Biggest Concern After Week Two?

[isotopes]

Qb- Brady had a very good opening drive I thought, seemed as if once there was a few dropped passed he got a lttle bothered, what was nice though is he managed the game good once again.

RB- Darius was solid. You still have to credit psu's linebackers. They may have lost but those boys did a good job of getting to the ball and stopping d walk before anything got going

Line was better not great yet

Receivers were solid. A couple of dropped balls. Went against a very inexerienced, but very athletic d backfield. I thought that at times routes got a little sloppy. Rhema did a nice job of blocking on the swing screens. Tried to make a point of watching the stalk blocking this game but got too caught up to remember. What happened to Grimes? I haven't seen that much Anastacio since.... well I don't know when really....

Dline much like oline, better than last week but not where we need to be. I d like to see a little better penetration and contain.

Lb's Better this game. Theres a lot of nickle so it's hard to blame all the rushing yards on them. Felt both of them did a pretty good job of getting to the ball need better tackling though

Db's did a great job of stopping those athletic receivers from showcasing anything. I was scared about being able to contain Norwood and D Williams this week, but was pleasantly surprised with the absolute shut down. Terrail looked sketch at points but I thought he did a good job of using his speed to get back into the play and an even better job of moving on to the next play and not worrying about the last. Tommy and Chinedum were hitting hard today and you gotta love that. We were in the 30th row or so right around the 20 and you could hear Zibikowski tattoo people.

Kicking game was improved quite a bit which is always a step in the right direction. The point was made that the kicks weren't in a pressured situation.... The game was 0-0 and 0-3 when he kicked his field goals. Against a top 25 team, in the home opener, after you missed your only two attempts on the year..... I dunno how much more pressure your looking for but I thought it was solid

Return game- Zibby fumble was rough probably should have caleld for the fair catch on that. Vision seemed to lack a little on kick returns but there wasn't really enough of that to get a good idea.

In all a good game, can't be happy though need to constantly improve. Looking forward to a big game with Michigan. I've thought for the last couple of weeks that this is the biggest game on the schedule this year. Should be a great game!

 

[BGIF]

I can't quite figure it out. I simply think his mind or instincts tell him he can turn a corner against a D and beat them. (which he generally can't do) Instead, he should be following his blockers... Autry Denson was always pretty disciplined that way, hopefully DW will follow suit.

See CW's postgame interview:

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Q. Was it part of the game plan to attack Posluszny in the pass game? Did you sense he was a step slow from last year? [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]COACH WEIS: I don't know if he was a step slow or not. I just know one thing, when we tried to run the ball inside early in the game, they were pounding us pretty good. If you saw late that second drive, we were trying to go inside. I thought at that time, the thing they were doing the best is controlling the line of scrimmage on the inside run. So I just stopped doing that. I mean, I'm not braindead. I mean, if they're doing it, just stop doing it. I mean, so I figured that the best thing to do is to run outside and play action over the top of them.[[/FONT]/QUOTE]

 

[BGIF]

Qb- Brady had a very good opening drive I thought, seemed as if once there was a few dropped passed he got a lttle bothered, what was nice though is he managed the game good once again.

RB- Darius was solid. You still have to credit psu's linebackers. They may have lost but those boys did a good job of getting to the ball and stopping d walk before anything got going

Line was better not great yet

Receivers were solid. A couple of dropped balls. Went against a very inexerienced, but very athletic d backfield. I thought that at times routes got a little sloppy. Rhema did a nice job of blocking on the swing screens. Tried to make a point of watching the stalk blocking this game but got too caught up to remember. What happened to Grimes? I haven't seen that much Anastacio since.... well I don't know when really....

Dline much like oline, better than last week but not where we need to be. I d like to see a little better penetration and contain.

Lb's Better this game. Theres a lot of nickle so it's hard to blame all the rushing yards on them. Felt both of them did a pretty good job of getting to the ball need better tackling though

Db's did a great job of stopping those athletic receivers from showcasing anything. I was scared about being able to contain Norwood and D Williams this week, but was pleasantly surprised with the absolute shut down. Terrail looked sketch at points but I thought he did a good job of using his speed to get back into the play and an even better job of moving on to the next play and not worrying about the last. Tommy and Chinedum were hitting hard today and you gotta love that. We were in the 30th row or so right around the 20 and you could hear Zibikowski tattoo people.

Kicking game was improved quite a bit which is always a step in the right direction. The point was made that the kicks weren't in a pressured situation.... The game was 0-0 and 0-3 when he kicked his field goals. Against a top 25 team, in the home opener, after you missed your only two attempts on the year..... I dunno how much more pressure your looking for but I thought it was solid

Return game- Zibby fumble was rough probably should have caleld for the fair catch on that. Vision seemed to lack a little on kick returns but there wasn't really enough of that to get a good idea.

