Post Game Impressions

[notredomer23]

It was a 14 point rally and triple OT win. Pitt or not, it was a classic come back. Say what you will but half this board was crapping their pants with joy, even against Pitt.

I don't care if we were down 40 and came back. You still don't storm the field against Pitt. Or anyone for that matter unless its a top 5 team. I didn't like it when it happened against Stanford either. Idk, I mean if people like it so be it I just think its dumb for a team thats 4-5 that we shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.

 

[South Jersey Domer]

1. D took a few quarters off. Chalking it up to the flu.
2. EG continues to grow, but still needs to improve his reads.
3. EG continues to separate himself from TR. I think pulling him for a minute allowed him to calm down. I'm confident though that in time he'll figure things out, the game will slow down, and he'll be rock solid for 4Qs. Likely in time for GK to start competing, which will make them both better.
4. Chris Brown continue to get more looks. Once EG and CB find their groove, this O will be lights out.
5. I love BK, but I still get irritated with some of his play calling and personnel packages.
6. Manti is human. But what a great one he is.
7. I'm happy as a pig in $#!+ to pull this one out and be 9-0. Even though the game likely took a few years off my life.

1. Flu or not, the defense fought through it and played like warriors with heart.
2. Everett Golson, to me, seems like a guy that will improve his reads every week and does not make the same mistakes over and over.
3. I don't want Rees in unless it's an emergency and they have no other alternative at QB than to put him in.
4. I always love it when a freshman makes a difference for us in any way.
5. I am with you there, the empty backfield packages he uses are too predictable (for the defense to defend) for my liking.
6. Manti Te'o should win the Butkus Award, Even if he plays lights out the rest of the season it'll be hard to top guys like Collin Klein for Heisman.
7. I honestly saw our season flash before my eyes as soon as Pitt went up 20-7 over us in the 3rd quarter

To add something here...games like what we had today vs. Pitt tested our character and how we would respond to adversity and we answered with a comeback win. It separates the contenders from the pretenders.

 

[NDinTEXAS]

Just a question is the idea on punt returns not to fumble. So just keep your head up don't look at the defense and make sure you get the catch? It doesn't look like we even try to block for a return?

 

[North Buffalo Irish]

Not a post-game impression, but why the hell don't we even run a true read option? It's the simplest play.

Farley is a liability. He's not a good tackler in space and he fails to set the edge in goal line defense.

 

[South Jersey Domer]

We aren't talking about EG vs Rees. You said you would put Gunner in before Rees. Explain.

Easily, Gunner was the top QB recruit in his class and by reading the scouting reports, he is accurate, consistent, has the field vision, and makes excellent decisions on the fly. He may not have a howitzer for an arm but to me the accuracy, field vision, and decision making more than outweigh any other weakness he has by miles. Getting a freshman in to learn on the fly and getting used to the speed of the college game is better than having someone that, at his stage of college, should not be making the same mistakes over and over that one would expect a freshman to make.

 

[Kaneyoufeelit]

Easily, Gunner was the top QB recruit in his class and by reading the scouting reports, he is accurate, consistent, has the field vision, and makes excellent decisions on the fly. He may not have a howitzer for an arm but to me the accuracy, field vision, and decision making more than outweigh any other weakness he has by miles. Getting a freshman in to learn on the fly and getting used to the speed of the college game is better than having someone that, at his stage of college, should not be making the same mistakes over and over that one would expect a freshman to make.

This is absurd.

 

[Chicago Irish Fan]

-Outside of some freshman mistakes here and there, EG played great.

-Hate to say it, but we clearly belong behind Oregon and K State in the rankings at this point. If we miss the NC at 12-0, Irish fans shouldn't be complaining.

-Coming off of his best coached game of his tenure, BK had a poor coaching game today in my opinion. Golson was playing well for most of the first half and should not have been pulled. Playcalling also wasn't up to snuff.

-The special teams was just plain bad.

-A win is a win, but contrary to Mike Mayock I did not have much fun this game.

 

[KPENN]

Easily, Gunner was the top QB recruit in his class and by reading the scouting reports, he is accurate, consistent, has the field vision, and makes excellent decisions on the fly. He may not have a howitzer for an arm but to me the accuracy, field vision, and decision making more than outweigh any other weakness he has by miles. Getting a freshman in to learn on the fly and getting used to the speed of the college game is better than having someone that, at his stage of college, should not be making the same mistakes over and over that one would expect a freshman to make.

So burn a year of eligibility for spot duty when he's not ready to play college football. Genius

 

[Irish YJ]

-Outside of some freshman mistakes here and there, EG played great.

-Hate to say it, but we clearly belong behind Oregon and K State in the rankings at this point. If we miss the NC at 12-0, Irish fans shouldn't be complaining.

-Coming off of his best coached game of his tenure, BK had a poor coaching game today in my opinion. Golson was playing well for most of the first half and should not have been pulled. Playcalling also wasn't up to snuff.

