Notre Dame Game Reviews: "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly"

[IrishTimer]

Utah



The Good

- Brian Smith. I'm mentioning him first because it may have never been done before and it may never happen again. Where has this guy been his entire career? He was all over the field, in a good way. He was were he was supposed to be and when he was supposed to be there. Yeah sure he dropped an interception but he made every other play he should have and played easily the best game of his Notre Dame career. Congrats Brian.

- Duval Kamara. Another guy that hasn't been heard from in seemingly years. The coaching staff went to the senior in the past two weeks and told him that he had to play big. Duval responded. Now to Duval's credit he had played well in recent weeks while filling in for the injured Michael Floyd and had been having a solid season but he was challenged and told he could be the difference maker in this game; he delivered. A fitting last game in Notre Dame stadium for a kid we all thought was going to be the next big Notre Dame WR after some gmes he had there in 2007.

- Tommy Rees. It wasn't an awe inspiring performance and it started rather shaky but he was solid. Didn't make mistakes, really let the game come to him and was very accurate. In some ways he has this very "1994 Chicago Bears Steve Walsh" quality about him. He's most likely the 3rd or 4th most talented QB on the roster but seems to inspire confidence in the team and terrible play call at the end of Tulsa aside plays like he knows how to win football games. There are two games left in the year but as of right now it's going to be very interesting next spring with Crist, Rees, and Hendrix battling for the QB job.

- Michael Floyd. This kid has done everything right this season. He's improved as a route runner, still makes big catches, and this season has been a great blocker on the outside. After the progress he has made in one season as an all around player I pray he sticks around for his senior year. I think another year under Kelly would be great for Floyd..and Notre Dame.

- Cierre Wood. After a rough start to the game Wood buckled it up and really turned it around. It's easy to see why the coaching staff and Kelly likes this kid. Early in the season if Wood had struggled like he did early on(no patience running, dropping a pass) he would have curled up and been done. Ever since the Michigan State game Wood has learned from his mistakes in game, moved on from them and played well. His mental toughness is a real asset of his. His play from the 2nd quarter on was very good and his running in the 4th quarter helped seal away the game and he gives the Irish running game a lot to look forward to in the remaining games this season and the seasons to come.

- Jonas Gray. He gets a mention here because his two runs early in the game really helped swing momentum in a big way and him and Wood could really be a thunder/lightening combination next season.

- The defense in general. They came out and played inspired solid football. Gary Gray played a terrific game, and while I thought he could have drawn a couple flags for jawwing with the Utah WR's at least he was playing with some fire, passion, and urgency. Te'o and Smith played a tremendous game inside, although Te'o still overruns plays a bit. Shembo played great as well and could be the 3-4 outside rusher the team has been waiting for. Kona gave the line play a spark and it was nice to see an opposing QB running for his life a bit. The Harrison Smith interception was a great athletic play and maybe my favorite play of the game was the Jamopris Slaughter hit where he seemed to have a 15-20 yard headstart and leveled the Utah running back a yard short of the first down. Very tough to find anything bad to say about the defense's performance.

- The energy in the stadium. Especially in comparison to the lack of atmosphere for the Tulsa game from the outset the stadium seemed to be in the game in a big way. Maybe it was because of senior day, because Notre Dame was playing a top 15 team, because of the pent up emotion and anxt of the last two weeks. Maybe a combination of all three. Whatever it was it was beautiful. The crowd and the team were really feeding off eachother and it was a great thing to see. Some people will roll their eyes about the students storming the field after a win for a 5-5 football team but the university not just the football team needed that win and that experience. It had been 5 years since a win over a top 15 team and it came on the heels of possibly the two of the toughest weeks in Notre Dame football history. It was a really cool site to see and hopefully we see more of it when we are a top ranked team some day.


The Bad

- The students on the field throwing up the "We are #1" sign. I get that you're excited...but you're a 5-5 football team. Please stop.

- Kelly going for it on 4th and 3 in the first quarter. A definite "WTF" moment early in the game and a sign that Kelly possibly hadn't learned anything from the Tulsa debacle.


The Laugh Out Loud

-No "ugly" to mention this week so I have to mention the giant flash cards. I know they served an important purpose but they were still hilarious to see.

