Oct 24 | Pittsburgh

[stpeteirish]

Wasn’t able to watch yesterday but reading here it sounds like an absolutely disastrous 45-3 victory.

No joke. People still want someone to replace Book and Ben S.

 

[Old Man Mike]

To the readers that missed the game: Don't pay attention to 80% of these posts. We were really good. Pitt sold out to stop some part of our offense, and had a very good defensive line-up. Ian and Tommy comprehended that and burnt them in other areas. Kyren was sort of stopped but he warriored it out --- big applause to him. He got the yards when they counted. The Oline blocked everyone they could except that Eich got speed rushed too much, and even Hainsey missed one. Pitt's LBs were set to play "downhill" against the run, and outnumbered our 5-man Fist which was punishing the others --- Kyren had some trouble recognizing Narduzzi's clever disguises often --- but again: he warriored it out.

The secret was two-fold:
1. the defense of course. All Hail!!!
2. Book. Ian was The Amazing Houdini escape artist in the game. Re-watching some of the maze-running that he accomplished (some ending in completions, some smart throwaways, many in yard-eating productive runs), He deserves the game ball. (Full marks to the receivers for Big Boy receiving too.)

Bottomline: We good. Enjoy it.

One big difference between Pitt and Louisville is that Louisville's defense is much faster --- which against us is better than being stronger. Pitt couldn't hunt us down very well. Louisville got there quicker. Clemson will get there quicker --- but we have time yet to prep for that.

 

[dad4aa]

This board is hilarious. Pregame it is all gloom and doom and it will be close. Then we blow them away and everyone talks about how bad Pitt Oline and QB are like this was expected.

In addition, people have been begging for Book to throw up some 50/50 balls and trust the WR will get it. He does that and all we hear is how Book is lucky on the TD passes to Ben.

NDNation 2.0 is alive and well.

 

[Chicago Domer]

Is Austin lost for the season? What happened?

 

[dad4aa]

Is Austin lost for the season? What happened?

Most likely. "According to Pete Sampson of The Athletic, Notre Dame junior wideout Kevin Austin has re-injured his foot and will miss the remainder of the 2020 regular season."

 

[Ndaccountant]

ND football doesn't win by 6 TDs on the road very often. Yes, Pitt offense would have e trouble scoring against air. But ND made Pitt look bad. I still have concerns about this team, but I certainly toasted last night and I hope you all did too.

 

[Chicago Domer]

I think all the focus on Book is not about the Pitt and BC type games, but Clemson. Book needs a renaissance if we have any chance against Clemson. If he doesn’t play lights out our O will struggle and eventually our D will wear down.

 

[Irish#1]

Book Grade A
Rushing Grade B+
Passing Grade A
Defense Grade A+
Special Teams Grade A+
Coaching A

 

[InKellyWeTrust]

That was a great performance by our team.

1) Book, still frustrating at times, aired it out and gave his receivers a chance to make plays. We have to get more of that moving forward.
2) I don't care if he misses an occasional block, Mayer should be playing 75% of the snaps or more.
3) Kyren had to run against 8 men in the box and still fell forward on every run. He's an impressive back.
4) Defensive line is still slow, not very impactful. This will be a big problem vs Clemson and a bit smaller problem vs UNC.
5) FINALLY some forced turnovers

Is Lenzy out? I saw him come up with what appeared a pulled hamstring but did not see anything else about it.

 

[notredomer23]

42 points is Pitt’s worst defeat in ACC play.

 

[Irish#1]

This board is hilarious. Pregame it is all gloom and doom and it will be close. Then we blow them away and everyone talks about how bad Pitt Oline and QB are like this was expected.

In addition, people have been begging for Book to throw up some 50/50 balls and trust the WR will get it. He does that and all we hear is how Book is lucky on the TD passes to Ben.

NDNation 2.0 is alive and well.

Not all of us thought it would be close.

 

[tko]

Lenzy's "soft tissue" problem clearly resurfaced. A nagging hamstring sucks big time. ND needs a healing pod or something to help get him back. I feel bad for Kevin Oden.

 

[Ndaccountant]

I think all the focus on Book is not about the Pitt and BC type games, but Clemson. Book needs a renaissance if we have any chance against Clemson. If he doesn’t play lights out our O will struggle and eventually our D will wear down.

We all know the challenges Clemson will bring. But ever week cannot be a referendum of Clemson. We play them once, not 11 times. If you let the ghost of Clemson taint a 42 point beatdown, what's the point of following the team?

 

[Dizzyphil]

Not all of us thought it would be close.

Thank you! I believe some people only read the a few posts instead of the entire thread.....

