Post Game Impressions

[rikkitikki08]

Good start to the season. Overall, very happy. Little concerned with pass defense. Needs to improve. Golson was solid, but for the INT where he stared down the receiver. But he'll be a good one.

Yeah he stared down the reciever a few times......like kelly said thier will be some growing pains but things he can learn over time

 

[Patulski]

riddick ran really hard

I may be in the minority, but I'd rather have a tandem of Riddick and Atkinson than Riddick and Wood. Wood has a good combination of speed and power, but he's not as quick as Riddick and he's not as fast as Atkinson.

I don't see how you can take Atkinson's home run ability off the field and I don't see how you can take Riddick's ability to make the first guy miss-and his cutting ability- off the field. We'll see what happens, but I like the different skill sets that Riddick and Atkinson bring.

They could play all three, but I'm not sure that would be the most productive way from a yardage standpoint to handle the situation. The nice thing though is that if one of the RB's gets hurt, we've got a lot of depth. Wood is no slouch. It's a good problem to have.

 

[BGIF]

We just believe it tough love, do i think the irish played great today? NO, but do i think they played well enough for me to be happy? Yes

The secondary makes me extremely nervous though

^^^


P.S. I don't recall anyone knocking Kelly at all. Did I miss that? The announcers complimented him on his more attention side this year. Kelly looked as cool as Golson. Maybe it was Ireland, or maybe it was rushing 150 yds over average while holding the opponents to a 150 under average, or maybe it was the +3 Turnovers.

ND did a lot of things right in a game ND was supposed to win. They'll have a happy plane ride home tonight but Kelly and Diaco both know there are things that need quick improvement.

 

[texbender]

Liked:
OL and DL
All the RBs
Teo

Disliked:
Secondary...good QBs will eat them up
Punt and Xtra Pt team looked weak

Golson was as good as could be expected, but has a way to go. Missed some easy throws, and threw several passes backing up.

 

[BGIF]

I may be in the minority, but I'd rather have a tandem of Riddick and Atkinson than Riddick and Wood. Wood has a good combination of speed and power, but he's not as quick as Riddick and he's not as fast as Atkinson.

I don't see how you can take Atkinson's home run ability off the field and I don't see how you can take Riddick's ability to make the first guy miss-and his cutting ability- off the field. We'll see what happens, but I like the different skill sets that Riddick and Atkinson bring.

They could play all three, but I'm not sure that would be the most productive way from a yardage standpoint to handle the situation. The nice thing though is that if one of the RB's gets hurt, we've got a lot of depth. Wood is no slouch. It's a good problem to have.

It the kind of problem I don't recall ND having for about 20 years.

Are you thinking about putting all 3 backs on the field together or just rotating?

If 3 together how do line them up in Kelly's O?

 

[N_D_Fighting_Irish]

Great start of the season. A win with no injuries against Navy.

Defensively, Dline was dominant and frankly punishing. There was no lucky break turnovers. We forced each turnover which is a refreshing change to the "I hope the opposing offense trips over themselves" defenses we have had over the past number of years. Aside from Teo, I didn't notice the other linebackers. The secondary was disappointing only because the experienced players struggled as much as they did. As a couple of commentators have pointed out, Motta will be a serious liability if he doesn't improve. Frankly, I am happy they struggled against Navy. It will make the coach's job of teaching the young players a lot easier.

Offensively, I was more than impressed with Golson. He showed poise and an accurate arm. Did you guys notice that receivers didn't have to adjust to his passes? What impressed me more about Golson was that he didn't try to do to much. He played under control. He did stare down his intended receiver but that is due to inexperience. The game will slow down for him and his vision will grow. The Oline was the MVP of the game. They opened the size of holes that every running back dreams of. Hell, Cam looked almost Heismanish behind our line. The second team OL played just as well.

