Cal Postgame Thread

[FDNYIrish1]

A work in progress. We saw some good things today. Some very bad but they fought through. Expected vanilla playbook for Pyne. He had plenty of time to take some shots downfield but felt like he was hesitant to spread the field to the WRs. Would like to see some 50/50 balls thrown to them. I’m not convinced they are as bad as we think. There’s some talent out there. Let it make some plays.

As for defense, these other coaches are smart. Exposing our linebackers and their lack of athleticism. Going to be an interesting and at times frustrating season. Seems like a lot of teams are in the same boat. We should be in every game. Hopefully we turned a corner in second half. I really feel MF will clean up some of the mental errors, I’m still a fan and think he’s going to be a good one once he figures a few things out.

 

[N_D_Fighting_Irish]

The more I think about it, and after a re-watch, this team may be way more resilient than we’ve given it credit for. Think about how abysmal that first half was. When Pyne and Correll bungled that exchange? I don’t think any of us would’ve been shocked if they just packed it in. But, they didn’t. At some level, that’s coaching and leadership and I’m going to choose to believe that MFMF spearheaded that ability to play through a woeful 2Q of football.

We’ve also been BEGGING for halftime adjustments from this team for three MFMF coached games and we got them. Tommy made some really good adjustments in the run game. Defensively we had some good pressures from the front four. They played up to their billing.

Who knows? Maybe the second half yesterday will galvanize us in some way. Gotta be a relief for MF to get that win and get rid of that side story.

Why does the player's resiliency surprise you? This is not a young team playing true freshmen. There is a reason why we were ranked in the top ten coming into the season. There is a reason why we gave Ohio State a decent game. The problem is the head coach. Teams and organizations often exhibit behaviors, strengths and weakness of their coach or executive. Right now, we are exhibiting as a team learning on the job: making silly mistakes, trying to hard, not keeping it simple, lack of focus.

 

[N_D_Fighting_Irish]

Possibly the dumbest take I’ve ever read.

By that theory, every time you’re the beneficiary of a bogus PI or holding call, you should decline that penalty, also? If you disagree with a targeting penalty, you should decline that?

It evens out. Cal certainly was the beneficiary of some questionable calls, too.

Epically hilarious take. No way you truly believe this.

If I was on the sideline and knew that call was bullshit, I would have declined it. No ifs, ands, or buts.

 

[MacIrish75]

If I was on the sideline and knew that call was bullshit, I would have declined it. No ifs, ands, or buts.

 

[anarin]

If I was on the sideline and knew that call was bullshit, I would have declined it. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Hahaahahaha 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂. Thankful for any team you're not a head coach.

 

[MacIrish75]

Why does the player's resiliency surprise you? This is not a young team playing true freshmen. There is a reason why we were ranked in the top ten coming into the season. There is a reason why we gave Ohio State a decent game. The problem is the head coach. Teams and organizations often exhibit behaviors, strengths and weakness of their coach or executive. Right now, we are exhibiting as a team learning on the job: making silly mistakes, trying to hard, not keeping it simple, lack of focus.

The resiliency is surprising because we are dealing with 18-22 year old kids who just experienced a crushing loss with a new head coach who hadn’t yet won a game and their starting QB was lost for the season and their backup, whom they like a lot, was a walking tire fire for 30min, all among a chorus of boos from the home crowd.

That’s why I was pleased to see they could be resilient, given that set of circumstances.

 

[stpeteirish]

The offsides call against Cal was bullshit. If we knew that it was bullshit, we should have declined the penalty, because that kind of bullshit call should not be tolerated or taken advantage of.

Regarding the offense, it was the Tyree touchdown that allowed us to run the ball more efficiently. It gave Pyne a chance to take a deep breathe and forced Cal to respect the pass. The OL is still relatively impotent as our attempt to run out the clock failed twice in the fourth quarter.

Regarding the defense, we were fortunate that Cal had a horrible QB. He was really bad...worse than Pyne.

Worse than Pyne? Which game did you watch? He threw for more yards, ran for more yards, threw way more passes downfield , and had less turnovers. Pyne was barely rushed and still didn't throw the ball downfield, Plummer got hit on practically every pass and still got it off avoiding sacks.

