO, ND was not a few plays away from being undefeated.

We were much closer to being 3-9 than 12-0.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

We've won 3 games by more than 1 score this season. We let the worst AQ conference team stick around. We couldn't beat pathetic Temple by 3 scores. I'll believe we can blow out Rutgers when I see it.

 

[arrowryan]

We've won 3 games by more than 1 score this season. We let the worst AQ conference team stick around. We couldn't beat pathetic Temple by 3 scores. I'll believe we can blow out Rutgers when I see it.

Yeah we did?

 

[chubler]

Oklahoma we just played like crap and were flat out beat.

Stanford, despite getting largely dominated, we were legitimately 1 underthrown ball away from a tie ball game. That's kind of crazy to think about.

Stanford and Oklahoma seemed like two sides of a coin to me, I don't think they're as different as you put them.

Oklahoma we were two picks, heck with a 14 point swing, one pick-6 at the beginning of the game away from playing them even for the rest of the game. And we likely would've run the ball more, with more success, had we not been down 14 from the get-go.

Stanford we were two picks away, or just one of those two, from scoring at the end to win the game.

Both games they made plays and we didn't, but you can argue them as close or as emphatic defeats as you want. Bottom line IMO, we lost 4 games this year, but we were at least competitive in every one of them, which should be the standard from here on out (compensating a little extra margin this year for injuries of course).

 

[Emcee77]

The "few plays" thing is always silly to me because football is a game of a "few plays"... almost like someone looking at a soccer game they lost 2-1 and being like "we were just a kick away!"... yeah, that's the sport....

Michigan and Oklahoma games were both sound losses. Michigan game we were a bad PI call away from being in position to drive for the W, but it's not like that game came down to a singular fluke play OR that we "should've" won. Oklahoma we just played like crap and were flat out beat.

Stanford, despite getting largely dominated, we were legitimately 1 underthrown ball away from a tie ball game. That's kind of crazy to think about.

Pitt... now that is a game where if any one of 5 or 6 bogus calls or unfortunate plays go our way we win that game. They didn't score a single point that wasn't off a stupid turnover or bad call from the officials... and on the flip side, we squandered a bunch of scoring opportunities AND had Tuitt ejected on pure garbage. This is the only game I think we "should've" won.

OU was closer than that, wasn't it? It was what, 27-21 in the late third/early 4th and we had the ball? Then we failed to do anything with it and on the next possession OU gets that TD on the big play. That game wasn't that different from the Stanford game; OU just got an insurance TD to ice it that Stanford didn't get.

We played every team tough and had a chance to win every game late in the game. I'm not satisfied with that but it's a lot better than where we were in 2004 or 2008 and made for a fun season of football watching. Pretty good season.