SDSU Post-game discussion

[tko]

The biggest thing that bothered me was seeing jc on the sidelines pouting for most of the game. Every time it showed him he was sitting there looking upset and confused.He needs to be the leader of this team and some positive leadership goes a long way with the rest of the players.I think that he does not know how to handle adversity very well, I mean until the kid came to ND he had never lost a game, I think hes having a very hard time learning to handle the lack of success on the field and it shows in his attitude on the sidelines.

i think JC will step up on the leadership front. it seemed he was a bit out of sorts, almost expecting these guys to roll over. he played pretty solid today, though. i would like to see him get rid of the locks and clean it up but i guess that is today's style.

 

[kmoose]

I don't think we should really be surprised by the rather lackluster performance today. These are basically the same guys that won only 3 games last year. The bottom line appears to be: no matter how many stars they were rated, no matter what their 40 times, their bench press numbers, their height and weight, their emotion (or lack, thereof); they just aren't a very good football team.

 

[MDewFiend]

After hitting the airport at six thirty in the morning saturday and arriving in Germany at eight sunday morning I couldn't wait to get on here an read how N.D. dominated SDSU. Boy how my hopes were dashed about two post into. I dont have the energy to sit here and read all of the post game analysis, but from what I did read we have a lot to be worried about this year. A 21-13 come from behind victory(wich I caught on espn not on ie)??? WTPH??? 4 turnovers including two picks from JC. I hope we decide to show up next week `cuz we are not going to get too many more W's if we keep this up. Is anyone, including you GD93(note I have never given you crap and have often felt that they rode you a lil hard after all youre just an energetic fan of ND), still thinking about 11 wins this year? If they don't show a lot of improvement I wouldnt even bet on five. Mayb im just tired but damnit what the hell happened to ND? Used to be able to stand up proud and declare "I'm an ND fan" now its more like "yea, im an ND fan." Chit i need some sleep.


jn

 

[Praytorian]

First post here, although I've been reading for about a 6 months to a year. I've been a ND fan since I was in 9th grade (lets just say for a while now) and would like to express my feelings on this game.
If we want to pound the ball put in the big boys. We would do better running behind a FB and a TE that can somewhat block. Oh, and please stop with the draws they are not working without the pass threat, and were looking to RUN to set up the pass, not pass to set up the run.
Passing game, I am very pleased with Tate and his improvement. CW was wrong for jumping on him for missing the TD catch, he ran hard and gave a good juke when he slipped a bit. He ran (what looked to me) the right route, don't jump on the kid too hard (your supposed to be nicer this year). Kamara, I'm sorry to say he looked just plain bad. When he's not watching the ball into his body (instead of his hands) he's not even watching for the ball. Grimes and Floyd are good (Floyd with the possibility of being great) and will be able to show it when JC learns to check down, not just down, but look for others than just the primary reciever.
OL, pass blocking looked alot better, even though SDSU was beat up on the DL they moved LB's down on the line and sped up the play, so we did alot better. JC (and you all should agree) should have been called for the intentional grounding. Run blocking should be better if you put more beef up there and try running on the right side and stop the draws.
LB, less beef more speed please. This is college football, and speed kills on offense AND defense.
DB, I love the look of it, but we have a problem when our saftey is our leading tackler. They are supposed to be the LAST line, not the first.
ST, CW get some more practice for the snapper and holder please. The kicker should be fine, just show some faith in him and he will grow faith in himself.

Oh well thats my first post hopefully I wont get jacked around too much. Most points are made already some just needed to be restated to show what I feel are our biggest defects.

I love ND always have always will (well since I started likeing football anyway).

3 things to restate though.
1-use the FB to run block.
2-JC please look for more than just 1 reciever a play.
3- blitz the weak side.

 

[phork]

I had really high hopes for the defense.. However I was disappointed to say the least... Congrats on on blitzing 75%+ of the time. Epic Fail on it being picked up 99% of the time.
JC had moments of brilliance, he certainly has pin point accuracy and a rifle. I don't blame the INTs on him. More moments of WTF was he thinking.
Running game showed signs of life. Allen is really burner. Still needs help.

And the last thing I have to say is the intangibles. PENALTIES, PENALTIES & PENALTIES. Needs to stop, period. Crum with 2 crucial penalties that stand out. Also, we need kicking help desperately. That is totally in excusable.

