General team info

NDPhilly

NDPhilly

Philly Torqued
Messages
16,441
Reaction score
16,721
We were a 2pt dog at A&M and won by 10
We were a 6pt favorite vs Lville and won by 7

If Leonard doesn’t get hurt against NIU or he’s pulled when he’s no longer a threat to run, we probably think of this team as as good as we thought they were preseason.

Overall would agree that Leonard is the sole reason we are slightly worse than I thought we could be. We’ve overcome a ton in injuries elsewhere.
 
Jiggafini19Deux

Jiggafini19Deux

Minister of Delayed Gratification
Messages
13,476
Reaction score
14,201
Additional context:

Florida State, Wisconsin, LSU, Ole Miss, Virginia Tech all seem far more "disappointing" than Notre Dame. My bias could be influencing my perspective here, but from a national point of view it's hard not to look at those and go past Notre Dame if you're talking about how things have changed since August.

I don't think enough is being said about the injuries this team as already sustained, on top of the TE1 still working his way back to 100% on top of all of that. The lightning rod is Leonard, obviously, and Denbrock. Freeman teams have displayed that they are nothing if not resilient like Kelly teams. There is a grit factor that seems to be a constant, and I think that's because of the maturity and natural leadership they seem to find in players when recruiting them.

They've got some guys that don't piss and moan when they get knocked down. They knuckle up, get back on their feet and keep fighting.
 
irishff1014

irishff1014

Well-known member
Messages
26,509
Reaction score
9,284
Jiggafini19Deux said:
Additional context:

Florida State, Wisconsin, LSU, Ole Miss, Virginia Tech all seem far more "disappointing" than Notre Dame. My bias could be influencing my perspective here, but from a national point of view it's hard not to look at those and go past Notre Dame if you're talking about how things have changed since August.

I don't think enough is being said about the injuries this team as already sustained, on top of the TE1 still working his way back to 100% on top of all of that. The lightning rod is Leonard, obviously, and Denbrock. Freeman teams have displayed that they are nothing if not resilient like Kelly teams. There is a grit factor that seems to be a constant, and I think that's because of the maturity and natural leadership they seem to find in players when recruiting them.

They've got some guys that don't piss and moan when they get knocked down. They knuckle up, get back on their feet and keep fighting.
Click to expand...

No of these teams lost to NI U at home.
 
Crazy Balki

Crazy Balki

Site Assigned Optimist
Messages
7,868
Reaction score
4,477
irishff1014 said:
No of these teams lost to NI U at home.
Click to expand...
Ole Miss lost to Kentucky at home.

Wisconsin got routed at home by Bama, scoring a whopping 10 points against a team that just gave up 40 to Vanderbilt.

FSU lost to Memphis, Georgia Tech, Boston College, got routed by SMU and is currently getting routed by Clemson at home. They're on the verge of 1-5.

Tech is 3-3 and lost to Rutgers and Vanderbilt.

Only one I think would be contested is LSU, but they've really yet to play anybody of substance outside of their loss to USC and they lucked out against South Carolina, who should have won, but the refs handed LSU the game. We'll know more about them next week when Ole Miss comes to town.

Which of these teams beats A&M? Maybe LSU, that's about it.
 
I

irishu

Guest
ND moving up to at least #12, likely #11

Also got hand delivered a step-by-step tutorial for beating USC

Very productive bye week for the Irish

Are Navy and Army our two toughest games left?
 
sportallyr

sportallyr

Sport-all-year
Messages
1,999
Reaction score
357
irishu said:
ND moving up to at least #12, likely #11

Also got hand delivered a step-by-step tutorial for beating USC

Very productive bye week for the Irish

Are Navy and Army our two toughest games left?
Click to expand...

Missouri, Michigan, USC, Tennessee all go down. Miami looks like they are going to lose now too. Irish could be back in top 10!
 