In all a good game, can't be happy though need to constantly improve. Looking forward to a big game with Michigan. I've thought for the last couple of weeks that this is the biggest game on the schedule this year. Should be a great game!

CW echoed some of your observations in his post game interview. See the post above concerning the running game and PSU LBs. The plan was to give them the run but to take out their corps of receivers. CW seemed pleased with the trench play on both sides. Overall he was happy. Saw improvement. Saw room for more improvement. But there's time for those things tomorrow.

Kicking game was improved quite a bit which is always a step in the right direction. The point was made that the kicks weren't in a pressured situation.... The game was 0-0 and 0-3 when he kicked his field goals. Against a top 25 team, in the home opener, after you missed your only two attempts on the year..... I dunno how much more pressure your looking for but I thought it was solid

How much more pressure than taking him out in the woods and shooting him? That hadn't been heard from ND fans since Jim Sanson days when he actually did get death threats. The game was scoreless when he made his first kick and he hadn't yet made one ALL season.

Anybody know who ND's leading scorer in the game was?

He had 11 points.

 

[BGIF]

... What happened to Grimes?

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Q. We didn't see much of [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]David Grimes[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] today. Is that because he didn't fit in schematically? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]COACH WEIS: No, that wasn't it. He was a little banged up this week, and I didn't use him because I didn't think I had to. He was ready to play as our third wide receiver. We were flipflopping him and Chase in practice this week because he was a little banged up. When it got to the point where I could have used him more, I didn't think at that point it would be smart for me to do that. I figured at that point it would be better off just to hold on him. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Q. (No microphone.) [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]COACH WEIS: The same thing happened to him in practice the other day. Just locked up on him. It locked up on him again. When he came to the sideline, after he was ready to go, I wasn't putting him back in the game. I think you have to be smart when you're a coach, you're in that situation, you don't put a guy back in the game there. You have Michigan next week. Let's worry about having him ready for Michigan. [/FONT]

 

[NDAlumSon]

LB's still a major problem. Again, they were out of position quite a bit. PSU was gaining rushing yardage all over the place. I'll be interested to see what the average yards per carry was against us today and also how many tackles the safeties made covering up for the LB's. Michigan will run it at us all day and control the clock and keep our offense off the field next week unless we fix this major problem somehow.

This is absolutely correct. Reps for being spot on..

 

[BGIF]

This is absolutely correct. Reps for being spot on..

See CW's comments in the post game interview. The plan was to key on the receivers thus conceding the run.

 

[NDAlumSon]

See CW's comments in the post game interview. The plan was to key on the receivers thus conceding the run.

Yeah but.......concede the run is NOT the same as not stop the run.
Linebacking, like I said all last week is still the biggest concern.
Michigan wins by 10+ if this is not addressed.
Oh yeah.....all hail Gioia.

 

[VictorsValiant]

I guess Weis can try to stop our run by piling guys in the line of scrimmage, but if he does that, there will be many open lanes for our many excellent, fast recievers. The most likely outcome will be a wait and see approach, see if their running game gets going and if it does, do your best to stop it.

I think a lot of our offensive tempo will be determined by the defense. If Quinn throws well under pressure (and trust me, he will get pressure), then Nd will have momentum and a home crowd, which isn't good for us. On the other hand, if our defense stops Quinn, that will probably allow our offense to be more patient, more balanced, more confident and ultimately, more effective.

The more I think about it, the more I get the sense that this game will be won or loss by Quinn. This game can establish him as a frontrunner for the Heisman, or eliminate him from contention.

 

[Batch]

Qb- Brady had a very good opening drive I thought, seemed as if once there was a few dropped passed he got a lttle bothered, what was nice though is he managed the game good once again.

RB- Darius was solid. You still have to credit psu's linebackers. They may have lost but those boys did a good job of getting to the ball and stopping d walk before anything got going

Line was better not great yet

Receivers were solid. A couple of dropped balls. Went against a very inexerienced, but very athletic d backfield. I thought that at times routes got a little sloppy. Rhema did a nice job of blocking on the swing screens. Tried to make a point of watching the stalk blocking this game but got too caught up to remember. What happened to Grimes? I haven't seen that much Anastacio since.... well I don't know when really....

Dline much like oline, better than last week but not where we need to be. I d like to see a little better penetration and contain.

