Post Game Impressions

[N_D_Fighting_Irish]

Why would you want Golson to run if the offense is performing well? Can someone please explain to me the need to call running plays for Golson if our RBs can get 5 yards per carry?

 

[Bogtrotter07]

O: RBs are a top-to-bottom very solid unit. OL dominated, but I'm going to wait and see how Golic & Co. do against a Purdue team with a 1st round NFL talent at DT before anoint them as awesome. Niklas and Koyack need to play with more consistency, there were a couple plays that just left me shaking my head. WRs and QB should be good enough to win games this year... we held a lot back and could've taken more shots. Golson missed a handful of plays but that's to be expect... his lack of fumble of the blind side sack was refreshing to say the least.

D: Hard to judge secondary when they were playing a specific way to stop the run. Yeah, they gave up a couple deep pass plays... but w/e. Hard to pitch a perfect game. I will say that I've always railed against the lack of pure footspeed that Motta has... and it was incredibly evident today. He will get picked on all year and the 1-for-1 swap of Harrison Smith for Motta is a downgrade of monumental proportions. Front 7 is probably better than every team we face this year except maybe MSU... that's promising.
ST: Holy hell were they awful in every phase. PK, P, KO, holder, etc. need to get fixed NOW. They got an F for the day.

I absolutely agree with everything bolded. Phenomenal!

 

[sportallyr]

Two things I forgot to mention in my earlier recap were:

1) The team played disciplined. Other than Shembo's boneheaded facemask (when the QB was already getting sacked), I don't remember any other penalties.

2) There were no major injuries. No linemen sustained knee injuries from the cut blocks. For a first game, I was surprised not to see anybody even cramping up, so I'd say the team was physically prepared and all of the hard work in practice paid off.

Super excited to see how we do against a traditional offense next week. If the Irish dominate again, I will be very optimistic heading into East Lansing!

 

[TheTurningPoint]

1. Running game is nice. Starting this week you will see that offense plus the zone read, and more perimeter runs. Zone scheme is what got GA3 his long TD. Last year there is not that cutback lane for him. Oline played nasty and got a push almost every play. I can remember 2 plays that were for loss/no gain? thats impressive. pass pro was good not great. when the qb gets speared in the back its never a good thing. but most of their pass pro breakdowns were from just opening day rust/experience. 2nd team oline did decent other than that 3 and out, but cameback and got a fg and td.

2. Pass game overall was impressive for a first time starter. Golson showed that you can't key one guy. i mean our leading wr had 2 catches, and we were spreading the ball around. Everything like someone stated earlier was very vanilla and we still put up 50. Those 3 TE sets are going to turn into motion and boom...we are in 5 wide. It was nice to see a pass to the flats get executed properly where the ball is going forward and is in a place where the rb can catch it. Golson missed one of those but the ball was going forward not backward and I can def live with that.

Golsons pick was a bad bad mistake throw. But that is the diff of high school and d1 ball. Golsons videos from hs show him making plenty of late throws for TDs/big gains. He will learn. Its better to have that throw up 20 than on the road at mich st.

3. BK played 47 guys in the first quarter.....id say we are deep. The WRs played well. The slip screens actually worked...wtf lol. And the downfield blocking by the freshmen WRs was impressive. Davaris is going to be a stud. lol That lazy route that was called incomplete showed his and golsons talent though. Yes i know it was out of bounds but Bad route, great coverage, no window, yet he still caught it.

4. Front 7 played great. Stuck to their assignments, and still got a good pass rush while keeping their assignments and principals. holding navy to 149 rushing yards is an accomplishment that i feel is overlooked. that 4th and 1 stop set the tone. You stop anyone much less a triple option team on 4th and 1 shows that theres guys that care playing in the trenches.