Coaching, the game plan was good offensively and defensively. My biggest concern is still the unnecessary cute play calls that come from nowhere. You are dominating a team by running right through them and then all of a sudden you go five wide for no reason. I think, when we face teams athletic enough to stall our running game, the question remains whether Kelly/Martin will give the running game a chance to develop. You would think they would have to, considering the inexperienced Golson, but I have my doubts.

Special teams must improve!!!

Great start to the season. Bring on the Boilermakers!

 

[Patulski]

It the kind of problem I don't recall ND having for about 20 years.

Are you thinking about putting all 3 backs on the field together or just rotating?

If 3 together how do line them up in Kelly's O?

I'm talking about a 3 man rotation instead of the 2 man rotation we saw today.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

You could put all 3 in. Split out Riddick and put Atkinson and Wood in the backfield. Have Eifert and Daniels out wide as well, and baby, you got an offense goin'.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Oh, and Martin & Kelly did an excellent job today in setting the tone, letting Golson get comfortable, and not letting Navy get any momentum. Good job.

 

[peoriairish]

Riddick belongs in the backfield. Kelly knows this and I don't think he'll be swapping him back and forth anymore. Too many years were wasted with him learning and re-learning positions.

 

[Patulski]

You could put all 3 in. Split out Riddick and put Atkinson and Wood in the backfield. Have Eifert and Daniels out wide as well, and baby, you got an offense goin'.

Doubt it will happen. It looks like Kelly is going to go with lots of 2 and 3 man TE sets. Can't say I blame him as we also have three good TE's and another running threat in Golson, as well as reverses with Neal. I also like Riddick better as a Rb than as a slot receiver.

 

[stlnd01]

Things I liked:
- RB depth/quality. Damn, even McDaniel looked like a player.
- We dominated both lines of scrimmage. Obviously that'll be harder against the likes of Michigan State and Stanford than a young Navy team. But still a big step forward.
- Golson only made one significant mistake.
- Tuitt and Ishaq Williams wreaked a lot of havoc, and even Mathias Farley made some strong plays. I like our whole front seven.
- We've already like tripled last year's total yardage on punt returns. Neal's going to bust big plays.

Things to work on (as it's hard to "not like" much about a 50-10 whooping).
- Obviously the corners, especially Russell, need work. But it's early yet. And it's possible that Zeke Motta is just never going to be a very good football player. We should adjust accordingly.
- While Golson made a couple of nice downfield throws, his playbook doesn't look much advanced from Rees' at this point. Hopefully we can develop a vertical passing game.
- It's a good thing we've got a lot of WRs, because none of them quite look ready for prime time. Did John Goodman even play?
- Hendrix may not be #2 for long.

 

[BGIF]

You could put all 3 in. Split out Riddick and put Atkinson and Wood in the backfield. Have Eifert and Daniels out wide as well, and baby, you got an offense goin'.

I'd rather see Atkinson's speed lined up outside behind Eifert or Niklas. Pump fake and let them both break downfield. But regardless move them around to keep the defense guessing. Is GA a receiver or a running back? (That's rhetorical for the defense to figure out.)

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Doubt it will happen. It looks like Kelly is going to go with lots of 2 and 3 man TE sets. Can't say I blame him as we also have three good TE's and another running threat in Golson, as well as reverses with Neal. I also like Riddick better as a Rb than as a slot receiver.

I wouldn't want that as a base offense but if we needed speed out there that would be pretty brutal for the D.

I'd rather see Atkinson's speed lined up outside behind Eifert or Niklas. Pump fake and let them both break downfield. But regardless move them around to keep the defense guessing. Is GA a receiver or a running back? (That's rhetorical for the defense to figure out.)

The best way to describe Atkinson's position is "playmaker".

 

[stlnd01]

How many freshmen saw action?
Seemed like a lot. I counted:
Russell
Neal
Day
Ferguson (who had some good size on him)
Shumate
Stanley
Someone on twitter said Okwara got in late

Anyone else? That's two guys I thought might redshirt (Ferguson and Okwara) off the board already.