**One last thing, run more screens. ND seems to be good at it, and it is an effective tool.

 

[Mare426]

Still need a lot of improvement but a win is a win.

 

[patman1868]

At least the offense showed some flashes unlike last year which is an improvement, they just need to be able to put it together for a whole game, which is probably easier said than done. Clausen looked improved as well also. I liked the one audible he made, it was the play where allen got lit up and fumbled, but if not for that it was a good call by Clausen because it was a big gain, I hope to see more of that kind of awareness from him through out the year.

On defense they played pretty well. I know the blitzes did not always get there but they still did pressure SDSU QB into some bad throws, and they did knock him down some. The did set up for the blitz pretty well though with all those short passes. Would like to see more of an impact from John Ryan, I really only noticed him for a couple of plays, he just seems too slow and not agile enough to play on the edge. If he does not step it up hopefully someone like Morrice Richardson can come in and spell him. The linebackers seemed pretty good, outside of crums penalties. Secondary was pretty good also, one thing that I wish though would be that the corners get up on the WR, especially lambert. It seemed he would just drop back and give the receivers like a 10 yard space to catch the ball. IMO I think that is where we really are going to miss Walls he was very aggressive and good at man coverage. Overall a pretty good performance from them.

Aside from the errors in the kicking game the special teams was a bright spot. Allen had a nice return, so did Tate. Anello and Sergio Brown were great also. Hopefully special teams will continue to help us out this year because a lot of time special teams can win and lose you games.

 

[SoCalDomer]

i hate john ryan. he had 1 good play. he cant tackle. he sucks at run defense.hes a big bodied bitch.

please keep the comments constructive. they don't have to be positive, but calling the players names or saying you hate them is not appropriate for a public board.

 

[goldandblue]

Jimmy did pretty good. IMO neither of the two interceptions he threw were his fault. They were receiver error. They line looked better than last year but not by much. They should have been able to push SDSU any where they wanted to and didn't so that is a huge concern for me.

Defense looked pretty good as a whole but Blitz was ineffective leaving the pass defense hanging out to dry. This would have been a loss had SDSU's receivers been able to catch.

Special teams play better than last year, special thanks to Anello.

This was a team we no doubt should have been able to man handle. Call it what you want. Whether it was the Irish knocking the rust and some excess baggage off from last year or possibly another miserable year for the Irish with a firing at the end of the season. We all will know by the end of the Michigan game what the scenario will be. Michigan is down this year and down big. If we lose to them especially in the same fashion we did last year, It's all but over in my book. This team did not play with intensity last year and showed no intensity in the first game. One thing is for sure that Weis has not brought back NASTY to Notre Dame football.

 

[NDsuperfan09]

Clausen showed off great touch, accuracy, and a rifle of an arm. He should have had 4 TD's and no picks. All 3 of his TD passes were perfectly placed throws. Tate is going to be a star. Charlie continues to bench frosh after making a great play (Floyd in this instance). Jappy Oliver the DL coach needs to go.

 

[Golden Domer93]

Just feels really good to wake up to an Irish victory.

 

[bernbabybern820]

IDK if it's his injury or not but Duval Kamara got no separation on SDSU corner backs other than on that one catch. He needs to play a lot better if we want to beat Michigan.

 

[ACamp1900]

Another thing that suprised me personally was Harrison Smith STARTING at linebacker.... I know we all heard he was getting time there in practice and more and more consideration mainly due to his speed but I never expected him to start... he played fairly well... any word if this is a long term posotion switch or his he still epected to move back to safety at some point????

 

[ndlb41]

its only the first game, so we didn't do so good we just have to learn from the mistakes and move on to next week. My wife tought me something yesterday, TO NEVER GIVE UP! she remined me at the begining of the 4th quater that the game wasn't over and shortly after that things turned around. This is college fb anybody can be beat at anytime and i won't ever forget it.

 

[GO IRISH!!!]

Now that I have been able to sleep on it and I have gone back and watched parts of the game again, I can process some of my thoughts better.

Points have been made already so I am going to limit my comments to things I don't think have been said yet.

