Post Game Discussion Thread

[notredomer23]

Lets discuss our post game thoughts here.

 

[dudexcore]

ND won, which is good enough for The Dude.

 

[mlcspinner]

we need a game to get thing going and I feel today was the day

 

[notredomer23]

positives- Clausen is the real deal. give him some good wide outs who dont drop every pass and he is going to be completing 65% of his passes.

Hughes-HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHES. Need i say more

Kamara- He might just break Sharks record when he is done here.

Allen- He, Hughes, and Aldridge are going to be the three horsemen

The Defense- Played well the whole game. No complaints

Charlie Weis- Play Calling was great. It was great to see the end with zibby at QB and Bragg as well.

Negatives- The dropped passes. Clausen threw some perfects passes that were dropped(a la Robby Parris on the 4th and 17)

thats all i have to say about that

 

[Timugen]

I posted the following in the game day thread at the end of half-time so just in case it was buried, here are a couple of my thoughts.......


" Am I the only one who wanted to head-butt their TV after watching JC scramble and stiff-arm that DB straight into the ground? I don't care if he didn't get the 1st down on the play...it wasn't there, but he didn't care.....that kid is a competitor!!!!

And then he did it again later in the half (but in a less dramatic fashion.) But either way, how many times do you see a QB (other than running backs that take the snap like Vince Young) throw stiff-arms? I have been skeptical about him all year, but that one play turned it all around.....I love this kid's play and determination! And that's exactly what this team is gonna need going into next year. He just earned a ton of my confidence that he has was it takes to provide a lot of that.

On a side note....Hughes is our most effective RB - he needs to be in there much more.


GO IRISH!!!!!"


edit: and even though I didn't link it or anything....I can now claim that I like to quote myself.

 

[SoCalDomer]

Alls I want to know is who's committing next.

 

[notredomer23]

I posted the following in the game day thread at the end of half-time so just in case it was buried, here are a couple of my thoughts.......


" Am I the only one who wanted to head-butt their TV after watching JC scramble and stiff-arm that DB straight into the ground? I don't care if he didn't get the 1st down on the play...it wasn't there, but he didn't care.....that kid is a competitor!!!!

And then he did it again later in the half (but in a less dramatic fashion.) But either way, how many times do you see a QB (other than running backs that take the snap like Vince Young) throw stiff-arms? I have been skeptical about him all year, but that one play turned it all around.....I love this kid's play and determination! And that's exactly what this team is gonna need going into next year. He just earned a ton of my confidence that he has was it takes to provide a lot of that.

On a side note....Hughes is our most effective RB - he needs to be in there much more.


GO IRISH!!!!!"

I was thinking the same thing aswell! I thought i was one of the few who noticed it since i didnt see it anyway. We got a keeper.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

JC looked more comfy in the pocket and on his runs. Big plus.

Hughes just established himself as bigtime.

Carlson ended a pretty great career with a solid game, as did Laws.

AA looked pretty good, as did Kamara.

The future is bright, my friends.

 

[goldenlid]

What did you guys think of the o-line play today?

 

[goldandblue]

I thought they did well against the Duke D. Still not good with picking up the blitz.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

I think they gave JC enuf time to allow our WR to drop key passes.

Seriously, they did pretty good.

 

[SoCalDomer]

On a number of occasions, the OL created very big holes. I know this is Duke, but the fact they played well is positive. Was Clausen sacked?

I thought the RB's picked up the blitz well also.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

At least we can watch SC w/o ND looking bad.

 

[NDOM]

Dont want to be a negative nancy here people but it was DUKE! I'm not happy until we can compete with EVERONE on our schedual.

 

[mlcspinner]

Dont want to be a negative nancy here people but it was DUKE! I'm not happy until we can compete with EVERONE on our schedual.

No negatives today. Lets just enjoy the win

 

[notredomer23]

Dont want to be a negative nancy here people but it was DUKE! I'm not happy until we can compete with EVERONE on our schedual.

so what it was duke? We beat them soundly, better than many teams like Wake, Miami, Virginia, and GT struggled to beat. Lets just be happy for a win. I understand what you were saying though.

 

[goldenlid]

I asked about the o-line because I didn't see them overpower Duke and I wanted to know if other people saw that as well, and did the o-line look like they played a little better as a unit with the guys that were in there?

 

[notredomer23]

I asked about the o-line because I didn't see them overpower Duke and I wanted to know if other people saw that as well, and did the o-line look like they played a little better as a unit with the guys that were in there?