 

[Patulski]

And it's possible that Zeke Motta is just never going to be a very good football player. We should adjust accordingly.

I think they utilized Farley close to the LOS today because it was Navy and we played a 4-2-5. I wonder if he'll be replacing Motta against teams that run standard spread and pro set offenses where we'll be playing a 3-4 with 2-deep safeties? We'll see.

 

[peoriairish]

How many freshmen saw action?
Seemed like a lot. I counted:
Russell
Neal
Day
Ferguson (who had some good size on him)
Shumate
Stanley
Someone on twitter said Okwara got in late

Anyone else? That's two guys I thought might redshirt (Ferguson and Okwara) off the board already.

Brown and Baratti got in too. They were used a lot on ST.

 

[fightingirish26]

Farley saw a lot more time than I thought he would.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Farley saw a lot more time than I thought he would.

I thought he did a very good job too.

 

[Patulski]

I wouldn't want that as a base offense but if we needed speed out there that would be pretty brutal for the D.



The best way to describe Atkinson's position is "playmaker".

Atkinson reminds me of Eric Dickerson. He is perfectly suited as a Rb who plays at deep I formation depth. That way he gets the time to see what hole he can accelerate through and take it to the house. Even though he was not at I depth on his TD run, he had a lot of time to read the lanes before he picked one and took off. And the zone blocking scheme they're using fits that concept perfectly.

 

[Irishnuke]

Couple of things I thought were smart on Kelly's part were moving Koyack to TE from somewhere on defense and moving Nix to DT from OG. At least that's what the announcers led me to believe.

 

[no.1IrishFan]

Great win and I'm happy, but, our secondary will cost us games this year the way turnovers did last year.

 

[BGIF]

Per UND.com

Per UND.com

Participation Report (Final)

Notre Dame
Pos ## Offense
WR 87 SMITH, D.
WR 18 KOYACK
LT 70 MARTIN, Z.
LG 66 WATT
C 52 CAVE
RG 57 GOLIC, M.
RT 74 LOMBARD
TE 80 EIFERT
WR 81 GOODMAN
QB 5A GOLSON
RB 4 ATKINSON, G.

Notre Dame
Pos ## Defense
DE 89 LEWIS-MOORE
NT 9A NIX
DE 7A TUITT
OLB 55 SHEMBO
ILB 48 FOX
ILB 5 TE'O
OLB 41 FARLEY
CB 6A RUSSELL
S 17 MOTTA
S 26 SLAUGHTER
CB 2 JACKSON



Notre Dame: 1B-FERGUSON, 1A-WILLIAMS, Ish., 2A-BROWN, C., 4B-CAVALARIS, 6-RIDDICK, 7-JONES, TJ, 8-MOORE, 9-TOMA, 10-DANIELS, 12-HENDRIX, 15-McCARTHY, D., 19-NEAL, D., 21-BROWN, Ja., 22-SHUMATE, 24-SALVI, C., 27-BRINDZA, 29-BARATTI, 30-COUNCELL, 33-MCDANIEL, 35-TURK, 40-TAUSCH, 43-ATKINSON, J., 45-OKWARA, 59-GRACE, 60-COWART, 65-HANRATTY, 69-SPRINGMANN, 72-MARTIN, N., 77-HEGARTY, 78-STANLEY, 85-NIKLAS, 91-DAY, 96-SCHWENKE.

 

[HoosierIrish]

I would have liked to see EG run more and show off his arm with some bombs, but I understand we have to ease him into it.

Anyone else see Corso say we're going to play georgia in a BCS game.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

I would have liked to see EG run more and show off his arm with some bombs, but I understand we have to ease him into it.

Anyone else see Corso say we're going to play goergia in a BCS game.

I'd be surprised to see Georgia in a BCS Bowl.

 

[NDTH91]

I felt like the game was really short, and that we didn't learn all that much about the offense, especially Golson.

It took me a while to figure out why I felt this way and why the game seemed so strange. Then it dawned on me.

