Post Game Observations USC

[Rudy89]

Uggggggg...The redsox ruined my night

your love of ND has to trump your hatred of the sox right, and hey I hope my cards can beat them for you in the series. Though personally and I know a lot of people will think im stupid for saying this Ill take an ND BCS bowl win this year over a world series victory. I know the world series means more but ive never seen ND win a BCS game. The last major bowl I saw the Irish win was before I started Kindergarden and I really didnt know what was going on so if I had the magic ability to choose I would go with that.

 

[rtrn2glory]

Uggggggg...The redsox ruined my night

Made mine brah...don't hate!!

 

[BabyIrish]

I was very pleased with some of the unsung guys: Carlo, Okwara, & Schmidt all had great contributions along with the usual guys.

 

[returnofthemack]

Defense really stepped up in the second half. Joe Schmidt made some good plays and K. Russell locked his side down and made a clutch hit. Tuitt and Nix played very well all game. In the first half there were way too many missed tackles, but I didn't notice as many in the second. Also, I can't believe how much Hendrix has regressed since his cameos against Stanford and FSU. He may have surprised them, but he actually threw the ball pretty well during those games. I remember against Stanford he threw a beautiful bullet on an out route for a TD instead of throwing into the ground five yards behind him. Ugly game, but great win for the defense.

 

[Buster Bluth]

LOVED the uptempo offense at the start of the game. No more Tommy Manning hopefully for the rest of the season.

It had more to do with USC's idiotic choice to play off the receivers. I sat there wondering aloud to my roommate why USC would let Tommy Rees do the only thing he does well: read soft coverage and go through his progressions.

Teams can't bring pressure and play soft and assume they'll stop Tommy. He will make you pay more times than not.

 

[Redbar]

We won this game because we are a tougher football team than USC. The D just refused to lose the ball game. Front 7, that D line but also Carlo, Jaylon, Ishaq, Dan, and yes Mr.Joe Schmidt, I salute you. The D backs played solid, Kev played great, Cole and Devin look like the stage is not too big, BJax has got to keep his eyes on the ball carrier and rap up. I love the determination of this team coming out of the bye week, they were more tenacious than USC.
Andrew is a great young man but he was not mentally prepared to play for (t)his football team tonight. He has been around too long for that performance, if Tommy can't go next week hopefully Andrew will show himself and all of us that it was just a combination of severe nerves and some bad luck. He needs to get himself plugged in this week, everyone on the team is just a play or two away from being needed by their teammates.

 

[BMT]

Jaylon stud, Defense awesome, also loved the up tempo. Was ready for Malik Zaire to burn his redshirt for the win. Hendrix, nothing personal was both unprepared and horrible. 1 or 2 first downs????? it was beyond ugly, very lucky to win tonight. But love the W.

 

[Jimmy3Putt]

To the defense:

That was epic!
Way too many accolades to go out on the defensive side, but here's a few:

-7 was the monster we all thought he'd be. PLEASE stick around another season!
-1 was his usual self... BEAST! PLEASE stick around another year!
-9 made a play that won't allow me to complain about "super linebackers" in video games anymore!
-12 made me yearn for 11. I'll never bi+ch about Tommy again (online anyway, heh).

 

[DillonHall]

It had more to do with USC's idiotic choice to play off the receivers. I sat there wondering aloud to my roommate why USC would let Tommy Rees do the only thing he does well: read soft coverage and go through his progressions.

Teams can't bring pressure and play soft and assume they'll stop Tommy. He will make you pay more times than not.

I can't think of a single time that Tommy made an adjustment at the line of scrimmage. I think there was an obvious shift in philosophy applied during the bye week.

 

[Patulski]

1. Brian Kelly again found a way to win. It wasn't pretty, but he again showed that he produces tough football teams who refuse to lose. This was an ugly rivalry game that was a must win. We won. That is all that matters.

2. I was hoping for Kelly to produce an epic ND moment by bringing in Zaire and winning the game. It was painful watching Hendrix. He is wound so tight and it isn't only in the game. I was watching him in warmups and he looked like a coiled spring. Ya gotta love the kid's effort, but he is not a Dvision I QB. I don't know how bad Rees' injury is, but our season hinges on his return. With him, we have a chance to win all of our remaining games. Our defense has come on and we have enough offensive weapons. Let's hope he's available next week, because he's all we've got.

