Postgame Thoughts

[Irish#1]

My turn to provide my professional opinion! lol

Freeman
Freeman's recruiting chops sure worked a lot of people into false expectations. His defense is going to get burned with the style of play, so we better get used to it. The expectation is the big plays given up will be far fewer than the big plays made. My issue is while the big plays given up may be fewer, their impact is much greater (i.e.TD vs. sack). Like many others, my concern is the shoddy tackling. I saw a lot of guys off balance or not in position to get a good wrap. Some was due to the athleticism of the QB, but how many times did we get hands on and not make the tackle? Did Freeman spend the majority of his time installing his defense and not as much on the fundamentals? My other concern was how he stuck with his three man front until OT. You don't go prevent in the third quarter. After two series, he should have seen it wasn't working. Lea usually had the opposing O figured out after only two or three series. Will be very curious to see if he learns from this game.

Coan
He looked a little anxious early throwing quickly instead of letting the play develop. Then he seemed to settle down and became more patient as evident by the long balls he threw. He doesn't have a cannon, but has excellent placement and reads the entire field. The O is in good hands with Coan.

Tommy
Overall Tommy called a pretty good game. There were a few WTF times in the game, but overall I really liked what he called.

O-Line
I was one who thought the line would be fine and it's only one game, but the inability to run the ball is something of a concern. They did fairly well in pass pro, but they definitely need time to gel. Fingers crossed the big kid is back in short order.

Hamilton
Hamilton. No explanation or embellishment needed.

Overall
While it got scary, our lads walked out with a win. Time will tell how good FSU is this year, but for one night they were pretty good, so coming out with a W opening night on the road in a charged atmosphere speaks volumes as to where BK has this program. Loved Kelly's execution comment and his reply.

 

[notredomer23]

I can't find the tweet, so no credit to me, but I saw someone say it was fitting that FSU had an epic comeback only to lose on a field goal missing wide left in honor of Bobby Bowden.

 

[Irishize]

They went for two later and got it. It sorted itself out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pardon my post…I’m an idiot. I totally forgot that yet in real time I remember saying FSU would easily convert the 2Pt. Thanks for the correction!

 

[NDdomer2]

something to consider in regards to the run game. and i think this showed in clemson's loss as well. When the defense doesnt have to honor the QB to ever keep it the run game changes dramatically.

Not that we did a lot of it with Book we did enough and he was a good enough runner that defenses had to honor it and stay disciplined backside.

Obviously OL is a larger portion of any issues but this is still an aspect that Rees will have to figure out. More jet motions on run plays? Not sure what the answer is.

 

[Irish#1]

something to consider in regards to the run game. and i think this showed in clemson's loss as well. When the defense doesnt have to honor the QB to ever keep it the run game changes dramatically.

Not that we did a lot of it with Book we did enough and he was a good enough runner that defenses had to honor it and stay disciplined backside.

Obviously OL is a larger portion of any issues but this is still an aspect that Rees will have to figure out. More jet motions on run plays? Not sure what the answer is.

Since he's not a true RPO threat, I'd like to see Coan go under center once in a while to help the run game.

 

[Valpodoc85]

Was it just me or did it seem like holding could have been called on FSU frequently in the first half?

 

[ThePiombino]

Was it just me or did it seem like holding could have been called on FSU frequently in the first half?

Officiating was noticably one-sided IMO and I usually don't feel that way.

 

[RDU Irish]

Very pleased with Coan - I think he only gets better as the season wears on. Two early underthrows on deep balls had me concerned, then he dropped it in a bucket for Austin later. I think he can be effective on deep throws, just didn't uncork it on those earlier throws - maybe needs to get it out earler. Hail Mary was not impressively long throw. Overall, he should have a damn good receiving group to spread it around and I think uses the whole field (if allowed).

Agree with whoever said Milton would not have physically survived the first half. I am a fan of the kid and hope he does some great things for FSU later this season but our pressure was too much early and he would have gotten destroyed. The kid is fun to watch - hope he can light up the ACC and lead them an ACC championship (I always enjoy ND's transitory championships). They need to split time with him and Travis for a while to make sure he makes it to November.

