Duke Post Game

[Junkhead]

Someone has to do it....

Positives
- Solid win
- D holding Duke to 10 first downs and less than 100yds on 30+ carries.
- Finke playing well, and actually not fair catching every punt

Negatives
- Penalties
- some special teams issues
- Okwara Injury?
- Ground game not amazing (Book had almost 100yds more than top RB)
- Duke making the visiting team walk a mile to the locker room lol

 

[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

Ian Book looked like Deshaun Watson agaisnt Duke (inferior comp), and surprise surprise the team showed up against inferior competition. Same crap, different toilet. Here come the "There was time not long ago where we lost to teams we shouldn't"...yeah, well there needs to be a time not long ago where we didn't get housed by every team that was on par or better than us. Gimme Fleck, that dude already has a better win on his resume than BK, and he did it with the 46th most talented team in the country according to 247 team composite. For reference, Duke is 44th and Penn State is 10th.

 

[Junkhead]

The weirdness is that Duke blew out VT who ND barely beat last week. VT doubled up a supposedly decent Wake Forest team today, so maybe they aren't as terrible as they had to have been against Duke. Just confused myself even re-reading that.

 

[ND88]

Ian Book looked like Deshaun Watson agaisnt Duke (inferior comp), and surprise surprise the team showed up against inferior competition. Same crap, different toilet. Here come the "There was time not long ago where we lost to teams we shouldn't"...yeah, well there needs to be a time not long ago where we didn't get housed by every team that was on par or better than us. Gimme Fleck, that dude already has a better win on his resume than BK, and he did it with the 46th most talented team in the country according to 247 team composite. For reference, Duke is 44th and Penn State is 10th.

No disrespect, but this is way inflated. Penn State is not a good team. I'm not a Kelly hater and not a Kelly apologist, but it's one thing to say it's time for Kelly to move on, and an entirely different thing to use a stat-line comprised of one showing out for a Minnesota team that has been threatened by subpar competition that even their talent level should handle. The Michigan game was awful and should not be forgotten, but neither should the fact that we were in the CFP last year. If Kelly is going to get kicked in the nuts, it should be acknowledged that he has done great things for Notre Dame, and until he is shown the door or walks somewhere else, he deserves more respect than dump him for a Fleck who really hasn't done sh*t comparatively. This is getting a little ridiculous at this point. ND played well tonight in spite of their flaws, and gat damnit ...

NOTRE DAME WON. It's hilarious to me that this is like a shameful thing these days.

 

[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

No disrespect, but this is way inflated. Penn State is not a good team. I'm not a Kelly hater and not a Kelly apologist, but it's one thing to say it's time for Kelly to move on, and an entirely different thing to use a stat-line comprised of one showing out for a Minnesota team that has been threatened by subpar competition that even their talent level should handle. The Michigan game was awful and should not be forgotten, but neither should the fact that we were in the CFP last year. If Kelly is going to get kicked in the nuts, it should be acknowledged that he has done great things for Notre Dame, and until he is shown the door or walks somewhere else, he deserves more respect than dump him for a Fleck who really hasn't done sh*t comparatively.

Sounds a little like an apologist, but whatever. He just beat the 10th most talent laden team in the country, with the 46th most talented team in the country. Anyone that's around the guy sings his praises, he's gonna be a really good coach. Of course he hasn't done much relative to BK, he's 30 years younger, that's like saying Zion isn't on LeBron James level because he doesn't have Lebron's accolades. Except we don't have LeBron, we have Draymond Green at best.

It's not just the Michigan game man, it's the Clemson demoralization and the 2012 Bama embarrassment. The guy, at least while he's been at ND, hasn't shown an ability to beat greater teams with lesser talent, in fact he ends up getting outcoached, badly, every time. The game against Oklahoma is the only one I can think of that's even a halfway possibility to call an elite win, and I don't wanna hear about beating Michigan State and Stanford cuz that shouldn't ever be the benchmark here.

