Post Game Observations (Syracuse '14)...

[kmoose]

1. Sloppy, sloppy game. Not much to say about the turnovers. I think we all know that they would kill us, against a good team.

2. The thing is; we still don't know how good we are, or aren't. ND has not played anyone of note. Michigan is the biggest name, but they are an absolute dumpster fire right now. We have played two games where we have looked really bad against really bad competition.


3. BVG continues to play a ton of 3-4, moving Jaylon inside with Schmidt. I'm sure that is probably a game plan thing, put in to counter something specific in the opponent's offense. Perhaps the mobile QB, as they played tons of 3-4 against Michigan, as well.


4. The Defense looks to be decent, but again; given the competition that we have played, it is hard to judge.

5. Congrats to Everett Golson (school record for consecutive completions), Torii Hunter, Jr. (first TD), and Corey Robinson (career high in catches, presumably yards, too), on their milestone achievements.

6. I have a hard time watching Notre Dame football, when they are not able to enforce their will on teams, by simply running the ball and moving down the field. I know that College football is changing, but you still have to be able to run the ball. And we are not strong in that area. For all of the talent at TB, we should be running for 250-300 yards per game. The coaches have got to figure this one out, and do it quickly.

Game ball to Corey Robinson. Great game for him, and he has established himself as someone that opponents will have to respect.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Turnovers aren't a problem for us usually so I can chalk them up to being fluky, especially that failed spike one. 525 yards and only gave up 9 points on defense. That's a good performance if they weren't so sloppy. Not a bad performance, and Syracuse is not a bad team.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Way better of a performance than 2012 BYU, Michigan, Boston College, Purdue, and Pittsburgh.

 

[koonja]

- Lots of injuries, but none to us!

- OL still sucked. Not a lot of push.

- Golson was phenomenal overall, but bad at a few times.

- WRs really aren't play makers outside of Fuller. We need DD badly.

- I still think GB needs more carries, even with the fumble. But all played well considering the space they were given.

- Love the defense. DBs tackle really well, Farley too. But he's going to get torched on FSU's crossing patterns. Hopefully KVR has pushed Riggs to the nickle by that game.

- Good for Tori!

- Defense will be one of the best in the country if we get KVR/Hardy/Ishaq back IMO.

- Wouldn't have had the game go any other way. Tons of turnovers, faked punt, turnovers, you name it. We got a lot out of our system tonight.

- Free the frozen 5 (and Pat!)!

 

[BobD]

I will use a sandwich instead of words to summarize this game:

 

[Bluto]

ND has crushed its first four opponents to open the season for the first time I can ever remember. 5 turnovers and still cruise to a win? I'll take that vs Pitt 2013 lol.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

1. Thanks to Coach Kelly for finally sticking with one running back for multiple offensive series.

2. Turnovers are bad

3. Sloppiest game I've seen in regards to turnovers and penalties.

4. Golson has a monster arm, we should probably be taking more downfield shots unless they are keeping tampa 2 in play.

5. Offensive line can pass block pretty well, but run blocking looks like shite.

6. Stanford will not be so generous if we give them 5 turnovers.

 

[Riddickulous]

1. Everett Golson had the ugliest 362 yards, 4 TD game of all time. Two picks? Three fumbles?

2. Our inability to run the football is going to murder us down the stretch. We should be imposing our will on these teams and instead we're having to grind out 3-4 yards a carry.

3. Will Fuller is off to a great start this year. Very dangerous.

4. Spectacular game from Corey Robinson.

5. Chris Brown got involved with 6 catches. Would like to see more of him.

6. Torii!

7. Did we record a sack? Would have liked to see more from our pass rush.

8. Great game by our secondary. Other than 3-4 perfectly thrown deep balls by Hunt we didn't give up any big plays.

9. 5 turnovers is horrible no matter how you slice it. We could have easily had 2-3 more with Golson getting wrecked on the sack, Folston's fumble negated by the false start, the muffed punt by Riggs that went out of bounds. Just really sloppy football.