3. Bennett Jackson's tackling was really bad. He better step it up, because Butler is getting more and more playing time. On the positive side our corners ran pretty well with USC's receiving corps. We could not do that 5 years ago. Of course it helps to get pressure with a three man rush.

4. Eiler Hardy did a nice job when he was in there.

5. Gotta hand it to Nix/Tuitt/Shmbo. Those three guys won the game. We need to consistently sign those kinds of players in recruiting if we're going to be a BCS caliber team.

6. Niklas is getting better an better. He's going to be great. Daniels and TJ were solid. I think we would have won by 14 if Rees had not gotten hurt.

7. Cam made some nice moves and GAIII ran hard. Carlisle is not going to play if he keeps dropping balls.

On to Air Force and 6-2.

 

[IrishFaninTX]

- Andrew Hendrix looked absolutely inept tonight. He has absolutely no confidence. Just looks lost out there.

- Cam McDaniel is the man. If only he was two-tenths of a second faster.

- TJ Jones was solid.

- DaVaris Daniels started off really hot and then fell off at some point in the second quarter. Not really his fault, though.

* Troy Niklas will never be the studly receiver that Eifert was, but he is turning into a damn fine TE and may end up being the more complete player when all is said and done.
- Stephon Tuitt was a monster. Unstoppable.

- Jaylon Smith is going to be a superstar. So talented.

- Is it just me or is Carlo Calabrese blowing up a lot of runs lately?

- Solid effort from the secondary with a few lapses. Tough to gauge their performance without a healthy Lee, however.

- Punt coverage was HORRIBLE.

Not sure I would say Niklas won't ever be the studly receiver Eifert was. He has had a TD catch in just about every game this season and has made so many clutch receptions for big gains. He is huge so he probably isn't as fast but he gets open and doesn't drop the ball very often. He is a bigger mismatch for linebackers across the middle than even Eifert was. If Niklas continues to progress at his current trajectory, he could end up having more TD receptions than Eifert did. Just another great in the long line of players to graduate from TE U!

 

[phgreek]

Defense really stepped up in the second half. Joe Schmidt made some good plays and K. Russell locked his side down and made a clutch hit. Tuitt and Nix played very well all game. In the first half there were way too many missed tackles, but I didn't notice as many in the second. Also, I can't believe how much Hendrix has regressed since his cameos against Stanford and FSU. He may have surprised them, but he actually threw the ball pretty well during those games. I remember against Stanford he threw a beautiful bullet on an out route for a TD instead of throwing into the ground five yards behind him. Ugly game, but great win for the defense.

This Best summarizes my view of this game...so ditto

 

[jmoodie]

*But we don't have a Back up QB

Yes, we do. We've played our backup all year. His name is Tommy Rees. Hendrix is our 3rd string QB. And despite being smart and what seems to be an all around good guy, he is arguably the worst QB I've ever seen at the major college level. Tonights performance was against a baaad defense.

I don't mean to dog on him. It is what it is.

 

[palinurus]

Yeah, no joke as shaky as ND has been... we've played 5 legitimate teams so far. Almost no other teams have done that.

We beat a very good ASU team because of Shamrock Series magic. We beat a good MSU team because MSU's offense was really that bad. We beat USC despite a ton of adversity.

We lost to a 1-loss Michigan team in the Big House that played perfect while our D was still very much a work in progress. And we lost to a mediocre Oklahoma team because that's football... big turnovers, bad plays = loss.

That's not bad. Pre-season most reasonable people would've taken 5-2 against our opening slate. It sets us up for 9-3 (which would exceed Vegas expectations) with potential for 10-2 and a very unlikely chance of 8-4.

Soy contento.

I distinctly remember seeing Colin Cowherd and Herbstreit on ESPN discussing ND the week before the season started. They agreed that if ND won 8 games this year, Kelly "should be coach of the year." They may have been exaggerating to be funny, but they weren't joking that they thought 8 wins was, essentially, out of the question.

 

[Bluto]

Sc sucks!

<a href="http://s1276.photobucket.com/albums/y478/mundo246/?action=view&current=A8AEE76C-A13C-4523-8287-872C9CAE5AA0-1356-000001463C6EEA70_zps692e8a66.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/y478/mundo246/A8AEE76C-A13C-4523-8287-872C9CAE5AA0-1356-000001463C6EEA70_zps692e8a66.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos" /></a>

 

[IrishLax]

Yes, we do. We've played our backup all year. His name is Tommy Rees. Hendrix is our 3rd string QB. And despite being smart and what seems to be an all around good guy, he is arguably the worst QB I've ever seen at the major college level. Tonights performance was against a baaad defense.

