Post Game Observations....

[kmoose]

1. Once again, it's beginning to feel like last year, all over again.

2. Congratulations to Tommy Rees. What a great game, for a true freshman thrust into a pivotal game.

3. I haven't looked at the stats, but my eyeballs told me that ND's defense was, once again, poor against the run. I don't get this. They have held some very good backs to almost nothing, and then they go out and let others run all over them. Maybe the stats will look better than the eyes, but it seemed like Tulsa was gaining 6 or 7 yards, on every 1st down run.

3. I still think that Michael Floyd's production has dropped off, but that's not his fault. The kid is open on almost every single play, and he catches virtually everything within reach. Even after a "down year", don't be surprised if the NFL scouts don't have him going very high in the 1st round of the draft.

4. I want to hear one of two things, from Kelly, in the post game presser: Either A) Something was very wrong with Ruffer's kicking leg, or B) I want to hear him apologize, or at least admit, that his greed cost us a game. You have a true freshman QB in the games, you are well within your FG kicker's range, you are missing 2 of your top 3 pass catchers, and you throw the ball into the end zone? WTF are you thinking?

5. We can pretty much forget about a bowl game. This team just got blown out by Navy, and then lost to Tulsa. I just can't see how they are going to beat either USC or Utah, to get to 6 wins. And that's assuming that they don't drop the Army game.

I do see some promise for the future, but I have been seeing little more than promise for the future, for about 10 years now.

 

[Rudy89]

how in the blue hell do you see promise all i saw today was that kelly is ovverrated and we are nothing mroe than the laughing stock now of CFB now especialyl after the tragedy everyon in the country is laughing at us asnd ya know something its never going to change....EVER!

 

[gspjeb]

Rees played a great game...however....I don't think Kelly intended for him to try and force it into the endzone like that....was a freshman mistake. Was probably told to only throw if wide open or throw it out of the endzone...but who knows. I am pretty impressed with Rees though.

 

[Riddickulous]

- We have virtually no chance to finish better than 5-7. None.

- Tommy Rees was impressive, but he struggled when throwing longer than 5-10 yard routes, and even struggled to get the ball to the sideline on long five yard outs. The dink and dunk passing attack will not fly with Utah.

- Our defense sucks. 3rd and 26? Are you kidding me?

- Cierre Wood has awful vision.

- John Goodman sucks.

- Props to Tulsa for trying to play their fight song over our alma mater. Classy.

 

[GoIrish41]

That last pass was the worst stupidest play call I have ever seen in the 45 years I've been watching college football. Nobody in his right mind would call a pass play will less than a minute on the clock, ball on the 24, best kicker in ND history warming up on the sidelines, freshman QB who already threw two picks in his first real game action of his college career. When Rees dropped back to throw that ball, I could not believe what I was seeing. That play call was terrible. Kelly cost us this game.

 

[Irish To The Core]

How many people here would have screamed bloddy blue murder if ND had just plowed the ball straight ahead and depended on Ruffer kicking into the wind from 36 yards if the fg had been wide. I kicked fgs in hs (that is right OG and kicker) and those swirling winds make a 35 yd fg VERY tough to judge in terms of line. Hindsight is 20/20...I guess we are now hoping to finally upset somebody instead of being upset over and over again. Tough loss brothers, let's hang together!

 

[GoIrish41]

Ruffer hasn't missed a FG in his career. I don't care if there was a hurricane. I like his chances of making a 36 yard FG better than a freshman throwing it into the endzone in his first real game action. You can't possibly be seriously defending that call.

 

[NDFan537]

Rees played a great game...however....I don't think Kelly intended for him to try and force it into the endzone like that....was a freshman mistake. Was probably told to only throw if wide open or throw it out of the endzone...but who knows. I am pretty impressed with Rees though.

I couldn't disagree more. BK called a time out, took Reese aside and said throw it up and Mike will catch it. I say that was dumb, but that is exactly what happened. He was pissed at Montana at the end of the first half of the Michigan game for throwing out of the end zone and not giving his wr a chance. What BK worried about was the wind, and the fact that the blocked an extra pt. He thought he could win the match up and went for it. Bad Coaching call but that is what happened.

