I'm upset, but optimistic...

[HereComeTheIrish]

Whatever you want! My posting tonight is sponsored by Captain Morgan.

Beautiful....

(And that Beautiful was brought to you by....Guinness. Delicious, nutritious and the kids love trying to get the little floaty thingy out of the bottle after you're done.... Hours of fun I tell ya!!!)

 

[irishtrain]

I know you cant win a game from a quality opponent early when your main guy goes down for 1/2 the game. With that said I am bothered by the fact that we couldnt stop One guy, but will lick my wounds and move on because this team showed character/poise. Now the idea is to regroup, understand what happened and get better. I thought the Mich State game would be pivotal but from a 2-0 start not 1-1. There are players on this team that Kelly has improved-Teo,Allen,Christ the entire O line (plays well enough to win in this system). The 'D' will hit you in the mouth and they are game but they dont know how to win just yet. The will is there but the concept of winning is still being taught. My hope is that he wins enough this year to attract the players needed to fill in around the handfull of fine defensive players he already has. Kelly will do this any fool can see it after today-that game with Mich is completely different if Crist plays the entire game. Those people from Mich know the coach will burn up that qb just like he used up the qb he had last year. That scheme doesnt cut it in todays college football-he wont be 'Red Granging' it all year because he wont be able to withstand the pace/punishment. What does last is the attitude change Kelly has installed-now its put to the test.

 

[Junkhead]

It's been since the Holtz era that I remember seeing hits like today. Unfortunately, the scUM players held the ball every time. The D is better, just not there yet. It will be ugly when we play WM or Tulsa.

 

[IrishinSyria]

It's been since the Holtz era that I remember seeing hits like today. Unfortunately, the scUM players held the ball every time. The D is better, just not there yet. It will be ugly when we play WM or Tulsa.

You've got to tip your hat to the Michigan players: they played tough. If the D got points for big hits we would've run away with this one.

 

[IrishGiant]

I'm optomistic that we will be better than last year, but for the live of me I can't get the image of Crist and Montana launching balls into the stands at the end. Come on, just put it in play and see what happens.

 

[IrishinSyria]

I'm optomistic that we will be better than last year, but for the live of me I can't get the image of Crist and Montana launching balls into the stands at the end. Come on, just put it in play and see what happens.

Not to make excuses, but Crist definitely had adrenaline arm on that last toss. He was trying to just throw it up (see the link I posted in the interview thread). Without a precise target he just let it sail. Obviously, that can't happen. But its tough to blame the kid, I was so full of adrenaline at that point I couldn't stay still, can't even imagine what was going on in his brain.

 

[IrishGiant]

Not to make excuses, but Crist definitely had adrenaline arm on that last toss. He was trying to just throw it up (see the link I posted in the interview thread). Without a precise target he just let it sail. Obviously, that can't happen. But its tough to blame the kid, I was so full of adrenaline at that point I couldn't stay still, can't even imagine what was going on in his brain.

i know he's just a kid, and this is his second start, but you shoulda seen the living room of my buddies house when he sent that pigskin into orbit! "What the f was that" was the first words uttered after about 30 seconds of stunned silence. He better learn to control his emotions because we are gonna need him again at the end of a close game in the future I'm sure.

 

[WaveDomer]

I actually think this game has the potential to be a team "unity" or "gelling" type game. Your starting QB goes out after just rolling down the field. Then the momentum goes with the INT and ND is back on its heels. We still go into the half only down 14 when we had pretty much no offense after Crist goes out. In the second half the defense adjusts and really clamps down. Sure, Michigan missed a number of field goals, but for the most part, the D did its job in the second half. The offense also starts to roll in the second. This team didn't quit at all. With Crist in the whole game I think ND wins it going away. The D broke on the final drive, but they still played a great 2nd half. This could be one of those games that just cements a team going forward. It depends on how the coaches handle it.

 

[ChiefSecond]

I just hope it doesnt have the opposite effect..getting this win was HUGE for momentum and honestly it gave the record a little cushion heading into games with msu on the road, and pitt/stanford.

We would have blown this team up today if not for the injury.

Crists touch on the deep ball is bad bad baaddd. That basically cuts michael floyds influence in half.

 

[WaveDomer]

I just hope it doesnt have the opposite effect..getting this win was HUGE for momentum and honestly it gave the record a little cushion heading into games with msu on the road, and pitt/stanford.

We would have blown this team up today if not for the injury.

Crists touch on the deep ball is bad bad baaddd. That basically cuts michael floyds influence in half.

Don't forget about the 95 yard pass to Rudolph. That was a great ball and a great play for him standing in the pocket, in the endzone, to deliver.

 

[TexasNDFan]

I know the offense takes what the defense is giving them, but they need to start finding ways to start getting the ball to Floyd. He also needs to be moved all over the field, whether it means to motion him all over the place or put him in the slot, but they need to make the defense have to worry about where he lines up on every play.