5. Secondary. This is where I have seen the most concern from ND Nation on multiple boards. Let me put it this way.

a. you arent going to have a dline get any type of regular pass rush against a navy/army/air force. the dline cant just pin their ears back and get after the qb. when the ball is snapped they have to maintain their hole/gap, then once its determined its a pass (which requires find the ball) then they can go. ND was very successful in getting a pass rush yesterday, but against the other 11 teams this year ND doesn't have to worry about that.

b. russell did struggle and get beat a few times. the first long pass he slipped and his guy was 5-10 yards infront of him and he still caught him. he has the speed to make up for those mistakes which is good. the td pass....once again comes back to who we are playing and they even broke it down during the game. ND is going to have to go man across the board to stop a option attack which means there is NO safety help. The other 11 teams we play 90% of the time that play isnt going to work bc there is going to be a safety over the top which takes that route away. as for the other completions....Diaco and any other DC is going to give Navy 5-7 yard routes every play. Navy isnt going to pass that much for it to matter, and you stop the run vs them. Any DC is going to take that over Navy getting any type of rhythm going with their option.

c. they def have to improve, but at the sametime they did what they had to do to win the game. they bjax/russell all came up and made tackles. they will be fine.

6. Sp teams was bad. Gotta get those snaps. I dont have a problem with Turks punting. The Navy kid struggled to, which i have a feeling was that wind in the stadium they talked about all week. It looks like ND is going to be a team to hang kickoffs high and let the other team return them with the new rules. Punt return was hard to get a feeling for. They only had the return on twice. Neal bobbled it but he is a risk/reward guy. DAT (black mamba) fumbled and lost it twice vs lsu last year. but id say he turned out pretty good.


All in all a great first win of the year. Got in and out without injuries which was my concern. The players that were question marks showed huge strides...specially Ishaq.

and for the few that i have seen that are bitching about running the score up, not passing the ball....we won 50-10. the starting qb was out in the 3rd quarter, we didnt show **** the whole game, and its not like theo/ga3 got the last td, it was Toma at RUNNING BACK for the love of God lol. Cierre is still the best back we have on the team and its not close. He is def gonna have to earn his PT but dont think for a second that his 1100 yards last year was bc theo/ga3 are more talented lol. With that said.....we are FAST lol.





1-0.

 

[N_D_Fighting_Irish]

Riddick, GA3(not yet), Wood are not built to carry the ball 25+ times a game for the full season. We will need to evenly distribute the carries so each back is fresh, if we are planning to run the ball the way I hope we will be running the ball. Who starts or who is the backup is inconsequential..as all the backs will get plenty of carries.

 

[Domina Nostra]

QB: Easing him in. The talent is clearly there.
RB: Like Alabama, we need to rotate. We have the horses to have a great rotation in the spread, but I agree GAIII is not built for constant beatings between the tackles.
OL: Shouldn't the oline dominate a team as small as Navy? Yes, and they did.
WRs: Solid bunch. I still think DD has mental issues to be worked out. They are going to work well with Golson.
TE: Studs. Koyack and Niklas were sloppy, but that was to be expected.

DL: BEASTS. This is the best starting Dline in a long time at ND.
OLB: Impressive. They look MUCH better. I think Ishaq is goign to explode by mid season. Councell could too.
ILB: Teo is THE MAN. Fox needs a haircut.
Safety: Agressive and a little sloppy. Farley is a huge surprise.
CB: Didn't notice BJ, which is a good thing. Russell is as green as they come. He is very athletic, though. Hopefully the they will get their act together as the season progresses. Did Brown or Attkinson play?

ST: They need to kick it out of the endzone every time. They do not appear to have a gunner. Where are you Shumate.
Neal is getting ready to work.

Overall grade: A.

A first game against Navy is a hard game to extrapolate from...

 

[Buster Bluth]

We played, dare I say it, Lou Holtz football against Navy.

huh?

 

[N_D_Fighting_Irish]

...I dont have a problem with Turks punting...

I have been waiting for Turk to show something..anything. Kelly needs to hold some tryouts...I mean there has to be somebody on campus that could punt at least 35 yards. It is time to sit Turk down.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Turk has just been bad for 4 years now. It can pretty much only get better from a punting standpoint.

 

[Dizzyphil]

huh?

It's called 'win the trenches' football a.k.a. Lou Holtz football. Like Coach Lou said later on that evening, "just as I would have dialed it up"....

Great stuff from Coach Lou!!!!!!

Go Irish!!!!
Diz

 

[Buster Bluth]

It's called 'win the trenches' football a.k.a. Lou Holtz football. Like Coach Lou said later on that evening, "just as I would have dialed it up"....

Great stuff from Coach Lou!!!!!!

