Postgame Thoughts

Dale

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We can agree to disagree. In Lea’s scheme, the DBs would play 10 yards off the ball on 3rd and 4. I never understood why, but that’s just what he did.

He seemed more havoc minded to me last night for 3 quarters because they seemed to be bringing the best 90% of the time.

The guys at Irish Illustrated talked about this in the summer and that’s what I saw last night.

Playing off does not equal umbrella coverage. There are defenses that play off and play umbrella and those that don’t. It’s not a agree or disagree we did not play that coverage lol. The #s also don’t say Lea was less Havoc minded. Same thing, I don’t take that as a agree/disagree, the #s say Lea was plenty good at bringing Havoc.

ND 2018: 18%
ND 2019: 26%
ND 2020: 24%

UC 2018: 21%
UC 2019: 22%
UC 2020: 22%

Lea gave us ELITE Havoc production the last two years. The off-season “Freeman is Havoc, Lea wasn’t” has been a narrative I’ve posted on disagreeing with since Freeman’s hire. Not as any slight to MF but to realize how good Lea was
 

ACamp1900

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Have to feel good for Milton here,… kid went through a lot for this moment
 

Valpodoc85

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OL will have time against Toledo and Purdue to get things right. Mayer will fix the drops, seems like a detail guy. Conan is as advertised but needs to work on his chemistry with WR. Feels like Rees tends to overthink, example would be the 3rd down quarterback keeper. With regards to the D. We were really spoiled with Lea, and assumes MF was an up grade. Maybe so. Seems to be a really solid recruiter but after one game, he doesn’t appear to make the solid adjustments Lea did. Tackling was an issue. Will need to watch that moving forward.
 

Irishman77

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Positives:
offense will score 40 a game this year. Coan looked poised but lacks the arm strength we need with our speed.

Negatives:
coaching derailed what the team was about to accomplish. FSU was throwing in the towel when they didn’t convert on 4th down deep in their zone. We punched it in and it was all but over. Rather than stomp their guts we let a deflated stadium come to life with mind boggling stupidity. Freeman should be the first to be executed. What an idiot!

linebacker play was way below average. Playing 3 down and leaving them exposed was atrocious.

Bold Takeaway:

Foskey gets drafted ahead of Hamilton.
 

WilliamWallace

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Pretty ugly win, reminded me of the Texas game in 2014. Fortunately we have a couple games to make adjustments, and get better. They played a tough game on the road against a team that has the potential to be very good, in an environment that was hot and lively all night. It’s still a win,

I think if the offense sustains a few drives the defense would have played better, they couldn’t get off the field and appeared gassed. I think all of it can be corrected, but the OL has to get better. Marcus Freeman is where he is because he’s a winner. He will make adjustments and we will play better as the season progresses. I think it’s safe to say that expectation should be tempered slightly, at least until this team starts playing to their capability.

I believe between now and Wisconsin we will all see a different team.

Edit: that was the Texas 2016 game
 
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Dale

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[TWEET]https://twitter.com/sportsourcea/status/1434877932221124617?s=21[/TWEET]
 

Blazers46

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Anyone know the total number of missed tackles... seemed to be a lot.
 

ThePiombino

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OL will have time against Toledo and Purdue to get things right. Mayer will fix the drops, seems like a detail guy. Conan is as advertised but needs to work on his chemistry with WR. Feels like Rees tends to overthink, example would be the 3rd down quarterback keeper. With regards to the D. We were really spoiled with Lea, and assumes MF was an up grade. Maybe so. Seems to be a really solid recruiter but after one game, he doesn’t appear to make the solid adjustments Lea did. Tackling was an issue. Will need to watch that moving forward.

On the contrary, I believe that was an example of Tommy underthinking lol
 

pumpdog20

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Coan's lack of arm strength was very surprising. I don't know if he can even throw the ball far enough to Lenzy, for him to be much of a threat. Might be best to get a receiver with better hands and runs cleaner routes to match Coan's strengths.

Mayer had some bad drops last year too. Probably going to have to live with that going forward.

Can someone tell me why a lot of the running plays take so long to develop? Are they some type of read play? If so, that shit needs to stop now. Unless the other read is to throw it.
 

NDRock

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Coan's lack of arm strength was very surprising. I don't know if he can even throw the ball far enough to Lenzy, for him to be much of a threat. Might be best to get a receiver with better hands and runs cleaner routes to match Coan's strengths.

Mayer had some bad drops last year too. Probably going to have to live with that going forward.

Can someone tell me why a lot of the running plays take so long to develop? Are they some type of read play? If so, that shit needs to stop now. Unless the other read is to throw it.

Agree with all this. The running game seemed brutal last night in how long it took. Coan is very limited physically. He did take some shots downfield though, which was great to see.
 

GATTACA!

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Will the media force Kelly to apologize for the "execution" comment? Mayer drops were disappointing. I think the ball was slippery or the gloves or whatever, gotta have those grabs. Lenzy looks much stronger and I hope that translates into durability throughout the season. I hope Austin can build on that night along with Wilkins. What other receivers will we see, Keys, Colzie, Watts?

He should.

"I would like to apologize for my comment after the game last night. I hope it's obvious to everyone that I don't plan on executing anyone...........yet"
 

Jimmy3Putt

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Mayer started running without the ball on both his drops. Had nothing to do with humidity, just lapse in concentration. Hopefully he learns from this.
 

Irishize

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Let’s all be thankful FSU botched the XP on one of their TDs.
 

BobbyMac

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If I've learned anything from living with a Cubbie fan it's when your team ends up with a bigger #... Fly the W flag.

