Postgame Thoughts - North Carolina

[yankeehater]

ESB looked horrible. Very passive when battling defenders for balls.

Coleman has to come down with that interception. The UNC WR just took it away from him.

Bilal looked lost out there in space.

Mack had a decent game but had a key drop. I think he's finding his way though. Pretty obvious he was pressing early on to make up for missing 2016. He'll be ok.

Claypool looked to have a TD reception but dropped it. I think even if he hauls it in, it gets overruled due to stepping out of bounds before entering the end zone.

For the life of me I didn't understand the playcalling. It's 16-7 & then 23-10 vs a horrible team yet ND chose to sling the ball all over the yard. Why not just impose your will by dominating the LOS and running the ball down their throat to salt the game away? Plus, it burns clock. Instead, ND opted for 3 & outs & 2 interceptions that continued to give UNC life.

Pretty sloppy offensive play these past two games. Luckily, both teams were tomato cans so talent won out.

He looks almost disinterested out there to me. I felt the same last year, but blamed it on the terrible season. He has been one of the few disappointments to me this year.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

ESB looked horrible. Very passive when battling defenders for balls.

Coleman has to come down with that interception. The UNC WR just took it away from him.

Bilal looked lost out there in space.

Mack had a decent game but had a key drop. I think he's finding his way though. Pretty obvious he was pressing early on to make up for missing 2016. He'll be ok.

Claypool looked to have a TD reception but dropped it. I think even if he hauls it in, it gets overruled due to stepping out of bounds before entering the end zone.

For the life of me I didn't understand the playcalling. It's 16-7 & then 23-10 vs a horrible team yet ND chose to sling the ball all over the yard. Why not just impose your will by dominating the LOS and running the ball down their throat to salt the game away? Plus, it burns clock. Instead, ND opted for 3 & outs & 2 interceptions that continued to give UNC life.

Pretty sloppy offensive play these past two games. Luckily, both teams were tomato cans so talent won out.

Hello negative Nancy.

I think it's pretty clear the coaching staff wanted to see what they have in Ian Book as a passer. Also the staff clearly wanted to continue to develop a subpar passing attack. The game was really never in doubt. Getting passing reps in live game is better than in practice. You really can't simulate game speed in practice.

 

[woolybug25]

I feels great to have not just one RB, but several who can take it to the house. It seems like it has been a long time. Guys not getting through holes or getting caught from behind seemed to be the norm at ND. Watching highlights of other teams runners being able to do it and wondering why ND could not find those players. What was the stat they showed, something like 7 runs of 60+ yards this year? Now that is awesome.

I’m confident in every RB that we have put on the field this year. I honestly think we can win at a high level with at least 5 of them and it’s glorious. I feel like Adams can take it to the house on any given play. I mean, how many games so far has he ripped off a huge run? He’s fantastic.

 

[woolybug25]

The Bars ankle injury is the one that worries me most.

That's a big man and a lot of weight on that ankle.

He has two weeks to heal though and I don’t think it’s serious.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

This team is good. They did what they were supposed to do with a banged up offense. The game was never in doubt and they covered the spread.

This is the best Notre Dame team we have seen since 2012. And by the end of the season this team could be better than the 2012.

I can't take anymore of all the negative on this site anymore. Which is the main reason I barely post and even login anymore. People just don't know how to be happy...


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[Henges24]

This team is good. They did what they were supposed to do with a banged up offense. The game was never in doubt and they covered the spread.

This is the best Notre Dame team we have seen since 2012. And by the end of the season this team could be better than the 2012.

I can't take anymore of all the negative on this site anymore. Which is the main reason I barely post and even login anymore. People just don't know how to be happy...


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Ha, welcome to the USA.

 

[dmort]

This site is pretty fair as far as analysis.Then there is that other ND fan site where its fire Kelly 24/7.This site is way better.

 

[SouthSideChiDomer]

Hello negative Nancy.

I think it's pretty clear the coaching staff wanted to see what they have in Ian Book as a passer. Also the staff clearly wanted to continue to develop a subpar passing attack. The game was really never in doubt. Getting passing reps in live game is better than in practice. You really can't simulate game speed in practice.