Go Irish!!!!
Diz

hahah sorry I didn't know Lou Holtz had winning the trenches trademarked.

 

[Dizzyphil]

hahah sorry I didn't know Lou Holtz had winning the trenches trademarked.

haha... he sure does.


Diz

 

[Bogtrotter07]

Are you trying to force-feed me Kool-Aid?

With all respect, I don't even know who you are. And I don't care about Kool-Aid, or force feeding anyone. I look at an ND team that knocked Navy off the field. Compare the hits to even last year's game. This is like ND played when I was younger. I don't think most of you on this site ever saw that except in a very detached way in the "old" highlight reels.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

People are underrating Wood because they haven't seen him for a while. Cierre is way better at this point than Riddick and Atkinson. Cierre will be playing on Sundays and has an all-around game that neither Theo or GAIII can offer. He'll be a starter right when he gets back from his suspension.

 

[Dizzyphil]

I don't even know who you are. And I don't care about Kool-Aid, or force feeding. I look at an ND team that knocked Navy off the field. Compare the hits to even last year's game. This is like ND played when I was younger. I don't think most of you on this site ever saw that except in a very detached way in the "old" highlight reels.

Not only this ^, but the defense defended very well against the option and put Miller in his place. To only allow 150 yards rushing to an option offense is pretty damn good.

Diz

 

[Bogtrotter07]

1. Running game is nice. Starting this week you will see that offense plus the zone read, and more perimeter runs. Zone scheme is what got GA3 his long TD. Last year there is not that cutback lane for him. Oline played nasty and got a push almost every play. I can remember 2 plays that were for loss/no gain? thats impressive. pass pro was good not great. when the qb gets speared in the back its never a good thing. but most of their pass pro breakdowns were from just opening day rust/experience. 2nd team oline did decent other than that 3 and out, but cameback and got a fg and td.

2. Pass game overall was impressive for a first time starter. Golson showed that you can't key one guy. i mean our leading wr had 2 catches, and we were spreading the ball around. Everything like someone stated earlier was very vanilla and we still put up 50. Those 3 TE sets are going to turn into motion and boom...we are in 5 wide. It was nice to see a pass to the flats get executed properly where the ball is going forward and is in a place where the rb can catch it. Golson missed one of those but the ball was going forward not backward and I can def live with that.

Golsons pick was a bad bad mistake throw. But that is the diff of high school and d1 ball. Golsons videos from hs show him making plenty of late throws for TDs/big gains. He will learn. Its better to have that throw up 20 than on the road at mich st.

3. BK played 47 guys in the first quarter.....id say we are deep. The WRs played well. The slip screens actually worked...wtf lol. And the downfield blocking by the freshmen WRs was impressive. Davaris is going to be a stud. lol That lazy route that was called incomplete showed his and golsons talent though. Yes i know it was out of bounds but Bad route, great coverage, no window, yet he still caught it.

4. Front 7 played great. Stuck to their assignments, and still got a good pass rush while keeping their assignments and principals. holding navy to 149 rushing yards is an accomplishment that i feel is overlooked. that 4th and 1 stop set the tone. You stop anyone much less a triple option team on 4th and 1 shows that theres guys that care playing in the trenches.

5. Secondary. This is where I have seen the most concern from ND Nation on multiple boards. Let me put it this way.

a. you arent going to have a dline get any type of regular pass rush against a navy/army/air force. the dline cant just pin their ears back and get after the qb. when the ball is snapped they have to maintain their hole/gap, then once its determined its a pass (which requires find the ball) then they can go. ND was very successful in getting a pass rush yesterday, but against the other 11 teams this year ND doesn't have to worry about that.

b. russell did struggle and get beat a few times. the first long pass he slipped and his guy was 5-10 yards infront of him and he still caught him. he has the speed to make up for those mistakes which is good. the td pass....once again comes back to who we are playing and they even broke it down during the game. ND is going to have to go man across the board to stop a option attack which means there is NO safety help. The other 11 teams we play 90% of the time that play isnt going to work bc there is going to be a safety over the top which takes that route away. as for the other completions....Diaco and any other DC is going to give Navy 5-7 yard routes every play. Navy isnt going to pass that much for it to matter, and you stop the run vs them. Any DC is going to take that over Navy getting any type of rhythm going with their option.

c. they def have to improve, but at the sametime they did what they had to do to win the game. they bjax/russell all came up and made tackles. they will be fine.