Interesting to see how these two teams look later in the year. We will for sure be a very different team - I expect OL will grow up A LOT, talent is there (might Rocco get some burn??). I need to rewatch the game without distractions focusing on OL. Our defense should improve as the new scheme is downloaded. Very pleased with the flashes of talent shown across the board. FSU is much improved - the pile of transfer looked impactful and a completely different team from last year with a lot to build on. Or maybe it is just classic ND where the opposition plays all world and reverts to ineptitude the rest of the season.

Williams was still getting 3-4 yards after contact, unfortunately first contact tended to be 2-3 yards behind the LOS.

 

[RDU Irish]

Officiating was noticably one-sided IMO and I usually don't feel that way.

ACC officiating is notoriously horrendous - add in their bigly bias against ND and you have a shit show. I expect this so it doesn't bother me as much as it use to. I get more upset with ND coaches who don't stay aggressive knowing these things will happen and you can't even crack the door open.

Holding on piles of plays were just embarrassingly obvious. Quite a few broke decent runs for FSU.

Roughing the punter call not being 15 yards was laughably blatant. Short of a prison shank I don't know how much worse that could have been. Very important call.

WTF on the Milton fumble/incomplete pass - I mean if it isn't a fumble it has to be intentional grounding, they don't even try to make sense in hosing the non-ACC opponent. BK should have been in the officials' ears immediately on that one - he sat back waiting for the result (after which it is too late) instead of petitioning the obvious stupidity coming down the pike. He should have made it binary prior to review - either fumble or intentional grounding - or you should never officiate ever again (which would make it trinary).

One of the fumble reviews did not have conclusive evidence to overturn, IMO. I thought he was down and the call was technically correct but I did not see conclusive evidence to support overturning the call. I think it was a punt or kickoff return that they broke for a good gain.

Don't remember any calls that obviously went our way but officiating on the re-watch will be one of the things I will watch for.

 

[NDisme]

ACC officiating is notoriously horrendous - add in their bigly bias against ND and you have a shit show. I expect this so it doesn't bother me as much as it use to. I get more upset with ND coaches who don't stay aggressive knowing these things will happen and you can't even crack the door open.

Holding on piles of plays were just embarrassingly obvious. Quite a few broke decent runs for FSU.

Roughing the punter call not being 15 yards was laughably blatant. Short of a prison shank I don't know how much worse that could have been. Very important call.

WTF on the Milton fumble/incomplete pass - I mean if it isn't a fumble it has to be intentional grounding, they don't even try to make sense in hosing the non-ACC opponent. BK should have been in the officials' ears immediately on that one - he sat back waiting for the result (after which it is too late) instead of petitioning the obvious stupidity coming down the pike. He should have made it binary prior to review - either fumble or intentional grounding - or you should never officiate ever again (which would make it trinary).

One of the fumble reviews did not have conclusive evidence to overturn, IMO. I thought he was down and the call was technically correct but I did not see conclusive evidence to support overturning the call. I think it was a punt or kickoff return that they broke for a good gain.

Don't remember any calls that obviously went our way but officiating on the re-watch will be one of the things I will watch for.

I felt the same way unfortunately after reading the rule, no intentional grounding was the right call it's more the rule that is dumb. But it should have been a fumble either way. It was called that on the field how do you over turn it?

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Yes. One of the most incompetently officiated games I've ever seen. And every questionable call went against us without any sort of effort at make-up calls. There was an atrociously bad spot (a full 1.5 yards short of where Kyren was actually down); should have been a first down, but killed an early drive. Then our fumble recovery that was overturned on far less than "indisputable" evidence. Milton's obvious fumble overturned as an incomplete pass. Their refusal to call an obvious Roughing the Punter.

So we ended up with at least two prematurely killed drives and 1-2 fewer turnovers than we should have had. The final score would have been a lot more comfortable had the game been competently officiated. I hope ND calls the ACC and blackballs those refs from ever calling another one of our games again.

