2019 Louisville Post Game Thread

[Wingman Ray]

Piling on more but gotta echo the others...

LB play is balls awful. These guys looked like MAC level LBs. I can see that from Bilal but the others really has me concerned. Bilal is an IN player and it is so very, very rare that a player from IN is worth two shakes of a flip. Day and Smith being the exceptions.

But not wanting to get into a pissing match with you guys from IN. Hey, I grew up there too btw.

But really concerned when flippin Louisville pushes your run defense around. Early season kinks? Sure. But then wouldnt every team playing week 1 have that excuse?

At first I was defensive when the guys called for a 3 loss season but now not looking so far fetched...

 

[zelezo vlk]

Piling on more but gotta echo the others...

LB play is balls awful. These guys looked like MAC level LBs. I can see that from Bilal but the others really has me concerned. Bilal is an IN player and it is so very, very rare that a player from IN is worth two shakes of a flip. Day and Smith being the exceptions.

But not wanting to get into a pissing match with you guys from IN. Hey, I grew up there too btw.

But really concerned when flippin Louisville pushes your run defense around. Early season kinks? Sure. But then wouldnt every team playing week 1 have that excuse?

At first I was defensive when the guys called for a 3 loss season but now not looking so far fetched...

Drue Tranquill, the starting linebacker from last year, was also from Indiana.

 

[Wingman Ray]

Drue Tranquill, the starting linebacker from last year, was also from Indiana.

Point taken. How about if I recant and just say Bilal sucks, the play of the LBs in the Louisville game sucked and if they dont get WORLDS better, any team with a pulse will run at them and over them all game long?

 

[AllTimeIrish]

Point taken. How about if I recant and just say Bilal sucks, the play of the LBs in the Louisville game sucked and if they dont get WORLDS better, any team with a pulse will run at them and over them all game long?

Georgia is going to destroy this defense in the running game. Later in the year as the young players develop, I would say ND could hold their own. But it's going to be their veteran offensive line against our young guys who are learning. And Bilal who has always sucked.

I was of the mind we could beat Georgia but I am putting that down as a solid loss. I think we beat everyone else though, including overrated Michigan. Stanford looks like they blow this year as well.

 

[Wingman Ray]

Georgia is going to destroy this defense in the running game. Later in the year as the young players develop, I would say ND could hold their own. But it's going to be their veteran offensive line against our young guys who are learning. And Bilal who has always sucked.

I was of the mind we could beat Georgia but I am putting that down as a solid loss. I think we beat everyone else though, including overrated Michigan. Stanford looks like they blow this year as well.

Sadly Im going to have to agree with you on the GA statement. I was really holding to the argument that ND would run with them but after watching this game, I have to agree with you. GA would have destroyed this Louisville team and ND's win was just soft. Soft in every single aspect from what I can see. No hard ass blocking, backs cant pick up a blitz and the defense tackles like middle schoolers.

This isnt a top ten team.

Maybe I will eat my words. I sure hope so. But I fear a TON of squeak out wins by a ton nail where the W could have been a L easily against much less talented teams this year.

 

[koonja]

Rewatching, Tremble looks great in passing.

But man he's a bad blocker right now, lol. Hoping KMet comes back and is the best of both worlds.

 

[notredomer23]

Rewatching, Tremble looks great in passing.

But man he's a bad blocker right now, lol. Hoping KMet comes back and is the best of both worlds.

Yup... We need Kmet for UGA because Tremble can't block. One on of the third and 1s we didn't convert on, he was directly responsible. That said, Tremble is a major threat in the passing game. He needs to be on the field in some capacity.

 

[N_D_Fighting_Irish]

Georgia is going to destroy this defense in the running game. Later in the year as the young players develop, I would say ND could hold their own. But it's going to be their veteran offensive line against our young guys who are learning. And Bilal who has always sucked.

I was of the mind we could beat Georgia but I am putting that down as a solid loss. I think we beat everyone else though, including overrated Michigan. Stanford looks like they blow this year as well.

Georgia plays one of the more vanilla offenses. I have a feeling, more of hope, that our defense will hold the line for the majority of the game. My concern is our offense. I think GA's DL can outrun our RBs. We have at the moment no one to scare them over the top. How are we going to move the chains consistently?

 

[NDMIA]

Sadly Im going to have to agree with you on the GA statement. I was really holding to the argument that ND would run with them but after watching this game, I have to agree with you. GA would have destroyed this Louisville team and ND's win was just soft. Soft in every single aspect from what I can see. No hard ass blocking, backs cant pick up a blitz and the defense tackles like middle schoolers.

This isnt a top ten team.

Maybe I will eat my words. I sure hope so. But I fear a TON of squeak out wins by a ton nail where the W could have been a L easily against much less talented teams this year.