-The special teams was just plain bad.

-A win is a win, but contrary to Mike Mayock I did not have much fun this game.

Not K State. I'm still firm we should be 3. AL, OR, ND, KSU. We had better wins than KSU over like opponents. AL and OR, yes, but not by much IMO. If AL and OR get through without a L, then I'll concede, but never KSU.

 

[Chicago Irish Fan]

Not K State. I'm still firm we should be 3. AL, OR, ND, KSU. We had better wins than KSU over like opponents. AL and OR, yes, but not by much IMO. If AL and OR get through without a L, then I'll concede, but never KSU.

We've come down to the wire against 3 very mediocre opponents now in Purdue, BYU, and Pitt. We can't continue to play down to average competition and expect to keep pace with the other 3 undefeated NC contenders.

 

[DSully1995]

We've come down to the wire against 3 very mediocre opponents now in Purdue, BYU, and Pitt. We can't continue to play down to average competition and expect to keep pace with the other 3 undefeated NC contenders.

If LSU can struggle against Towson, we can have a bad day against Pitt.

 

[Tylurrr]

As someone who witnessed first hand losses to Navy (2007) and Syracuse (2008), this is as beautiful win as any in history. Cole's verbal has our recruiting class at #2 now and exciting wins are only going to help. Guys we've endured far too many painful seasons not to enjoy the ride of this one!

 

[Irish YJ]

We've come down to the wire against 3 very mediocre opponents now in Purdue, BYU, and Pitt. We can't continue to play down to average competition and expect to keep pace with the other 3 undefeated NC contenders.

We've also played up to our comp. Very good chance we end up playing K State in the Fiesta. If we do, I'll put up 100k to your 10k we win.

 

[Irish To The Core]

The Good

A win is a win.

Everett Golson shows resillience and his athleticism shines through.

Kevarai Russell flashes his speed.

Team looks very strong physically again in the 4th quarter.

Tommy Rees looks good for the only series he should have played.

Receiving corps display good concentration (I can't recall any blatant drops)

Defense stiffens in the 4th quarter and overtime.

The Bad

FG unit misses a relatively short fg and extra point.

Davonte Neil makes one miss Goodman (surely he is going to get better)

The slow developing run play call on 2nd and goal from inside the one.

Allowing a less than stellar Pitt O-Line to open up holes that my grandpa could drive his motorhome through.

Killer penalties.

Mental lapses...frequent mental lapses.

The Ugly

Coach Kelly concluding that Everett Golson was responsible for the 4 point deficit despite the evidence to the contrary and starting Rees in the 2nd half.

Me having to make good on all the $hit I promised God if he would just steer that fg wide.

Feeling at the end of a barn burner like that more like I had survive a plane crash than won a football game.

 

[irisheyes]

Ive heard a couple people state that Charlie Weis teams would of gave up? I remember his teams coming up with a lot of comeback last minute wins.

 

[notredomer23]

Ive heard a couple people state that Charlie Weis teams would of gave up? I remember his teams coming up with a lot of comeback last minute wins.

purdue and UW come to mind in 09... MSU and UCLA in 06? can't really think of any others. I do not so much remember them giving up, just sucking in the second half of the season after 06. November in 08 and 09 we were like 0-8

 

[WaveDomer]

Receiving corps display good concentration (I can't recall any blatant drops)

TJ Jones had a pretty bad drop at the end of the 1st half, I believe, that would have gotten a closer FG kick. But yeah, overall the WR played well, especially in clutch time.

 

[Pachuco]

Not a post-game impression, but why the hell don't we even run a true read option? It's the simplest play.

Farley is a liability. He's not a good tackler in space and he fails to set the edge in goal line defense.

Farley has some experience to gain, but I have tons of confidence that this kid is going to be a difference maker sooner than later. He plays with tenacity and heart. Not to mention, he was battling with a hand that was recently operated on and not at full strength.

 

[TexasNDFan]

Bennett Jackson was a stud- I would have given him the game-ball.

Pitt took Te'o out of the game by chop blocking him on nearly every play. Not sure what changed near the end of the game, but Te'o came alive.

We got lucky. Pitt's kicker was on point today, not sure how he missed the big one.

Pretty sure our D-line has been calling fake cadences for a while. Never seen as many early snaps as I've seen over the past two weeks.

I think it's more about Nix, not that they call fake cadences. These centers know that have to get off quick or they will end up in their QB's lap.

 

[tommyIRISH23]

A win is a win. I wasn't expecting such a let down, we were very sloppy.

Like the saying goes, you are what you are. We are a good team that can be great in spurts. We still have a lot of work to do and pieces to fill on our roster. I dont think we are on a national championship level, I think we are a solid top 10, maybe top 5 team.

I love the direction BK is taking us. Once he gets all his pieces in place, and those pieces get experience in his system we will be scarey.