I'm not going to write my list of 50 things that need to be fixed. I'll save it for when they do it again.


One thing I would like to address on the D is pace of play. Back in my playing days, we attempted to turn a methodical & efficient, motion offense team into an ultra up tempo offense influenced by Paul Westhead's Marymount offense. It was not pretty. Playing at that pace was foreign and it made you feel out of whack on both ends of the court. But after a while, we found we could run the sideline break for fast 3 pointers and eventually became a dangerous team because we learned to play at a much faster pace.

I think what we saw last night is a team not used to playing that fast. But I'm not worried. If low 3 stars learned to play at Freeman's pace in Cincy, ND's better talent will eventually become used to playing at 10/10.

And speaking of the pace... Jordan Travis might be the only QB in the country who survives the first half last night. Dude's a Houdini. He needs to give up QB and get to APB/Slot asap.
 

T-Boone

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Mayer had some bad drops last year too. Probably going to have to live with that going forward.

I don't remember that at all. I am sure he had one or two, but so did Claypool in his masterclass 19 season. Last night was a new thing and I bet a one off.
 

T-Boone

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Nobody has really mentioned the fact of Kyren Williams now having the punt return duties.
Firstly, that was my idea from last season and I got howled down for it.
Secondly I think it is a great sign of the intent to get play makers out there.
Thirdly it is just a great idea because lets make use of him any way we can while we have him.
Fourthly, I predict he takes one to the house against Toledo. Actually my prediction is he gets a TD running, catching and returning against Toledo.
 

Irish#1

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1. Heat and humidity started taking its toll.
2. Milton’s entrance into the game instilled new life.
3. Freeman going to the 3-3-5 late in the third.

Almost The Perfect Storm.
 
N

ND88

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Real question: How much better does Notre Dame do against Alabama in the opener when compared to Miami? :-/
 

Reaper97

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Real question: How much better does Notre Dame do against Alabama in the opener when compared to Miami? :-/

Same as last year when people asked about Miami and UNC. Then ND pounded UNC at UNC & Miami got pounded by UNC in Miami.
ND beats FSU that bad if game not at FSU on that night, or if they kept pushing when up 38-20.
 

Luckylucci

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Post-game takeaways:

Positives
  1. Michael Mayer could be the best player in CFB if he just wore some damn gloves.
  2. Kevin Austin looked great for a guy that hasn’t played a full game since high school.
  3. We can throw screen passes now!
  4. Isaiah Foskey gave off some strong Stephon Tuitt vibes.
  5. Kyle Hamilton is still Kyle Hamilton.
  6. Cam Hart or Clarence Lewis didn’t get beat in coverage (that I saw). Hart looks very physical in the run game.
Negatives
  1. OL issues can’t be chalked up to chemistry. Correll is playing out of position and it shows.
  2. Kyren Williams’ Heisman campaign is DOA unless we can figure out how to open a hole.
  3. Aggressive D is all fun and games until you give up multiple 80 yards TDs.
  4. Strong safety is going to be our achilles heel. Justin Walters can’t be worse than DJ Brown.

When the Correll to LG decision was made I was a little nervous about it. And from what I saw last night only validated that. They might be forcing the function there. Hopefully they don’t dig their heels in their if someone who is a more natural OG.

A lot of talk about Freeman but there is no reason the OL should’ve been that bad in the run game. BK needs to let Freeman fix the D while he helps Quinn, Rees, and Taylor evaluate what can get that anemic ground game going. All hands on deck to fix that mess.
 

N_D_Fighting_Irish

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A few thoughts:

Coan was what I expected. Not a terribly strong arm, not mobile, and not terribly accurate. His touch on long passes makes up for his average arm. If his first read is covered/unavailable, the play is basically over. Stats look good, but his play was annoyingly inconsistent. His 50/50 balls went our way in this game. With Coan, Rees job becomes harder as he will have to out scheme opposing defenses away from the first read.

OL played relatively well behind an immobile QB and against a defense schemed to take away the run game. Tyre and Williams are the best RB tandem we have had in quite some time. WRs showed heart but little else. Mayer is right now borderline overrated. He has a lot of potential, but his drops seem to occur at crucial times.

On the defensive side, I, like many who watched the game, do not understand what we were trying to accomplish. One cannot analyze nonsense.
 

arndtjc

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At the end of the day, a win is a win, and this is a game that this program loses 9/10 times pre-2017, so I had very little doubt they weren’t going to pull through here too. Rewatching the condensed game and the ending since I was blackout afterwards, I caught the best moment of the night: Kyren, Kyle, and Clarence leading the team into the tunnel doing the chop

[tweet]1435103901917884416[/tweet]
 

ulukinatme

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At the end of the day, a win is a win, and this is a game that this program loses 9/10 times pre-2017, so I had very little doubt they weren’t going to pull through here too. Rewatching the condensed game and the ending since I was blackout afterwards, I caught the best moment of the night: Kyren, Kyle, and Clarence leading the team into the tunnel doing the chop

[tweet]1435103901917884416[/tweet]

I did catch them throwing the chops! No fucks given, cause if you're gonna do that shit after EVERY. FUCKING. PLAY....even when your team gets sacked...you have it coming. Reminds me of the games we beat LSU and the team was chanting "IN-DE-PEN-DENT! IN-DE-PEN-DENT!" :laugh:

The whole chop thing is just overdone though. It's worse than USC playing their stupid Fight Song after every damn first down. For real, learn some new material! Talent-less hacks.
 
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