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This team is making me bi-polar. Now all of a sudden a bowl birth is back in the (giant flash)cards. This team is young and banged up right now so I'm not going to get too excisted or start making plans to hunker down and watch a bowl game in December but it's nice to have it to possibly look forward to(again) and would be good for the program to get the extra practice time and the extra exposure for recruits. We face the dreaded triple option again this weekend at Yankee Stadium so hopefully Kelly has made changes to what didn't work at all against Navy and the team keeps this momentum rolling and see this as a chance to redeem themselves against a system that made them look clueless. It willbe a very cool game to watch on TV.

Right now I don't think this team is capable of beating USC on the road to end the season but deep down in my heart I hope this past weekend was the win that starts the turn around. Beat a top 15 team in Utah; Win a rivalry game against Army; break the streak against USC, get to a bowl game and win and start turning this program around NOW. Kelly has the chance now to go from a coach that some already had on the hotseat two weeks ago to the guy who could turn the Notre Dame program around in a month. Running off this stretch of games might be the 2010 equivelent of the 2004 Red Sox against the Yankees(We are playing Army at Yankee Stadium....it's a sign I tell you!) but when I ended this last week I mentioned maybe Tulsa was the darkest moment before the dawn...I hope for my heart and sanity's sake that Utah is the win the signals the rising of the sun.

Go Irish. Beat Army.

 

[RDU Irish]

Robert Blanton, good game. Kona and Prince were huge as Freshmen. Our secondary was outstanding. Consider we would have one without any help from the offense.

I really thought we would get smoked but our Defense never let Utah in the game. Had we punted instead of going for it on 4th down in the first quarter I don't think they would have scored!

 

[IrishTimer]

Army


The Good

-Tommy Rees. Didn't dazzle but managed the game well and outside of one bad throw played very well. The Rees hype train seems to be in full force with people talking about him starting next season and to a certain extent rightfully so. However there are still two games to go this season against would could be very good competition. Rees like a lot of young QB's tends to stare down his routes at times and could be facing an athletic defense away from having a 2-3 INT game. He's playing great football and seems to have "it"..however the season is not over yet...but you can't ask much more from the kid than what we have gotten so far. His accuracy on deep balls is great and something that was missing with Crist. Much like the next guy on this list the development Rees has made this season under Kelly has been fantastic.

-Cierre Wood. A light has gone on with him. He still seems a bit prone to fumbling at times but as a pure runner goes the last few weeks haev eben really impressive. If he can work on his pass catching skills this offseason he is going to be a real threat for this team next season as an all around player. Every now and then he will be a bit too impatient running or dance a bit too much but from where he was at the start of the season until now is (hopefully) a great indicator of the type of development players will make under this new regime.


-Tyler Eifert. Made a spectacular diving catch for an (almost) TD. Then made another great grab over the shoulder for his touchdown. With him and Welch for sure on the roster and Rudolph possibly coming back next season the Irish looked to be stacked at tight end for the foreseeable future and with a host of young inexperienced QB's having dependable targets like that over the middle is a huge plus.

-Michael Floyd. Only had three catched but when he did make a catch he made the most of it. He averaged 21 yards per catch and had a nice run on an end around. You can tell his hamstring still isn't quite right but he's out there every week playing his butt off and making plays.

- The offensive playcalling/gameplan. I loved how they really used Army's aggressivness against them. It was a small wrinkle but I thought the jet sweep action on the running plays really helped to make the Army defense either overreact to the jet sweep to Floyd or froze them just enough for Wood to have some really nice lanes to run on the back side. Kelly made an attacking down hill defense have to slow down and play uncomfortable.

- Robby Toma. Didn't do anything spectacular but made some nice third down catches made yardage after the catch and like Mayock hammers home very week could be the perfect fit at the inside slot position for this offense. With some of his lateral quicks and agility I'd like to see him get some looks at punt returner for next season because we need more out of the phase of the game.

-David Ruffer. Still perfect...however the cynical side of me is starting to think his first miss will be a potential game winner rather than a meaningless 46 yarder late in a blowout. This can't go on forever.