Lb's Better this game. Theres a lot of nickle so it's hard to blame all the rushing yards on them. Felt both of them did a pretty good job of getting to the ball need better tackling though

Db's did a great job of stopping those athletic receivers from showcasing anything. I was scared about being able to contain Norwood and D Williams this week, but was pleasantly surprised with the absolute shut down. Terrail looked sketch at points but I thought he did a good job of using his speed to get back into the play and an even better job of moving on to the next play and not worrying about the last. Tommy and Chinedum were hitting hard today and you gotta love that. We were in the 30th row or so right around the 20 and you could hear Zibikowski tattoo people.

Kicking game was improved quite a bit which is always a step in the right direction. The point was made that the kicks weren't in a pressured situation.... The game was 0-0 and 0-3 when he kicked his field goals. Against a top 25 team, in the home opener, after you missed your only two attempts on the year..... I dunno how much more pressure your looking for but I thought it was solid

Return game- Zibby fumble was rough probably should have caleld for the fair catch on that. Vision seemed to lack a little on kick returns but there wasn't really enough of that to get a good idea.

In all a good game, can't be happy though need to constantly improve. Looking forward to a big game with Michigan. I've thought for the last couple of weeks that this is the biggest game on the schedule this year. Should be a great game!

I will echo most of Isotopes sentiments...


I will add one thing though, we gave up almost half our yards on defense in the final two PSU drives. Anyone watching those drives could see that we were in a soft prevent. I know some don't like that but it did what it was supposed to do and that was eat up clock.

I dont know about Michigan running all over us...we admittedly conceded the run and taking away the final two PSU drives handedly controlled T.O.P. ND has to be up there with the top teams that have accomplished controlled sustained drives in the first two weeks. The first and second quarters of the PSU game were spectacular as far as T.O.P.

We have played two quality teams in the first two weeks and came out with victories...I enjoyed the win last night. Now lets get ready for Michigan.

-Batch

 

[onenybrother]

Gioia is not a big game kicker. The mad scientist gonna have to get us a bigtime kicker. Just think of how many big games we seen in our lifetime that came down to the kicker.
Lets's Go Dame !!!!

 

[jjsccer2]

Darius had some problems going north/south that game. He always wanted to go east/west to get the big gain but always fell short.

 

[knute]

More rushing yards. Line needs to get just a bit more physical on those run plays. Darius also needs to "consistently" hit the hole. 2 yards is better than -2 anyday. Other than that.....we're legit. I gues Goia's not so bad, huh?

I'm with you domer, both the rushing offense and the rushing defense could be better. If Penn State doesn't make a few stupid mistakes (big penalties and turnovers) that would have been a very different game yesterday. In the first quarter, they were getting 5-6 yards per carry and we were getting 1-2. That's not good going into Michigan with a better O-Line and better tailbacks.

 

[knute]

I think PSU's biggest mistake was not going after Quinn. Instead, they sat back and watched Weis dissect them alive.

Going after Quinn is the best way to neutralize this offense. We did it last year, so did OSU. The result, 17 and 20 points relinquished, respectively. I think we have the LBs to place meaningful pressure on Quinn. Our new DC had an internal feud with our old DC about blitzing more, so I think this will work in our favor.

My hope is that Nd gets overconfident and comes out flat.

I agree. Brady still hasn't shown that he can beat the blitz against a good defense. If UM doesn't blitz 50% of the snaps next week, I'll be shocked. The good news is that everybody knows this and ND is working on it. We saw a lot of short, underneath passing in the first half against PSU that's will work well when linebackers void the middle to blitz.

 

[maison bleu]

If I were a ND fan, here's what I'd be concerned about after two weeks: Brady Quinn runs the ball too much, too aggressively.

If BQ goes down, ND is toast, not just against Michigan and U$C, but pretty much everyone but Army and Navy.

 

[knute]

Did anyone notice that Darius is bad at following blockers? I went back and looked at a couple plays where he got caught trying to run around the end...if he had followed Schwap he would have gotten more yards.

I thought so too, at first. But if you look at a couple of those plays, the PSU linebackers are getting around the blockers. Those guys were fast and what looked like a lane was actually closing fast.

 

[knute]

CW echoed some of your observations in his post game interview. See the post above concerning the running game and PSU LBs. The plan was to give them the run but to take out their corps of receivers. CW seemed pleased with the trench play on both sides. Overall he was happy. Saw improvement. Saw room for more improvement. But there's time for those things tomorrow.

I think that PSU has less experienced, but more athletic wide receivers than UM. Notre Dame did seem to have a lot of DBs in the game. This is the 2nd or 3rd time that I've heard the theory that ND was playing to stop the pass. Makes me hopeful that we're not as bad on run defense as it looked.