I can't fathom how anyone would think Pyne was better.

 

[MacIrish75]

Worse than Pyne? Which game did you watch? He threw for more yards, ran for more yards, threw way more passes downfield , and had less turnovers. Pyne was barely rushed and still didn't throw the ball downfield, Plummer got hit on practically every pass and still got it off avoiding sacks.

I can't fathom how anyone would think Pyne was better.

Jack Plummer is a decent college QB. I think the biggest thing he had going for him yesterday was that 1) We refused to account for him at all in the run game and 2) It wasn’t his first start in ND Stadium.

 

[irishff1014]

Hearing Freeman say "Winning is hard" makes me cringe. That's all Kelly used to say. I find something else to say.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

Worse than Pyne? Which game did you watch? He threw for more yards, ran for more yards, threw way more passes downfield , and had less turnovers. Pyne was barely rushed and still didn't throw the ball downfield, Plummer got hit on practically every pass and still got it off avoiding sacks.

I can't fathom how anyone would think Pyne was better.

Comparing the two is splitting hairs. They’re both worse than what either team should be starting yet Plummer is QB1 and Pyne is QB2. Considering Plummer’s experience as a starter at both Purdue & Cal, I would hope for a better performance.

Plummer was well under 50% completion percentage and that was before he was forced to wing the ball on every play in the last two drives. Remember he was beaten out by a walk-on at Purdue. Could he be better w/ a more formidable OL? I would hope so.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Hearing Freeman say "Winning is hard" makes me cringe. That's all Kelly used to say. I find something else to say.

It's the truth, and however cringe it makes you feel and however cliche it sounds, it's a very harsh reality regardless of however many millions of armchairs don't want to accept it.

It's difficult to prepare 100 college aged kids to play at their very best every single week. Marhsall beats ND in South Bend, then goes down the Turnpike a bit east and loses to Bowling Green, who lost to Ohio Valley FCS Eastern Kentucky at home the week before, seven days later.

Winning and being consistently great is hard. Certainly harder than a bunch of people who gather on the internet that have never coached before can give it credit for.

That said, Scott Frost didn't win enough and got $15M for his failures. I don't necessarily have sympathy for the people in this profession, but I understand.

 

[stlnd01]

Comparing the two is splitting hairs. They’re both worse than what either team should be starting yet Plummer is QB1 and Pyne is QB2. Considering Plummer’s experience as a starter at both Purdue & Cal, I would hope for a better performance.

Plummer was well under 50% completion percentage and that was before he was forced to wing the ball on every play in the last two drives. Remember he was beaten out by a walk-on at Purdue. Could he be better w/ a more formidable OL? I would hope so.

Plummer's not a great QB, sure, but I thought several times yesterday I would gladly take a Plummer in our QB room at this point.

 

[Valpodoc85]

Too much thinking not enough doing
Did not appear the team was enjoying themselves
MF appeared to have a sour taste in his mouth, someone give that man a mint
Is Balis doing a Longo?
Teams that win know how to win, teams that lose know how to lose. Cal is better at losing than ND

 

[Free Manera]

If I was on the sideline and knew that call was bullshit, I would have declined it. No ifs, ands, or buts.

This is the most insane thing I’ve ever read on here. That is saying something.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

If I was on the sideline and knew that call was bullshit, I would have declined it. No ifs, ands, or buts.

POTY candidate right here.

 

[IrishLax]

The offsides call against Cal was bullshit. If we knew that it was bullshit, we should have declined the penalty, because that kind of bullshit call should not be tolerated or taken advantage of.

This is literally the dumbest thing anyone has ever posted on this site.

 

[zelezo vlk]

I was thinking during the first half yesterday, the team must really miss Dr Amber Selking, the sports psychologist. Sure Balis instills a culture of toughness but the good doctor must have helped too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Deirishpisser]

If I was on the sideline and knew that call was bullshit, I would have declined it. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Franco Harris would have kicked you right in the nuts

 

[IrishLax]

People who DONT think winning is hard sort of astound me. Pretty much everyone who has played or coached a high level sport knows this to be true. Unless you have such a talent advantage that the other team can’t compete there are no easy Ws. And that is exceptionally rare in college or professional sports (see: USC super team losing as a 40+ point favorite to Stanford eons ago).