I am very disappointed in the coaching by BK. I thought the Defence made great adj. and looked very good. That is a sound offensive team with tons of weapons and speed, they held them to 13 pts. We should have and would have won that game if we could have had some kind of movement during the punt fest. We game planed right into their hands, and they beat us. Talent galore and nothing to show for it. Disappointing is the only word I have for it.

 

[Irish To The Core]

Ruffer hasn't missed a FG in his career. I don't care if there was a hurricane. I like his chances of making a 36 yard FG better than a freshman throwing it into the endzone in his first real game action. You can't possibly be seriously defending that call.

Yes, I am defending that call. I can certainly see your point about expecting a freshman to make the throw...but Rees had shown good judgment in throwing the ball away when nothing was open several times in the second half.

Of course in hindsight you are right but kicking that distance into a tricky wind is no gimme either. They picked the right route to the right receiver, but Tommy under threw a pass that should have been tossed deep so that Floyd either makes a circus catch or it is out of the endzone. I certainly understand your concern re. depending on Rees to make that throw and I would not have minded them running a dive to get the ball a couple yards closer for Rufffer, but it is not as indefensible as most of you will now assert, at least in my opinion.

 

[kmoose]

Yes, I am defending that call. I can certainly see your point about expecting a freshman to make the throw...but Rees had shown good judgment in throwing the ball away when nothing was open several times in the second half.

Of course in hindsight you are right but kicking that distance into a tricky wind is no gimme either. They picked the right route to the right receiver, but Tommy under threw a pass that should have been tossed deep so that Floyd either makes a circus catch or it is out of the endzone. I certainly understand your concern re. depending on Rees to make that throw and I would not have minded them running a dive to get the ball a couple yards closer for Rufffer, but it is not as indefensible as most of you will now assert, at least in my opinion.

It wasn't an indefensible call, it was just stupidly reckless, arrogant, greedy, and completely unneccesary. I certainly don't excuse Rees' poor decision, but Rees is a true freshman, playing his first real action at the D-IA level. A coach who likes to talk about his "20 years of coaching" all of the time should have known better than to put him in the position to even make that pass.

I don't doubt that the winds make kicking more difficult, but Ruffer seems to have handled them well, so far. It's not like the game was in Tulsa, in a tornado. There's a reason that it's called "home field advantage". One of the advantages being that you know how the wind effects the kicks, at either end of the stadium, and you get plenty of time to practice kicking in the wind at both ends. Kicking the FG is just the smart play.

 

[zenandairy]

Two glaring coaching mistakes undid the Irish. With 3rd down and 30 yards to go late in the game, Tulsa deep in their own territory, ND didn't call a blitz, thus enabling Tulsa enough time to get a receiver down field 31 yards and receive the pass for a crucial 1st down. The second and most costly blunder was Kelly's decision to have an inexperienced Freshman quarterback throw an end zone pass into double coverage, when it was a no brainer to run maybe one or two more rushes up the middle with 41 seconds left to allow their great field goal kicker make a slam dunk field goal to win the game. At the time of the end zone pass, the field goal necessary to win was only 36 yards. I really have lost faith in Kelly's competence.

 

[Irish To The Core]

It wasn't an indefensible call, it was just stupidly reckless, arrogant, greedy, and completely unneccesary. I certainly don't excuse Rees' poor decision, but Rees is a true freshman, playing his first real action at the D-IA level. A coach who likes to talk about his "20 years of coaching" all of the time should have known better than to put him in the position to even make that pass.

I don't doubt that the winds make kicking more difficult, but Ruffer seems to have handled them well, so far. It's not like the game was in Tulsa, in a tornado. There's a reason that it's called "home field advantage". One of the advantages being that you know how the wind effects the kicks, at either end of the stadium, and you get plenty of time to practice kicking in the wind at both ends. Kicking the FG is just the smart play.