 

[TexasNDFan]

With that said I am bothered by the fact that we couldnt stop One guy, but will lick my wounds and move on because this team showed character/poise.

Well that was one heck of a guy, it's just one those deals where Rodriquez has finally found the perfect guy for his offense, much like Meyer had in Tebow. Robinson will end up being one of those "you can't stop him, but only hope to contain him" type of guys. I think Mayock said it best when he was explaining that ND was in a tough situation because they were having to defend the whole width of the field.

 

[WaveDomer]

Driving to work after the game I was listening to Coleman and Kiper on ESPN. Coleman has good things to say about ND and how the team is playing. He says they look like a college team should. They are in the right spots. Play hard, etc. etc. He said he could see 8 wins this year.

I'm not seeing how people can be negative on this team right now and on Kelly. It is so obvious to me that this team is improved. It is obvious to me that they are playing with pretty good fundamentals, heart, and all those intangibles that are needed to win. Maybe I'm missing something. Denard Robinson is like Jordan. He's going to get his points or yards. He'll do it all year. ND should be proud of how they played and handled adversity today. The team will be better because of this game.

 

[Ancient Hunter]

The Offense

We lost our starting QB who scored 17 points in his first 3 drives for nearly half the game. If that doesn't sum up why we loss I dont know what will. We could have easily blown them out with Crist in the whole game. I know some people are upset that BK didn't play him after his first drive but the cast I was watching said he couldn't see straight out of 1 eye, and I dunno about you but if the poor kid has got a concussion you dont go risking his entire future.

The Defense

This was actually the brightest part of my night and it gave me hope for the future: our Def kept us the game. With this D and our starting O this team can go far, obviously there is room for improvement but our D showed up big last night and if they had had Crist on the other side of the ball we would have blown them out. And this is in light of the fact that Denard Robbinson is a beast of a QB, I mean he ran for another school record last night against our thurd stringer QB and they still only beat us by 4 pts. Totally impressed.

The half time call to go for a TD and not a FG

This will be debated for sometime, and it will stick on BK for a while I suspect. But I think you really need to go back to that moment when he decided to go for it and see what you were thinking. Were you all for it? or were you screaming field goal, I for one was proud he decided to go for it, Crist's condition was unknown, UM were getting the ball back at the half, and we hadn't scored since our first drive, we needed some big points. He rolled the dice, he took a chance, and I admire that in a coach. And I dont believe those 3 points would have decided the outcome had he gone for a FG, it would have changed the dynamic of the game and only Lord knows what would have happened then. Woulda, shoulda, coulda right?

Conclusion

Another poster made the good point that this loss was made easier to swallow by the fact that this year we lost from things out of our hands, it was a cruel twist of fate to see our first stringer go, last year our team wasn't good enough but this year it just wasn't our day.

was my night ruined? HELL YES, ( I even ordered food after and they fucked it up... I almost tore my place apart.) but I have still got alot of hope for this team. before this game i was actually worried about the MSU and Stanford games, but if we can keep our boys fit and our D can step it up like it did last night then i seriously think we can beat any team on the schedule.

 

[irish1958]

Holtz was 5-6 his first year.
Give Kelly a chance to get his style of player in 2 or3 years.
He runs such a completely different offense than prior ND coaches, it stands to reason he might need a different type of player to get it to work.
Check the style of offense of the national champion in the past several years: running QB, spread the field. Check the rosters in the NFL: not a whole lot of success for the college style spread/option QB. Robinson may be a Heisman candidate or winner (I think he might have a chance if he continues to put up 500+ yrds per game) but there is not a single Pro team that will draft him for QB.
Our receivers appear to have a problem separating and getting open. Our last two QB's were extraordinarily accurate and were able to get away with some throws because of the skill of the receivers in taking the ball away from the defense, not in getting open.
I don't know what skill set is needed to separate from the defender, but I am sure Brian Kelly knows.
I am extremely optimistic and feel sure we will win ten or eleven games. I guess 13-0 is out, but 12-1 is still in play
GO IRISH

 

[theclassickiller]

With that said I am bothered by the fact that we couldnt stop One guy, but will lick my wounds and move on because this team showed character/poise.

Actually if you go back and watch (or look at the game stats, or whatever you want) you'll see that we actually did stop him while Crist was in and made him look like an average option quarterback. He didn't look any more impressive commanding his offense in the second half than Robert Marve.

While Crist was in the Michigan offense only managed 230 total yards, of which probably 180 or so were Robinson. He was only unstoppable when our offense was unmoveable. The only time he really broke off impressive runs or led impressive drives was when our defense came back onto the field immediately after they left it (the last TD of the first half and the second half).

Our defense was a different squad when they knew we had a chance to win. In the first half they were on damage control and played with their backs against the wall. Once Crist came in they really held Robinson in check very well.

I'm impressed by our defense. If Crist was in the entire time Michigan would have scored twice, that's it. We will limit some teams to season lows this year, that's for sure.