I thought the O line looked swell. Wenger is a better center than Sully, IMO.

a couple stupid penalties early in the game

 

[Senoj13]

Anytime you have a 100 yd rusher, the Oline had to do something right.

 

[piyachi]

Yes the o-line looked better, again, it's duke but hey I will take it.

Hughes YAC is disgusting.

Clausen is growing onto what I hoped he could be and more. Never expected him to be as physical as he is... and the kid is good about escapability too.

 

[SoCalDomer]

Dont want to be a negative nancy here people but it was DUKE! I'm not happy until we can compete with EVERONE on our schedual.

Well, we can't play everyone on our schedule at the same time. We can only win one game at a time. Duke is on our schedule. We won this one. We have to work to win the next, and every one thereafter.

Would you have been unhappy if we lost to Duke? So why aren't you happy that we won?

And yes, you are a negative nancy. Not just in this thread, but you tend to be negative in general. That's fine, this year has been difficult to be positive. But they did what they needed to today. I guess a blow out of 100-0 would have been better. But with this seasons' problems, I am glad with a win where the offense moved the ball. The score should have been 42-7 but for dropped passes and bad penalty calls that stopped drives.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

This is the first happy saturday in a long time. I say we enjoy it, and not worry about who we played.

 

[Axl Rose]

-Kamara still needs polishing but will be very good.

-We have some real depth at RB now.

-Parris and Schwapp just aren't very good. Neither should ever see the starting line up ever again.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

Good call on Ace and Parris.

 

[notredomer23]

I disagree on Parris. He has potential. If just could actually catch it would have been a 42-7 game. I feel your frustration

 

[Axl Rose]

I disagree on Parris. He has potential. If just could actually catch it would have been a 42-7 game. I feel your frustration

Its not just that he is dropping balls, hes having a hard time getting open as well. I say start Kamara and Tate, Kamara with the size and hands and Tate with the speed and big play ability.

And can Schwapp do anything? We know he can't catch, he can't run the ball, he misses blocks, but this game I saw him actually make contact with a defender and get absoluetely blown up. The defender just ran through him and tackled the RB in the back field. Why is he in their. Its like the offense is playing with 10 men when hes in the game.

 

[jonesman]

Victory smells so sweet!!!! I saw many positives in the game and a few areas for development.

Positives:
-Running game was solid due to running and blocking. Aldridge, Hughes and Allen spell a bright future for us. The line was showing some push.
-Pass blocking. JC did have to scramble some, but I saw some guys maintaining some solid blocks.
-Jimmy Clausen. He made some great throws and scrambled well. His play is getting better every week.
-Overall Defense. I really like Brian Smith's enthusiasm. Darrin Walls is becoming a total lockdown CB.
-Trevor Laws. I love his passion and play. Good luck in the NFL!!!
-Ian Williams. Pencil him in as your 2008 starting NT. He will really tough next season.

Areas of Concern
- Charlie's playcalling on passes. Have thay made slant passes illegal since the Purdue game. We ran them very effectively during the Purdue game and have abandoned since. How did everyone like the consecutive screen passes CW ran. Does this guy love screens or what???
- WR's catching the ball. I wish Parris was going to be the next coming of Shark, but he has gone downhill the last several games. He continues to drop balls and fails to get open and definitely does not win the jump balls like Shark did. CW will you please let some of the other WR's get some PT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hord and others deserve a chance.
- Tate being underutilized. Why are we still only running him on a go route??

 

[kmoose]

so what it was duke?

Because if ND had played that sloppily against a good
team, it would have been a rout. And not in our favor. The offense did some good things today, but really only a few. Clausen looked a little more comfortable, and Hughes had an excellent day. The receivers are still dropping way too many passes, especially in crucial situations, the offensive line should have been getting a huge push, all day long (they didn't), and penalties are still an issue. I'm ecstatic about the win, but I'm not going to forget that we still didn't look like a disciplined, skilled, consistent, cohesive team.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

At this point, I don't think anyone expected to see a polished team. I wanted a couple of things...

1) A win
2) A good showing at running
3) JC to improve
4) The players to look like they are having fun, and still have their heads in it
5) Our recruits to have a positive experience


Check
Check
Check
Check
Check

 

[SoCalDomer]

Those are fair assements about what still needs to be fixed.

As long as no one is saying "we're back" or "NC in the bag," I don't think anyone is being delusional about this win.