9-0!!!!

 

[mick2]

seems like we get up for the big ones, but not the others, hopefully this is a wake up call and we go on to blitz the next 3 games.

I think golson just took control of this team, that kid is a winner

 

[Opus]

I don't care if we were down 40 and came back. You still don't storm the field against Pitt. Or anyone for that matter unless its a top 5 team. I didn't like it when it happened against Stanford either. Idk, I mean if people like it so be it I just think its dumb for a team thats 4-5 that we shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.

I understand and respect your feelings but to me I think it's great to see. After the past 20 years or so of watching ND lose games in every possible way known to mankind I think that the pent up anxiety or fear of losing another heart breaker is just being released by rushing the field. Hell, I'd rush the field after the spring game if I ever got the chance to get back to ND. I'd imagine that this will occur less and less as ND continues to win.

 

[Jerry]

I just watched a little bit of last weeks game and its amazing how much faster Golson and the RB 's looked on the field in Norman than they do at home in South Bend. Hopefully that plays to their advantage again in LA and wherever we end up in a bowl.

 

[JughedJones]

The Good, the Bad, The Ugly......

**turn it up** and watch it all.....


<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/inWIVN-oWec?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[tadman95]

1- If Pitt was starting the season today, they wouldn't be 4-5. Best 4-5 team out there.

2- Pitt had a great offensive game plan, went after Manti and it worked for 3 quarters. Will be interesting to see how other teams pick up on this.

3- Notre Dame's conditioning is clearly showing in the 4th quarter. I can't emphasize enough.

4- Russell, biggest surprise so far.

5- Defense stepped up; conditioning, adjustments

 

[Fbolt]

Easily, Gunner was the top QB recruit in his class and by reading the scouting reports, he is accurate, consistent, has the field vision, and makes excellent decisions on the fly. He may not have a howitzer for an arm but to me the accuracy, field vision, and decision making more than outweigh any other weakness he has by miles.

If this were the case, he'd be starting.

As someone who witnessed first hand losses to Navy (2007) and Syracuse (2008), this is as beautiful win as any in history. Cole's verbal has our recruiting class at #2 now and exciting wins are only going to help. Guys we've endured far too many painful seasons not to enjoy the ride of this one!

A win is a win-the team taking it and not looking backwards. I agree, not many people are enjoying this ride ND is on. I keep reading alot of garbage about players and heck, some rant on announcers! It's a good ride, make sure you don't miss it!

 

[ohara831]

Very proud of Golson. Another coming of age game, on the heels of the game against the Sooners.
1. Overcame BK putting in Rees for a couple series, which could otherwise have taken away some fire and confidence.
2. The INT in the endzone could have completely destroyed his night. Put it behind hiim like a champ.
3. Comes rigth back after some terrific defense gets us the ball, marches downfield for a TD and gets us the 2 pt conversion.
4. Wins the game with his arm and legs in OT.

I dont know if this year is a NC year for us. But this young man is the key to our chances over the next 2-3 years.

 

[ickythump1225]

That's what Kelly said in his postgame press conference. I was right behind the bench when Kelly went to Golson after Rees threw his pick. Golson was not a happy camper and was siting on the bench with a jacket on over his pads. Kelly screamed at him , "are you ready!", At first, Golson didn't really respond and I wondered at the time if Goslon had been dazed when he was hit in the 1st half and his helmet came off. But I think Golson was pissed.

Golson may be missing some reads, but he is the reason we won tonight. Kelly needs to open up the offense more, roll him out more and let him do his stuff imo. He is an extremely dangerous dual threat QB whose strength is his improvisational skills. I hope Kelly adjusts to him and puts him in a position where he can improvise earlier in the game.

Agreed. I think earlier in the season the training wheels helped EG because the game was still fast and new to him. At this point I think the training wheels hinder him. Open up the playbook and let him sling it more. That doesn't mean we need to get away from the game plan, we can still run it, we just need some less vanilla pass plays. That will only help the run game, not hurt it.

 

[ickythump1225]

Very proud of Golson. Another coming of age game, on the heels of the game against the Sooners.
1. Overcame BK putting in Rees for a couple series, which could otherwise have taken away some fire and confidence.
2. The INT in the endzone could have completely destroyed his night. Put it behind hiim like a champ.
3. Comes rigth back after some terrific defense gets us the ball, marches downfield for a TD and gets us the 2 pt conversion.
4. Wins the game with his arm and legs in OT.

I dont know if this year is a NC year for us. But this young man is the key to our chances over the next 2-3 years.

EG is a mental Spartan. He overcame a ton mentally that game. Getting benched, a soul crushing INT, a 14 point deficit in the 4th quarter, etc.

 

[phork]

Adjustments for the better at halftime? OMGZ. That was the key for me. I was like damn how do we stop these turds? And then the Diaco switch turned the lights out.