I

irish4ever

Well-known member
Messages
3,792
Reaction score
896
sportallyr said:
Missouri, Michigan, USC, Tennessee all go down. Miami looks like they are going to lose now too. Irish could be back in top 10!
Click to expand...
Didn't happen unfortunately (f*ck the Canes). With Miami coming back to win and ND on a Bye Wk, I'm expecting to be ranked at 11 with Clemson jumping them. I hope that I'm wrong, but I know the voter's disdain for the Irish.
 
S

stpeteirish

House Skeptic
Messages
4,320
Reaction score
1,817
irish4ever said:
Didn't happen unfortunately (f*ck the Canes). With Miami coming back to win and ND on a Bye Wk, I'm expecting to be ranked at 11 with Clemson jumping them. I hope that I'm wrong, but I know the voter's disdain for the Irish.
Click to expand...
If Clemson jumps us we’ll be 12th. Unless you have us passing Tennessee which I doubt.
Really can’t see Clemson’s win moving the needle at all,FSU is 1-5
 
N

NDFAN2008

Well-known member
Messages
7,330
Reaction score
5,655
irishu said:
ND moving up to at least #12, likely #11

Also got hand delivered a step-by-step tutorial for beating USC

Very productive bye week for the Irish

Are Navy and Army our two toughest games left?
Click to expand...
Beating USC will be easy Love and Price should get 20 touches each and let Leonard run mix in a deep
Shot here and there they can’t stop the run if their life depends on it
 
GowerND11

GowerND11

Well-known member
Messages
6,536
Reaction score
3,287
So I went to the PSU/UCLA game this weekend (free tickets, and my wife is a PSU fan, only fair I go since I dragged her to the NIU game...........).

Some observations of mine inside Beaver Stadium compared to many a game at Notre Dame Stadium:

1: It is LOUD there. I know they have a stadium that can hold 30,000+ more than ours, and more students... But wow. And this was against UCLA!

1B: It was consistently loud. Every third down, everyone was on their feet yelling. All. Game. Long. For a NOON start.

2: It's something, as a Pennsylvanian that I knew, but it really took until this weekend to truly understand. PSU is a large state school, with the largest alumni base in the country (world???). As such, many many alumni come back every weekend to tailgate and go nuts at the games. They aren't there as some kind of show, "oh look at me the alumnus, bow down to me" that seems to permeate within our blue hairs.

3: As a large state school, PSU has a lot of fans within the state, even if they never went there. This makes getting to games super easy, relative to us Subway Domers. While ND football can boast about how many fans we have across the country, that truly makes it harder to get diehard fans into Northern Indiana consistently to fill the stadium.

4: Penn State has an overnight RV lot where a lot of fans set up shop starting Thursday night. Therefore, I think you get a lot of amped up excitement amongst the non-student fans.

5: Beaver Stadium is truly a sight to see. It's nowhere as pleasing to the eye as Notre Dame stadium to me; especially after the Campus Crossroads project IMO. But to enter such a massive stadium and look all around you. Wow.
 
I

irish4ever

Well-known member
Messages
3,792
Reaction score
896
GowerND11 said:
So I went to the PSU/UCLA game this weekend (free tickets, and my wife is a PSU fan, only fair I go since I dragged her to the NIU game...........).

Some observations of mine inside Beaver Stadium compared to many a game at Notre Dame Stadium:

1: It is LOUD there. I know they have a stadium that can hold 30,000+ more than ours, and more students... But wow. And this was against UCLA!

1B: It was consistently loud. Every third down, everyone was on their feet yelling. All. Game. Long. For a NOON start.

2: It's something, as a Pennsylvanian that I knew, but it really took until this weekend to truly understand. PSU is a large state school, with the largest alumni base in the country (world???). As such, many many alumni come back every weekend to tailgate and go nuts at the games. They aren't there as some kind of show, "oh look at me the alumnus, bow down to me" that seems to permeate within our blue hairs.

