BC Post Game Analysis

[jonesman]

Guys,
One of my big concerns with Jimmy is that I wonder if his elbow issue is/was bigger than presented. I watched his high school games, AA bowl apperance, camp videos and other stuff which showed a MUCH stronger arm and crisper pass. I think he may have been pressed back into action too early. Compound this with terrible line blocking, no running game, his learning curve and CW has set up a kid to fail. If Jimmy does not get his strength and velocity back, he become a very very average QB because his physical size and running ability are nothing special. IF and I mean IF he does not get the strength and velocity back in his arm next season, we will see Dayne and Evan as the future. Jimmy will not finish up his days at ND because you know his family invested way too much $$$ in him to have him not achieve NFL status. I really thought Jimmy was the real deal after watching him on ESPN last season, but I am wondering just a little if he was just more advanced based based on his personal coaching and surrounded by incredible D-1 talent in high school. I do hope that Jimmy pans out, but there are a few concerning things.

 

[johnnd05]

Jonesman, I hear you, but I think his downfield throws actually looked very good yesterday, except for the one to Kamara that was picked (but it's been pointed out that his elbow may have been hit on that). I think his arm is/will be fine.

 

[Irish52]

Playcalling a major contributor to the losses.....too predictable. No pizazz, no confidence, no swagger...this is not ND as I've known it for 55 years. The best thing Charlie Weis can do is admit his inexperience as a head football coach and ask for help from Lou, Ara, Tom Pagna and Chimel and then go HIRE an offensive coordinator from the college ranks. I haven't given up on Charlie completely..but if next year is a repeat of this one...then he must go..period.

 

[johnnd05]

Playcalling a major contributor to the losses.....too predictable. No pizazz, no confidence, no swagger...this is not ND as I've known it for 55 years. The best thing Charlie Weis can do is admit his inexperience as a head football coach and ask for help from Lou, Ara, Tom Pagna and Chimel and then go HIRE an offensive coordinator from the college ranks. I haven't given up on Charlie completely..but if next year is a repeat of this one...then he must go..period.

Again, I just don't see it. Given that the offense frequently either (1) committed dumb penalties that buried them in super-long yardage or (2) failed to make easy throws or convert short-yardage runs, I fail to see how the fault lies in the plays that were called rather than the way they were (not) executed.

But I've been over this territory before ... oh well.

Don't worry, though. There is NO WAY next year will be "a repeat of this one".

 

[kjones]

Again, I just don't see it. Given that the offense frequently either (1) committed dumb penalties that buried them in super-long yardage or (2) failed to make easy throws or convert short-yardage runs, I fail to see how the fault lies in the plays that were called rather than the way they were (not) executed.

But I've been over this territory before ... oh well.

Don't worry, though. There is NO WAY next year will be "a repeat of this one".

Seriously folks. He's been over it. Over it like white on rice on a paper plate in a snowstorm. If half the people here posted half as much as they did and spent the remainder of their time reading what other people wrote, we'd have a lot less redundancy around here. A little James 1:19 would help a lot.

Oh, and NO WAY will next year be like this year. In fact, just thinking about next year gets me excited. I'm not calling NC or anything, but I think we're gonna be pretty darn good.

 

[johnnd05]

Seriously folks. He's been over it. Over it like white on rice on a paper plate in a snowstorm. If half the people here posted half as much as they did and spent the remainder of their time reading what other people wrote, we'd have a lot less redundancy around here. A little James 1:19 would help a lot.

Oh, and NO WAY will next year be like this year. In fact, just thinking about next year gets me excited. I'm not calling NC or anything, but I think we're gonna be pretty darn good.

Thanks KJones. You were on that like a Seminole on a free pair of Nikes. Well-played.

I too cannot WAIT for next year.

 

[mbooch]

I don't see how the playcalling is supposed to be faulted. Look at my breakdown of the drives: they all stalled because of stupid penalties, misthrown or dropped passes, failures on third and short, and so on. The team was given every opportunity to win, and they failed to execute, plain and simple. Get off Weis's back.

John:

1. Cute kid.

2. ND called 54 pass plays against BC, out of 69 total plays. FOUR runs in the entire second half. With that little balance, I was SHOCKED that the play-action in the fourth quarter fooled ANYBODY. I respectfully suggest that CW HAS to improve as a playcaller, and give the running game a chance to develope. The endless dinks and dunks Clausen is tasked to throw have largelly been useless so far this year. There needs to be more vertical passing, and more power running. Those are indispensible to stretching a defense, and they've been notably absent all year. You dink and dunk when you can't stand and fight. BAD message to be sending an aspiring bunch of "Fighting" Irish.