6. Sp teams was bad. Gotta get those snaps. I dont have a problem with Turks punting. The Navy kid struggled to, which i have a feeling was that wind in the stadium they talked about all week. It looks like ND is going to be a team to hang kickoffs high and let the other team return them with the new rules. Punt return was hard to get a feeling for. They only had the return on twice. Neal bobbled it but he is a risk/reward guy. DAT (black mamba) fumbled and lost it twice vs lsu last year. but id say he turned out pretty good.


All in all a great first win of the year. Got in and out without injuries which was my concern. The players that were question marks showed huge strides...specially Ishaq.

and for the few that i have seen that are bitching about running the score up, not passing the ball....we won 50-10. the starting qb was out in the 3rd quarter, we didnt show **** the whole game, and its not like theo/ga3 got the last td, it was Toma at RUNNING BACK for the love of God lol. Cierre is still the best back we have on the team and its not close. He is def gonna have to earn his PT but dont think for a second that his 1100 yards last year was bc theo/ga3 are more talented lol. With that said.....we are FAST lol.





1-0.

This is a pretty perfect, unbiased analysis.

And to the last point. The people that naysay ND. What do you want? I actually heard some of the toughest critics of ND and a few who call themselves fans, criticising ND for scoring at the end. What the eff do you want? Yesterday the second team scored 2 touchdowns, and as TP said, Kelly played 47 in the first quarter. This is my first and major indication that ND is ready to play with the big boys.

Also Cam McDaniels did not get enough love. This is a kid that did exactly what the coach asked, including two major position moves. I hope that Kelly moves McDaniels up and plays him regularly. The Irish are now at a point where they can put five guys in a rotation, hitting a team with undeniable running, and fresh legs. Stanley is a freaking beast too. He does not look like a freshman. Nickols back, a few others develop, and we have eight or ten offensive linemen ready to go. Each play reload fresh legs and bad attitude . . .

And about the offensive line, yes Navy's defense is undersized. But the schemes they run are very hard to deal with. The true success of the offensive line this week is that they were able to figure out what they were to do, and they did it well. I am telling you the stunting of a Navy will confuse most offensive units to the point that they will break down. That is how Navy makes up for their massive size disadvantage. Our guys on the O-line really did it right!

 

[Buster Bluth]

I don't even know who you are. And I don't care about Kool-Aid, or force feeding. I look at an ND team that knocked Navy off the field. Compare the hits to even last year's game. This is like ND played when I was younger. I don't think most of you on this site ever saw that except in a very detached way in the "old" highlight reels.

If you can show me another opponent on the schedule that is of similar size as Navy then you'll have a point.

Navy's front seven is TINY. Their nose guard weighed in at 297, very nice size. But then....

Their DE's weigh in at 255 and 247.

Their LB's weigh in at 220, 216, 229, and 218.

That was the size of my front seven at little ol' Cardin Stritch back in my '06 glory days haha (I say this to Bogs because he'll get it).

 

[Buster Bluth]

Look at Purdue's front seven:

DE: 6'5 266
DT: 6'2 303
DT: 6'3 310 (1st-team B1G)
DE: 6'5 264

LB: 6'4 241
LB: 5'11 226
LB: 6'3 252

And then they have a shut-down CB who, while not being close to Michael Floyd's level, can take away one of Notre Dame's receivers. Although he is only 5'9, so Eifert will have his way with him.

Simply saying Navy doesn't compare to any other team on the schedule.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

If you can show me another opponent on the schedule that is of similar size as Navy then you'll have a point.

Navy's front seven is TINY. Their nose guard weighed in at 297, very nice size. But then....

Their DE's weigh in at 255 and 247.

Their LB's weigh in at 220, 216, 229, and 218.

That was the size of my front seven at little ol' Cardin Stritch back in my '06 glory days haha (I say this to Bogs because he'll get it).

Do you believe that at 210 I was the second heaviest lineman in my day, at St. Johns, and my class played in the first two of five in a row, city championships? Now that will give you pause.