 

[Wild Bill]

Offense:
Coan was great. He would have completed over 80% of his passes if Mayer didnt have a few bad drops. It is somewhat frustrating not having a qb that can make plays with his feet. Say what you want about Book but he's slick with the ball and it was real comfy having him back there on 3rd and short. The other thing I noticed is Coan never pulled the ball on the zone read. He was either making the wrong read or it was predetermined that he was handing it off so it wasn't an option at all. There was a play on 3rd and short in the first half where he could have pulled the ball and fallen forward for a first down, and instead he hands it off for a one yard loss. Could be wrong but I don't remember him pulling the ball and running it himself at all. If he can't run the ball, don't call the play. Plenty of other ways to run the ball.

Oline wasn't great but they weren't awful either. Madden gave up one sack in the first half b/c the defender beat him through the gap. Everyone knew he'd have some issues with faster pass rushers so it wasn't a huge surprise. Other than that, he was fine. Fishers and Correl gave up a pressure/sack in the first half as well but I thought Fishers did a good job sticking with the defender and shoving him into the pocket but upfield as well. Coan ran right into it - had he taken a step back instead, he would have had all day to throw the ball. Carmody got beat bad in the second half b/c he didn't get off the ball. I'm not sure if it was crowd noise or a brain cramp but it was bad. You're only as strong as your weakest link on the oline so if one pig misses their assignment and everything else is blocked to perfection the result still stinks. Too early to tell how the unit will perform.

Receivers and backs. Austin can play. Confirmed. Wilkins looked good and looks a lot bigger/more well built than I remember. The more Kyren touches the ball, the better. Mayer is as good as advertised minus the drops. Lenzy...I just don't know. On the one hand, you want to create ways for him to get the ball and use his speed but on the other he has to win one on one matchups and get himself open. I could see him being wild inconsistent this year - one week he lights up the stat sheet and the next he has one catch for 8 yards.

Defense:
Defensive line: They're great against the pass. Not so much against the run. Scheme probably had something to do with it but they got pushed around at times and they could not defend the edge. Everyone had issues except foskey. We got a lot of guys rotating in and out and we may be a bit light in the ass out there with some of our personnel.

Linebackers: Bertrand was making plays. White made some but less than bertrand, from what I remember. I don't recall even seeing Kiser on the field.Overall, not the best day for the unit but not sure how much scheme played a role. They got caught looking into the backfield more than a few times. They need to read their keys.

Secondary was okay but FSU receivers were average, at best. Corners were solid. Griffith got toasted on that deep ball but it was just a good call by norvell to get him isolated on a receiver and their QB did a good job of looking Hamilton off of the ball. Otherwise, I thought Griffith played fine. Hamilton is elite. Shocking. DJ Brown really struggles to tackle and it cost them on two TDs. Not trying to pile on the kid but he had an open lane and should have made the tackle on that big FSU run in the first half and just whiffed. In the second half, I'm nearly certain he was the unblocked blitzer on the third down TD pass that got FSU to 28. You just can't play solid D with a safety that struggles to tackle. He has to tackle better or you have to limit his reps.

Special teams: Doerer was great, coverage team was okay but did anyone else notice that Tyree fair caught every kick, even when it looked like he had some room to work? I wouldn't mind seeing him take a shot here and there.

Norvell called a brilliant game, aside from going for it on 4th down. He'll have nightmares about that one. Otherwise, I give him credit for sticking with the run down three scores and he dialed up some nice plays when they needed it - shovel pass in the 4th quarter, getting his receiver locked up on safety 1 on 1, etc. What was most impressive was that he was clearly outmatched in basically every phase with the exception of RB and he still found ways to move the ball and score. ND's Dline was dominating their Oline and he basically found the one clear weakness - ND's inability to defend the edge and went to the well over and over. Another thing I noticed is that we were stunting quite a bit to create pressure and by sticking with the run late in the game, he was able to use those stunts against the D and it opend up some big holes in the run game.

That three man front pissed me off for two reasons: It obviously wasn't working yet the sideline keeps trotting it out onto the field as if they could surrender yards in the run game without the risk of losing. There was clearly enough time for FSU to come back without airing it out every down. Worse yet, the three man line opened up big lanes for Travis to scramble through when he dropped back to pass. It was bad.

