Miami (OH) Postgame

[rtrn2glory]

The OL has been our strongest O unit with the RB’s (including Riley running). They had no problem protecting Steve with a young O line in the Sun Bowl and we moved the ball efficiently. Don’t blame the O line for RL.

I will.... Way too many pre snap penalties do far. That will cost us in big games. As an O Line guy that shit pisses me off. Not to mention. We were at home yesterday so you can't blame crowd noise

 

[stlnd01]

They gave up 119 rushing yards to a team that averaged less than 2 ypc before the game started.

Oddly the game is not determined by the number of rushing yards you allow.

 

[MacIrish75]

I understand the adage that the backup QB is always everyone’s favorite player and whatnot, but it just isn’t plausible to me that Angeli looks that poor in practice where a veteran coordinator like Denbrock isn’t right in MF’s ear lobbying to switch QBs.

 

[Katzenboyer]

Right before fall camp OL was probably our weakest link, so much so that a lot of people wondered if it was going to be the reason we didn't make the playoffs.

Since then, they've lost 3/5 of the group that were starting. No coach worth their salt is going to put an inexperienced QB behind that line. RL is maddening at times, but he's also the best built to handle the negativity that will continue the rest of the season. Some of it his fault a lot isn't.

Maybe angeli could, maybe mincey could, but it would be a confidence disaster for Carr I think.

Since when is Angeli an inexperienced QB? He’s been in the program for 3 years now and started a bowl game.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

botched punt return that results in turnover
great defensive stand & interception to prevent Miami scoring points on TO
botched FG attempt
Junior follows up int w/ great tackle in space to force punt
Junior gets flagged for block in the back which upon further review looked questionable
Riley makes great run on first drive of 2H but instead of protecting the ball he opts for the stiff arm leaving the ball vulnerable to a punch out & ND loses ball on TO
Boubacar makes his presence known. Awesome game
Pendelton makes his presence known. Three flags at home!?
Raridon is a good receiver
Raridon is not a good blocker
Flanagan is not a good blocker
Great rebound game for Rendell

The end result looks like ND did what it was supposed to do. The mental lapses in between were maddening & inexcusable when one considers the NIU debacle has to be fresh on their minds. Shows they haven’t learned to overcome that.

Gonna try to watch the UL/GT game later today. Looking at their stat sheet, UL didn’t impress running or passing but Brohm is the better HC in next week’s matchup. My kneejerk reaction is that the ND offense we‘ve seen thus far isn’t beating UL next weekend

 

[IRISHDODGER]

Any feedback yet on Wagner’s apparent injury? He was limping for a series in the 2H. Guess RL didn’t notice b/c he could’ve let the clock expire as it was between quarters.

Also, so a lot of fans asking why Morrison & Gray weren’t seen in the 2H. Any word on that?

 

[arrowryan]

Any feedback yet on Wagner’s apparent injury? He was limping for a series in the 2H. Guess RL didn’t notice b/c he could’ve let the clock expire as it was between quarters.

Also, so a lot of fans asking why Morrison & Gray weren’t seen in the 2H. Any word on that?

They were up 28-3. Golden/Mickens like to rotate their guys. Mickey and Moore needed some time, especially Moore.

 

[ndfanatic78]

Fine. I'll start.

1: Gripe if you want but that's way better than losing.
2: I don't know what more to say about Leonard. He's a great runner, tough kid, likeable, but four games into his third season as a major-college QB1 and he's still just missing passes all over the place. I don't know how that gets better, but until it does there's a real ceiling on this team and it's somewhere short of making the playoffs.
3: Which is too bad because our defense is for real. I know it's just Miami of Ohio but aside from one or two drives where they could run, we locked them down. Three points. Fewer than 10 points per game on the season. That's as good as it gets.
4: I've been on the Traore train since he showed up but that kid is a stud. Drayk Bown flashed today too, and Christian Gray. The defense will continue to be good even after the guys who came back for this season are gone.
5: Nice to see the Aussie punter let it loose. Stop aiming shit and just boom them.
6: WTF with special teams otherwise though. Faison I kind of get on his first punt back from being hurt, but we also seem to have a problem executing field goals. Nice that we blocked one of theirs at least.
7: Back to Leonard. It worries me that Freeman seems so committed to doubling down here. Angeli brings a vertical passing game. Minchey and Carr are also talented. We should at least try to work them in to keep defenses on their toes. I do believe Leonard opens up our running game but is Freeman so conservative that he'll focus on that at the expense of any downfield passing threat? That might win us nine games but it won't beat USC or anyone in the playoffs, and gives zero margin for error even against tougher outs like Louisville and Ga. Tech.
8: Beaux Collins is low key our best WR since... ?
9: Enjoy Jeremiyah Love while we have him. Like Audric and Kyren before, he'll be gone too soon.
10: That said, Amil Wagner should absolutely be credited with a touchdown.
11: Next week? I think we win, in hideous fashion. 17-14 or something like that. Just a rock fight. That's fine this team is built for rock fights. It's clearly Freeman's way. For better or worse.

You do realize Michigan just beat USC with a QB who passed for under 50 yards right?

 

[IRISHDODGER]

They were up 28-3. Golden/Mickens like to rotate their guys. Mickey and Moore needed some time, especially Moore.

That’s what I was hoping to hear. Thank you!

 

[ndfanatic78]

They gave up 119 rushing yards to a team that averaged less than 2 ypc before the game started.

Did you ever think that was the plan. Let them run the ball because they suck at it. 3 points is what matters.

 

[ndfanatic78]

The OL has been our strongest O unit with the RB’s (including Riley running). They had no problem protecting Steve with a young O line in the Sun Bowl and we moved the ball efficiently. Don’t blame the O line for RL.

Dude the O-Line is rough right now. If Angelli was starting he would probably have double digit sacks right now and defenses would be able to focus directly on the RBs in the running game. Riley’s passing has been horrific and his ability to go through progressions is even worse but to think we could put either of the other QBs back there with this Oline and they wouldn’t be under constant duress is a little short sighted. It would be similar to Clausen’s freshman year and he almost got killed.

 

[IA4irish]

Was at the game yesterday. Incredibly frustrating. Sold out. Pretty good crowd for how hot it was. Chuck Martin had Miami running some good plays to start the game. Defense got stuff figured out and totally shut them down.

First half offense was brutal to watch in person. Leonard has the yips. When he completely missed Flanagan five yards away on a roll out, Flanagan ripped his helmet off in disgust on the sideline. Receivers looked dejected at time. Boos in the stadium in second quarter were loud. I’ll give Leonard credit - the throw to Collins was beautiful. Easily his best throw of the year. One touchdown pass through 4 games is just terrible at any level of football. He’s not getting benched barring disaster. Marcus is too stubborn.

So hard to know what to expect going forward. Could lose every game left on the schedule.

 

[FWIrish4]

I understand the adage that the backup QB is always everyone’s favorite player and whatnot, but it just isn’t plausible to me that Angeli looks that in practice where a veteran coordinator like Denbrock isn’t right in MF’s ear lobbying to switch QBs.

It was stated by ISD and II, that Leonard was better than Angelli passing in fall camp. So yes, it’s definitely plausible I guess.

Add to the fact that Angelli has an incredibly high sack percentage when pressured and I think this isn’t a black/white decision like most on the internet think. See Jamie’s Thursday Thought’s below this week:

Maybe it's harsh to call this a red flag, but let me just say that I’m monitoring that Angeli was pressured three times and sacked on all three. Combine that with the Oregon State game and he’s been pressured seven times and was sacked on five of them.​

The highest percentage of pressures that turned into sacks for a quarterback last season was 36.8%, so being sacked five out of seven is not great, Bob.​

I thought they should have pulled RL in this game after the series he missed the flat routes. He has the yips and in his own head. He did play better after that point (sans the inexcusable fumble), but you can’t have those type of starts offensively obviously.

 

[Green Mountains]

Let's talk about clock management. The end of the first half. ND had 3 time outs / Miami 0 with 1:05 left. ND only had to use one time out to get a three and out....48 seconds left. Then Shuler took a remarkably stupid penalty.

Chuck Martin called a running play on 1st after the penalty on the Miami 39 yard line. Gain of 5 and Martin is saying, "let's get to the locker room." Freeman CALLS TIME OUT with 43 seconds...with only one additional time out remaining. Now the clock is stopped with Miami on their 44 yard line. Chuck Martin decides not to kneel on it, but try to get another 15 / 20 yards to get into field goal range.

Nothing ended up happening, but after the penalty, ND didn't have enough timeouts to make sure it got the ball back.....plus Miami had the ball near'ish to mid field with the possibility to press for a long field goal. That's simply BAD clock management. After the penalty and with Miami having a little momentum, get to halftime. Chuck Martin made that an easy choice. But Freeman was hell bent on getting the ball back and called the second time out without assessing the game situation. Simply BAD.

 

[DillonHall]

Let's talk about clock management. The end of the first half. ND had 3 time outs / Miami 0 with 1:05 left. ND only had to use one time out to get a three and out....48 seconds left. Then Shuler took a remarkably stupid penalty.

Chuck Martin called a running play on 1st after the penalty on the Miami 39 yard line. Gain of 5 and Martin is saying, "let's get to the locker room." Freeman CALLS TIME OUT with 43 seconds...with only one additional time out remaining. Now the clock is stopped with Miami on their 44 yard line. Chuck Martin decides not to kneel on it, but try to get another 15 / 20 yards to get into field goal range.

Nothing ended up happening, but after the penalty, ND didn't have enough timeouts to make sure it got the ball back.....plus Miami had the ball near'ish to mid field with the possibility to press for a long field goal. That's simply BAD clock management. After the penalty and with Miami having a little momentum, get to halftime. Chuck Martin made that an easy choice. But Freeman was hell bent on getting the ball back and called the second time out without assessing the game situation. Simply BAD.

Yes we all know this. Only Freeman doesn't

 

[NDRock]

Let's talk about clock management. The end of the first half. ND had 3 time outs / Miami 0 with 1:05 left. ND only had to use one time out to get a three and out....48 seconds left. Then Shuler took a remarkably stupid penalty.

Chuck Martin called a running play on 1st after the penalty on the Miami 39 yard line. Gain of 5 and Martin is saying, "let's get to the locker room." Freeman CALLS TIME OUT with 43 seconds...with only one additional time out remaining. Now the clock is stopped with Miami on their 44 yard line. Chuck Martin decides not to kneel on it, but try to get another 15 / 20 yards to get into field goal range.

Nothing ended up happening, but after the penalty, ND didn't have enough timeouts to make sure it got the ball back.....plus Miami had the ball near'ish to mid field with the possibility to press for a long field goal. That's simply BAD clock management. After the penalty and with Miami having a little momentum, get to halftime. Chuck Martin made that an easy choice. But Freeman was hell bent on getting the ball back and called the second time out without assessing the game situation. Simply BAD.

Freeman is much smarter than you give him credit for. Of course you call timeouts there. Our defense is much more likely to make a play and potentially score than our RL led offense.

 

[NDPhilly]

Submitted our ACT discourse to Message Board Geniuses. We made it boys.

 

[thekid33]

The QB issues this year go back to taking Hartman last year. Would last year have looked drastically different if we had rolled with TB and Steve as the backup?

We probably still lose to Ohio State - maybe not as close of a game. But, a loss is a loss.

And, we probably lose another game because that's our thing. Maybe we even lose them both.

Still - same record, at worst. You won't convince me otherwise.

Then, we are coming into this year with an experienced TB and Steve and Minchey on the bench. Plus Carr taking it all in.

I think we still would have been capable of winning at A&M. Maybe we would have beat NIU. At worst, we'd still be 3-1.

But, because they got Sam last year they convinced themselves of the need for an experienced starter for this year.

I just don't see what Sam and RL did for us when we could have had no worse than the same results and developed our own guys.

 

[irish4ever]

1. Sloppy, ugly win. The team, again, came out flat and lifeless. I question how engaged and prepared they were.

2. Offense - We have no offensive identity or purpose whatsoever. Nothing builds or catches the opponent off guard. We rely way too much on RL’s feet to pick up 3rd and short. It’s their fallback. It won’t always work against better opponents. We also can’t continually start games and go a quarter or two with no production whatsoever. Better opponents will capitalize and our defense will be worn down. We’ll be behind and this team, offensively, isn’t built to overcome deficits.

3. Defense is really good. I don’t think they are elite, however. The secondary is the overall strength. The linebacker play has some weaknesses, but is good. The line play isn’t as good as I expected. I’m over Mills. He’s just kind of “there.”

4. Special Teams - F@*% me they’re poor. Fumbled punts, blocked kicks, botched snaps, inconsistent punting … they get a F.

5. Leonard/QB - I would say I feel bad for him, but I’d trade places with him and receive the boos and criticism for all the money he’s receiving. He, obviously, has a dud arm and the criticism has gone to his head. I don’t know you do at this point. If the coaches truly believe he’s the best player to win the game then holy s@*t our QB room is in trouble. If something doesn’t change, I’d transfer if I were Angeli and Minchey.

6. Coaching - I’ve got dire concerns. Not sure Freeman can win me over at this point. The team is unprepared, undisciplined, inconsistent, sloppy …. And that falls back on him. We’re in year three and this is Freeman’s staff, players, and product, and I’m not seeing any upward trajectory. If anything, they’ve regressed. I don’t think this veteran team is that good. I truly don’t. Top 20-25? Yes, but definitely not Playoff caliber.

We’ll see how next week goes…I’ve got my tickets and making the trip, but am tapering my expectations.

Me too! I was at the Louisville debacle last year and was really hyped at the beginning of this season to go see some Irish retribution from last year. Now, it's like why the fuck did I do this!?! I hope the Offense and Spc Teams can get their shit together and help out the Defense (as they did once this year ... vs. Purdue)!

 

[Giddyup]

Gattaca making is presence known!

 

[irishnd31]

I was drunk…. Did we win?

 

[irishff1014]

The QB issues this year go back to taking Hartman last year. Would last year have looked drastically different if we had rolled with TB and Steve as the backup?

We probably still lose to Ohio State - maybe not as close of a game. But, a loss is a loss.

And, we probably lose another game because that's our thing. Maybe we even lose them both.

Still - same record, at worst. You won't convince me otherwise.

Then, we are coming into this year with an experienced TB and Steve and Minchey on the bench. Plus Carr taking it all in.

I think we still would have been capable of winning at A&M. Maybe we would have beat NIU. At worst, we'd still be 3-1.

But, because they got Sam last year they convinced themselves of the need for an experienced starter for this year.

I just don't see what Sam and RL did for us when we could have had no worse than the same results and developed our own guys.

Sam brought all of positive energy to the team and the school. He wasn’t as good of a player as we thought but he also had a terrible OC and WR weapons.

Riley you are correct on he has brought nothing.

 

[thekid33]

Sam brought all of positive energy to the team and the school. He wasn’t as good of a player as we thought but he also had a terrible OC and WR weapons.

Riley you are correct on he has brought nothing.

Sam was fine. My point wasn't a knock on him. I liked him. But, because of the OC and lack of WR weapons I don't think we'd have been much of worse without him. And, we would have developed our QBs so we wouldn't have needed to have gone into the portal again for this season.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

I was drunk…. Did we win?

Despite what you’re reading here, we did in fact outscore the opposition in yesterday’s game.

 

[IrishLion]

Enough time has passed for me to say it………




I think Riley started to get his confidence back after he hit Collins on that long TD. I think this offense can be as good as we all hoped. I don’t think we need a QB change for it to happen. We just need Riley to be a 65% passer that is willing to give his receivers a chance deep down the field sometimes.

He started to show a small glimpse of that yesterday, and it resulted in a couple big plays, both through the air and on the ground.

Miami may be bad, but ND controlled the game after the first quarter and a half the way a dominant team should when they know they have an elite defense and great run game, and they controlled it despite some mistakes.

My clover-colored glasses are back on, baby.

Louisville is gonna tell the whole story next week, though.

 

[BeatSC]

Oddly the game is not determined by the number of rushing yards you allow.

I think they gave up some yards because they scouted them to never do it. Still after the second quarter it didn’t matter much.

 

[GrangerIrish24]

I was drunk…. Did we win?

On the score board, yes. On the message board, no.

 

[GrangerIrish24]

Despite what you’re reading here, we did in fact outscore the opposition in yesterday’s game.

That’s just your opinion.

 

[stlnd01]

I think they gave up some yards because they scouted them to never do it. Still after the second quarter it didn’t matter much.

Yep, and the yards were mostly harmless. Miami had two decent drives that ended in field goal attempts. Most of their other possessions were three-and-outs or maybe one first down. The defense did its job quite well.

 

[Hautian Domer]

Was at the game yesterday. Incredibly frustrating. Sold out. Pretty good crowd for how hot it was. Chuck Martin had Miami running some good plays to start the game. Defense got stuff figured out and totally shut them down.

First half offense was brutal to watch in person. Leonard has the yips. When he completely missed Flanagan five yards away on a roll out, Flanagan ripped his helmet off in disgust on the sideline. Receivers looked dejected at time. Boos in the stadium in second quarter were loud. I’ll give Leonard credit - the throw to Collins was beautiful. Easily his best throw of the year. One touchdown pass through 4 games is just terrible at any level of football. He’s not getting benched barring disaster. Marcus is too stubborn.

So hard to know what to expect going forward. Could lose every game left on the schedule.

Saw that. That concerns me that the team is crumbling apart internally. The boos made it feel very … uncomfortable.