I guess we disagree. Kelly and his staff had undoubtedly observed Ruffer kicking into the wind this week and from those observations determined that the fg was not the first option. Unfortunately the int. tainted an otherwise stellar performance by Rees. I think calling it "stupid, etc." is understandable in the aftermath of yet another gut wrenching loss, but again, I disagree and suspect if Rees makes the play, nobody would be saying how stupid the play was. For example, gambling on 4th and (what was it 20??) instead of attempting a 40 yd. fg in ot was only brilliant b/c it worked. If the linebacker doesn't slip and ND wins the second guessers would have been all over Dantonio.

That is my take on the situation.

 

[kmoose]

I guess we disagree. Kelly and his staff had undoubtedly observed Ruffer kicking into the wind this week and from those observations determined that the fg was not the first option. Unfortunately the int. tainted an otherwise stellar performance by Rees. I think calling it "stupid, etc." is understandable in the aftermath of yet another gut wrenching loss, but again, I disagree and suspect if Rees makes the play, nobody would be saying how stupid the play was. For example, gambling on 4th and (what was it 20??) instead of attempting a 40 yd. fg in ot was only brilliant b/c it worked. If the linebacker doesn't slip and ND wins the second guessers would have been all over Dantonio.

That is my take on the situation.

I don't think it had anything to do with the coaches' observations of Ruffer kicking this week. But it might have, which is why I said I wanted to hear that something was wrong with Ruffer's leg. But Kelly often makes, in my estimation, stupidly reckless, arrogant calls. I still think he is a pretty good coach. I'm not making any kind of call for his firing or anything. But I don't have a problem saying, "Well, that was stupid", because it was!!

 

[GoIrish41]

but Tommy under threw a pass that should have been tossed deep so that Floyd either makes a circus catch or it is out of the endzone. I certainly understand your concern re. depending on Rees to make that throw and I would not have minded them running a dive to get the ball a couple yards closer for Rufffer, but it is not as indefensible as most of you will now assert, at least in my opinion.

That's because he's a freshman playing in his first meaningful game action. That is why this was stupid call. ... that and because the proven kicker was almost certainly going to win the game if given the chance. He has NEVER missed a FG in his career, and while there was a little bit of wind, this guy is as close to automatic as I've ever seen in a gold helmet. It was only a 36 yard FG.

Yes, the fact that they did not put Hughes in and run a couple up the gut to get the ball closer amplifies the stupidity of the call. Even if they gained two yards on each play it would have been a 31 yard FG. If not, it was still only from 36.

We'll agree to disagree on the indefensibility of the call. Nothing you or anyone else can say will make be change my mind. There was nothing to be gained by throwing the ball. Does it really matter if they win by 1 or win by 5?

 

[Shamrocks and Shenanigans]

I also was a kicker in HS and almost went to a DIII to kick. Yes it is difficult with the windy conditions, but the only call in that situation was to kick. Kelly lost the game, lost the bowl bid, lost the 15 extra practices, and lost my respect after the worst call in my 35 years of watching ball. If Ruffers leg was not broken, Kelly is a moron.

 

[IrishLax]

1. Our offense is injured and terrible. In the couple games where we've had everyone, I've liked what I saw. But as is we are going to get pummeled by Utah and USC.

2. Our special teams cost us this game.

3. This is the kind of game that costs us recruits.

4. Our defense actually played good for 90% of the game... the 3rd and 26 blows my mind. Our safeties are flat terrible.

5. Cierre Wood has no instincts. Maybe he will develop them.

6. We miss Riddick sorely.

7. We have 5 out of our best 7 players injured. How crazy is that. Rudolph, Williams, Riddick, Crist, Allen... completely crazy.