- The Defense. Holy cripes! Where was this game plan a few weeks ago? I loved the attacking nature of the defense. Four downline men. Ten guys in the box. Harrison Smith playing a type of "Wolf" or "Centerfield" position. After the first drive I was a bit worried but they made some nice adjustments and Blanton really picked up his play. It seemed like after the first drive Blanton was told to make sure everything was forced back inside and if Army was going to pitch it was going to have to be late which allowed Walls, Gray, and Smith plenty of time on the edges to come up and make the play. It was an incredibly solid and well executed game plan with some nice in game adjustments. The Navy thumping stills stings and Army isn't as good a team as Navy is but it was still nice to see the defense come out and have this type of dominating performance. The stat at the end of the game showing how we outrushed Army was very telling. Another telling stat of how this defense has been playing recently against some high scoring offenses is that in the last three games combined they have given up less than 20 points total.



The Bad


-My only real complaint is a seemingly minor one. On the first drive Wood is gashing Army and running really well and as soon as we get inside the 10 yardline Jonas Gray comes in. I like Jonas Gray and am excited about what he brings to the table but with Wood running so well why take him out?

The Ugly

-Manti Te'o's nose. The slow motion video that NBC showed of him taking off his helmet and blowing blood out of his nose and mouth was both gross but on some levels awesome.

-Johnny Lujack's fingers. I don't know if anyone else noticed them(In my opinion how the hell could you miss them?) during his interview with Alex Flanigan. I've met Lujack many times in person, he own's a car dealership where I live, but I've never noticed his 45 degree knuckles until he was waving them around 12" in front of the camera. Also ugly was Lujack was about the launch into a story about the game in 1946 and Flanigan cut him off because NBC had to go to commercial for an injury timeout. Not really Flanigan's fault at all as she has people in her ear telling her to go to break but still lame.

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Bowl eligible. After the loss to Tulsa this didn't seem probable and now it's a reality. The extra practice time will help. This turn around late in the season will be nice for recruits to see and each week Kelly moves this team closer and closer to turning it around. As I mentioned last week Kelly has a chance to get this program turned around now. Win over a ranked team in Utah. Beat a rival in prime time in Army. Now the last two phases remain. Break the streak against USC and a gimpy Matt Barkley then go and win a bowl game. End this season on a hot streak and build a ton of momentum for next season. This team seems to have turned some corner. They seemed to have bought into what Kelly was selling over the last few weeks and it shows. No matter what happens at USC the thing you can't do is go out and lay an egg. If you are going to lose the game(please don't) lose it close. A deflating loss to USC could halt some of this progress Notre Dame has made over the last two weeks.

Another thing that I'm starting to notice is the nice in season progression of guys on the team. Whether they are freshman or seniors. Rees, Wood, Eifert, Toma are guys that stand out on the offensive side of the ball and on defense right now you have guys like Brian Smith, Darrin Walls, Gary Gray, and Harrison Smith playing not only the best football of the season but perhaps of their entire careers. Throw in young guys like Prince Shembo and Kona Schwenke starting to contribute as well and you can really tell this coaching staff is experienced in coaching up college players. Something that was a glaring omission from the last two coaching staffs as a whole. You can even see the coachign staff evolving. Kelly is adjusting his play calling style/strategy for Rees and Diaco has really rebounded nicely since the Navy debacle. It's nice to see progress. Now let's keep it going.

Go Irish. Beat Trojans.

 

[IrishTimer]

USC


The Good

- We beat SC! Eight straight losses to this school are finally over. I don't care that it was while USC was having a down season or that Barkley was out. We went on the road while missing our starting QB, TE, RB, and NT and came out a winner. I was pumped on Saturday night. Happy all day yesterday and thinking about the win still makes me smile today.

- The defense. I know the stat has been thrown around and it's been pointed out by numerous sources but this defense since the Navy debacle has given up two touchdowns in the last four games. Two! Credit to Bob Diaco for making what adjustments needed to be made and credit the team for keeping with it and buying into what the coaches were preaching late in the season. The defense over the last few games, especially Saturday night, has been playign tough, fast, and nasty. Brian Smith and Harrison Smith have stepped up their games tremendously and it's been an absolute pleasure to watch this defense play over the last month. At times I'd still like to see more of a pass rush but at this point that's getting nit picky. I pray this is a sign of things to come from this defense in future seasons.