Right before halftime Vandy had the ball at the 28 yard line of UGA down 21-6 and had an opportunity to score that they screwed up. I was at that game and UGA fans were not pleased with potentially going into halftime 21-13 but Vandy did what Louisville did and screwed up. Point is I wouldn’t put too much stock into a sluggish start to the game and maybe a couple of weird and bad things happening. Top 25 teams had some issues in Week 1

Nebraska - South Alabama 7-7 End of 1Q
Alabama - Duke 14-3 Halftime
Michigan - MTSU 10-7 End of 1Q
Iowa State - Northern Iowa 3OT Thriller over FCS school
Utah - BYU 9-6 Halftime

 

[AllTimeIrish]

Georgia plays one of the more vanilla offenses. I have a feeling, more of hope, that our defense will hold the line for the majority of the game. My concern is our offense. I think GA's DL can outrun our RBs. We have at the moment no one to scare them over the top. How are we going to move the chains consistently?

Oh I agree that our pass defense will be good enough, as their QB is a bit overrated and they have young [but talented] WRs. Their Oline is really really good though, which means Fromm only has to hit a few big plays to keep his team in the game every week.

I am not sure their DL is considered top tier; and with our offensive line talent, I think we are ok there. I am more concerned with the injuries to our TE/WR and whether Book plays well. If he tucks and runs, GA's LBs are going to hit him hard and often. If GA limits our running game, ND has no realistic chance to win. Even with an average DL, GA can win unless we hit on some consistent downfield pass plays.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Rewatched the first half and stuck on the offensive breakdown (i.e. bad) plays. Focused of course on the OLine.

The breakdowns there were of three kinds:
1. Louisville blitzing more than our five could block, and not having a quick dump option;
2. RB not figuring out the blitz packages at all or sometimes the TEs not figuring them;
3. Patterson seeming not to understand what his buddies were going to do against the base they saw, and going the wrong way with his "intentions", thus opening the middle.

On those breakdown plays, almost never was there a veteran four OLine screw-up. Some blocks were less "pretty" than others. Eichenberg got beat once but hustled enough to just push the rush past Book who stepped up.

My "boy" Tommy actually had most of his assignments ON THE GROUND during some of those bad plays. Hainsey was solid; so too pretty much Banks but I didn't concentrate as much on his side. Patterson, I think, will be OK once he gets more familiar with the pre-snap reads by his older buddies.

I don't think that OLine will have great troubles this year. Nor Book, by the way ... as I have seen him do much better. RBs should be good, and Long better at calling. Receivers? Who knows? I thought that it was a real shame that KyrenW made two errors right off (one of his runback choices was also an error not just the "non-attention-to-detail non-reception") and Coach sat him totally. I still believe that he has "it."

Defense will be good just because it's Lea. ... and he'll have film from now on.

 

[IrishFanJMercy]

With the way the LB's looked last night and us not taking a LB in the current class I'm concerned going forward

 

[Riddickulous]

JOK and Drew White had a grand total of 6 games played between them before last night, with zero starts. There are going to be growing pains. The sky isn't falling.

 

[IrishLion]

With the way the LB's looked last night and us not taking a LB in the current class I'm concerned going forward

White and JOK were fine after the first quarter.

There were still some rookie mistakes and missed tackles, but these guys haven't played before. They need reps.

The third LB spot is concerning, but I have faith that Lea will figure it out.

Not taking a LB in this class is because there are four freshman backers on the roster that will get their chance. The struggles early in the game last night don't change the realities of the roster.

 

[Wingman Ray]

JOK and Drew White had a grand total of 6 games played between them before last night, with zero starts. There are going to be growing pains. The sky isn't falling.

This. I have to ask why the heck is ND not getting the next year players ready? The solid teams have a next up personality. They play backups a lot so when it is go time, they dont look like freshmen under the lights for the first time. There is not an excuse why starters dont have a ton of playing experience. Coaching staff needs to do better than this.

 

[IrishLion]

This. I have to ask why the heck is ND not getting the next year players ready? The solid teams have a next up personality. They play backups a lot so when it is go time, they dont look like freshmen under the lights for the first time. There is not an excuse why starters dont have a ton of playing experience. Coaching staff needs to do better than this.

JOK and White didn't play last year because they were both hurt.

Next question.

 

[IrishLax]

Georgia is going to destroy this defense in the running game. Later in the year as the young players develop, I would say ND could hold their own. But it's going to be their veteran offensive line against our young guys who are learning. And Bilal who has always sucked.

I was of the mind we could beat Georgia but I am putting that down as a solid loss. I think we beat everyone else though, including overrated Michigan. Stanford looks like they blow this year as well.

The bigger issue against Georgia will be the fact that the offense we saw last night will struggle to score more than 14 points.