I think this was a lot of the playcalling at the beginning, kind of seeing where he was best and where he was weak. They realized he was good on roll outs so he doesnt get his view blocked by the line, and most accurate on short and intermediate routes.

I think the reason they threw so much was because so many times the situation called for shorter passes like short third downs or in the red zone, and Book is much better at those than Wimbush, so if the defense was playing the tendecy, we had them beat by throwing it. Obviously the execution was a little off, but I don't disagree with the playcalling.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

Ha, welcome to the USA.

Yes. First world problems.


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[Irish Insanity]

I thought I read that he practiced

Correct. I originally said he should be good to go next week. There was a response about next week being a bye week. I was being a smart ass because I was referring to him being ready to be full practice again, not that we had a game.

 

[NDohio]

This was a bit of a strange game day experience for me as I was entertaining clients. There were two UNC fans, a Clemson fan, a Georgia fan and me. The Clemson fan uplayed DI and has coached - his comment was that he thought this ND team could definitely play with Clemson.

Having not seen ND live for two years I was shocked at how much better the guys look physically. The new S & C program has done wonders We made UNC look soft.

A little thing that impressed me was the defensive substitutions. There was a series in the third quarter where the D substituted eight players on two consecutive plays. When is the last time our depth allowed us to do that?

This is the quietest, least talked about 5-1 team in the nation and Josh Adams is not getting any hype for the season he is having. Notre Dame really is irrelevant. Hopefully that all changes in two weeks.

 

[Blaise]

I was disappointed in the amount of false starts. We can't be shooting yourself in the foot against good teams


Overall thought we did what we had to do. Dominate a weak team. BW is much better than Book but I do have confidence in Book if he needs to come into a game because of injury. He will settle down.

Excited to see how this defense does against USC

 

[Dizzyphil]

The Bars ankle injury is the one that worries me most.

That's a big man and a lot of weight on that ankle.

He has two weeks to heal though and I don’t think it’s serious.

The bye week couldn't have come at a better time.

 

[Senoj13]

Not only is ND beating the teams it should, they are also 5-1 against the spread. So they are winning games by more than public/Vegas opinions.

 

[Bugzly21]

I was disappointed in the amount of false starts. We can't be shooting yourself in the foot against good teams

People overlook how much a difference a different voice makes for the linemen. False starts are very common when the linemen aren't use to the new snap count

 

[SouthSideChiDomer]

People overlook how much a difference a different voice makes for the linemen. False starts are very common when the linemen aren't use to the new snap count

I would say especially so for when the defense is loading the box and you need that extra split second to make it fair.

 

[Huntr]

ND had 3 false start penalties - one each on Smythe, Claypool, and Bivin

 

[ACamp1900]

This site is pretty fair as far as analysis.Then there is that other ND fan site where its fire Kelly 24/7.This site is way better.

Fire Kelly.

 

[IrishFanJMercy]

I think the biggest take away from yesterday that we need to get better at going forward and we need to work on it for the next two weeks is our corners turning their heads around to go up and grab a ball, we haven't faced a great throwing QB yet, we will in two weeks with darnold but the think about darnold is that if we get pressure he isn't a great runner. We could of had 2-3 more picks yesterday if we turned the head around. This needs to improve going into next year if we want to be elite

 

[Armyirish47]

Great win for the Irish. Road wins against power conference teams are hard to come by. Multiple road wins against power conference teams are more hard to come by. Multiple blowout road wins against power conference teams are...well....

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Notre Dame has registered 3 straight Power-5 road wins by at least 20 pts for first time since the 1973 and ‘74 seasons...<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BertschyBits?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BertschyBits</a></p>— Michael Bertsch (@NDsidBertschy) <a href="https://twitter.com/NDsidBertschy/status/916814879641800704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Nice to see Book get lots of reps throwing it around. He is a solid QB2, which is hard to come by in these transfer happy days.