 

[zenandairy]

Waterboy

Waterboy

This call has to rank among the most unprofessional coaching decisions I've seen in 50 years of watching football (I'm a 64 ND grad). If kelly is a Gaelic name, it must mean Faust

 

[chyrspchuck]

if they ran a dive(we suck at run offense) and got a yard, then kicked and he missed, you guys would be the same people saying, I don't understand why we didn't toss it down the field 10 yards and then kick, can't win for trying with fickle ND fans. Guys, it sucked we lost, Brian Kelly isn't defined by 1 pass in 1 game, I think you have to judge him by his body of work, and in my opinion, he helped Tommy Reese to become a stud after that dismal showing against Michigan. My biggest fear isn't BK getting fired because of his football coaching, as much as it is about the death of Declan Sullivan.

 

[GoIrish41]

This call has to rank among the most unprofessional coaching decisions I've seen in 50 years of watching football (I'm a 64 ND grad). If kelly is a Gaelic name, it must mean Faust

 

[chyrspchuck]

I couldn't disagree more. BK called a time out, took Reese aside and said throw it up and Mike will catch it. I say that was dumb, but that is exactly what happened. He was pissed at Montana at the end of the first half of the Michigan game for throwing out of the end zone and not giving his wr a chance. What BK worried about was the wind, and the fact that the blocked an extra pt. He thought he could win the match up and went for it. Bad Coaching call but that is what happened.

I am very disappointed in the coaching by BK. I thought the Defence made great adj. and looked very good. That is a sound offensive team with tons of weapons and speed, they held them to 13 pts. We should have and would have won that game if we could have had some kind of movement during the punt fest. We game planed right into their hands, and they beat us. Talent galore and nothing to show for it. Disappointing is the only word I have for it.

C'mon, this is dumb, you really think BK told Tommy just to throw it up?

 

[zenandairy]

I totally agree about Kelly's culpability. This call was absolutely indefensible and Kelly sounds more and more like Faust to me. What a moron. How did he get so far with Cincinnati????

 

[GoIrish41]

if they ran a dive(we suck at run offense) and got a yard, then kicked and he missed, you guys would be the same people saying, I don't understand why we didn't toss it down the field 10 yards and then kick, can't win for trying with fickle ND fans. Guys, it sucked we lost, Brian Kelly isn't defined by 1 pass in 1 game, I think you have to judge him by his body of work, and in my opinion, he helped Tommy Reese to become a stud after that dismal showing against Michigan. My biggest fear isn't BK getting fired because of his football coaching, as much as it is about the death of Declan Sullivan.

really, you think people would have blamed Kelly if he put in his all american kicker to win the game and the kicker missed. sometimes the right call is just so obvious that nobody quesitons it. I can think of no case in which this was more true. I know I woudn't have. but when you go completely against logic and it blows up in your face, you should expect "fickle fans" to go crazy. his body of work has been horrible so far my friend. rees might have been a stud if he made a good throw on that play, but as it turns out, it just made Kelly look like a fool. I'm not abandoning Kelly, but I'm not so blindly loyal to him that I can't say when he made a huge boneheaded mistake.

 

[no.1IrishFan]

I also was a kicker in HS and almost went to a DIII to kick. Yes it is difficult with the windy conditions, but the only call in that situation was to kick. Kelly lost the game, lost the bowl bid, lost the 15 extra practices, and lost my respect after the worst call in my 35 years of watching ball. If Ruffers leg was not broken, Kelly is a moron.

What he said!!!

 

[BeatSC]

1. Our punting sucked yet again. I can't believe we give out scholarships for this ****.

2. Inconsitent playcalling. Who yells at Kelly while he keeps F'ng up?

3. No imagination in this run game. Makes Charlie's run game look good.

4. We're not going to get any top flight RB's in this BS system.

5. Rudolph & Floyd are going to be long gone. They're not stupid enough to hang around like Carlson did.
6. I'm sorry but that is 2 times that Slaughter just flat out blew it WTF!