I don't care how big or small Navy is. Since you were in high school, Navy has out mostly out hit Notre Dame and been the most physical agressor. That is where all the ND bitching about the cheap shot, chop blocks came from. (Someone show the footing of Charlie Weis whining about it in his press conference.) My point has always been if you fukk them up bad enough what they do begins to not matter.

When you watch Holtz's, Parseghian's, Devine's, and the historical championship Irish, back to Jesse Harper, they drove the other team out of the treanches and off the field. This has not happened for a very long time. I don't care who you are talking about. The breakdown on this team is as opposed to last year has more members opting for omnibudsmen programs and Marine leadership and advanced infantry programs. These guys are really tough.

Even last year against Navy we didn't out hit them. In fact, we didn't have one game last year where we knocked our opponents into the ground like this. Watch Riddick lower his shoulder whatch Koyack, and Niklas block. WATCH EIFERT BLOCK; Kelly has grown a beast. He trapped on a few of those short yardage and goal line runs like a guard. Watch Farley, this guy is going to start. Watch Williams. Fox was clobbering people. Schwenke, Nix, Springman, Tuitt, Houndshell were beasts! Actually everyone on the d-line was. The list goes on and on. They just weren't nice. It was an attitude from within that has been lacking for yearsl; It has nothing to do with opponents.

 

[Dizzyphil]

Do you believe that at 210 I was the second heaviest lineman in my day, at St. Johns, and my class played in the first two of five in a row, city championships? Now that will give you pause.

I don't care how big or small Navy is. Since you were in high school, Navy has out mostly out hit Notre Dame and been the most physical agressor. That is where all the ND bitching about the cheap shot, chop blocks came from. (Someone show the footing of Charlie Weis whining about it in his press conference.) My point has always been if you fukk them up bad enough what they do begins to not matter.

When you watch Holtz's, Parseghian's, Devine's, and the historical championship Irish, back to Jesse Harper, they drove the other team out of the treanches and off the field. This has not happened for a very long time. I don't care who you are talking about. The breakdown on this team is as opposed to last year has more members opting for omnibudsmen programs and Marine leadership and advanced infantry programs. These guys are really tough.

Even last year against Navy we didn't out hit them. In fact, we didn't have one game last year where we knocked our opponents into the ground like this. Watch Riddick lower his shoulder whatch Koyack, and Niklas block. WATCH EIFERT BLOCK; Kelly has grown a beast. He trapped on a few of those short yardage and goal line runs like a guard. Watch Farley, this guy is going to start. Watch Williams. Fox was clobbering people. Schwenke, Nix, Springman, Tuitt, Houndshell were beasts! Actually everyone on the d-line was. The list goes on and on. They just weren't nice. It was an attitude from within that has been lacking for yearsl; It has nothing to do with opponents.

I graduated HS in '85 and we had a Tackle that was 6'2" 310 and was told to lose weight and get in shape!!!!! Bobby was strong as an Ox but was thought to be overweight then!!!!

Diz

 

[Buster Bluth]

I love the attitude, but I will keep the pompoms on the shelf until they push Purdue right out of the stadium.

I love what Kelly has done, and I think the OL's progression during his tenure is one of the biggest things no doubt. Harry Heistand's boys played extremely well.

I wasn't named Thomas for no reason. Show me this fantastic OL dominance against a Big Ten team and then I'll be a believer. And it's not that I'm not a believer per se...I just think Navy was pretty terrible. Tough or not.

PS...was your coach a Beier too? Small world..

 

[Bogtrotter07]

I love the attitude, but I will keep the pompoms on the shelf until they push Purdue right out of the stadium.

I love what Kelly has done, and I think the OL's progression during his tenure is one of the biggest things no doubt. Harry Heistand's boys played extremely well.

I wasn't named Thomas for no reason. Show me this fantastic OL dominance against a Big Ten team and then I'll be a believe.

PS...was your coach a Beier too? Small world..

Beer with "I" in the middle, Mike's brother Fred, was our running backs coach when I was there. Latter he became the head coach. We had a love hate relationship, when I was a kid we end up coming to blows, fist to fist; later in life I grew to love him for the sacrafices he made. I was heartbroken that he passed so young, I believe he was in his early sixties, when he passed a half a dozen years ago.