Look, it may not seem like it with this/these posts, but I'm grateful for BK pulling ND out of the cellar, I honestly am, but it's time to let someone else push them over the top.

 

[Irish YJ]

Probably the least excited I've ever been for a blow out.....

Pros
-Book/Claypool/Finke on O
-The D was good for the most part, which is surprising to me vs Coach C team
-Announcers were better than Flutie....

Cons
-OL is just not that good. Even with injuries, we recruit well enough that we should plow a team like Duke with our 2nd stringers.
-RBs are just not that good. Can't wait for Tyree, but he's not a 3 down back day one is he?
-DBs are inconsistent
-refs
-Okwara injury?
-I had to spend an hour on the phone with my mother trying to figure out what her userid and password were for Directv (I have Comcast which doesn't have ACCN), only to find out it was an email she had 10+ years ago. Then spent another 40 minutes registering her, correcting her account, killing the old email, and then finally setting the ESPN app up with her credentials on my Fire TV.... love the moms...

 

[ND88]

Sounds a little like an apologist, but whatever. He just beat the 10th most talent laden team in the country, with the 46th most talented team in the country. Anyone that's around the guy sings his praises, he's gonna be a really good coach. Of course he hasn't done much relative to BK, he's 30 years younger, that's like saying Zion isn't on LeBron James level because he doesn't have Lebron's accolades. Except we don't have LeBron, we have Draymond Green at best.

It's not just the Michigan game man, it's the Clemson demoralization and the 2012 Bama embarrassment. The guy, at least while he's been at ND, hasn't shown an ability to beat greater teams with lesser talent, in fact he ends up getting outcoached, badly, every time. The game against Oklahoma is the only one I can think of that's even a halfway possibility to call an elite win, and I don't wanna hear about beating Michigan State and Stanford cuz that shouldn't ever be the benchmark here.

Look, it may not seem like it with this/these posts, but I'm grateful for BK pulling ND out of the cellar, I honestly am, but it's time to let someone else push them over the top.

I mean, call me what you want if it's easier for you. I don't shy away from joy and frustration. I've experienced both and have made comments that are positive and negative. Yet, I have been a fan for every decade of my life, and as a grown man, I have matured to the point that I recognize that these are young people fielding these games and I am not an expert by any means.

But as for Kelly, here's an "apologist's" statement for you: Did you anticipate last year that ND would even sniff the CFP? Maybe you did. Maybe you didn't. I seem to recall a LOT of fans on this board doubting it even as a possibility. And yet, the team did what they had to do and they were rewarded. Obviously, they weren't deer antler sprayed enough to knock off Clemson, but what they did was a HUGE accomplishment, and for those focusing on the fact we got waxed are Finnebauming retroactively their initial negative views of ND preseason last year. It's convenient to look at the analytics and state that the schedule really wasn't that good and ND was clearly overrated and Kelly got lucky.

Nah, ND deserved respect for their season last year, and it doesn't make one a homer to appreciate the feat. We will be back there again and when we do, I will appreciate that opportunity again, whether with Kelly or someone else.

Life is too short to not appreciate the good things that happen.

 

[Irishize]

Finke had, by far, his best game of the season.

Glad Claypool bounced back from getting banged up on that sideline catch out of bounds.

Sounds like Okwara injury is serious. I doubt he was looking forward to Navy diving at his knees for 50+ plays next week anyway.

I get that the right side of the OL may not be dominating due to injuries but the left side still underachieves in the run game. Really disappointed in Aaron Banks’ lack of progress this year...that falls on the OL Coach IMO.

I could see this being Polian’s last season at ND. I know it’s a thankless job but damn have they made some boneheaded decisions this season. I don’t think BK was too thrilled w/ Finke calling a fair catch when he had plenty of room/time to return a punt.

Book still struggles w/the fade pass.
Book still struggles w/ throwing the ball out of bounds when scrambling vs taking a loss of yardage.

