Post Game Observations

[IrishLax]

The most glaring observation from this game, for me, was the 565 yards of total offense that Air Force put up on this defense. Triple Option, Spread Option, Wing T, West Coast, Run and Shoot: I don't care what kind of offense Air Force was running, that's way too many yards to be giving up.

Counter-observation: the defense played really well in the third quarter, which was a great sign of the players picking it up and/or good halftime adjustments.

Air Force gained only 74 yards on their three 4th quarter drives... that's only 21 yards a drive. All of their offensive success in the second half came on two 4th quarter garbage time drives for 141 yards on our second string defenders.

 

[Senoj13]

It appeared that the D really made it a point that someone other than the QB was going to beat them. There was a guy on him all day, however covering the pitch man was a chore

 

[arrowryan]

I thought Hendrix looked VERY impressive today. He will definately be in the race for starting QB next year

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

I can see why people love Tommy.. but if you had to ask me would I rather see Tommy start the rest of the year or Hendrix, I'd pick Hendrix.. it's just me, and I know I'm a minority, but it's simply my opinion.. a lot of you will disagree with it, but I (and I believe others) are not making a case for being "right", I'm just stating my opinion.. Rees has done a lot to be the starter and Kelly has faith in him and I trust that and that's all well and good, but I just got excited today when Hendrix was in the game and it was more fun watching him than it is watching Tommy

I'm ok with Tommy as the starter, I don't hate him or anything and he's a fine QB, I just prefer Hendrix.. and I know I'm in the minority

 

[sharksamardzija8345]

it's just my opinion, bro.

 

[Mr. McGibblets]

Not stating anything new, but my observation is this: its not that Notre Dame doesnt have the top talent, its the level of play from their mid-talent. I watch Arkansas/Auburn and i see these teams that our top players would easily start for any sec team, but Sec teams have a far less gap between their top talent and their mid talent. I thought of this when i was getting annoyed in the 1st half watching AF move the ball at will. I dont think this movement of ball would occuur as often against SEC teams- note the SMU/Navy final- it wasnt that close despite the 35 Navy rolled up. I think the mid talent will be (and already has been) vastly improved under Kelly's regime which will help ND compete against SEC schools. Kelly said with Cowherd that SEC set the benchmark for programs.

This blowout gave me even more hope about ND's ability to compete talent-wise in the future. I see the top talent/mid talent gap closing quicker than I expected.

 

[BeatSC]

Counter-observation: the defense played really well in the third quarter, which was a great sign of the players picking it up and/or good halftime adjustments.

Air Force gained only 74 yards on their three 4th quarter drives... that's only 21 yards a drive. All of their offensive success in the second half came on two 4th quarter garbage time drives for 141 yards on our second string defenders.

I totally agree with your 3rd quarter defense comments. I should have noted it. Good observation. I would like to think the team/Defense let up a bit when the game was in the bag.

 

[odieholtz]

I remember now why I just read and don't post....

 

[pkt77242]

To be fair, how many points/yards were given up by the backups?

Also, enough with people calling out the Tommy haters, it's childish and makes you look pathetic.

Good thing, I could give a **** about what you think. I am all for critiquing Tommy's play but if they just hate on him, they get what they deserve.

 

[kmoose]

Counter-observation: the defense played really well in the third quarter, which was a great sign of the players picking it up and/or good halftime adjustments.

Air Force gained only 74 yards on their three 4th quarter drives... that's only 21 yards a drive. All of their offensive success in the second half came on two 4th quarter garbage time drives for 141 yards on our second string defenders.

Counter-counter-observation: None of the above makes me feel any better about Air Force gaining over 300 yards, in the first half. That wasn't against back-ups. This defense has played very well, all season long. It's a glaring discrepancy, that they gave up almost 600 yards, and over 300 against the starters. It's not that Air Force game-planned it, but once again this defense was exposed outside of the hash marks. The good teams on the schedule are bound to notice this, and they WILL be planning to attack ND by getting to the edges quickly and taking advantage of this weakness.

 

[jonesman]

Hey KMoose,
You make a statement that your grandparents could have ran against the AF defense as a point to pick on Hendrix. So, why does this not hold water when pointing out why Tommy looked so good today???

I will say that Tommy looked really solid today, but ANY good passing QB would have looked good against that D with our offensive line and weapons.

You guys can buy all the Tommy stock you want. I am not buying until I see him beat a top notch D. The only time I have seen him against semi good BCS defenses, he STRUGGLES!! We will see in two weeks when USC comes calling. I pray he is up for the challenge.

 

[koonja]

Hey KMoose,
You make a statement that your grandparents could have ran against the AF defense as a point to pick on Hendrix. So, why does this not hold water when pointing out why Tommy looked so good today???

I will say that Tommy looked really solid today, but ANY good passing QB would have looked good against that D with our offensive line and weapons.

You guys can buy all the Tommy stock you want. I am not buying until I see him beat a top notch D. The only time I have seen him against semi good BCS defenses, he STRUGGLES!! We will see in two weeks when USC comes calling. I pray he is up for the challenge.

Nothing wrong with that statement. Rees is winning me over but I'll reserve judgement until after USC.

 

[kmoose]

Hey KMoose,
You make a statement that your grandparents could have ran against the AF defense as a point to pick on Hendrix. So, why does this not hold water when pointing out why Tommy looked so good today???

I will say that Tommy looked really solid today, but ANY good passing QB would have looked good against that D with our offensive line and weapons.