We ran the football all day long! I can't remember the last time we ran the ball like that. There has been the occasional breakaway, and even a pretty good game or two for the overall rushing stats, but I can't recall a game where we lined up and just rammed it down the other team's throat all day long. As much as I wanted to see Golson run around and light it up passing, dominating the running game was awesome. Now the only question is who do you let run the ball? They're all so good!

(And I know it's Navy, but we never even used to do that to the Duke's and Wake Forest's of the world!)

 

[NDhoosier]

- While Golson made a couple of nice downfield throws, his playbook doesn't look much advanced from Rees' at this point. Hopefully we can develop a vertical passing game.

that was not the gameplay. It was clear that Kelly and Martin setup for a power run game mixed with the play action passes. I would agree that the play book was very limited today, but only because of a gameplan that worked VERY WELL. Why show all your cards in this game that you already have locked up and your gameplan is working?

 

[EifertPower]

O-line -- Great job by the big guys. Golson had all day to pass and only had to move when he wanted to, not because he was forced to. I don't think that sack was the o-line's fault. I think a TE missed an assignment. In the short yardage situations, our o-line just plowed Navy back.

TEs - Eifert = awesome. I love that Golson went right back to him after that first catch was out of bounds in the end zone. Koyack needs to catch the freakin ball. Niklas looked scary out there.

RBs - I like Theo. I really do. But he doesn't seem all that fast to me. His legs seem to churn fast and he does have good agility and "wiggle", but he doesn't have great speed. GA3 was great and he never seemed even close to dropping the ball. With his long strides, it seems that he doesn't run as fast as Theo, but he just blows by people. And once he is past you, you simply aren't catching him. Cierre/Theo/GA3 is a great backfield. Also, I was impressed by Cam. He seemed to have serviceable speed and agilility and would just blow through people.

Golson -- Did good enough. He seemed poised, and mostly in control of the offense. I'd prefer he didn't throw that INT but that seemed like the type he should be able to learn from. I do wish they had kept him in longer to let him make some more throws especially deep balls. I was very happy that he didn't fumble when he took that sack. He will get sacked at times, but as long as he doens't fumble, that will be very manageable.

Hendrix - Ugh. I feel bad for the guy. Looked totally lost out there. And he tucks and runs wayyyy too quickly. He might have a limited run package. But if Golson were injured, I beat Rees is next one in.

WRs - Daniels had two nice plays, but I want more. Did Goodman get a single catch? TJ has two wonderful runs after the catch. He just weaved beautifully through traffic after each of those catches. I think TJ does well this year. I was disappointed they couldn't get the ball to Brown. I like how they are already trying to be creative with Neal. Not all of it worked out, but its good that they are starting now to try to make use of his skill set. I just wish our punt coverage team would give him some freaking room to make a return!

TWO MISSED/FLUBBED PATs! Are you kidding me?

^^THIS.

I was so delighted when Golson didn't fumble there. Almost completely blindsided with a monster hit and he held onto that ball. Tommy Rees without any doubt fumbles that ball there. To me, after watching Golson hold on to the ball, besides hoping that no one on the team got any injuries, everything else watching that game today was gravy.

 

[WaveDomer]

One nit. No turnovers from balls on the ground but we still put it on the ground 3 times that I recall - with unforced errors.

Golson dropped a line drive at his ankles (but recovered nicely), there was a muffed catch of a snap on a XP, and a fumble by our replacement QB on his first or second play (deja vu EXCEPT he fell on the ball).

I was talking about the RB's. The punt muff, to me, wasn't a muff really, and Neal grabbed it nicely after the bounce.

 

[bjohnmwc]

I think that it was important for BK to ease Golson into the season. The game seemed to start with many runs and short passes, most likely designed to help instill some confidence in Golson....which, in my humble opinion, was a good call.

The game was a W, and didn't give people the chance to call for a change at QB, or to second-guess the QB, which seemed to be a source of some concern early on. If anything, seeing both QB's in action quelled any questions about Golson as the starter!