I don't mean to dog on him. It is what it is.

Just to nitpick, but USC's defense is not horrible. In fact, F/+ has them as the 13th best D in the country coming into the game, and S&P had them as the 10th best D. They're probably the second strongest D we've played this year to MSU.

 

[IrishLax]

I distinctly remember seeing Colin Cowherd and Herbstreit on ESPN discussing ND the week before the season started. They agreed that if ND won 8 games this year, Kelly "should be coach of the year." They may been exaggerating to be funny, but they weren't joking that they though 8 wins was, essentially, out of the question.

Yeah, very good point. And Lee Corso said if ND won 8 or 9 they should be in the BCS with our schedule. Oklahoma has been worse, ASU has been better, MSU is a bit of an enigma as to how good they are, Michigan is a bit of a wildcard still too, and USC is a bit of a dumptser fire although is statistically a solid squad. Soooo..... people will always have revisionist history to say our schedule "wasn't that hard" but all things considered we've played 3 teams with only 1 loss, and a 2 loss team that has played probably the hardest schedule in the country to this point. That's a freaking gauntlet. And we're 5-2 overcoming lots of adversity.

I'm pretty darn happy.

 

[andre784]

The 2012 ND defense showed up in the second half. No matter what games we win or lose from here on out...the season is always restored when we beat USC.

 

[palinurus]

Yeah, very good point. And Lee Corso said if ND won 8 or 9 they should be in the BCS with our schedule. Oklahoma has been worse, ASU has been better, MSU is a bit of an enigma as to how good they are, Michigan is a bit of a wildcard still too, and USC is a bit of a dumptser fire although is statistically a solid squad. Soooo..... people will always have revisionist history to say our schedule "wasn't that hard" but all things considered we've played 3 teams with only 1 loss, and a 2 loss team that has played probably the hardest schedule in the country to this point. That's a freaking gauntlet. And we're 5-2 overcoming lots of adversity.

I'm pretty darn happy.

Right. All I heard during the 2012 preseason was how tough the 2012 schedule was, until ND went 12-0 and then they all came out and said, well, Michigan and Michigan State and Southern Cal and Miami weren't as expected, and wins against Stanford and Pitt and BYU were lucky, and blah blah blah. ND is always supposed to suck until they don't, and then their schedule sucks, even if it didn't before, and so now ND sucks again.

 

[Redbar]

Right. All I heard during the 2012 preseason was how tough the 2012 schedule was, until ND went 12-0 and then they all came out and said, well, Michigan and Michigan State weren't as expected, and wins against Stanford and Pitt and BYU were lucky, and blah blah blah. ND is always supposed to suck until they don't, and then their schedule sucks, even if it didn't before.

Clever. Also true.

 

[yankeehater]

17-2 in last two regular seasons. Not too many around here would have thought that would have been possible 4 or 5 years ago.


GO RED SOX!!!

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Oh man, it is so nice to beat USC at home. The players were in elementary school last time that happened. Crazy but true.

No offense to Hendrix, but that was the worst performance I've seen a QB have, maybe ever. If Rees is out for an extended period of time, hopefully a neck sprain won't keep him out, then Zaire has to play. There is no use in playing Hendrix at all if that is his skill level.

McDaniel showed another dimension getting those long runs. It was really impressive.

Stanley really stepped up today. He'll be a great one.

Tuitt was unstoppable. That was vintage 2012 Tuitt right there. When he wasn't hitting the QB, he was being held. He was held on the last 4th down play but no flag was thrown. Luckily, Russell had the big hit.

Big game by Russell. He did well on the other receivers. The inside linebackers did well too. The run defense in the first was shaky, but the whole defense played amazing in the 2nd half. That was a better defensive performance than all of them last year IMO.

Jaylon's pick had me pumped. He's going to be a superstar.

I feel like our coaches find something successful and then proceed to go away from it, whether it is running to the outside with McDaniel, running a faster pace offense, or blitzing. I just don't agree with the coaching staff on a lot of decisions.

Overall, it feels great to win 3 out of 4 against those douchebags at USC. Pretty convenient for that guy to get hurt to stop the clock with 3 minutes left.

 

[Catholics_Rule]

Great win! Beating USC at home for the first time since 2001 was amazing. Myself, like many others, have been critical of Tommy Rees. But after tonight's offensive performance without him makes me appreciate him. The first half our D missed so many tackles I lost count. The 2nd half the D showed they can be elite. It really seems like the team is getting better every week. Notre Dame should go on a run now up until BYU & Stanford.