 

[knute]

I guess Weis can try to stop our run by piling guys in the line of scrimmage, but if he does that, there will be many open lanes for our many excellent, fast recievers. The most likely outcome will be a wait and see approach, see if their running game gets going and if it does, do your best to stop it.

I don't remember UM's receivers being very good. I think ND will be able to key on the run more this week. I guess we'll see soon enough.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

I don't remember UM's receivers being very good. I think ND will be able to key on the run more this week. I guess we'll see soon enough.

Oh, they are quite good...this year Henne is throwing a bit better too.

(the receivers were not good in the game we played with them...but they have some dangerous talent on that team)

 

[maison bleu]

Oh, they are quite good...this year Henne is throwing a bit better too.

(the receivers were not good in the game we played with them...but they have some dangerous talent on that team)

For me, the jury is still out on Michigan's receivers. Breaston, Manningham, Arrington &c have lots of speed, lots of talent. But they've dropped a few balls this year.

I keep waiting for someone to emerge as the play-making successor to Braylon Edwards and David Terrell.

TE Massey is good.

 

[nshope]

For me, the jury is still out on Michigan's receivers. Breaston, Manningham, Arrington &c have lots of speed, lots of talent. But they've dropped a few balls this year.

I keep waiting for someone to emerge as the play-making successor to Braylon Edwards and David Terrell.

TE Massey is good.

Yes, tight end on our LBs will be a mismatch if we don't clamp down on him.

 

[Dannyboy Ayers]

Love this victory, but if I have to say one thing that sticks out, RUN DEFENSE!

alot of people are comenting on the lack of run Defense, don't not forget what the strength of this team was, and what all of the talk was. it was about Morelli and his powerfull arm. with that said they seemed to put more emphassis on stoping the pass and making them try and beat us on the ground and ND was also up by 30 plus points, screw the run stop the 10-15 yard pass just keep it all in front of you.

 

[NDAlumSon]

Yeah but.......concede the run is NOT the same as not stop the run.

Bump

 

[gipper2nd@yahoo.com]

2 weeks in a row looking bad against the run still tells me that the front seven needs to step it up. I don't care what coverage we're in & why............we're not making the tackles! You can't always listen to CW, because he's not going to point out anything or anyone as being lousy, because that is detrimental to the team. It's all about keeping these kids in a positive state of mind. Last year they could always stop the run......this year.........it hasn't happened yet.

 

[lattedatte]

Ive said it for a couple months now and it is coming true, our d-line is not good. Abi had his name called two times at the game and I would agrue that his one "big" play was a coverage sack. He is overated. We were up 20 - 0 at the end of the first half, knew they had to pass and still could get pressure from our front 4. This is a huge concern. Next is the LB's, but they played a pretty good in this game. Finally, the run blocking would be third but i don't think it's a huge deal at all.

 

[Óglaigh_na_hÉireann]

My biggest concerns:

1. Brady getting comfortable early in the game.
2. Dropped balls.

 

[jiggafini19]

So far we've seen sucky GT Gioia and good PSU Gioia.
Who shows up for scUM?

Penalties are the biggest issue thus far. Team plays undisciplined and the offense is having to get out of holes because of penalties that can be eliminated.

Was Penn State's offensive coordinator an idiot like Georgia Tech's? I'm just wondering.

My biggest concern of all: somehow, during Michigan week, about 8 threads will get posted on this board about how Ohio State sucks, Tressel is a big lying cheater and they are the most evil group of people in the world.

Michigan is coming to South Bend. Time to put some of that hate where it really belongs boys and girls. Strap on your skunk bear set and remember who the real rival is.

 

[maison bleu]

Michigan is coming to South Bend. Time to put some of that hate where it really belongs boys and girls. Strap on your skunk bear set and remember who the real rival is.

Hater. LaMarr Woodley is coming for your pretty-boy QB.

 

[jiggafini19]

Hater. LaMarr Woodley is coming for your pretty-boy QB.

I sure do hope so.

 

[jiggafini19]

Concerns:

1. Run defense vs. Michigan
2. Penalties (had to settle for FG twice vs PSU because of two big ones by Freeman and Santucci)
3. Circus act punt returns

 

[NDgettysburg]

3. Circus act punt returns

Do we have no one other than Zibby? He's just not played punt returns smart 2 games in a row now. Fumbled one, luckily we got it back. Next one he makes a last minute dive for. Either one of those end up a turnover, we're toast. It's just not worth the risk. Versus GT he catches one inside the 10 (wasn't it closer to the 5?)

Not smart....