7. Spurrie blew it with the pass in the end zone and now Kelly. The diff is Spurrier had an experienced QB in there. A real DB decision by Kelly.
8. Don't see Dayne starting at QB again at ND. He is a fish out of water and would be better off going to play for a pro style offense with his 2 years left.
9. D played good save for Slaughter's boner. They gave up 13 points I think.
10. Please sit Goodman and play Toma. Also let Toma return punts.
11. Where the hell is Jonas Gray?
12. Wood aint there yet. Runs like AA did as a Freshman. Falls over from a breeze.
13. Brian Smith, I think we're done.
14. kudos the Reese but they need to game plan around his skills.
15. Playcalling and especially run playcalls inconsistent. Two good play calls. The fake punt and hook and ladder.
16. Season is over. I will now TIVO the games and watch on the off chance they pull one out. The last 3 seasons have almost killed me. I knew 2007 was going to suck so I ddin't stress.
17. Clutch drops by Goodman and Eifert. Where is Ragone? Eifert plays soft.
18. Coaching sucked and that sums it up.

 

[Irish To The Core]

really, you think people would have blamed Kelly if he put in his all american kicker to win the game and the kicker missed. sometimes the right call is just so obvious that nobody quesitons it. I can think of no case in which this was more true. I know I woudn't have. but when you go completely against logic and it blows up in your face, you should expect "fickle fans" to go crazy. his body of work has been horrible so far my friend. rees might have been a stud if he made a good throw on that play, but as it turns out, it just made Kelly look like a fool. I'm not abandoning Kelly, but I'm not so blindly loyal to him that I can't say when he made a huge boneheaded mistake.

Did I miss the All-American voting? I am not blindly loyal, but prior to the interception I was not outraged that they might take a shot, given the wind conditions. I will defer to the coaching staff (b/c you can bet that Kelly asked Elston, the special teams coach, what he thought before taking a shot a the the end zone) who had watched Ruffer kicking all week into similar winds. If the wind is calm or even consistent, then running the ball up the gut is the no brainer. But that was not the case. And yes I absolutley guarantee that if Ruffer missed a kick into the wind there would be many people here questioning the call. Not you obviously, but others would for sure. I don't disagree with you that running to improve the field position then kicking was obviously a strategy that had to be given serious consideration. That would have been the conservative call. Punting on 4th and 10 instead of running an end around to Bennett out of a punt formation would have been conservative too. I think with BK we are going to get the aggressive call more often than not.

Hopefully Rees will learn from that play and make a deeper throw to the back of the endzone next time, and I don't think anyone will call Kelly a moron if and when it happens.

 

[Old Man Mike]

I've tried [unsuccessfully it seems] to say nothing. But the whole game was one painful experience after another---Many of the things that we've been worried about all season came out rather horridly to make their reality no longer debatable: Team speed on defense, lack of any fire anywhere but Mike Floyd [hopefully everybody saw the effort on his blocks--Lord knows I'd never ask anyone to re-watch that @#%^*# thing over], no vocal leadership that I could notice at least, poor angles, mediocre tackling, lack of running with either cleverness or authority [except Robert hughes on the jumbo package one series], lack of blocking for the run, dropping balls, dropping punts, and on and on. If it wasn't for three maybe four heroic guys {Mike Floyd, [you all will hate this next one] Harrison Smith [playing a good bit of the game dinged but still throwing himself in there--and to my eye he was not the safety on the 3rd and whatever-it-was pass], and one young warrior, Tommy Rees, bless you young man} I'd have turned the game off and gotten some fresh air. But there we still were---every possible way to try to lose the game, and there we still were. given the hardships of everything [especially injuries] that we carried, I was ready for two doses of Robert hughes [even preferably from the jumbo package] and let Ruffer have a chance to become a legend. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I was ready to take the loss if the kick missed, and still say: we came back; Tommy brought us back; what a kid!! I was ready to walk away from the loss, if it happened, and say: it hurt, but we gave about as good a try as we could in the circumstances--sure there were boneheads, and we were slow and dropped a few, but we gave it a try, and found a tough kid in the process. "It's still OK", I'd say. And then the pass... ... ... .....NOT Tommy's fault in any reasonable sense one could ask the kid to never make a mistake in his first huge pressure situation...he never should have been asked to have to do that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I have uniformly defended Coach Kelly since the spring. I will continue to support him fully. He made a mistake. NO ONE in my football playing family thinks that that was a good play call unless there was no breathing FG kicker available. I can't think of an honest defense. Maybe the pressures of the last loss and the week got to him. Maybe the astonishing performance of Tommy Rees messed up his common sense. Maybe... ... ....I told my mother when I said goodbye this evening, that only a person lacking in a sense of well-being would put himself through 4 hours of that at the end of a TV screen. Wish I didn't care.