3: As a large state school, PSU has a lot of fans within the state, even if they never went there. This makes getting to games super easy, relative to us Subway Domers. While ND football can boast about how many fans we have across the country, that truly makes it harder to get diehard fans into Northern Indiana consistently to fill the stadium.

4: Penn State has an overnight RV lot where a lot of fans set up shop starting Thursday night. Therefore, I think you get a lot of amped up excitement amongst the non-student fans.

5: Beaver Stadium is truly a sight to see. It's nowhere as pleasing to the eye as Notre Dame stadium to me; especially after the Campus Crossroads project IMO. But to enter such a massive stadium and look all around you. Wow.
Click to expand...
I'm sure more so than the meatchicken Pig House! Fuck michigan!!!
 
Mattmags

Mattmags

Varsity Club Member
Messages
1,431
Reaction score
218
NDPhilly said:
Overall would agree that Leonard is the sole reason we are slightly worse than I thought we could be. We’ve overcome a ton in injuries elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Looking at the entire body of work thus far, I think we all agree that Leonard is has underachieved. But to say he is the SOLE reason we are slightly worse than we could be is questionable. You don't think the decimated offensive line has anything to do with it? You say that we've overcome a ton of injuries, but we've really just plugged and played anyone with a pulse. I'm not a Leonard defender, but I think most on this board are ignoring the fact that the offensive line is a greater problem than Leonard. The offensive playcalling/performance has been a direct reflection of an OL that is trying their best but limited in talent. I'm not saying our OL backups are terrible. I'm saying that they were put into a situation that is concerning. Plugging in 1 OL is manageable. Plugging in 3 is troublesome.

If ND loses another game, it will be easy to blame Leonard. But we need to step back and look at why.
 
Free Manera

Free Manera

Well-known member
Messages
2,949
Reaction score
3,547
GowerND11 said:
So I went to the PSU/UCLA game this weekend (free tickets, and my wife is a PSU fan, only fair I go since I dragged her to the NIU game...........).

Some observations of mine inside Beaver Stadium compared to many a game at Notre Dame Stadium:

1: It is LOUD there. I know they have a stadium that can hold 30,000+ more than ours, and more students... But wow. And this was against UCLA!

1B: It was consistently loud. Every third down, everyone was on their feet yelling. All. Game. Long. For a NOON start.

2: It's something, as a Pennsylvanian that I knew, but it really took until this weekend to truly understand. PSU is a large state school, with the largest alumni base in the country (world???). As such, many many alumni come back every weekend to tailgate and go nuts at the games. They aren't there as some kind of show, "oh look at me the alumnus, bow down to me" that seems to permeate within our blue hairs.

3: As a large state school, PSU has a lot of fans within the state, even if they never went there. This makes getting to games super easy, relative to us Subway Domers. While ND football can boast about how many fans we have across the country, that truly makes it harder to get diehard fans into Northern Indiana consistently to fill the stadium.

4: Penn State has an overnight RV lot where a lot of fans set up shop starting Thursday night. Therefore, I think you get a lot of amped up excitement amongst the non-student fans.

5: Beaver Stadium is truly a sight to see. It's nowhere as pleasing to the eye as Notre Dame stadium to me; especially after the Campus Crossroads project IMO. But to enter such a massive stadium and look all around you. Wow.
Click to expand...
I've been to a bunch of games there, across the whole spectrum of opponents (white-out night game vs OSU to a noon kick against Kent State). The night games are intimidating AF. But so are the noon games. It looks like the stadium goes up for miles, and it is loud whenever the situation dictates.

It is kind of the model for a CFB home field advantage.
 
stlnd01

stlnd01

Was away. Now returned.
Messages
13,386
Reaction score
10,247
Mattmags said:
Looking at the entire body of work thus far, I think we all agree that Leonard is has underachieved. But to say he is the SOLE reason we are slightly worse than we could be is questionable. You don't think the decimated offensive line has anything to do with it? You say that we've overcome a ton of injuries, but we've really just plugged and played anyone with a pulse. I'm not a Leonard defender, but I think most on this board are ignoring the fact that the offensive line is a greater problem than Leonard. The offensive playcalling/performance has been a direct reflection of an OL that is trying their best but limited in talent. I'm not saying our OL backups are terrible. I'm saying that they were put into a situation that is concerning. Plugging in 1 OL is manageable. Plugging in 3 is troublesome.