But that is one thing we got at St. Johns, from those guys. They drilled physical play into our heads. Unlike much of what you see today. Many teams were afraid of playing us. I remember, adding to our old-time mistique, we ran the same "wedge play", old time scrum blocking over the down man between the 0 and 2 gap 13 times in a row until we scored a touchdown. That was over Jim, Charley, and me. Here is where it is coming. Stop it. And we still knock you five yard on your @sses! We had no talent but lots of heart and dangerously bad attitudes. I saw the heart and bad attitudes yesterday, with talent!

 

[Buster Bluth]

I was under the impression that Tony Beier put the beer in Beier...

Fred was going to come over to Stritch and coach the defense for Tony, but had the tragic death in the offseason. Tony was a helluva football coach though. In coaching at Stritch post-Beier and at Libbey, Beier's X's and O's were far superior. I'm glad to have played for him.

It now makes sense why Beier ran 14 ISO 32x in one game against an opponent my senior year (well, that and it being one of maybe three plays we could run effectively in that terrible 1-9 season hahah).

So yeah, Go Irish! Beat Purdue!

 

[Domina Nostra]

It's not like our team practices against the soccer team. Our line has to go against KLM, Nix, Tuiit, Day, etc. all the time.

They are not going to be surprised or intimidated by Purdue's size in the least bit. Purdue does have a good DLine, and one exceptional Dlineman. I think Cave and Watt with figure something out.

 

[N_D_Fighting_Irish]

It's not like our team practices against the soccer team. Our line has to go against KLM, Nix, Tuiit, Day, etc. all the time.

They are not going to be surprised or intimidated by Purdue's size in the least bit. Purdue does have a good DLine, and one exceptional Dlineman. I think Cave and Watt with figure something out.

Excellent point.

 

[PerthDomer]

Does anyone think we could go with Slaughter and Farley at safety to give help to our corners? That's a lot of speed at Safety though I suppose it could be vulnerable to the run.

 

[kmoose]

Does anyone think we could go with Slaughter and Farley at safety to give help to our corners? That's a lot of speed at Safety though I suppose it could be vulnerable to the run.

I think you have to wait and see. Your safeties generally play up in run support against option teams like Navy. That means a lot of 1 on 1 pass coverage. Let's see how much help the safties can give the corners against a more traditional offense, before we go talking about personnel changes.

 

[EifertPower]

I wouldnt recommend changing Slaghter's position. To be honest, our problem on defense is our secondary and that isn't just limited to our corners. We are not deep or especially strong at safety either. Russell and Jackson have speed which is something you can't teach. They can always learn technique. Motta doesn't have that speed that's what worries me the most.

What worries me about a weak secondary is that it doesn't help a team's QB or WR in practice.

All this said, i'm not ready to press the panic button yet after the Navy game. Let's see how it plays out. But we absolutely cant take Purdue lightly and need to beat them. I'm worried that the short week after the long plane ride could hurt us next week. Plus, i get this sense that too many people are thinking ahead to Mich State and saying "it's only Purdue."

 

[Who'saWildManNow]

I wouldnt recommend changing Slaghter's position. To be honest, our problem on defense is our secondary and that isn't just limited to our corners. We are not deep or especially strong at safety either. Russell and Jackson have speed which is something you can't teach. They can always learn technique. Motta doesn't have that speed that's what worries me the most.

What worries me about a weak secondary is that it doesn't help a team's QB or WR in practice.

All this said, i'm not ready to press the panic button yet after the Navy game. Let's see how it plays out. But we absolutely cant take Purdue lightly and need to beat them. I'm worried that the short week after the long plane ride could hurt us next week. Plus, i get this sense that too many people are thinking ahead to Mich State and saying "it's only Purdue."

It doesn't matter how many fans look past Purdue.. the staff will have them prepared. They are really focusing on a week to week mindset with this schedule.

 

[Grahambo]

In regards to the secondary, the front 7 can really make life a bit easier on the last line of defense if they are able to sustain pressure. At any level, if you can get after the QB, the secondary can breathe a bit easier.

Hard to really get a read on them after playing Navy because the short passing game was going to be there all day. Russell got beat twice but one was a slip in a terrible field. The TD was more Slaughter then Russell IMO, nevertheless, they have a penchant for hitting and I like that.

The key to the secondary lies in the ability of the front 7 (IMO anyways).