Like many of you, I was not able to watch the game on TV. I followed it on the internet.
It seemed that most of the WR catches were by Parris, Kamara, and Tate. Did they get most of the playing time?
Claussen's passing yardage was very low. Were most of his passes short, possession passes?
I saw Wooden and Lambert making a lot od defensize stops. How much did Walls play?
I saw Toryan Smith's name a lot. How much did he play?
I appreciate any answers.
Parris & kamara did seem to get the majority of the catches. Clausen threw deep to tate a bunch and all of them coulda/shoulda been picked. It looked like Tate was assuming that Clausen would underthrow him so he started pulling up to adjust, but it turned out that Clausen's throws were fine & Tate shoulda kept running so he might have caught it in stride. That's just my opinion.
I'm pretty sure Walls was in for most of the game if not all, b/c they were in nickel (which is why you heard Wooden's name so much). Walls made a great play in the end zone on a WR that was taller than him. Walls got inside position on the WR & prevented the TD w/o interfering. Wooden made some good hits, though he & Zibby are in the habit of not wrapping up & it cost ea. of them on some plays. Wooden, of course, got flagged for pass interference for hittin the WR from behind before the ball got there. All he had to do was let the WR catch it & then pop him from behind....it may have jarred the ball loose...but it wasn't gonna be much of a gain had he caught it anyway. Wooden has regressed since that fateful play vs. USC in '05. Again, just my opinion.
Toryan got flagged once, too. That's the only time I recall his name being called. that's not to say he didn't do well overall.
The offense looked as inept as I've seen them. The only difference was the lack of mental errors & stupid plays (fumbles, ints, snaps over the head of QB). They couldn't muster 150 yds in total offense. If the UCLA QB, Olsen, doesn't get knocked out of the game, I'd be hardpressed to agree that ND woulda still won. But, at this point, I'll take what I can get.
I'm hoping that this UCLA defense will end up being one of, if not the, best defense that ND sees all year. Hopefully, that explains the ineptness of the offense. IF not, ND has a lot of work to do on offense, b/c they have yet to forge any semblance of an identity. The OL did relatively well. Bruce Davis wore Sam Young's ass out...but Davis has the exerience & athleticism to give any LT fits. Clausen got good pass protection but our WR apparently couldn't get separation & Clausen held the ball far too long.
Aldridge & Allen seemed to get most of the carries. Allen actually busted two right up the middle for big gains. Aldridge ran really tough...unfortunately there weren't a lot of holes being opened for him to exploit.
For some reason, Weis insists on giving the ball to Travis Thomas once ND gets inside the 10 yd line. It's really odd, b/c it's as if he's been named the "goal line back" like a fullback who comes in on those situations, but TT is a halfback and carrying around the corners...for little or no gain.
Anyway, that's what I noticed. Oh yeah, the punting by Price was back to what we had come to expect...he did well. The 48-yd FG was definitely an omen for the rest of the game...as NO one expected it to go thru. Zibby got robbed of a nice punt return b/c McNeil was wrongly flagged on a block in the back, whereas replay showed that the UCLA defender did a nice acting job as he was untouched.
