Report Card.

[lattedatte]

Units:

Special teams: B-, kickoff return was superb and punting was pretty good. Field goal unit and the one bonehead zibby catch inside the 10 hurts grade.

Defense: A-, played very well, speed was noticibly different then last year. shut down johnson in second half. but little pressure by down line and ABI not getting off the bus take it to a minus.

Offense: C, played well enough to win. and didn't turn the ball over. but many opportunitities to bury G. Tech were not seized. 0 passing TD's. Penelties. ton's o heat on brady in the first half. Tons of room to improve.

Coaching: C, won the game with some gutsy play calling.. But the team wasn't ready to play coming out of the gate. penelties. some questionable play calling. need to get better guys.

All in all I view this win as the best thing that could have happened. Reality check for a team that got more than their fair share of press coverage. This team will be extremely focused now and now knows you can't throw depth charts on the field and walk away with a win. Good win, but more importantly a kick in the pants for the entire ND team and coaches to step it up.

Go Irish!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[gipper2nd@yahoo.com]

Pretty close lattedatte, but the defense at best was also only a "C". Let's not sugar coat it, they din't look very good at all, except for special teams. I realize that GT thought they were playing in the "Super Bowl", & maybe we need to expect that in every game. The D-line got no penetration to speak of, & maybe because of their stunting, the O-line made a lot of mistakes. Sorry, but I saw no increase in speed in the defense. They played very tenative, (probably because of their Quarterback). I think everyone will agree that we were very lucky to come away with a win.

 

[stan5545]

I disagree gipper, I think the defense played a lot better than a C grade. Georgia Tech was a very talented offense that was completely shut down in the second half. I dont feel it was lucky that they didnt score a signal point in the second half. But I do agree that A- is a little high, I would give them a B+. HAHA. But we got the win, that is all that matters. One game at a time.

 

[jiggafini19]

EXCELLENT effort by the defense. The best they have played since Ann Arbor in 2005 bar none.

I would not even attempt field goals. If THAT is the kicker that won the job in camp, I'd have waited for Kai Forbath.

I took the 6 1/2 points and ND won the game by 4. Everybody wins in my book.

Oh, and to all those people out there who think that Darius Walker isn't a gamebreaker or isn't "exciting" enough, that dripping you feel on the top of your head is me pissing on you. Walker and the defense won this game tonight.

Did Calvin Johnson come out of the locker room in the second half?

 

[Vince Young]

Boys and girls, the special word today is "control."

We controlled this game. We dominated on time-of-possession, we greatly limited Georgia Tech's big plays, we made the best damn wide receiver in the country look rather average, we kept GT 2-for-10 on 3rd-down conversions, and we made big plays when it really counted.

Was it pretty? No. But we limited the damage in the first half and kept the game from getting out of reach, and then we took control in the second half.

This was a good win. Lots of deflated egos out there tonight, which can ONLY be a good thing. On both offense and defense, we were forced WAY out of our usual game-plan and STILL managed to win. When a team gets shoved out of their comfort zone and wins anyway, that's a good sign.

Georgia Tech, you guys are good... but you're not THAT good. Welcome back to reality.

Next week, the Back-To-Reality-Tour continues against Penn State. Charlie Weis will light some people up on Monday, and tonight's mistakes WILL be addressed and corrected.

(Now if only we could find a field-goal kicker...)

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

Units:
Defense: A-, played very well, speed was noticibly different then last year. shut down johnson in second half. but little pressure by down line and ABI not getting off the bus take it to a minus.

A- is generous.

Let's face it, they kept Ball to his AVERAGE. He's a 50% passer and he walked away with 50%.

The KEY is that they held GT to 10 points when they normally score about 18. So, it was GOOD, but I would NOT give them an A-. I would give them a B.

 

[Vince Young]

What's the consensus on the D, folks? Better than last year? Worse? The same?

My vote's for better, for the reasons outlined above. The D's not where it needs to be yet, clearly (Reggie's QB draws were killin' me!), but this was several steps in the right direction.

Notice our safeties didn't get mentioned a lot tonight... that's a GOOD thing.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

What's the consensus on the D, folks? Better than last year? Worse? The same?

My vote's for better, for the reasons outlined above. The D's not where it needs to be yet, clearly (Reggie's QB draws were killin' me!), but this was several steps in the right direction.

Notice our safeties didn't get mentioned a lot tonight... that's a GOOD thing.

They are better. But let's see how they do against a team with a good offense. GT was known last year for being BAD. 18ppg...BAD.