Chris Tyree can’t get here soon enough. I pray we don’t hear excuses like “he hasn’t grasped the offense yet” or “he struggles in pass blocking” or “he’s not physically ready yet” b/c he needs to start next season. I’m sick of seeing every team in America thrive w/ true freshmen but ND always has an excuse as to why their freshmen have to sit for two years (Kyle Hamilton excluded).

 

[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

Finke had, by far, his best game of the season.

Glad Claypool bounced back from getting banged up on that sideline catch out of bounds.

Sounds like Okwara injury is serious. I doubt he was looking forward to Navy diving at his knees for 50+ plays next week anyway.

I get that the right side of the OL may not be dominating due to injuries but the left side still underachieves in the run game. Really disappointed in Aaron Banks’ lack of progress this year...that falls on the OL Coach IMO.

I could see this being Polian’s last season at ND. I know it’s a thankless job but damn have they made some boneheaded decisions this season. I don’t think BK was too thrilled w/ Finke calling a fair catch when he had plenty of room/time to return a punt.

Book still struggles w/the fade pass.
Book still struggles w/ throwing the ball out of bounds when scrambling vs taking a loss of yardage.

Chris Tyree can’t get here soon enough. I pray we don’t hear excuses like “he hasn’t grasped the offense yet” or “he struggles in pass blocking” or “he’s not physically ready yet” b/c he needs to start next season. I’m sick of seeing every team in America thrive w/ true freshmen but ND always has an excuse as to why their freshmen have to sit for two years (Kyle Hamilton excluded).

This. This mystifies me, how does this happen seemingly every year?

 

[Irish YJ]

Chris Tyree can’t get here soon enough. I pray we don’t hear excuses like “he hasn’t grasped the offense yet” or “he struggles in pass blocking” or “he’s not physically ready yet” b/c he needs to start next season. I’m sick of seeing every team in America thrive w/ true freshmen but ND always has an excuse as to why their freshmen have to sit for two years (Kyle Hamilton excluded).

He's pretty tiny. I'm sure we'll see him in situations, but don't count on him to be an every down back year 1.

 

[Irishnuke]

Felt bad for Finke after that 80ish yard catch and run was called back.

Not sure if there is a ton you can learn from a game like today. Book looked good but Duke looked like shit. I expected them to put up more of a fight but they looked clueless out there. Not sure if that’s because of our defense or just bad game plan and execution on their part. It was a nice breath of fresh air to not worry if we were going to lose.

 

[ulukinatme]

Sounds a little like an apologist, but whatever. He just beat the 10th most talent laden team in the country, with the 46th most talented team in the country. Anyone that's around the guy sings his praises, he's gonna be a really good coach. Of course he hasn't done much relative to BK, he's 30 years younger, that's like saying Zion isn't on LeBron James level because he doesn't have Lebron's accolades. Except we don't have LeBron, we have Draymond Green at best.

It's not just the Michigan game man, it's the Clemson demoralization and the 2012 Bama embarrassment. The guy, at least while he's been at ND, hasn't shown an ability to beat greater teams with lesser talent, in fact he ends up getting outcoached, badly, every time. The game against Oklahoma is the only one I can think of that's even a halfway possibility to call an elite win, and I don't wanna hear about beating Michigan State and Stanford cuz that shouldn't ever be the benchmark here.

Look, it may not seem like it with this/these posts, but I'm grateful for BK pulling ND out of the cellar, I honestly am, but it's time to let someone else push them over the top.

Don't want to hear about Michigan State? In 2013 Kelly outcoached Dantonio with Tommy Rees at QB. That's impressive by itself, but Michigan State went on to win all their other games that season in addition to the Rose Bowl. That was their only defeat all season, which is pretty amazing.

Penn State is going to get destroyed by Ohio State later this month. They also squeaked by Iowa and Pitt. They're a good team, but they weren't the #4 team in the country. It's still a great win for Minnesota, but this isn't like Minnesota knocked off Alabama.