- Robert Hughes. Easily his best game since the 2007 season. He put the team on his back on that final drive of the 4th quarter and ran tremendously well all game. USC looked like they wanted no part in tackling him and Hughes looked like he was a man possesed. Seniors like Hughes and Kamara stepping up on offense along with the defensive seniors stepping up have helped pave the way for this winning streak.

- Michael Floyd. The USC secondary was beat up and he did was he needed to do. Dominated. he made every catch he had to and showed no fear going over the middle. He also demonstrated great blocking as he has all season long. he's really turned into a leader. A prime example of this is after a Ree's interception in the second half he came over to Rees, told him not to worry about it, and that Rees would lead the team to a win.

- Cierre Wood. Another tremendous story of the second half of this season. He continued his excellent play on Saturday night. Notre Dame fans have to be very excited about Wood's future with this team with the way he has performed since Allen went down for the season.

- The offensive line. Not getting near enough credit from me or other writers about how they have stepped up their play and allowed a freshman QB to flourish behind them and allowed running backs like Wood and Hughes to become major factors.

- David Ruffer. Still perfect...missed extra point be damned.

- Tommy Rees(The First Half Version). Even though he had an early interception he never looked rattled by the stage or by the situation. He lead the team on some very nice drives and threw two very nice touchdown passes in the first half. This kid reall ylooks unflappable at times.


The Bad

- Tommy Rees (The Second Half Version). Credit the USC defense with doing something differently to help confuse Rees. They dropped into some zone coverages a few times after disguising it as man and it resulted in the Rees interception where he missed Eifert down the seam. The fumble down near the goalline was bad but that stuff will happen in rainy weather. Rees was young and it showed at times in the second half, but to his credit he kept his head up and pulled out of it. Rather than showing growing pains for an entire half and possibly costing us the game he made some adjustments, Kelly adjusted the play calls, and as Rees has since Crist went down he responded very well to adversity. He will learn alot from this game during film study.

- The missed extra point. Yuck. Thankfully it didn't come back to haunt us.


The Ugly

- Our return game. We need to get something out of this next season. I'm sick and tired of watching nothing but fair catches. A point of emphasis for this team next year has to be better production out of the return game. If you can give this offense a shorter field to work with the results could be scary. I'd love to see a guy like Roby Toma get a shot at punt returns and Bennet Jackson has some potential as a kick return guy as does TJ Jones.


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7-5. Wow. After Tulsa I really doubt many fans thought this was possible. I'm not going to get into the entire bevy of bowl scenario's that could play out as that will be covered again and again over the next week. What matters now is that this team is going to a bowl and playing very solid football. The defense has made a dramatic improvement and the offense has performed well behind a freshman quarterback. When was the last time you saw a Notre Dame offense run the ball this well?

Kelly and his coaching staff deserve a ton of credit for what has occurred here over the last month and this kids and the sneior leadership of this team deserve a bunch of credit as well. My hope that the Utah win was the first in line of 4 wins in a row that would turn the program around now is one victory away from happening. Even still, barring this team laying a complete turd in the bowl game, this program is looking to be moving in the right direction at a rapid pace. Hopefully this helps steal a few recruits for us and the ball has begun rolling towards the rising back to power of this program. There is still a lot of work to be done but for the first time in a long long time the work seems as though it can and will get done.

Go Irish.

Beat who's next.

 

[ryno 24]

I agree that was an excellent game.. our return game is non existent its not terrible we are not fumbling it is just non existentent

 

[IrishTimer]

DBl Post

 

[IrishTimer]

Miami

The Good

-Michael Floyd. He came out and dominated. For all the talk about how Miami could shut down a passing attack and/or Floyd, he must have taken it personally because Floyd(and one other player) in the first half essentially ended the game. Yeah he missed chances at two other touchdowns but they weren't exactly easy catches. I know putting his name here pretty much means he is likely off to the draft but it was still great to see our big time WR make big time plays in a big game.

-Harrison Smith. I don't care if Jacory Harris was throwing frisbees up there. You get 3 INT's in a bowl game and your name is going here. It's been great to see Smith come on strong with the rest of the team in the last month and half. People are remembering the Sun Bowl and USC but they are also forgetting that Smith made a hell of an interception against Utah as well.
Hopefully he can carry this over to next season when he comes back for his 5th season.