10. I'll take the win, though.

 

[kmoose]

Turnovers aren't a problem for us usually so I can chalk them up to being fluky, especially that failed spike one. 525 yards and only gave up 9 points on defense. That's a good performance if they weren't so sloppy. Not a bad performance, and Syracuse is not a bad team.

You're kidding, right? Syracuse beat Villanova........... Villanova!!, in OT, when Villanova went for 2 and failed. Then they got hammered by Maryland. Maryland!! The only other team they have beaten is Central Michigan, who has beaten Purdue and Chattanooga!

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Maryland is a pretty good team and the Villanova game was the first of the year. If they stay healthy I bet Cuse wins 6 or 7.

 

[Bluto]

I'm making the call right now...this ND team is going to kick the crap out of Stanford if it plays a clean game. Way better O than last year and the D looks way better too.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

16 point win with that many turnovers? That's how you know we are pretty good. A mediocre team doesn't overcome that.

However, obviously you can't get away with stuff like that against top tier schools.

I'm fine with the turnovers tonight, if that means we got them all out of system. Lol.

 

[BobD]

I did like their unis

 

[Rhode Irish]

2. The thing is; we still don't know how good we are, or aren't. ND has not played anyone of note. Michigan is the biggest name, but they are an absolute dumpster fire right now. We have played two games where we have looked really bad against really bad competition.

I agree that the sloppiness wasn't great to see, and obviously it would really hurt us if we turned the ball over like that against a decent team, but I'm not sure I agree we looked really bad. Purdue and Syracuse aren't great teams, obviously, but they are actual football teams. And even though we didn't play really clean games against them, that we handled them easily without playing our best game is encouraging to me. In both cases, the games were never in doubt and weren't nearly as close as the scores indicate - and the scores were borderline blowouts anyways.

 

[BGIF]

It was the best of times; the worse of times.

530 yds Total Offense; They had 427

-4 Turnovers; They got 6 pts.

Offense converted 9 of 14 Third Downs; They only converted 3-15

Golson Career Game for Completions, %, YDs, TDs, ; and Turnovers

ND ran 30 times averaging 4.5 yds/carry; Could tell that from watching the OLine.

ND had about 6 and 1/2 minute Time of Possession advantage; Despite 5 Turnovers.

Bryant lead ALL rushers in yds, 55, and carries 11; He thinks at the hole instead of running

 

[pkt77242]

- Lots of injuries, but none to us!

- OL still sucked. Not a lot of push.

- Golson was phenomenal overall, but bad at a few times.

- WRs really aren't play makers outside of Fuller. We need DD badly.

- I still think GB needs more carries, even with the fumble. But all played well considering the space they were given.

- Love the defense. DBs tackle really well, Farley too. But he's going to get torched on FSU's crossing patterns. Hopefully KVR has pushed Riggs to the nickle by that game.

- Good for Tori!

- Defense will be one of the best in the country if we get KVR/Hardy/Ishaq back IMO.

- Wouldn't have had the game go any other way. Tons of turnovers, faked punt, turnovers, you name it. We got a lot out of our system tonight.

- Free the frozen 5 (and Pat!)!

Hard to say that he was phenomenal overall with that many turnovers. I will also say that many of his completions were on bubble screens or very short passes though the bomb to Fuller was beautiful.

 

[Irish Insanity]

I did like their unis

Our cleats, pure sexy

 

[IrishHokie22]

Alright... the turnovers sucked, but other than that, we dominated. Turnovers tend to be a fluky thing, and we're not going to turn it over five times very often. Syracuse is a halfway decent team (not great, but likely a bowl team), so it was encouraging to see us dominate a game in terms of yardage like we did. The defense played very, very well tonight.

Stanford is going to be a dogfight next week. I think they'll win, but I'm a pessimistic person. It should be a good one. I think we can hold our own against them defensively, but I have no confidence whatsoever in our running game.

 

[NCND]

I'm making the call right now...this ND team is going to kick the crap out of Stanford if it plays a clean game. Way better O than last year and the D looks way better too.

I honestly agree with this. Stanford doesn't look explosive at all. Need a few big plays early and I think ND wins.