If ND loses another game, it will be easy to blame Leonard. But we need to step back and look at why.
Click to expand...
Rakes Report this AM noted this stat...
irishsportsdaily.com

6 Thoughts on a Thursday

Thoughts on where the Notre Dame offense can go in the back half of the season, on evaluating the roster during the bye week, on Mike Denbrock adapting to prevent negative plays, and more
irishsportsdaily.com irishsportsdaily.com

Leonard deserves a lot of credit for his ability to avoid pressure and avoiding turnover worthy plays. Out of all the dropbacks Leonard has been pressured, he’s only been responsible for 2.9% of those pressures. That’s tied for the eighth lowest percentage in the country. He’s also tough to tackle as are Notre Dame’s backs, who gain a lot of yards after contact.

Leonard’s turnover-worthy play percentage is also only 2.0% according to PFF. The bad pick against Northern Illinois sticks out like a sore thumb, but it wasn’t foreshadowing what we’d see from him in the future.
Click to expand...

I was ready to fire Leonard into the sun a couple of weeks ago, but it's true that his escapabilty and sheer strength are huge advantages with our current OL situation. If he stops making bad throws and get more in sync with the WRs (and he's been better the last two games), we can definitely live with Leonard at QB. Likewise I think this bye week helps the OL get healthy and gel a little.

Oddly enough my biggest concern right now - at least as pertains to our regular season performance and winning out to make the playoffs - might be the DL. We'll need to be able to get off the field against running teams like Ga. Tech, Navy, Army. That means negative plays, not giving up four yards a carry. Cross and Mills haven't really lived up to their press clippings, Oben's meh and the other outside guys are hurt. The LBs are young. Golden and Washington will need to earn their keep the back half of the season.
 
Irish#1

Irish#1

Livin' Your Dream!
Staff member
Messages
44,577
Reaction score
20,027
stlnd01 said:
Rakes Report this AM noted this stat...
irishsportsdaily.com

6 Thoughts on a Thursday

Thoughts on where the Notre Dame offense can go in the back half of the season, on evaluating the roster during the bye week, on Mike Denbrock adapting to prevent negative plays, and more
irishsportsdaily.com irishsportsdaily.com



I was ready to fire Leonard into the sun a couple of weeks ago, but it's true that his escapabilty and sheer strength are huge advantages with our current OL situation. If he stops making bad throws and get more in sync with the WRs (and he's been better the last two games), we can definitely live with Leonard at QB. Likewise I think this bye week helps the OL get healthy and gel a little.

Oddly enough my biggest concern right now - at least as pertains to our regular season performance and winning out to make the playoffs - might be the DL. We'll need to be able to get off the field against running teams like Ga. Tech, Navy, Army. That means negative plays, not giving up four yards a carry. Cross and Mills haven't really lived up to their press clippings, Oben's meh and the other outside guys are hurt. The LBs are young. Golden and Washington will need to earn their keep the back half of the season.
Click to expand...
Agree with this, but I think we'll be okay against Army and Navy. It didn't take long for Golden to figure out that kind of offense. Cross and Mils have been a little bit of a disappointment, but they won't be facing O-lines a lot bigger than them when they play those two. As long as the youngsters play disciplined, I think our lads will take care of business. Haven't watched GT to have an opinion on them.
 
HouseofPain

HouseofPain

Well-known member
Messages
631
Reaction score
561
Playing Navy and GT will be tough because those guys practice against stopping the run everyday, which is all ND has to offer. If ND doesnt develop some ability to pass, these games will be very tough to overcome.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top