 

[ACamp1900]

Not all of us thought it would be close.

Definitely, i for one thought it’d be a rout,............

 

[IrishLax]

Lenzy's "soft tissue" problem clearly resurfaced. A nagging hamstring sucks big time. ND needs a healing pod or something to help get him back. I feel bad for Kevin Oden.

Someone (Kelly? A beat reporter?) remarked after the game that he has a scar tissue issue there... which means, frankly, that he should shut it down for awhile. It is never going to heal right until you break that up and treat it correctly including correct rehab. Usually takes months to do it "right".

 

[Dizzyphil]

Someone (Kelly? A beat reporter?) remarked after the game that he has a scar tissue issue there... which means, frankly, that he should shut it down for awhile. It is never going to heal right until you break that up and treat it correctly including correct rehab. Usually takes months to do it "right".

That is a 'Grade 2' injury...


He should be treated everyday until Clemson - Minimum

 

[tko]

Someone (Kelly? A beat reporter?) remarked after the game that he has a scar tissue issue there... which means, frankly, that he should shut it down for awhile. It is never going to heal right until you break that up and treat it correctly including correct rehab. Usually takes months to do it "right".

Reminds me of having a bad calf strain. When the scar tissue builds, it's harder and harder to heal.

 

[Circa]

This board is hilarious. Pregame it is all gloom and doom and it will be close. Then we blow them away and everyone talks about how bad Pitt Oline and QB are like this was expected.

In addition, people have been begging for Book to throw up some 50/50 balls and trust the WR will get it. He does that and all we hear is how Book is lucky on the TD passes to Ben.

NDNation 2.0 is alive and well.

It Is very odd indeed!
It’s literally as if “our” fans have bought in to the ESPN Hate that drivel’s out of ABC, CBS... Yesterday’s commentators were obviously biased again against us as well as the crappy officiating crew... again, until we made it obvious that we were the superior team..
at the end they couldn’t stop saying we need practice as to why we are running the score up... I don’t hear that when the Juco U teams with 30 year olds play fbs schools to win 60-0


For us fans that have been through it.. kudos to us for being able to stay strong for Irish Nation.

 

[IrishLax]

This board is hilarious. Pregame it is all gloom and doom and it will be close. Then we blow them away and everyone talks about how bad Pitt Oline and QB are like this was expected.

In addition, people have been begging for Book to throw up some 50/50 balls and trust the WR will get it. He does that and all we hear is how Book is lucky on the TD passes to Ben.

NDNation 2.0 is alive and well.

Yeah it's a joke. I think I projected that we would cover, mainly because of our defense. But beating a P5 team with a #1 ranked rushing defense so handily that you're pulling starters in the 3rd quarter is not something that should be taken for granted or dismissed... we just saw Clemson struggle to put away 46 point underdog Syracuse for 3 quarters after roasting Georgia Tech.

ND went out and dominated from the opening whistle and it was a "complete" game... the kind of which we didn't see for literal decades before this current 2017-and-later run, and the kind of which that says even if ND isn't "Tier 1" Alabama/Clemson/Ohio State there is no doubt they are solidly in the next tier.

 

[BabyIrish]

Yeah it's a joke. I think I projected that we would cover, mainly because of our defense. But beating a P5 team with a #1 ranked rushing defense so handily that you're pulling starters in the 3rd quarter is not something that should be taken for granted or dismissed... we just saw Clemson struggle to put away 46 point underdog Syracuse for 3 quarters after roasting Georgia Tech.

ND went out and dominated from the opening whistle and it was a "complete" game... the kind of which we didn't see for literal decades before this current 2017-and-later run, and the kind of which that says even if ND isn't "Tier 1" Alabama/Clemson/Ohio State there is no doubt they are solidly in the next tier.

I was encouraged by BK’s comments in the post game presser. Basically saying going one game at a time and just focusing on it isn’t good enough anymore. We need to focus on getting better and maximizing our talent to accomplish the goal of winning the ACC and the whole title. It clearly showed yesterday. I hope it continues next week and into Clemson. Gives me more hope than I had at this time last week.

 

[Old Man Mike]

By the way: don't know if someone's already said it, but, on this October 25th: HAPPY BIRTHDAY COACH!!!!

 

[NDRock]

Yeah it's a joke. I think I projected that we would cover, mainly because of our defense. But beating a P5 team with a #1 ranked rushing defense so handily that you're pulling starters in the 3rd quarter is not something that should be taken for granted or dismissed... we just saw Clemson struggle to put away 46 point underdog Syracuse for 3 quarters after roasting Georgia Tech.