 

[isotopes]

QB- It seemed to take Brady a little while to get comfortable, especially with all the pressure. Once he got a chance to get settled in it seemed pretty solid. A couple over throws here and there but I think you chalk that up to the first week back in front of tons of fans. B-

RB- D walk controlled the game and was really the difference maker today. Like the rest of the team, started slow but was really able to find some holes and get movin. Travis Thomas was still the same north and south runner that I love, and I definately would have liked to see more of Munir, but I like that they are trying to use him in some different ways. A-

TE- Both played pretty solid, blocking by Carlson at some points was suspect but good. Also, a big penalty in the second half. Freeman had a nice grab or two. B-

OL- Very poor in the first half. Way too much pressure on Brady and not nearly enough push for the run game. Second half a lot of adjustments made. Looked quite a bit better, Lots of penalties. C-

DL- Showed Spurts of pressure but not enough to make a big different. Felt Abiamiri and Frome both did a got job of containing, however. C-

LB- Outside of a few plays here and there the inexperience really shined. GT line was able to move right up to the second level after man handling the line and did very much the same to the linebacker core. Disapointed in Mitchell and Vernaglia. Thomas should some ability, but overall the lb corp lacked. D+

CB- First off, I'd like to state I believe Mike Richardson is the worst corner since Dwight Ellick. Guys always in bad position and left 2 steps behind on every cut. Calvin Johnson is amazing but when you stand in front of wr and make no effort at the ball who doesn't? F- (Is there an F- ?)

Wooden and Lambert played well, I was also glad to see both freshman getting some time today. A few points in which they were a little behind the receiver but overall pretty impressive. Poor tackling by the corners though. Not sure whether to chalk that up to the technique/form/effort, or the decreasing emphasis on a db being able to tackle. B+ (Big time improvement from last year)

Safeties- Thought both played well. Tommy flew around and made a lot of big tackles as per the usual. Chinedum Definately showed his offseason speed work in my opinion and still remained to be a big hitter. The stick on Calvin Johnson midfield must have gotten into his head. (By the way Richardson was like 3 steps behind in his coverage) Good play room for improvement. A-

K- Kickoffs were generally pretty deep and had fairly good hangtime. I don't think I need to comment on the placekicking. D+

P- Some rather booming kicks. Felt very happy to know we replace DJ well in one area. A

KR + PR - Very good. Kickoffs though I wasn't sure whether it was all them or whether GT's kick coverage was still terrible (130th last year). Seemed promising, good vision both returnmen made crisp cuts and took advantage of what was given. Tommy is a beast. One broken tackle for every post made by "Tommy" in the last week, so keep on postin...... A

Offense - C+ Not where alot of people expected them to be, but for a first game in which everyone has spent 7 months keying in on Brady and Jeff they did okay. Were ableto adjust and get into somewhat of a rhythm, but far from where they will hopefully be in the upcoming weeks.

Defense- With this being the biggest question mark about the team I feel a little bit more confident, but still somewhat of a question remains. DB's impressed me but the front seven were owned by an undersized Gt line. Look forward to seeing improved pass rush and better play by linebackers. Impressed though with overall play. B

Special Teams- Gioa holds this back from getting a decent grade. Good field positioning in general though both offensively and defensively. C-

Coaching- Players came out a little flat. Have to respect the D especially with little game footage and prior knowledge of the GT offensive play calling. Nice adjustments made in the second half. In all you can't catch the ball for 'em and you can't stress anymore on penalized areas. Gutsy calls helped win the game. B

Overall- Far from where I expect, but played a good team, on the road, and able to win a dog fight with some guts and by keeping composure. D should a lot to be hopeful about. Solve the evident problem with the kicking game and things should pick up quickly. Hard fought victory. B-

 

[mlcspinner]

I think this game comes down to 1 thing. Quinn was not sharp at all. He missed the Shark twice in the endzone when he was open. Thats 14 points. Alot of other balls were overthrown. He just never seemed comfortable last night. Give credit to GT defense for that.
Passing Game D
Running Game B
Any time a defense only gives up 10 points, and shuts out a team for a half, I don't know how much more you can ask.
Defense B
Punting A
Fieldgoals F
Kickreturn A

 

[solo]

My impression on our defense is that our secondary has improved while our front 7 got worse. In the first half, GT ran the ball very effectively. We looked soft up front in the first half. A power running football team will give us problems. It's also tough to determine just how much our secondary improved when facing a QB that only completes 50% of his passes. We'll know a lot more in the coming 3 weeks.

Special teams I thought played well other than the FG kicker.

Offense played average. GT plays very good defense and we struggle against good defenses. I expect to see much the same in the next 2 games. Our offense will come to life against MSU. Until then, I doubt we score more than 28 points in any game. We didn't give BQ enough time to throw. He looked off even when he did have time. Weis called a very poor first half. We looked more like Purdue than ND. Should have run the ball more.