 

[mbooch]

Playcalling a major contributor to the losses.....too predictable. No pizazz, no confidence, no swagger...this is not ND as I've known it for 55 years. The best thing Charlie Weis can do is admit his inexperience as a head football coach and ask for help from Lou, Ara, Tom Pagna and Chimel and then go HIRE an offensive coordinator from the college ranks. I haven't given up on Charlie completely..but if next year is a repeat of this one...then he must go..period.

52 is on to something. Playcalling has been substandard. However, Tom Pagna has recently been quoted as observing that the blocking schemes are overly simple, and aren't up to college level. That MAY explain the reliance on dink and dunk. Also, I understand the line didn't do much hard hitting before the season, and isn't toughened up yet. Bad pre-seson decision making, that. It may be a carryover from the NFL, where, due to the eternal length of the season, and small rosters, you can't afford to ding men up before the season starts. Anyway, it IS a transition CS needs to make. This O line is in serious trouble.

 

[mbooch]

Guys,
One of my big concerns with Jimmy is that I wonder if his elbow issue is/was bigger than presented. I watched his high school games, AA bowl apperance, camp videos and other stuff which showed a MUCH stronger arm and crisper pass. I think he may have been pressed back into action too early. Compound this with terrible line blocking, no running game, his learning curve and CW has set up a kid to fail. If Jimmy does not get his strength and velocity back, he become a very very average QB because his physical size and running ability are nothing special. IF and I mean IF he does not get the strength and velocity back in his arm next season, we will see Dayne and Evan as the future. Jimmy will not finish up his days at ND because you know his family invested way too much $$$ in him to have him not achieve NFL status. I really thought Jimmy was the real deal after watching him on ESPN last season, but I am wondering just a little if he was just more advanced based based on his personal coaching and surrounded by incredible D-1 talent in high school. I do hope that Jimmy pans out, but there are a few concerning things.

I agree. The bloom is off the rose for Clausen. personally, I think the three QB shuffle against GaTech was stupid. In retrospect, the state of the O line was so deplorable, NO QB would have made a difference. No QB has. ND's one win this season was made by the defense forcing 7 turnovers, NOT BY ANYTHING THE OFFENSE HAS DONE.

The writing is on the wall. BC won the coin toss, and KICKED OFF. ND's offensive weakness is a "given". A few clever tosses into the flat aren't going to fix that. ND needs to find some way to sustain a drive on the ground, pound somebody, and also throw vertical with some effect. The offense that takes the field now doesn't chalenge any defense. MAYBE this is something only a year of bulking up and clanging weights will fix. Jimmy Clausen's right arm, and left hip, aren't the keys.

 

[johnnd05]

ND called 54 pass plays against BC, out of 69 total plays. FOUR runs in the entire second half. With that little balance, I was SHOCKED that the play-action in the fourth quarter fooled ANYBODY. I respectfully suggest that CW HAS to improve as a playcaller, and give the running game a chance to develope. The endless dinks and dunks Clausen is tasked to throw have largelly been useless so far this year. There needs to be more vertical passing, and more power running. Those are indispensible to stretching a defense, and they've been notably absent all year. You dink and dunk when you can't stand and fight. BAD message to be sending an aspiring bunch of "Fighting" Irish.

ND was down 20-0, a few minutes into the second half, and their #1 tailback was out of the game. Think that had something to do with the playcalling? (I'm not being snide; I'm just asking.)

As to your point about BC choosing to kick off: that's what ALL college teams do; they did the same to ND last year when Brady was running the show. It has nothing to do with perceived ineptitude.

 

[mbooch]

Piyachi: Pretty girl or not, dinking and dunking is not a substitute for running at defenses and stretching them vertically. It's "passive-aggressive" offense. It's being done because the playcaller thinks or knows it's the only thing this offense CAN do. I hope he's wrong. If not, somebody wasted a lot of time on recruiting and preseason preparation.

 

[mbooch]

John. I like your style, but...wrong, wrong and wrong. ND tossed something like 25 passes in the first half. They passed their way into the hole that you pointed out. Remember, the 20-0 score came off a pic of the first play from scrimmage in the second half, ANOTHER pass.

Aldridge isn't a one man show. ND hasn't HAD a one man running game since Allen Pinket. It's always an ensemble thing. One guy geting hurt is not an excuse for giving up on the ground game.

ND is ranked 119 among college offenses. If that is not ineptitude, what is?

 

[johnnd05]

John. I like your style, but...wrong, wrong and wrong. ND tossed something like 25 passes in the first half. They passed their way into the hole that you pointed out. Remember, the 20-0 score came off a pic of the first play from scrimmage in the second half, ANOTHER pass.

Aldridge isn't a one man show. ND hasn't HAD a one man running game since Allen Pinket. It's always an ensemble thing. One guy geting hurt is not an excuse for giving up on the ground game.

ND is ranked 119 among college offenses. If that is not ineptitude, what is?