1. I really think BOTH int's were Kamara's fault - and least in part. The first one was off his chest. Anyway you cut it, that is a catchable ball. The second one, he didn't turn into a DB. He stumbled and kind of just stuck his arms out there. If he couldn't get the ball, you better make darn sure the other guy doesn't get it. On both passes, I don't know if it was his vision, catching ability, confidence, timing or a combination of all four. I feel bad for the young man, but he needs to work some of these things out.

2. If the play calling was to protect some things for next week, I am very nervous. Didn't we learn from last year about special scheming for a specific opponent? I just think we needed to make a statement and win this game big for a confidence builder even if it meant pulling out all the stops. I think that was more imortant than not tipping our hand for next week.
3. How come when a play starts to work, it seems we are reluctant to go back to it any time soon? Just an observation I had.
4. Why don't we see the quick pass to the WR standing at the line and let him run ala Samarzdja and Stovall? Get the ball to Tate and let him go.
5. Put in Anello as a pass rusher just once and see how he does. Heck, put him in anywhere on the field and turn him loose. The guy just doesn't quit.
6. Loved the tackling ability of McCarthy. The guy gets his hands on you, you go down. Good open field tackler too.

All in all, good job boys. You got the win. However, I could do without this level of stress in a, what seemed to be at the time, "easy" win.

We still have a long way to go, but I think we will see a difference from week 1 to week 2.

 

[PADOMERNUT]

I went to the game, and I just got home and watched it on tape, and I honestly have to say, I dont think it was as bad as I originally thought. Most of our mistakes were mental, which are correctable. We fumble at the 3 yard line, throw a pick in the end zone, botch a snap on a short field goal, we allowed drives to continue on 3 seperate occasions b/c of penalties, one of which led to a SDSU TD. Guys, those are mental mistakes. Running backs missing holes, yes believe it or not they were there, we didnt hit them. Those are all things that they can go back, look at the tape, and correct. We were moving the ball in the first half, we just couldnt punch it in. That will come. We look atrocious in the 3rd quarter, but dominated the 4th quarter when we had to. Maybe I am looking through my Irish colored glasses, but I dont think it was all bad. We missed opportunities. Last year, those opportunities werent even there. Eventually, we will capitalize. We just have to hope its sooner rather than later.

 

[PADOMERNUT]

One more point, we cant underestimate the importance of SDSU playing a game the week before. They knew what their weaknesses were, and they were able to work on them. I know they dont belong on the same field in terms of talent level, but that does help.

 

[Bubba]

One more point, we cant underestimate the importance of SDSU playing a game the week before. They knew what their weaknesses were, and they were able to work on them. I know they dont belong on the same field in terms of talent level, but that does help.

Good point nut. I hope we make progress on our mental mistakes during the week. I still feel we have a good shot with Michigan next weekend.

 

[pastmaster04]

Let's-Go-Irish!!!

Let's-Go-Irish!!!

I will agree with many that the first 3 quarters sure felt a LOT like 2007. I too will just hope that it's the first game of the season jitters. While I have not been a huge fan of #7JC I will say that he came out swinging pretty hard on Saturday, hope the arm holds up. I think that Tate, Hughes, Grimes and Kamara all had some great receptions/carries that helped the cause considerably. We also got a couple of nice breaks too. I would love for nothing more than to stick it to Michigan next week!!!

Go Irish!!!

 

[Junkhead]

I think that Tate, Hughes, and Kamara all had some great receptions/carries that helped the cause considerably.

Go Irish!!!

I agree on two of the three. Kamara had one drop leading to an INT, and the endzone one, however you classify it. He only had one actual reception. He'll bounce back though.

 

[pastmaster04]

I agree on two of the three. Kamara had one drop leading to an INT, and the endzone one, however you classify it. He only had one actual reception. He'll bounce back though.

You're right on that...actually I should have given props to Grimes (5 rec and 35 yards, 1TD) as well. Just trying to give some support in favor of the team. Lot of people are jacked up and mad and it's only the first game of the season. I agree that he'll have a good season.

 

[phork]

Say what you will about SDSU and playing the week before... The fact is they have cobbled together a shoddy DL, which we should have run up and down on all day long. There was little to no excuse for the AMOUNT of mental errors, and they weren't minor either. Keeping drives alive, costing us points and giving away points.

If we pull the same stunts against UM we will lose.