You guys can buy all the Tommy stock you want. I am not buying until I see him beat a top notch D. The only time I have seen him against semi good BCS defenses, he STRUGGLES!! We will see in two weeks when USC comes calling. I pray he is up for the challenge.

I'm not saying that the observation that Rees put up Tecmo Bowl numbers against a poor pass defense is not a valid observation. What I'm saying is that you can't be impressed with Hendrix, who ran well against an equally weak run defense, if you aren't impressed with what Rees did.

 

[koonja]

http://www.irishenvy.com/forums/notre-dame-football/63490-case-being-ranked.html

I think we have a good chance of being ranked after this week. Hopefully USC can get into the top 25 as well.

 

[meowmix]

I'm just glad we got out of this game with a big win, no injuries, and two weeks to prepare for USC. Rees looked pretty good for the most part, few bad throws, but some very nice throws. Hendrix looked awesome and has great zip on the ball while throwing on the run (clear advantage over Rees in this area). He also looked really fast. It'll be exciting to see what he can do later in his career when he knows the offense inside out.

 

[ShamrockOnHelmet]

Nothing wrong with that statement. Rees is winning me over but I'll reserve judgement until after USC.

I agree with this post, and I'll take it one further. Even if he has a fantastic game and we win, I WON'T be coming on here and screaming "Tommy for Heisman" or some sh!t like that. He's a good player. Not great yet. Probably won't be great this year. We'll see where things go, but people need to stop with the thing where they need to instantly kill or crown a guy.

 

[meowmix]

But I really hope the defensive staff fixes things up before Navy. Some of Air Force's plays were simple options (QB runs to the side, pitches to RB) that went for first downs. Also, it was way too easy for them to convert 4th downs. There was also a disappointing number of disgustingly open receivers. Now we know why Jefferson's passing efficiency was so high.

 

[pkt77242]

Hey KMoose,
You make a statement that your grandparents could have ran against the AF defense as a point to pick on Hendrix. So, why does this not hold water when pointing out why Tommy looked so good today???

I will say that Tommy looked really solid today, but ANY good passing QB would have looked good against that D with our offensive line and weapons.

You guys can buy all the Tommy stock you want. I am not buying until I see him beat a top notch D. The only time I have seen him against semi good BCS defenses, he STRUGGLES!! We will see in two weeks when USC comes calling. I pray he is up for the challenge.

Miami last year had a ton of talent on D, especially at DB (I believe they had a DB picked in the 2nd round and 1 picked in the 3rd) and he played well against them, though I don't know how their D was overall.

 

[kmoose]

I agree with this post, and I'll take it one further. Even if he has a fantastic game and we win, I WON'T be coming on here and screaming "Tommy for Heisman" or some sh!t like that. He's a good player. Not great yet. Probably won't be great this year. We'll see where things go, but people need to stop with the thing where they need to instantly kill or crown a guy.

Couldn't agree more. Rees is our best bet to win, right now. He's solid, but he's far from being a great QB. And people even mentioning Heisman and Tommy Rees in the same sentence are delusional, at best.

 

[DomerInHappyValley]

I believe the AF passing game is better than Navy's forcing the CB's to play back and respect the roll out.
Against Navy they should be able to play up.
I'm just happy no one was injured though some of the players were trying to.

 

[pkt77242]

Couldn't agree more. Rees is our best bet to win, right now. He's solid, but he's far from being a great QB. And people even mentioning Heisman and Tommy Rees in the same sentence are delusional, at best.

^ This

 

[IrishJayhawk]

Love Rees. Love Hendrix.

It's like Leak/Tebow all over again...except without the condescending Bible verses on the eye black.

Love it.

 

[meowmix]

I believe the AF passing game is better than Navy's forcing the CB's to play back and respect the roll out.
Against Navy they should be able to play up.
I'm just happy no one was injured though some of the players were trying to.

Yeah, for all the talk of how respectful academy players are, Jefferson was talking a lot of crap and there were at least two late hits on Tommy.

 

[DomerInHappyValley]

Yeah, for all the talk of how respectful academy players are, Jefferson was talking a lot of crap and there were at least two late hits on Tommy.

Not to mention diving into the back of legs after the play was over.

 

[IrishMoore1]

Not to mention diving into the back of legs after the play was over.

Like Kelly said, when you play Air Force you just wanna get a W and get the hell out of town.

 

[irishtrain]

I was wrong and darn glad to be wrong-over the summer I thought this would be a loss. All due respect to the Air Force but Notre Dame flexed its offensive muscle. Rees reminds me of Tom Clements. When you see this team pushing around teams like this no matter how much of a size difference or talent difference you know they are about to get it. These guys have played 4 impressive football games agaisnt 4 completely difference style of teams and played to excellance. My 9-3 is looking better now and I still think they beat Stanford. Now lets WELCOME 'southern cal' to Rockne Stadium.

 

[dre1919]

There were a lot of really positive things in this game. The one thing I want to comment on is how impressed I have become with Jonas Gray overcoming that South Florida game fumble and becoming a potent force in the run game. Good to see him rebound from that, move forward, and kick some ***.

 

[BarRoom Hero]

This team is dominate.

 

[IrishAlum1997]

This team is dominate.

Please ban now....won't....end....well.....

 

[arndtjc]

For those saying 'I will reserve judgement until U$C,' uhhh he beat them for the first time in NINE years.

2-0 against U$C two weeks from now, you heard it here first.