 

[Plankton]

With Pyne as the QB, and the WR corp being what it is, this team will have to play Marty Ball, and rely on the defense and special teams to keep the games close. Pyne is as limited of a thrower as I have seen in an Irish uniform. As much as it's easy and appropriate in a lot of cases to bag on Rees, it's hard to coordinate an offense when you have a QB who can't throw the ball outside the numbers or down the field, and receivers who largely cannot win one on one.

The second half was an indicator of how they will have to operate to win - win the LOS, ride the run game, and generate pressure from the front. Jon Sot has also been really good so far, and if he can aid in winning the field position battle, it allows them to have a chance to win this way.

 

[irishtrain]

this is an undisciplined and not well coached football team with no direction that could have been avoided by getting a guy who has coaching experienced in here in the first place-this is another experiment gone wrong-Cal is not that good but my Irish are not much better

 

[INLaw]

This is literally the dumbest thing anyone has ever posted on this site.

Not to get drug into this nonsense life lessons pass it on latter day saints commercial argument. But how could anyone on any sideline know on offsides call is BS. I say this because (maybe I am wrong) but wouldn’t lining up in the neutral zone or that penalty where you are saying or doing something to make the OL flinch along with just going forward too soon might all be covered under that rubric so how could Freeman on the sideline ever have some 100% knowledge that one of a half dozen defenders did not have a hand 6” too far forward or something like that. Also just weird ass hill to die on

 

[IrishTusker]

It's the truth, and however cringe it makes you feel and however cliche it sounds, it's a very harsh reality regardless of however many millions of armchairs don't want to accept it.

It's difficult to prepare 100 college aged kids to play at their very best every single week. Marhsall beats ND in South Bend, then goes down the Turnpike a bit east and loses to Bowling Green, who lost to Ohio Valley FCS Eastern Kentucky at home the week before, seven days later.

Winning and being consistently great is hard. Certainly harder than a bunch of people who gather on the internet that have never coached before can give it credit for.

That said, Scott Frost didn't win enough and got $15M for his failures. I don't necessarily have sympathy for the people in this profession, but I understand.

Doesn't seem that hard for the top programs when they beat worse teams by 30-40 etc. The fact that it is "hard" for ND to beat Cal and Marshall is an indictment of the program right now.

 

[BeatSC]

So I chose not to watch the game live and I’m glad I didn’t. Probably would have stroked out. I read the gameday thread and was able to follow that way about an hour behind. After a huge sigh of relief I watched the game. First one at home this year.

The announcers have fallen about as far as our program under Freeman. Zero real experience on both fronts. Hurts after having a real pro (Kelly and Tirico) at the helm.

Offense:

Thought play calling was good this week and asked almost nothing from Pyne and he was barely able to deliver to that and didn’t until the second half. You just can’t tell me Angeli could have done everything Pyne did. His 6 incompletions were all on simple 5 yard passes except for the one he overthrew which was simple and the one to Lenzy over the middle that was not dropped by Lenzy but rather Lenzy prevented an interception. I think Angeli could have done anything as well or better than Pyne. We will see Pyne yanked as soon as we get behind in a game and have another loss under our belt. Freeman needs to have the balls to start making some bold decisions. New LBs please, give Angeli a shot and get Meriweather the ball. This team needs a shot in the arm. I’m not buying that Pyne was assigned 4 stars. Maybe by one brain dead scouting site.

The Oline was good outside of the sad string of penalties. Pyne had plenty of time. Coan never had that kind of time. I think Mirer could have dinked and doinked the way Pyne did. We have the lowest ceiling QB since Evan Sharpley. Pyne doesn’t finish the season as the starter imo.

DBs mostly solid, LBs atrocious. I know it doesn’t sound good but that many slow white LBs out there will never cut it. I think at some Point Marist might figure it out. Is Bothello getting any PT? Lacey was the man out there and Foskey finally starting to feel it. That reach over sack was a man sack! We left a lot of points out there and reallly didn’t make any plays or get any calls beyond the one phantom offsides. Cal caught more breaks than we did.