 

[CarrollVermin]

I'm making the call right now...this ND team is going to kick the crap out of Stanford if it plays a clean game. Way better O than last year and the D looks way better too.

I want to drink what you had tonight. Have you seen Stanford? That defense is salty, aggressive, and plays faster than anything we have seen to date. If we don't establish a running game between now and then it could get ugly.

The lack of ability in our offensive line is puzzling. They are a bunch of Prima Dona pansies. The lack of physics play is startling and aggravating. Harry has a week to get it together.

 

[TheChosen1]

@toriihunter48: My sons thunterjr first TD at the college level. #proudpop #golstonisabeast #Goirish Instagram

Golston

 

[ickythump1225]

Sloppy overall but to know that we're good enough to commit 5 turnovers and still beat a team by over 2 TDs feels pretty good. I don't think anyone really knows how good we are currently but I know how good we can be if we could put it all together.

I'm convinced that when Golson is locked on he is a top 5 player in CFB. He is special. Yeah he had some bonehead moments but some of those turnovers were fluky as hell.

I would like to see the O-line get more push but hey what can you do? It will be interesting to see how we look against Stanford but honestly if we lose to Stanford it will be very frustrating because Stanford is not that good. Hogan isn't all that great and they have no weapons outside of Ty Montgomery.

Defense looked good. No 3rd quarter points again.

 

[NDTH91]

1. Sloppy, sloppy game. Not much to say about the turnovers. I think we all know that they would kill us, against a good team.

2. The thing is; we still don't know how good we are, or aren't. ND has not played anyone of note. Michigan is the biggest name, but they are an absolute dumpster fire right now. We have played two games where we have looked really bad against really bad competition.


3. BVG continues to play a ton of 3-4, moving Jaylon inside with Schmidt. I'm sure that is probably a game plan thing, put in to counter something specific in the opponent's offense. Perhaps the mobile QB, as they played tons of 3-4 against Michigan, as well.


4. The Defense looks to be decent, but again; given the competition that we have played, it is hard to judge.

5. Congrats to Everett Golson (school record for consecutive completions), Torii Hunter, Jr. (first TD), and Corey Robinson (career high in catches, presumably yards, too), on their milestone achievements.

6. I have a hard time watching Notre Dame football, when they are not able to enforce their will on teams, by simply running the ball and moving down the field. I know that College football is changing, but you still have to be able to run the ball. And we are not strong in that area. For all of the talent at TB, we should be running for 250-300 yards per game. The coaches have got to figure this one out, and do it quickly.

Game ball to Corey Robinson. Great game for him, and he has established himself as someone that opponents will have to respect.

Don't quite agree. Remember last year when michigan was fighting for their lives against teams like akron and uconn? THAT'S looking really bad against really bad competition. We look like a really good team who is young and makes a lot of dumb mistakes that hold us back... aaaand we ARE a really young team. Our anchor on offense is a 2-year starter who didn't play all of last year and wasn't a world beater in 2012. I'm not sure why our offensive expectations are so high... because of the Rice game? We will get better as we go.

We're 4-0 and all is right in the world.

 

[ickythump1225]

I agree that the sloppiness wasn't great to see, and obviously it would really hurt us if we turned the ball over like that against a decent team, but I'm not sure I agree we looked really bad. Purdue and Syracuse aren't great teams, obviously, but they are actual football teams. And even though we didn't play really clean games against them, that we handled them easily without playing our best game is encouraging to me. In both cases, the games were never in doubt and weren't nearly as close as the scores indicate - and the scores were borderline blowouts anyways.

I agree with this. Of course we all like to fantasize about housing PU and Syracuse by 5 TDs but in reality these are "Power 5" conference teams. It's still early in the season and we all forget sometimes (at least I do) that Golson missed all of last year so he's probably just getting warmed up now. I think the team can gel and be a bear of a team to handle. Especially if we get the run game nailed down. I doubt we'll have 5 TOs in a game again this season and if we play a clean game we can handle Stanford next week.

 

[phgreek]

1. Sloppy, sloppy game. Not much to say about the turnovers. I think we all know that they would kill us, against a good team.