Nobody liked losing to Clemson or Alabama, but lets be honest...were we favored in either game? Yeah, BK got outcoached, by the only two currently active coaches that are without a doubt better than he. Realistically I would say we're not as close to either team athletically as the recruiting sites would lead us to believe. Someone said ND's 2018 class was something like #10 while Clemson's was #8 or #6. Honestly though, would you rather have Trevor Lawrence as your QB, or PJ if you had the choice? Did we look like we matched up well with either team athletically when we played? Sure, we hung with Clemson for 3 out of the 4 quarters, but when we lost two guys to injury it was pretty plain that we had some real depth issues. Clemson loses a few guys to suspension and they looked just fine through the whole playoffs (I still think the entire team should have been tested when 3 players come back for banned substances in a random testing). If you bring Fleck in, with all of ND's challenges, I seriously doubt he's going to just knock off Clemson or Alabama. Lets see how Minny handlea Ohio State, because that's a closer barometer to Alabama or Clemson even if it's not the same with Meyer not there.

 

[T-Boone]

I thought on offense Book, Finke and Claypool were excellent. Jahmir Smith was okay.
On defense I thought Bilal was good, we are going to miss him, as was JOK. Bracy was also okay when he was on.
It was a very good defensive effort without really any stand outs.

 

[stlnd01]

If your first instinct after a good, easy win is to come and shit on the coach, QB and team generally, I’m not sure why you’re watching. We get 12 college football games, guys. Might as well enjoy them.

 

[stlnd01]

As for the game: D played good, linebackers especially. And Kareem. That’s a good sign for next week. We’ll need them. Thought Duke’s offense was surprisingly poor for a Cutcliffe team.
Hope Okwara isn’t too badly hurt.

As for the offense, I don’t know what to do with the running game. O Line is shot and while we have four RBs none are especially good. I’d feed Jahmir more, as he’s got better instincts than Armstrong and better burst than Jones.

Book had his best game yet this year (which is only saying so much). I like the idea of running him more to get him in the game and keep the D honest. But, not too much. Nice to see Finke have a good game, even if I’d still like to see less of him (tough when you’re down to 4 WRs though). God bless Chase Claypool.

 

[ThePiombino]

Good win over a bad team.

Is it just me or is it clear the staff has zero confidence in Phil?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[MacIrish75]

If your first instinct after a good, easy win is to come and shit on the coach, QB and team generally, I’m not sure why you’re watching. We get 12 college football games, guys. Might as well enjoy them.

Reps.

We did, quite literally, what everyone has been asking this team to do all season: Take care of business against a team they should, on paper, be able to handle. I had fun watching last night and enjoyed not having to gnash teeth until the final drive. I enjoyed watching Book succeed. I enjoyed watching Chase Claypool be an absolute manbeast out there. I enjoyed watching the joy and jubilation when George T scored his first TD. I enjoyed watching a team respond to having an 80 yd play called back- poor punt-opposing TD-turnover sequence and grinding through it.

It was a solid showing *almost* across the board. Here’s to hoping for a repeat performance against Navy...which I almost wish could be played at a neutral site every year because I think they always get a certain sense of pride in being able to come INTO Notre Dame Stadium and knock off the Irish.

 

[BabyIrish]

For all those who say Kelly can’t motivate, your clueless. They came together this week and worked their butt off and it showed, when in theory they don’t have anything to play for but pride. Congratulations Irish! This was a dominating win and you earned it. Keep it going against Navy. Go Irish!

 

[Redbar]

I was actually a little worried about this one. Team came out ready to play. Everyone seemed loose and we got out to a good start.
Refs got a little too involved for a stretch at the end of the half IMO.
Surprised how much I liked the game production and announcers, they were more pleasant than our own on NBC.
Really wanted to see more from PJ. Have to get him more than 4 minutes of garbage time. Same with C’Bo and Jahmir and Lenzy and Houston, more reps please. But it was nice to see the captains step up and play loose.
Really a nice win and hopefully our confidence is all the way back for the last push of the season and a big bowl win!