Go IRISH!

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

Great points here all around. I can't even describe how well the defense played enough to give them credit, so I'm not going to try.

Everything about Jaylon's pick was nasty. From the drop back into coverage to seeing the crossing route behind him, to staying in front of his man. Unreal.

Punt coverage was pathetic, but Agholor is a freak athlete.

I almost feel bad for Hendrix. I'm not even mad. Just feel disappointed for him that he had his time to shine and just couldn't complete a pass. I'm not sure if you everyone is aware, but I think we only had one first down the entire second half.

One last thing, and I'll try to remember that he is 22 years old. Bennett Jackson needs to remember he has a C on his chest. His play tonight was really bad. Missed tackles, missed coverages. Just really bad. That is our captain that, save for a pick and a forced fumble, has not consistently played well as a cover corner this season. I don't want to see him tweet "puttin' in work" or "gonna get hype this weekend." I want him to play like a captain.

 

[Spitfire]

I feel like our coaches find something successful and then proceed to go away from it, whether it is running to the outside with McDaniel, running a faster pace offense, or blitzing. I just don't agree with the coaching staff on a lot of decisions.

If I had one complaint after this game it would be this. It's annoying that you will see McDaniel for example tear it up during a series only to sit out the next series or two in favor of Atkinson or Carlisle who were unable to get anything going. I'm not sure why the coaching staff continues to go to this running back by committee approach and not let one guy just settle into the flow of a game.

Amazing win though and one that has been a long time coming.

 

[IrishHokie22]

- Tommy played very well tonight before he got hurt. Here's to hoping his injury isn't serious.

- It was nice to see Niklas involved in the offense tonight.

- Can we please abandon the pistol? Especially near the goal line?

- Tuitt was a monster tonight.

- Nice showings tonight from Luke, Butler, and Hardy. Hoping they get more reps as the season goes on.

- Jaylon Smith is going to be special.

- The punt coverage was pitiful tonight and needs to be fixed.

- I could care less if we won 70-0 or 2-0. I'm just glad we won. This was a big win.

 

[BGIF]

No doubting Tommy Rees' value after tight Notre Dame Irish win - ESPN

by Matt Fortuna ESPN 10/20/13

...

And as it turns out, Rees had been one step ahead of everyone. His biggest play had actually come at halftime, two drives before he would be on the receiving end of a big knock from USC linebacker Lamar Dawson with just more than nine minutes to play in the third quarter. Rees was slow to even sit up, then walked gingerly off the field under his own power. He was standing up on the sidelines being interrogated by team medical personnel before heading to the locker room for further evaluation. Coach Brian Kelly said afterward that Rees had suffered a neck strain and was all there mentally, and that the team should know more in the next 24 hours.

But when the teams had gone to their locker rooms for halftime Saturday, Rees had taken it upon himself to deliver a speech that proved to be prescient in a game that featured no scoring during the final 30 minutes.

"It was a passionate speech, one of the more passionate things I've ever heard Tommy say," captain TJ Jones said. "It was really, 'Just keep your head in the game, don't give up. We've got this, 30 minutes wasn't enough. We need another 30 to win this game.' He had a lot of the guys almost in tears. It's the first time Tommy spoke out like that, and it was definitely emotional."

...

 

[BGIF]

Five things we learned: Notre Dame 14, USC 10 | Inside the Irish

by Keith Arnold, NBCSports.com

1. Don’t go burying this Notre Dame defense just yet.

2. The offense without Tommy Rees is completely lost.

3. Led by Jaylon Smith, the youth and depth on this roster is really stepping up.

4. Stephon Tuitt emerged as the force we all thought he could be.

5. Don’t look now, but Notre Dame has won three of four against a Southern Cal team that spent the last decade dominating the Irish

Details at the LINK.

 

[Grahambo]

Rees is what he is at this point and I've stated my opinion on him but I'll never say another critical thing about him as long as I live.

I heart the defense.

My weekly plug for Redfield.

Hopefully the offense can have some fun and go off the next few weeks.

 

[arrowryan]

I thought everything except Hendrix and the punt coverage was great last night.

Now about Hendrix, if Tommy can't go next week then BK needs to burn Malik's redshirt. Hendrix was just absolutely awful. Hendrix had a total of 5 yards in the second half.