JD should not be a captain and has progressively gone downhill into Joe Schmidt mode since his first couple of starts last year. He almost single handedly took that win from us. I’m sure he knows he F’d up but he’s still gonna get lectured and owes his teammates an apology. The upside is we can sit his ass for the first half and hope someone else steps up and keeps him there.

Brandon Joseph almost screwed us with his attempt at an Int on that Hail Mary. If our front seven can keep it up all QBs are in trouble and some turnovers will eventually come. Our blitzes got better as the day went on. Our early blitzes were terrible.

Punting and kicking game looks more powerful than ever!

Keep hope alive. No reason to can Tommy or Harry after this week. We are 3-0 right now with Tommy at QB!

 

[irishandy]

Postgame Thoughts:
1) No flyover for the game, I hope Freeman brings this back for the next home game.
2) ND needs to utilize Estime's up the middle running and Tyree's speed.
3) On the Tyree touchdown, he made a nice move up the middle.
4) Can a WR or 2 of ours step up? What's the status with Colzie?? Styles stats should be better (11 catches, 152 yards). Thomas looks lost. More PT for Tobias and less for Lenzy. It would be interesting to see how CJ Williams would have fit into this offense.
5) I am on the train with how Lacey and Jayson Ademilola played.
6) Mickey/Morrison starters next year at CB?
7) There seems to be no spark/excitement coming out of this team??
8) I'd rather have a ugly win than be 0-3.
9) ND's stadium needs to be more hostile for the opposing team...I feel at times like I am at a dance club.

Go Irish!!

 

[thekid33]

We have the lowest ceiling QB since Evan Sharpley.

This made me sad (and angry at the poor recruiting/development at the position).

We are 3-0 right now with Tommy at QB!

Alonzo Mourning gif

It makes me even sadder that it very well might be true (although I think we still lose the Ohio State game).

 

[ulukinatme]

You never contest an official's call when the penalty is against the other team (Unless declining it results in more yards). Period. The problem you run into is the officials are never going to get all the calls right, and there's going to be a lot of stuff that's missed. As an example, there were multiple blatant holds against Cal 1st half. They finally got called for it on their last drive of the 1st half. Had they been called for it on the previous drive it probably prevents them from scoring their first TD. I know the adage is that holding can be called on every play, but some of it was pretty bad. I'm talking multiple linemen having our guys by the backs of their jerseys on the same play. They were getting beat bad in the trenches.

 

[TNUtoNotreDame]

The offsides call against Cal was bullshit. If we knew that it was bullshit, we should have declined the penalty, because that kind of bullshit call should not be tolerated or taken advantage of.

Regarding the offense, it was the Tyree touchdown that allowed us to run the ball more efficiently. It gave Pyne a chance to take a deep breathe and forced Cal to respect the pass. The OL is still relatively impotent as our attempt to run out the clock failed twice in the fourth quarter.

Regarding the defense, we were fortunate that Cal had a horrible QB. He was really bad...worse than Pyne.

Okay, if we decline the penalty Cal should have willingly slowed down their offense to allow two reviews of catches that looked very suspect. The fact is crap happens during games and you just the play the game.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Doesn't seem that hard for the top programs when they beat worse teams by 30-40 etc.

Well, it is.

 

[BeatSC]

You never contest an official's call when the penalty is against the other team (Unless declining it results in more yards). Period. The problem you run into is the officials are never going to get all the calls right, and there's going to be a lot of stuff that's missed. As an example, there were multiple blatant holds against Cal 1st half. They finally got called for it on their last drive of the 1st half. Had they been called for it on the previous drive it probably prevents them from scoring their first TD. I know the adage is that holding can be called on every play, but some of it was pretty bad. I'm talking multiple linemen having our guys by the backs of their jerseys on the same play. They were getting beat bad in the trenches.

Football is not a game of virtue signaling. We did that last year and are now stuck with an overpaid inexperienced head coach. We threw them plenty of bones (JD Bertrand) brain dead target play.