2. The thing is; we still don't know how good we are, or aren't. ND has not played anyone of note. Michigan is the biggest name, but they are an absolute dumpster fire right now. We have played two games where we have looked really bad against really bad competition.


3. BVG continues to play a ton of 3-4, moving Jaylon inside with Schmidt. I'm sure that is probably a game plan thing, put in to counter something specific in the opponent's offense. Perhaps the mobile QB, as they played tons of 3-4 against Michigan, as well.


4. The Defense looks to be decent, but again; given the competition that we have played, it is hard to judge.

5. Congrats to Everett Golson (school record for consecutive completions), Torii Hunter, Jr. (first TD), and Corey Robinson (career high in catches, presumably yards, too), on their milestone achievements.

6. I have a hard time watching Notre Dame football, when they are not able to enforce their will on teams, by simply running the ball and moving down the field. I know that College football is changing, but you still have to be able to run the ball. And we are not strong in that area. For all of the talent at TB, we should be running for 250-300 yards per game. The coaches have got to figure this one out, and do it quickly.

Game ball to Corey Robinson. Great game for him, and he has established himself as someone that opponents will have to respect.

I pretty much agree...would only add that the secondary plays fairly well in coverage 15 and in...but are LLLLAAAAZZZYYYY as hell getting their heads around and making a play on the ball on deeper routes. Saw some Gary Grays tonight. The first two sideline routs were pretty well thrown...so meh. But dbacks had a handful of opportunities to make a play on a deep ball and they never got around.

SC, Stanford, FSU...they all look like they have issues as well...This thing could get real interesting if ND fixes the O-line...and gets the secondary a little tougher on deep routes.

 

[Junkhead]

I did like their unis

I thought they were among the ugliest ever.

 

[Bluto]

I want to drink what you had tonight. Have you seen Stanford? That defense is salty, aggressive, and plays faster than anything we have seen to date. If we don't establish a running game between now and then it could get ugly.

The lack of ability in our offensive line is puzzling. They are a bunch of Prima Dona pansies. The lack of physics play is startling and aggravating. Harry has a week to get it together.

I saw Stanford just scrape by Washington and barely beat ND with Tommy at QB last year. Who has Stanford beaten convincingly? Davis and Army? So yeah I like our O vs their D.

Stanford's QB is inconsistent at best, they have 1 play maker of the perimeter (Montgomery) and ND's D is beefy on the interior (Jones and Day have been an animals all season). ND's backers and DB's are faster or as fast and athletic as any of their skill players across the board. So I like ND's D against their O as well.

If Golson is on he's going to hang 30+ on them.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Stanford is overrated.

 

[phgreek]

It was the best of times; the worse of times.

530 yds Total Offense; They had 427

-4 Turnovers; They got 6 pts.

Offense converted 9 of 14 Third Downs; They only converted 3-15

Golson Career Game for Completions, %, YDs, TDs, ; and Turnovers

ND ran 30 times averaging 4.5 yds/carry; Could tell that from watching the OLine.

ND had about 6 and 1/2 minute Time of Possession advantage; Despite 5 Turnovers.

Bryant lead ALL rushers in yds, 55, and carries 11; He thinks at the hole instead of running

saw that...same thing on kick returns. Gotta set up the flow and bust a gap...he just kinda barels at the wall then tip toes around...never gonna bust one that way.

 

[Booslum31]

I pretty much agree...would only add that the secondary plays fairly well in coverage 15 and in...but are LLLLAAAAZZZYYYY as hell getting their heads around and making a play on the ball on deeper routes. Saw some Gary Grays tonight. The first two sideline routs were pretty well thrown...so meh. But dbacks had a handful of opportunities to make a play on a deep ball and they never got around.

SC, Stanford, FSU...they all look like they have issues as well...This thing could get real interesting if ND fixes the O-line...and gets the secondary a little tougher on deep routes.

Good points. I' also like to add that GB needs to be more decisive with his runs. Get the yards that are there and stop dancing when he's clearly surrounded by tacklers.