ND went out and dominated from the opening whistle and it was a "complete" game... the kind of which we didn't see for literal decades before this current 2017-and-later run, and the kind of which that says even if ND isn't "Tier 1" Alabama/Clemson/Ohio State there is no doubt they are solidly in the next tier.

I always think about how lucky coaches like Holtz were that the internet didn’t exist. We fans would have bitched and complained just as much after ‘88 as we do now. Especially with some of the losses we suffered against inferior teams. Just the nature of the world.

On a somewhat similar notion, I was talking to a younger guy at work about the ‘84 election. He could not believe that a candidate could win 49/50 states. Can’t see that ever happening again.

 

[yankeehater]

I will say book isn’t gettin much help from his WRs, they can’t seem to separate.

They may not be able to separate, but most of the passing yards yesterday were the result of great plays by the WR's. Book was definitely less than spectacular and the QB position is one main difference between ND and the other teams at the top.

 

[Dizzyphil]

They may not be able to separate, but most of the passing yards yesterday were the result of great plays by the WR's. Book was definitely less than spectacular and the QB position is one main difference between ND and the other teams at the top.

Book was not overly accurate - I can agree with that.


But he managed the offense really well yesterday. The TO early in the game was the sideline's fault.

 

[Irishize]

I always think about how lucky coaches like Holtz were that the internet didn’t exist. We fans would have bitched and complained just as much after ‘88 as we do now. Especially with some of the losses we suffered against inferior teams. Just the nature of the world.

On a somewhat similar notion, I was talking to a younger guy at work about the ‘84 election. He could not believe that a candidate could win 49/50 states. Can’t see that ever happening again.

Can u imagine if Holtz coached in the message board era?!?! It would be much worse IMO. Then Twitter would blow up when “Under the Tarnished Dome” was released and started to trend. Yikes.

You’re right about the ‘84 election....that’s like DiMaggio’s 56 game hit streak or Ted Williams being the last hitter to bat .400+. Probably not gonna happen again.

Even in the ‘88 election you had the Dems best candidate drop out for infidelity. Four years later, it was not deemed an issue. I bet Gary Hart was bitter about that. Timing is everything!

 

[irishandy]

Postgame Thoughts:
1) What is wrong with this board?!?!?!
2) ND went 11-18 on third down, was much better before the backups went in, but still impressive.
3) Michael Mayer is my #1 TE moving forward- he is Kyle Rudolph 2.0.
4) A WR needs to step it up, the injury bug has hit this group. I'd like to see JJ be more involved, McKinley more physical, more Keys/Davis??
5) 3 turnovers by the defense and ND cashed in all 3.
6) 115 yards rushing against a top rushing defense, I thought it would be much lower; no need to complain.
7) Pitt made us pass and ND passed the test. Our passing game will need to be effective moving forward.
8) We won 45-3...we should be more happy!

Go Irish!

 

[Irishize]

Book was not overly accurate - I can agree with that.


But he managed the offense really well yesterday. The TO early in the game was the sideline's fault.

He really did. Great pocket presence & escapability. One truly bad pass that should’ve been picked. He did well enough to put the game away and let the D do their thing. I still find it odd that when announcers would refer to the low output last week vs UL that they didn’t also point out that the ND defense held that high-powered UL offense to SEVEN points! Look what they did yesterday and in most of their other games. ND shut them down.

To be fair, it is concerning that a three year starter still struggles to make the easy layups. He was not accurate as he should’ve been (16/30) and this is the 3rd game where he was really lucky to not get picked. I’m ok with an INT on a deep 50/50 ball. Just make the easy layups and let your athletes do the rest. Hoping he can build on this in ATL next Sat.

 

[Irishize]

Postgame Thoughts:
1) What is wrong with this board?!?!?!
2) ND went 11-18 on third down, was much better before the backups went in, but still impressive.
3) Michael Mayer is my #1 TE moving forward- he is Kyle Rudolph 2.0.
4) A WR needs to step it up, the injury bug has hit this group. I'd like to see JJ be more involved, McKinley more physical, more Keys/Davis??
5) 3 turnovers by the defense and ND cashed in all 3.
6) 115 yards rushing against a top rushing defense, I thought it would be much lower; no need to complain.
7) Pitt made us pass and ND passed the test. Our passing game will need to be effective moving forward.
8) We won 45-3...we should be more happy!

Go Irish!

Just curious. Do you get on the game day thread during the game or do you wait until the day after and go back and read everyone’s knee jerk reactions (also construed as venting) the following day?

 

[irishtrooper]

Awesome game! Winning against that coach by 6 TDs and not giving up ant TDs is amazing. That’s a decent program we just murdered. I throughly it.