 

[CrystalHead]

IMO this was nothing more than a scrimmage to our coaching staff. They realized real fast that UNC offense opposed zero threat to hang with us. I think the play calling showed just that. Throwing the football even though off tackle runs were there all day. Going for it on 4th down (didn't like the play call) . They were just trying some things to see what they had in Book. I'm happy with this team. You can tell they are NEVER satisfied and always getting better. They are a very nasty team and love it.

 

[irishandy]

Postgame Thoughts:
1) Tillery, Hayes, and Okwara are getting better each week.
2) Our defense has created 14 turnovers this year, matching what we had last year. So far the defense has exceeded my expectations.
3) Ian Book didn't need to be superman he used the talent around him to get this win. Book does have a nice rollout pass and I am confident with him as our backup QB.
4) I hate to be a Debbie downer about the passing game but ND has no passing game. If I am an opposing defensive coordinator I stack the box and make them beat me with the pass.
5) Our running game had another impressive day at the office.

Moving forward thoughts:
1) The second half of the season will be tough, NC State and Miami will be tough.
2) They have a week to get the passing game figured out (ESB and Mack-- they need to stay next year).
3) 5-1, I am pleased up to this point.
4) Nice to see the armchair quarterbacks not b!tching about Kelly (although the season is not over yet).

Go Irish!

 

[Bluto]

Excellent points. The two poor red zone drives were quintessential Kelly play calling. I am curious if he doesn't from time to time get involved in the play calling.

Not necessarily true. One bad red zone trip was all about Bivin blowing it with back to back penalties. That’s lack of execution and 100% on the player.

 

[snoopdog]

Not necessarily true. One bad red zone trip was all about Bivin blowing it with back to back penalties. That’s lack of execution and 100% on the player.

That holding call on Bivin was absolute BS. He barely touched him

 

[Irishnuke]

Pretty pleased overall with game. I will say that our passing game and secondary play needs to be much better to beat SC.

 

[N_D_Fighting_Irish]

IMO this was nothing more than a scrimmage to our coaching staff. They realized real fast that UNC offense opposed zero threat to hang with us. I think the play calling showed just that. Throwing the football even though off tackle runs were there all day. Going for it on 4th down (didn't like the play call) . They were just trying some things to see what they had in Book. I'm happy with this team. You can tell they are NEVER satisfied and always getting better. They are a very nasty team and love it.

No this was not a scrimmage and it is insulting to the players. They came prepared, especially on the D side, and played with a passion. NC was in the game until their idiot head coach decided to take some chances at the one yard line with less than a minute til halftime. They had the momentum and our players made the play to kill that. Our play calling kept NC in the game and we were fortunate that it didn't bite us in the ass.

 

[N_D_Fighting_Irish]

Wimbush has turned the ball over. I still think he is the best option but he does have some picks and a couple fumbles.

They were not the bonehead variety. Book was unnecessarily reckless.

 

[NDohio]

Fire Kelly.

When ND called the timeout after Bivin’s false, start the Notre Dame “fans” sitting behind me went on their BK rant. As the offense gathered around Coach Long, BK stood back and let him do his thing. And that’s when it started, “Look at him, he is completely disinterested”, “I can’t believe he is not at least listening in on this conversation”, “I bet he is jealous cause Long is a better playcaller than him”, and on and on and on they went...

 

[wizards8507]

Not sure which is the dumber take. "Bench Wimbush" and "fire Kelly" seem to be equally brain dead at this point.

 

[CrystalHead]

No this was not a scrimmage and it is insulting to the players. They came prepared, especially on the D side, and played with a passion. NC was in the game until their idiot head coach decided to take some chances at the one yard line with less than a minute til halftime. They had the momentum and our players made the play to kill that. Our play calling kept NC in the game and we were fortunate that it didn't bite us in the ass.

Never insulted the players. In fact I specifically said this team is always showing to get better which equals passion. They are a nasty team and I love that. I said the coaching staff acted like it was just a scrimmage. In fact what you said is really how I meant it, you just said it better in ways. In reality we are in agreement.