I fail to see where the team has improved. The OL still can't block,the defense can't stop teams,the playcalling is questionable,the QB play is inconsistant,the wideouts drop passes and we are 1-8. Where exactly have we improved??
I will grant you that the O-Line can't block...they got beat on too many critical plays in that game (usually Turkovich or Olsen but others can share some of the blame too) against a vastly under manned Navy defense....but then again, there have been quite a few times in the last 43 years that the same thing could be said. Holtz teams generally beat Navy pretty handily, but even in those games, there were isolated plays here and there that a Navy player just flat out whipped a bigger, faster, more talented ND player and made a play. The biggest difference then versus this catastrophic season was that those previous ND teams could AFFORD "x" number of those plays and rally to wins. Not this year....
As far as the defense getting the blame for the Navy game....they held them to more than 100 yards below their season average rushing and well below their season average in ypc. They gave up 3 offensive TDs in the game and had the offense hang them out to dry yet again with Sharpley's braindead fumble that was returned for a Navy TD. If people want to insist that the defense lost the game because they gave up 2 TDs and a 2-pt play in 3 OTs, then I guess you can say that....BUT, had the offense not done inexplicably bad in sudden change (no points off Navy fumble), short yardage (stuffed on the 2-pt play and several other short yardage situations in the game) and QB play (Sharpley's 17-27 should have been mor elike 24-27 for a LOT more yardage against THAT defense), if any of those things was not the way it was, then the defense played well enough to win the game. How many times did previous ND teams beat Navy teams after surrendering 3 offensive TDs? The answer is quite a few actually....so to pin this latest disaster on the defense is a tad disingenuous...
Playcalling is what it is...indefensible. The non-FG attempt will haunt Weis for the rest of his time at ND regardless of anything else he does (or does not) accomplish at ND. I thought the bookend masacres to UM and USC would be the lowest point Charlie Weis hit in his time at ND...I was wrong. Even if Weis does secure this year's recruits and eventually win BCS games and MNCs, he will forever be linked to decisions that ended a streak of wins - that in all honesty, if it had not ended this year just might have gone on for another 43 years - that was historic in length. The fake FG and the non-FG attempt will be his albatross for a very long time and will also be his footnote in ND history. Sad to say it, but the 38-0 losses to UM and USC had recent, albeit unpleasant, historical precedence (2003). The flacid playcalling and lack of offense against NAVY however does NOT have such a buffer. This one stains Charlie like red wine on linen...some things just can't ever be cleansed...
As for the WRs dropping passes, I think Kamara has been doing that all year and if memory serves it was something that Mo Stovall had HUGE trouble with for his first 2 years and even part of his junior year as well... WRs will drop passes, even the best WRs will drop them from time to time...granted that Grimes is never going to be confused with a "great one", but he and the other WRs did not perform very well this year. That was just another factor in the death rattle of this squad since September.
Bad O-Line play makes for bad QB-play.
Bad QB-play makes for bad WR-play.
Bad WR-play leads to a stangnat offense.
A stagnant offense makes it harder on the O-Line and RBs...lather. rinse. repeat...
The situation continues to got south and more and more it has looked like a runaway freight train this year....building negative momentum on top of negative momentum until the only thing that can stop the insanity is an end to this year's schedule and a complete off-season overhaul. It can't be fixed this year (hell this season was officially a bust at half-time of the GT game as far as MNC goes), and since that is the only championship ND can play for, the 2007 season lasted all of 30 minutes.
The intervening 8 games have done nothing to calm people's fears or give much hope for the future; but the truth is that ND has not been playing in a meaningful game since the second quarter of the opener against GT. By the time the wheels came completely off against Michigan two weeks later, the course of this season was likely set in stone. Playing for pride and all that is fine and well, but having a team loaded with underclassmen in all the skill positions and with under-achieving 5th year 'leaders' made that an unlikely scenario from the start. Hindsight is always 20-20, but the reality is the talking heads were right. Mark May is a human penis, but he does have a staff of people working with and for him at ESPN. They could guess and look dispassionately at what we could not allow ourselves as fans to see - the make-up of the players on this ND team did not lend itself to a successful season (too young, too inexperienced, too thin on crucial positions, not enough competition for jobs yet), and in fact was far more likely to devolve into a massive trainwreck than a competitive unit - which is EXACTLY whats happened.
In order to get better, in order to make sure that in 2008 at least we can get to halftime of the SECOND game without the season essentially being over, these things must occur:
OL --> better hit the gym with a renewed fury....they need to add size and strength and also add quickness to their technique and footwork and gain a very nasty streak to themselves as individuals and as a unit. That was needed all year, but it is not something that can be developed in the middle of a season...it takes untold hours and dedication away from the practice field and meeting rooms...
RB --> these guys need to become more decisive in their runs and realize that running hard into a brink wall only means you will get stopped faster...their vision and picking a hole or a sliver or a crack to attack needs to be improved...but in fairness the best 3 are really all freshmen....true Aldridge was on campus last year, but being hurt and playing less than 1/4 of the season in 2006 is hardly a wealth of experience to draw on. Jabbie and Thomas are soon to be alumni and the team will be better via addition by subtraction...
WR --> one can only hope that Kamara and Parris do a better Shark-and-Mo impression next season. Each has flashed potential, but each has also flashed maddening inconsistency and the ability to disappear from games for waaaay too long at a stretch. Adding Floyd and seasoning Tate into that mix for 2008 and I can see that unit having enough talent and experience to really hurt some teams next year...
QB --> this is the glamour position, the lynchpin of the Weis offense and all that, but the fact is Sharpley has looked almost exactly the same against both great defenses (USC) AND shitty defenses (Navy). That to me is screaming "I am at my ceiling right now!" And here I was thinking he played poorly against USC....in reality it appears to me that he played as well as he is ever going to play and then showed marvelous consistency by duplicating the effort against Navy...in all seriousness, Clausen will be the QB in 2008 and porbably the rest of 2007 and when he is 100% healthy (no more hip pointers or arm troubles with spurs) and has a full off-season and summer of throwing (not just hanging out but actually THROWING) to the WR corp, I expect that he will be at least 3 or 4X better than he has been able to show so far. I think the difference between Jimmy and Evan at this point is at least one can plausibly say that Clausen has not been physically right and able to show in games what his best will look like...for Evan, I don't think that's the case....
The offense can only be fixed with time and coaching and players who want to improve themselves more than the coaches want to help them improve. Brady Quinn was special. Apparently Evan did not notice or absorb any or enough of Brady's work ethic to set the previous 2 years example at the top. By many accounts, it remains to be seen if Jimmy can do it, but he has more potential and probability of doing it than Evan.
grin:
