Miami (OH) Postgame

[BeatSC]

Several players played good. I think our WRs finally got some love. I will say that Leonard does distribute the ball to many different players. Leonard needs to run it twice as much as we currently do. Same goes with handoffs to our backs. When Riley has been running the read option he needs to keep it more to keep the D off balance. Keeping them guess is what works. He needed to keep the ball more often as the runs were wide open for him. I think he knew that. His passing improved 100%. I’m not going to count his 3-4 missed targets that should have been easy as he has made dozens of those throws successfully so far. With the right mix of more running this offense will actually be good. At some point Leonard is going to miss some time so we will get to see Angeli. This team can win out and a first round playoff game with less than 20 pass plays a game. Need Riley running it 15 times and no turnovers. Turnovers are key. If we have zero TO’s against the MAC and we are 4-0 and ranked inside the top 10.

 

[thekid33]

The boos made it feel very … uncomfortable.

How so?

Upset that they are booing the players?

Once upon a time when the QB didn't make more in a year than I will in 15 years it would have been bothered me. But, they got they money (deservedly so). With the money comes more rights for the fans to be critical.

 

[Plankton]

This was at best an uneven performance. Special teams errors on a fumbled punt, a botched FG snap and a block from behind (somewhat questionable call) to wipe out a long kickoff return, but Rendell improved tremendously and they blocked a Miami FG attempt. Defensive interior was soft against the run, but they closed things down in the second half and showed a good pass rush overall. Leonard can't throw the simplest of passes in the flat, but throws a 30+air yard dime to Beaux Collins for a TD. Bottom line is that a win is a win, but if they play at the same level against Louisville, they will not be as fortunate.

 

[IrishLax]

You get like 8-10 possessions a game. Right now we are self-destructing on 2-3 of those a game by missing wide open, easy passes. I’m not even talking about throwing the ball down the field. I’m talking about how we can’t complete screens or passes to the flat or slants with any consistency.

We aren’t going to win anything meaningful playing that way.

 

[IrishLax]

Unrelated to QB play — our run defense needs to figure its shit out. It’s taken a major step back year over year.

 

[NorthDakota]

Unrelated to QB play — our run defense needs to figure its shit out. It’s taken a major step back year over year.

Do we have any reason to think it will improve?

 

[FWIrish4]

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.

Came here to say this same thing. I thought he should have been benched after the first couple series. But, this is the objective analysis without blindly thinking he can’t do anything right.

After the early easy misses, which were purely mental and thinking too much, he was much better. He stayed in the pocket and threw the deep ball well always giving the WR a chance.

Go look at Greg Flammang’s Twitter today. Some great breakdowns of pass plays that show clear improvement. He wasn’t missing people running wide open every play as some claimed all last week.

All that said, I’m with you. Show me more against Louisville before I think we’re truly headed in the right direction with RL.

 

[irishandy]

Postgame Thoughts:
1. For anyone that was at the game, great flyover yesterday. Keep them going for the whole year, it pumps up the crowd.
2. Our offense doesn't have an identity and they are too inconsistent; they shouldn't scare any opposing defense.
3. As far as Leonard goes I haven't drank the Kool-aid since he's been here. This is Freeman's boy like it or not he is going to be our QB. I want to drink the Kool-aid, but he's given me no reason to. If there is a change- you 100% go with Angeli.
4. I don't like the way Freeman rotates Love & Price every other possession. These are 2 of our biggest playmaker, put them both on the field at the same time with a 2 back set, or line 1 as a WR/slot.
5. Junior T. had a nice game.
6. Our defense has so many young guys that are playing like they are upperclassmen; ND's future is bright.
7. This goes with #2, are we going to see a hurry-up offense?
8. Nice to see these players get some PT- Mitchell, Colzie, Obren; just to a few.
9. Better punting day yesterday.
10. Also going with #2, #3, #4, & #7 next week vs Louisville should be a revenge game. Freeman/Denbrock need to open up the playbook, I want to see some different plays, a hurry up offense, more players involved. I think ND can win this game, but it needs to be more than the Riley Leonard show.

Go Irish!!

 

[thekid33]

4. I don't like the way Freeman rotates Love & Price every other possession. These are 2 of our biggest playmaker, put them both on the field at the same time with a 2 back set, or line 1 as a WR/slot

THANK YOU

 

[stlnd01]

Do we have any reason to think it will improve?

The LBs are young and should get better at recognition. Same with Traore and Young, at least, on the edges.

 

[AllTimeIrish]

Freeman is a young coach learning in the job. It will take years before he knows how to run an entire team. In the meantime, the team will go as he goes. I would expect at least one or two surprising losses every year until he learns. The question is whether the fan base loose patience as he learns.

Personally I don’t think you ever hire a first time head coach at Notre Dame and expect immediate success. The jobs expectations, when you add in the championship drought, academic restrictions, and illustrious history, are likely to cook even the most experienced coaches.

They should have hired a veteran but it is what it is.

 

[MacIrish75]

I will never understand why Devyn Ford gets as many snaps as he does, but I guess I just better get used to it.

 

[BabyIrish]

You get like 8-10 possessions a game. Right now we are self-destructing on 2-3 of those a game by missing wide open, easy passes. I’m not even talking about throwing the ball down the field. I’m talking about how we can’t complete screens or passes to the flat or slants with any consistency.

We aren’t going to win anything meaningful playing that way.

There’s a play where Miami of Ohio ran an rpo, motion receiver crosses in front and qb fakes, then the qb faked, sprinted out and passed to the te for a first down. I commented to my son how that was a nice play call.

My son comments that we should get the Miami of Ohio offensive coordinator so we can run something similar.

I said “son we ran that same play last drive and Riley missed the te completely”.

 

[irishff1014]

Several players played good. I think our WRs finally got some love. I will say that Leonard does distribute the ball to many different players. Leonard needs to run it twice as much as we currently do. Same goes with handoffs to our backs. When Riley has been running the read option he needs to keep it more to keep the D off balance. Keeping them guess is what works. He needed to keep the ball more often as the runs were wide open for him. I think he knew that. His passing improved 100%. I’m not going to count his 3-4 missed targets that should have been easy as he has made dozens of those throws successfully so far. With the right mix of more running this offense will actually be good. At some point Leonard is going to miss some time so we will get to see Angeli. This team can win out and a first round playoff game with less than 20 pass plays a game. Need Riley running it 15 times and no turnovers. Turnovers are key. If we have zero TO’s against the MAC and we are 4-0 and ranked inside the top 10.

You have to be smoking something.

If Riley is running the ball 15 times a game than kids Love and Price good bye. They are gonna check out as any running back would. Which hurts nexts years team.

Recruits are gonna see how we don’t use players. Freemans management could hurt this team for years

 

[bumpdaddy]

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.

The problem with this hindsight thinking is a decision is made based on the relevant facts at the time of the decision. If a significant fact changes after a decision is made, it is hard to conclude the wrong decision was made.

The key fact you left out of your scenario above is MF and the staff decided to bring in Hartman while Rees was still the OC and there was no inkling he might leave any time soon.

With Rees as OC and SH at QB, I think we would have beaten both OSU and Clemson. It's also possible the offense wouldn't have gone off the rails as much as it did against NC State (the OL was as big of a problem as SH in that game). So I think ND's record with Rees and SH would have been 11-1 at worst and 12-0 at best, giving ND a great chance to make the playoffs. If they had decided to stick with TB I think the best they could have done is 10-2 or 9-3 even with Rees as OC because TB is too inconsistent and too mistake prone.

If you can make a decision that will significantly increase your chances of making the playoffs this year at the expense of possibly negatively affecting your chances in future years (within reason) you go with it. A bird in the hand is always best.

MF and staff made the right decision at the time. He couldn't have known that he would be stuck with Gerad Parker as his OC.

 

[NDRock]

The problem with this hindsight thinking is a decision is made based on the relevant facts at the time of the decision. If a significant fact changes after a decision is made, it is hard to conclude the wrong decision was made.

The key fact you left out of your scenario above is MF and the staff decided to bring in Hartman while Rees was still the OC and there was no inkling he might leave any time soon.

With Rees as OC and SH at QB, I think we would have beaten both OSU and Clemson. It's also possible the offense wouldn't have gone off the rails as much as it did against NC State (the OL was as big of a problem as SH in that game). So I think ND's record with Rees and SH would have been 11-1 at worst and 12-0 at best, giving ND a great chance to make the playoffs. If they had decided to stick with TB I think the best they could have done is 10-2 or 9-3 even with Rees as OC because TB is too inconsistent and too mistake prone.

If you can make a decision that will significantly increase your chances of making the playoffs this year at the expense of possibly negatively affecting your chances in future years (within reason) you go with it. A bird in the hand is always best.

MF and staff made the right decision at the time. He couldn't have known that he would be stuck with Gerad Parker as his OC.

You obviously have/had more faith in Rees than me. I’ll always appreciate all he did for the program as well as sending Saban into retirement.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

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.

Agreed. Was wondering the same thing. It was like MF was trying to make up for not scoring as many points in the 1H as he expected.

 

[bumpdaddy]

You obviously have/had more faith in Rees than me. I’ll always appreciate all he did for the program as well as sending Saban into retirement.

I didn't think the TR was a great OC. I thought he was good but also thought ND could have done better.

"Faith in Rees" is an empty statement. I didn't have blind faith in Rees. What's relevant is I think Rees was significantly better than Parker.

 

[DillonHall]

You obviously have/had more faith in Rees than me. I’ll always appreciate all he did for the program as well as sending Saban into retirement.

Agree, plus the quality of the players is much more important than the coach. Hartman just isn't that good

 

[irishjim]

The LBs are young and should get better at recognition. Same with Traore and Young, at least, on the edges.

biggest problem is lack of size in front 7. They all look lean

 

[BeatSC]

You have to be smoking something.

If Riley is running the ball 15 times a game than kids Love and Price good bye. They are gonna check out as any running back would. Which hurts nexts years team.

Recruits are gonna see how we don’t use players. Freemans management could hurt this team for years

Riley run more instead of passing. Not taking away from the other RBs. 15 Carrie’s each and would open up the run game for them. Michigan ran it 45 times yesterday and I think our RBs and QB can run (and pass) better than theirs can. Pass 15 times a game and throw in some play action. That won’t work? This is who we are and who we should be.
Who’s high?

 

[BeatSC]

I will never understand why Devyn Ford gets as many snaps as he does, but I guess I just better get used to it.

So we can telegraph a QB run or pass play of course! He is supposedly in there for pass blocking or to make an unspectacular 2-3 yard gain.

 

[DillonHall]

Riley run more instead of passing. Not taking away from the other RBs. 15 Carrie’s each and would open up the run game for them. Michigan ran it 45 times yesterday and I think our RBs and QB can run (and pass) better than theirs can. Pass 15 times a game and throw in some play action. That won’t work? This is who we are and who we should be.
Who’s high?

A 75/25 run/pass split? There's no way we could consistently succeed that way

 

[T-Boone]

Do we have any reason to think it will improve?

The young Lbs improving over the year.

 

[T-Boone]

Hopefully moving forward we can get Faison 3 or 4 catches etc game. He brings some juice after the catch.

 

[SeekNDestroy]

biggest problem is lack of size in front 7. They all look lean

Some of that is visual illusion (Single digit numbers and small shoulder pads.)

 

[INLaw]

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.

18 ACT =950 SAT. the dumbest of my high school cohort barely literate were hitting 1050-1100. If that is true. That is your ceiling. When have we not seen both lack of critical thinking/problem solving and learning from mistakes. And keep in mind trial and error is the lowest form of caveman style learning and he is jacking that up

 

[SeekNDestroy]

18 ACT =950 SAT. the dumbest of my high school cohort barely literate were hitting 1050-1100. If that is true. That is your ceiling. When have we not seen both lack of critical thinking/problem solving and learning from mistakes. And keep in mind trial and error is the lowest form of caveman style learning and he is jacking that up

Hey now. I scored an 1100.

 

[NDpendent]

18 ACT =950 SAT. the dumbest of my high school cohort barely literate were hitting 1050-1100. If that is true. That is your ceiling. When have we not seen both lack of critical thinking/problem solving and learning from mistakes. And keep in mind trial and error is the lowest form of caveman style learning and he is jacking that up

??? 1100 would put it you at the 58% percentile. Not really a bottom feeder.

 

[GrangerIrish24]

Hey now. I scored an 1100.

It all makes sense now