 

[ColinKSU]

That three man front pissed me off for two reasons: It obviously wasn't working yet the sideline keeps trotting it out onto the field as if they could surrender yards in the run game without the risk of losing. There was clearly enough time for FSU to come back without airing it out every down. Worse yet, the three man line opened up big lanes for Travis to scramble through when he dropped back to pass. It was bad.

I literally have no idea what his thought process was as he kept rolling out that look despite it not working and everyone watching it knowing it wasn't working.

 

[Wild Bill]

I literally have no idea what his thought process was as he kept rolling out that look despite it not working and everyone watching it knowing it wasn't working.

The only thing I can think of is that they couldn't properly understand time/amount of possessions it would take to tie/win or they thought norvell was just going to start throwing the ball all over the field with a QB that can't throw and a bunch of 3 star receivers.

Coaches are human and can be off at times. Freeman was off in his first outing. This isn't his first rodeo so it's not terribly alarming but he should have adjusted.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

ACC officiating is notoriously horrendous - add in their bigly bias against ND and you have a shit show. I expect this so it doesn't bother me as much as it use to. I get more upset with ND coaches who don't stay aggressive knowing these things will happen and you can't even crack the door open.

Holding on piles of plays were just embarrassingly obvious. Quite a few broke decent runs for FSU.

Roughing the punter call not being 15 yards was laughably blatant. Short of a prison shank I don't know how much worse that could have been. Very important call.

WTF on the Milton fumble/incomplete pass - I mean if it isn't a fumble it has to be intentional grounding, they don't even try to make sense in hosing the non-ACC opponent. BK should have been in the officials' ears immediately on that one - he sat back waiting for the result (after which it is too late) instead of petitioning the obvious stupidity coming down the pike. He should have made it binary prior to review - either fumble or intentional grounding - or you should never officiate ever again (which would make it trinary).

One of the fumble reviews did not have conclusive evidence to overturn, IMO. I thought he was down and the call was technically correct but I did not see conclusive evidence to support overturning the call. I think it was a punt or kickoff return that they broke for a good gain.

Don't remember any calls that obviously went our way but officiating on the re-watch will be one of the things I will watch for.

Nailed it on all fronts, RDU. I was losing my mind on Sunday night with the officiating. I still can't believe they didn't throw the 15 yard flag when Bramblett almost had his leg ripped off or the incomplete pass, but no grounding. Those were two HUGE moments that aided the Seminoles in their comeback effort.

 

[Irish#1]

Yes. One of the most incompetently officiated games I've ever seen. And every questionable call went against us without any sort of effort at make-up calls. There was an atrociously bad spot (a full 1.5 yards short of where Kyren was actually down); should have been a first down, but killed an early drive. Then our fumble recovery that was overturned on far less than "indisputable" evidence. Milton's obvious fumble overturned as an incomplete pass. Their refusal to call an obvious Roughing the Punter.

So we ended up with at least two prematurely killed drives and 1-2 fewer turnovers than we should have had. The final score would have been a lot more comfortable had the game been competently officiated. I hope ND calls the ACC and blackballs those refs from ever calling another one of our games again.

It's our penance for not joining the ACC after last year. Three Our Fathers, two Hail Mary's and a lifetime of crappy ACC officiating.

 

[RDU Irish]

Nailed it on all fronts, RDU. I was losing my mind on Sunday night with the officiating. I still can't believe they didn't throw the 15 yard flag when Bramblett almost had his leg ripped off or the incomplete pass, but no grounding. Those were two HUGE moments that aided the Seminoles in their comeback effort.

I expect ACC officials to F up in real time, honestly try watching some regular ACC matchups - they are total bush league garbage. What chafes my rear is these were closely reviewed calls that were 100% botched.

Driskell pointed out a pick play on Twitter - https://twitter.com/CoachD178/status/1435276066961174534
That doesn't bother me so much except the obvious fiasco last time we were in Tally and the multitude of other examples.

 

[Wild Bill]

I expect ACC officials to F up in real time, honestly try watching some regular ACC matchups - they are total bush league garbage. What chafes my rear is these were closely reviewed calls that were 100% botched.