Sorry, you're the one who's wrong here:

(1) ND threw 19 passes in the first half (Clausen had 20 total on the day), three of them in "hurry-up" mode on the final drive (which started with just over a minute to go).

(2) When each one of the drives in the first half either moved backwards because of a dumb penalty or ended in a failure to convert on third and short, I can't blame the plays that were called as much as the execution.

(My apologies if I sound like a broken record on that latter point. I've yet to see where it's mistaken.)

Ineptitude? Surely. But this week at least, it wasn't the playcalling that did the Irish in.

 

[Moostache]

I say let Evan start the rest of this year and next and groom Crist into a good QB next year. The more I watch Jimmy the more I think he was a product of a great HS system and a VERY talented HS offense!!!

Wow....and I thought I was down on the team. This has to be some kind of record that only Nebraska could approach - program savior to program albatross in 6 short games!

I can't believe that the sentiment to throw Clausen under the bus after those 6 starts, declare him a bust, and move on to Crist is ALREADY making the public sentiments...

I agree that Jimmy is not showing all the physical tools at this point that he needs to succeed at the D1 level (or that he seemed to have in spades on the highlight reels of his HS days), but there are mitigating factors too, many of them already touched on in this thread and many others like it - bad protection, lack of experienced or game breaking WRs, lack of pre-season conditioning and workout regiment, residual effects of elbow surgery, a huge number of hits and sacks in those first 6 starts and not much if any help in the form of any semblance of a running game.

I personally believe that Clausen is not and has not been 100% healthy since the spring. He is trying to do too much, too fast and would have been best served by not playing this year, or at least not playing until the Navy game in three weeks. As it is, he has played and he has looked banged up and his throws (on TV anyway) seem to be losing zip as the season progresses. Regardless of the root cause from those listed above, something is not right with him. If he is still looking like this in Spring ball in 2008, then a real lingering problem may be at hand; but for now, I am writing off much of this year's performance to not being physically ready to go for Jimmy.

I simply do not see Sharpley as the answer long term. He has shown himself to be horribly inconsistent (at least as much so as Clausen, but with a more pronounced and unhappy tendency to throw into coverage more frequently) and has also had the benefit of 2 1/2 years of sideline observations that should make him better equipped to avoid those kinds of mistakes, yet apparently have not helped at all....

In all honesty, there are no more than 3 or 4 plays that make Sharpley seem like a better option than Clausen and that is only accounting for game action and not accumulated practice reps or habits. The most damning thing about the "jump on Sharpley bandwagon" to me is the willingness to take a single drive (resulting in 7 offensive points, and largely sustained at all by roughing penalty) and then ignore the remainder of the performance:

Clausen 7-of-20-60+ yards, 2 INTS (1 bad deep throw and 1 bad decision)

emotional boost-drive (Sharpley inserted) - 4-of-7-60+ yards and a TD

Sharpley 7-of-22- 100+ yards, 0 INTS (though 3 were actually dropped - and 2 were bad decisions and one was a bad deep throw).

The saying was right at the beginning of the year: "If you have 2 number one guys, then you really don't have a number one guy."

 

[mbooch]

Sorry, you're the one who's wrong here:

(1) ND threw 19 passes in the first half (Clausen had 20 total on the day), three of them in "hurry-up" mode on the final drive (which started with just over a minute to go).

(2) When each one of the drives in the first half either moved backwards because of a dumb penalty or ended in a failure to convert on third and short, I can't blame the plays that were called as much as the execution.

(My apologies if I sound like a broken record on that latter point. I've yet to see where it's mistaken.)

Ineptitude? Surely. But this week at least, it wasn't the playcalling that did the Irish in.

I stand semi-corrected. ND actually THREW 19 passes, as the official scorer will tell you. They ran 21 pass plays, but there was a sack and a flush of the QB that gaine a yard or two. These are "officially" scored as runs, but, in reality, were unsuccessful pass plays.
This was almost twice as many pass plays as called runs (11 in the first half). The second half was 33 pass plays (sacks and flushes included) and FOUR stinking runs. And, in MY view, the game got desparate when ND STARTED THE SECOND HALF WITH AN INTERCEPTION. Prior to that, they were in a two score game, with 30 minutes to play. John, we'll have to agree to disagree, but I'm looking at a team that is currently passing its way into deep trouble, then passing it's way halfway out. Sure, their are penalties, but they are USUALLY holding calls on, you guessed it, PASS plays.

ANyway, sack time for this Old Man. Be well.

 

[IrishAlum1997]

Thanks KJones. You were on that like a Seminole on a free pair of Nikes. Well-played.

I too cannot WAIT for next year.

How about on it like Doug Gottlieb at Spiece on '90% discount for guys named Doug Gottlieb Day?'

 

[kjones]

Thanks KJones. You were on that like a Seminole on a free pair of Nikes. Well-played.

I too cannot WAIT for next year.

LOL. well played yourself! I salute you.