 

[EvilleIrish]

Did Braden Lenzy get a snap?

 

[fightingirish26]

JOK and Drew White had a grand total of 6 games played between them before last night, with zero starts. There are going to be growing pains. The sky isn't falling.

Just a nitpick but didn't White start the Navy game last year? Your point still stands.

 

[Wingman Ray]

JOK and White didn't play last year because they were both hurt.

Next question.

So both hurt and the #2s last year all graduated? So basically no one with experience in the whole LB corp? How does that happen?

 

[Blazers46]

This is why team start the season with the Mid Tenn States of the world at home.

 

[IrishLion]

So both hurt and the #2s last year all graduated? So basically no one with experience in the whole LB corp? How does that happen?

JGH has experience, but he couldn't beat out White or Bilal.

Bilal was a starter last year, though it seems he doesn't have the instincts to play in the middle of the field.

Bauer played last year, but got beat out by a bunch of guys that hadn't really played before.

Sometimes a team goes through growing pains. That's the reality of a sport played by college kids that are a 4-year cycle.

Clemson had a bunch of inexperienced LB's last year. They actually weren't that great. Alabama is playing a true freshman at MIKE, and it showed in the the first half of their game against Duke.

UGA is going to run for a bunch of yards, probably, but it doesn't mean these guys won't get better, or that ND isn't a "solid" team.

(They made the playoffs last year. To act like they don't compare to other "solid" programs... sheeeeesh)

 

[Wingman Ray]

Not meaning to argue Irishlion but doesnt make sense why the whole LB division is lost. I get it that the starters may just work out that they are all seniors but that means you play your juniors and sophomores to build them up. You dont just run one group and hope for the best next year. This is what I fear exactly did happen. You cant just always live for the moment.

 

[EvilleIrish]

SP+ has us down all the way to 17.

 

[Old Man Mike]

When you are trying to go undefeated, yes, you DO live for the moment. Kelly always tells us that he's going to play the people that he thinks will win us the game we are playing --- not some other game to come. If Kelly benched key players and cost us a game, I cannot imagine the outcry from the "fans."

 

[irishff1014]

It's going to be frustrating watching the young LBs struggle in the early going, but I thought both guys showed a lot of potential. Drew White made some nice plays and could've had a few more if he hadn't whiffed on a few tackles.

Bilal on the other hand...

Bilal is slow. He was always chasing the play from behind. Frustrating

 

[ulukinatme]

Chris Finke has no business starting. He is a good option on third downs and certain sets when he is covered by a linebacker or a fourth string DB. He needs to be underestimated to be effective.

Finke definitely excels when he's creating mismatches or he's being underestimated. Rewatching the VT game from last year recently, he was getting wide open whenever they had a Safety on him and it led to some big plays. I still think he's a good player, I just think Louisville didn't underestimate his sneakiness.

Fun fact: The Louisville announcer kept calling him "Chris Fink-e" all night, much to the chagrin of the Irish fans in the stands. He got his name called quite a bit, of course, because of punts

I really don't know what to think because Louisville looked better than they did last year but also looked like a JV team for most of the 3rd quarter. Someone on Twitter noted that once teams get tape on them their offense is going to struggle to score and I completely agree with that.

Our playcalling was way too vanilla and there was no vertical threat. Finke was my LVP of the game.

I'm officially worried about Duke, Virginia, and BC now.

On the bright side the safeties all played well and I thought our interior D-lineman were excellent. Coaching staff made some good adjustments at halftime. Special teams were good. LK III is going to be a star...

Last night went about as I expected. Louisville had a new coach, a good coach, and this was a prime time game on Monday night. Louisville was going to come out fast and blow their wad. They looked exceptionally good for 1-2 quarters, but by mid 3rd quarter our depth and conditioning would come into play and we'd take over. That's exactly what happened, along with some good adjustments in the 2nd half.

I personally thought we should have switched to a 3-4 front after seeing what Louisville was doing offensively. They weren't that successful up the middle, but the first quarter and most of the game they were extremely successful running off tackle and getting out into the perimeter. We've seen where coach has switched back to a 3-4 against Navy, so it's not unheard of doing that again. We really needed to do a better job setting the edge and keeping contain last night, and we weren't getting that done at first. We minimized Louisville's success later on, especially in the 2nd half, by getting more movement from the linebackers laterally. We were just slow to start off and did a poor job keeping everything inside.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

SP+ has us down all the way to 17.

That seems appropriate after the first showing.

 

[InKellyWeTrust]

That seems appropriate after the first showing.

I was going to say the same. The team that played last night looked no better than a borderline top 15 team. Hopefully it changes, quickly.

 

[Circa]

Anyone know where I can rewatch the game?