Driskell pointed out a pick play on Twitter - https://twitter.com/CoachD178/status/1435276066961174534
That doesn't bother me so much except the obvious fiasco last time we were in Tally and the multitude of other examples.

Try gold bond powder.

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/KirkHerbstreit/status/1435299652191100933[/TWEET]
oy vey

 

[RDU Irish]

You watch - the same knobs that wouldn't give UCF a shot at the playoffs will be slobbering over Milton and FSU if they put a run together and contend in the ACC. ND loss won't matter b/c ... reasons.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

oy vey

Kirk got the memo! Milton's Miracle: Touching Hearts and Touchdowns in Tallytown© already in production by The Walt Disney Company. Streaming exclusively on Disney+!!!1one

 

[oddz313]

It’s actually terrible that I still have PTSD from Michigan in 2011. The fact ND pulled this off makes me very optimistic about the season because this would have never ended like this in the past.

I felt more like the labor day weekend game vs Texas in 2016 that we lost

 

[BabyIrish]

Listened to the II podcast today on the game. A lot more encouragement from the guys then I expected.

They’re definitely on the “defense was tired” explanation, which I personally think was a big part of the fourth quarter collapse. They aren’t worried at all about the defense. In fact they even defended the three down alignment, pointing out how it worked on the first drive that went three and out for negative yardage.

They also were complimentary of the o line play minus Lugg. O’Malley even went so far to say that Correll might have been our best lineman for the game. They acknowledge that he had some bad moments but that he also had key blocks on a lot of big/scoring plays. They were more worried than Madden then Correll.

 

[Rizzophil]

For what it’s worth, Pro Football Focus ranked the Irish pass blockers as follows: (1) Zeke Correll (2) Josh Lugg (3) Jarrett Patterson (4) Blake Fisher (5) Michael Carmody (6) Cain Madden.



Correll was deemed the site’s eighth-best pass blocker nationally on the weekend.



But when a team rushes for 65 yards with a long gain of 12, not everything went swimmingly.

 

[Irish du Nord]

Try gold bond powder.

I believe Gold Bond saved my life back in my Track days

 

[AvesEvo]

Listened to the II podcast today on the game. A lot more encouragement from the guys then I expected.

They’re definitely on the “defense was tired” explanation, which I personally think was a big part of the fourth quarter collapse. They aren’t worried at all about the defense. In fact they even defended the three down alignment, pointing out how it worked on the first drive that went three and out for negative yardage.

They also were complimentary of the o line play minus Lugg. O’Malley even went so far to say that Correll might have been our best lineman for the game. They acknowledge that he had some bad moments but that he also had key blocks on a lot of big/scoring plays. They were more worried than Madden then Correll.

That's good to hear because after ND's performance and the injuries on Saturday, put me in the nervous column for the season.

 

[Irish#1]

Listened to the II podcast today on the game. A lot more encouragement from the guys then I expected.

They’re definitely on the “defense was tired” explanation, which I personally think was a big part of the fourth quarter collapse. They aren’t worried at all about the defense. In fact they even defended the three down alignment, pointing out how it worked on the first drive that went three and out for negative

Or, all it took was one series for FSU to adjust.

 

[Reaper97]

I mean, no reason to complicate this.

BK told Freeman to protect the lead…which is the correct thing to do.

BK allowed Freeman to decide how to do that…which was the correct thing to do.

Freeman decided the 3 man front was the way to do it…which was the wrong thing to do.

BK told Rees to protect the ball & chew clock…which was the correct thing to do.

BK allowed Rees to decide how to do that…which was the correct thing to do.

Rees decided to shut it down…which would be fine if the Defense got at least one stop. Or if Mayer doesn’t drop a 1st down catch. Or if the refs weren’t horrible.

BK instructs his coordinators the change in strategy. It’s the coordinators’ job to decide the best way to do so. Freeman didn’t choose correctly.

 

[AvesEvo]

Good stuff from Rich Eisen.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xgUW3d4dao8

 

[calvegas04]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/rtoma9/status/1435382173817704450?s=20[/TWEET]