 

[Senoj13]

I just went bank and read Kelly's PC. He said how could you not go to Ffloyd in that situation. YOU HAVE TO FAKE THE RUN IDIOT!!!!!!!!

 

[BeatSC]

I've tried [unsuccessfully it seems] to say nothing. But the whole game was one painful experience after another---Many of the things that we've been worried about all season came out rather horridly to make their reality no longer debatable: Team speed on defense, lack of any fire anywhere but Mike Floyd [hopefully everybody saw the effort on his blocks--Lord knows I'd never ask anyone to re-watch that @#%^*# thing over], no vocal leadership that I could notice at least, poor angles, mediocre tackling, lack of running with either cleverness or authority [except Robert hughes on the jumbo package one series], lack of blocking for the run, dropping balls, dropping punts, and on and on. If it wasn't for three maybe four heroic guys {Mike Floyd, [you all will hate this next one] Harrison Smith [playing a good bit of the game dinged but still throwing himself in there--and to my eye he was not the safety on the 3rd and whatever-it-was pass], and one young warrior, Tommy Rees, bless you young man} I'd have turned the game off and gotten some fresh air. But there we still were---every possible way to try to lose the game, and there we still were. given the hardships of everything [especially injuries] that we carried, I was ready for two doses of Robert hughes [even preferably from the jumbo package] and let Ruffer have a chance to become a legend. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I was ready to take the loss if the kick missed, and still say: we came back; Tommy brought us back; what a kid!! I was ready to walk away from the loss, if it happened, and say: it hurt, but we gave about as good a try as we could in the circumstances--sure there were boneheads, and we were slow and dropped a few, but we gave it a try, and found a tough kid in the process. "It's still OK", I'd say. And then the pass... ... ... .....NOT Tommy's fault in any reasonable sense one could ask the kid to never make a mistake in his first huge pressure situation...he never should have been asked to have to do that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I have uniformly defended Coach Kelly since the spring. I will continue to support him fully. He made a mistake. NO ONE in my football playing family thinks that that was a good play call unless there was no breathing FG kicker available. I can't think of an honest defense. Maybe the pressures of the last loss and the week got to him. Maybe the astonishing performance of Tommy Rees messed up his common sense. Maybe... ... ....I told my mother when I said goodbye this evening, that only a person lacking in a sense of well-being would put himself through 4 hours of that at the end of a TV screen. Wish I didn't care.

I thought Toma played like a man. Dump Goodman he is soft. You can bench Eifert for the same reason. Put in Ragone.

 

[kmoose]

I just went bank and read Kelly's PC. He said how could you not go to Ffloyd in that situation. YOU HAVE TO FAKE THE RUN IDIOT!!!!!!!!

I don't get it. Kelly says that it is absolutely critical to get to 6 wins. I find it hard to believe that he really means that. If the number 1 priority is to get to 6 wins, then you kick the FG. You have the odds on your side. You get to 5 wins with this game, and you should be able to handle Army, for your 6th win. But no, instead you gamble like a drunken sailor and ask a true freshman QB to make that decision? I understand what Kelly is saying, in his PC, about taking a look to see if you get one on one coverage, and throwing it away if you don't. But you do that with your regular, experienced starter, not your true freshman backup.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Agree with BeatSc about Robbie Toma---breath of fresh air during the game. TJ and Gary Gray had some good plays occasionally too.