 

[Irish2155]

Mostly positives last night but...

Hope we didn’t win the toss. We have no business taking the ball first.

WTF on Vaughn on the TD? I really wanted that shutout.

Really wish we would had put this one away earlier (mid-3rd) to get Phil a full quarter of work. The booth made comment that Lawrence has barely played in the 4th this year and remember hearing the same about Tua last year - no wonder these powerhouses can just plug and play game ready guys when need be.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Widely accused "Book Apologist" here:

Ian was great. Took the offense on his back even with the running end of it. Made lemonade again.

The otherwise impotence of the OLine play MIGHT be due to the replacements not yet gelling with the rest of the remaining line. I hope. Losing Hainsey and Big Tommy is a TERRIBLE deficit to quickly paste over though.

Can't imagine a worse set of RBs on a top quality team, however. Un-redshirt Williams, please.

Clark Lea is Clark Lea. He'll save our butts most games even with the injuries.

 

[Blaise]

If your first instinct after a good, easy win is to come and shit on the coach, QB and team generally, I’m not sure why you’re watching. We get 12 college football games, guys. Might as well enjoy them.

Could not agree with something more. You are favored over a team by 7 and you dominate them. the prediction thread had a lot of fans saying this is a loss and yet ND dominates the game. With exception of Special teams, not sure there was a part of their game where they came close to out playing us.

However, people want to run to the message board and talk about firing Kelly? Is Kelly the guy who will get us a NC, I don't know. What I do know is we get 12 games a year, why not watch them and truly enjoy them. Worry about the Kelly nonsense in the off season. Right now, enjoy watching Notre Dame Football and these kids who are giving it their all.

Great Win #BeatNavy

 

[ACamp1900]

Positives: we won
Negatives: I couldn’t watch because ACCN isn’t a thing in much of the country

 

[Rizzophil]

Can’t believe how much our fans cry and complain when we dominated last night on the road at night

 

[Irish2155]

Widely accused "Book Apologist" here:

Ian was great. Took the offense on his back even with the running end of it. Made lemonade again.

The otherwise impotence of the OLine play MIGHT be due to the replacements not yet gelling with the rest of the remaining line. I hope. Losing Hainsey and Big Tommy is a TERRIBLE deficit to quickly paste over though.

Can't imagine a worse set of RBs on a top quality team, however. Un-redshirt Williams, please.

Clark Lea is Clark Lea. He'll save our butts most games even with the injuries.

#22 on both LSU and ‘Bama make our backs look like small children.

 

[irishnd31]

If your first instinct after a good, easy win is to come and shit on the coach, QB and team generally, I’m not sure why you’re watching. We get 12 college football games, guys. Might as well enjoy them.

This x 1000

 

[IrishFaninTX]

This thread feels like we lost the game or barely won. I realize losing to Michigan made this entire season feel like a waste but we still have games left and going 10-2 is still a very real possibility, something we weren't predicted to do. I enjoyed watching the Irish take care of business last night. This year's Navy worries me. Hope we can get the win with no major injuries.

 

[vuirish]

Good win against a team ND should have dominated and did. Great game plan by Coach Lea.

 

[Irishize]

He's pretty tiny. I'm sure we'll see him in situations, but don't count on him to be an every down back year 1.

I’m fine w/ that and I think at least one of ND’s other backs can help carry the load. Just need a running threat that can overcome an average OL

 

[SouthernIndianaNDFan]

I mean, if you guys are happy with the Camping World Bowl in Year 10 of Kelly's tenure, then okay. I'm most definitely not, so pardon me if I'm tired of winning meaningless bowl games and getting smashed when it matters. It's time for a change, whether you recognize it or not.