-The entire offensive line. We rolled up almost 200 yards on the ground. Let me repeat. A Notre Dame team had nearly 200 yards rushing the football. That has to be our most rushing yardage in a game in almost 20 years. The most impressive thing to me though was how well we did in pass protection. Rees stayed clean most of the game and I don't recall us giving up a sack. I really thought Miami would put a lot more pressure on the QB but they weren't able to.

-The coaching staff. As flat as Miami came out Notre Dame came out the exact opposite. Hyped up and ready to play. On offense they made their best player (Floyd) the focal point early on and although Harris was throwing frisbees they showed some nice replays of the defense rolling coverages post snap and letting Smith play some center field. A lot of bounces went Notre Dame's way but the coaches helped game plan to put the team in the position to pick up those bounces.

-Robert Hughes. Continued his momentum from the USC game. Ran downhill was effective and ended an up and down career on a high note. Will always be that player with the "what could have been" feeling about him if he had run like the power back he was for four seasons. The light went on late for him..but at least it went on.

-Cierre Wood. Turned in another very solid performance. The second half of this season for him has been very impressive and a real joy to watch. Another kid who the light went on for and even from his early struggles someone who the coaching staff really likes a lot. It will be a fun time seeing who emerges from the Irish backfield next season between Wood, Jonas Gray, and Cameron Roberson.............and Savon Huggins?

-What this does for recruiting. Recruiting has been up and down this season but you would have to thing a dominating win over a program like Miami on CBS on New Years Eve day will give a major boost as we move towards national signing day.


The Bad

-Lack of pass rush. Didn't really see much of a pass rush, especially in the early going. I know it's being a little greedy coming out with the win we just did but it still would have been nice to see some pressure on the quarterback. There was some..but not nearly enough. (Ishaq Williams and Stephon Tuitt I'm looking in your direction)

The Ugly

-Manti Teo's injury. Easily the scariest moment of the game....and perhaps my life. Glad to know it's just a sprain and Brian Kelly had medical clearance to put him back in. Still doesn't change the fact though that until they showed Teo braced up and roaming the sideline like a rabid dog wanting to get back in I was pacing my basement drunk muttering "No, no, no, no ,no"


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Utah, Army, USC, Miami. They pulled off the miracle four in a row I talked about after the Utah game. 2004 Boston Red Sox eat your hearts out. This is the first four game win streak for Notre Dame and more than likely the most impressive four game win streak, both in opponents played and performance, since Ty Willingam's first season. Does this mean that Notre Dame is going to be a 10 win team next season? No. Of course not. The 1987 team got throttled by 25 points to end the season...then went on to win the National Championship. For a program ending a (at times) very difficult first season with four straight wins in the way they have it's a great confidence booster if nothing else. Whatever happened after the hell weeks that were Tulsa and the bye week galvanized this team. Something happened. Something clicked. Something worked.

We get eight starters back on defense. Possibly as many as 10 back on offense if Floyd and Rudolph stay. Recruiting seems to be going very well as of late. Already 2011 seems to lining up as the most optimistic year since 2006. There are questions surrounding the team. What will the Declan Sullivan investigation show? Who is the QB next season? Who is the RB? The nice thing about the last two questions is that the questions don't revolve around a void of talent, just which talent is going to win the jobs.

As usual the schedule isn't very forgiving next year however thankfully we aren't looking at the 2012 schedule. Onward and forward now to National Signing Day.

Go Irish. Beat out other schools for recruits.

 

[Dizzyphil]

Sir, if I may add one more good to your list.....


Good

Perspective recruits watched the FIGHTING IRISH beat down a 'publicly favored' Miami.


Diz

 

[irishff1014]

I hope this strong finish does help us in the recruiting dept because we still have some needs that could be filled.

 

[IrishTimer]

Sir, if I may add one more good to your list.....


Good

Perspective recruits watched the FIGHTING IRISH beat down a 'publicly favored' Miami.


Diz

.....That is already in there.

 

[Dizzyphil]

.....That is already in there.

Really???? didn't see Publicly favored Miami anywhere.... must be losing it in my old age..


Diz