We certainly didn't look like the 2nd best team in the nation. However, I am happy to be
1-0.

 

[nshope]

Defense gets a B:
I agree that our D-Line and pass rush was non-existant for the most part during the game. Disappointing to say the least. We should've sacked Ball at least 4 times. DBacks made good adjustments to cut Johnson out of the 2nd half.

Offense gets a C:
It took them too long to open up the holes needed to punch DWalker through and it took a whole half to give Brady a little bit of time to throw. The 'C' grade is because we are much, much, much better than we played and I believe we underachieved big time.

Special Teams gets a B-:
Kick return was great. Punt return OK, but bad decision by Tommy to field the late punt deep in our zone. Punting very, very good. Placekicking....horrible. Two makeable kicks totally blown.

Overall - Team gets a B minus minus - We're much better than this and need to show it.

 

[mirertobrooks]

My grade:

Winners- Notre Dame
Losers- Georgia Tech

Winner- Sportsbook.com
Loser- Mirertobrooks

oh well, I'm happy we won, Thanks Carl

 

[Vince Young]

Winner- Sportsbook.com
Loser- Mirertobrooks

Haven't you heard? The house ALWAYS wins.

 

[NDgettysburg]

What's the consensus on the D, folks? Better than last year? Worse? The same?

Overall, I thought it was better.....but, I thought the run defense was an absolute disappointment. Maybe they just looked bad because they couldn't cheat on the run due to paying so much attention to #21. Was VERY happy to see them not let him have a huge play (though he came real close if not for Chinedum's awesome shot to bust up the catch). In that way, the defense absolutely improved.

 

[nshope]

Absolutely

Absolutely

Overall, I thought it was better.....but, I thought the run defense was an absolute disappointment. Maybe they just looked bad because they couldn't cheat on the run due to paying so much attention to #21. Was VERY happy to see them not let him have a huge play (though he came real close if not for Chinedum's awesome shot to bust up the catch). In that way, the defense absolutely improved.

Good mention of Ndukwe's hit. One of the biggest plays of the night and best hit of the this year thus far (obviously). Might be the best of the entire year after all is said and done. GREAT HIT!!

 

[PantsB]

On the OL - I think they weren't great in the first half but not as bad as it may have seemed. I don't know if it was rust or what but Quinn was seeing the rush alot. He has to ignore it and make the throw (the WR may have been giving up early downfield as well). In the 2nd half GT was more conservative defensively, but Quinn was also ignoring their blitz and just doing his thing.

 

[NDgettysburg]

And lemme say, thank God that McKnight is back....as was pointed out in an article in the Atlanta newspaper today, having him to throw to while GT was busy hounding the Shark was HUGE. Doesn't make losing Mo to the Pros so bad.

 

[rontdtarchala]

were you folks watching the same game?

were you folks watching the same game?

I am not sure whats being said here...
Lets break it down a little...

DEFENSE
98% of the time our linebackers looked lost... again there is speed but if your being smacked around and your constantly out of position speed doesn't mean shiite! GT was blowing holes my deceased grandmother could run through!! Their lineman were taking on our linebackers people...not a full back a lineman which means they were blowing through our front four... Reggie Ball made too many first downs with his feet...thank God he can't throw! (and we gave up 2 big throws...one cost us 7 pts. one 3. We didn't put real pressure on the qb at all except for 4 plays...our d line played horribly...period! they double teamed landri all night which should have allowed some one else an open door.........
abiamiri looked slow, the only bright side was the secondary...they played well considering they had no help from the front seven...many coudos to my backfield boys...

OFFENSE
They definitely rattled brady's cage big time...why because our line was horrible...period! They constantly had 4 or 5 defenders in our backfield ( you guys did notice that right?) they looked no better than last year and that is baaaaaaaad! Our TE's better get it together or we are in for a long year....DW can't do it all by himself...he needs holes to run through and brady needs time to do what he does best...pick apart a defense...
far too many dropped balls...

I have even more respect for DW he won this game for us!!!

Punter gets an oorah place kicker get a what the f.....kick offs best in years

Georgia Tech is a mediocre team at best...we better get it together cause we didn't resemble any NC team in any way shape or form...

GO IRISH!!!!!

 

[NDgettysburg]

abiamiri looked slow

didn't hear his name called once.....mucho disappointed with that. rarely heard Crum's name called too (can give him a bit of a pass since he's at a new position)

far too many dropped balls...

I put it on Quinn more....his passes were off. Maybe his accuracy, maybe had more to do with lack of time in the pocket. He did come through with a perfect pass to Samardzija though when it was sorely needed. And he did zip the ball in between a couple of GT defenders on a critical 3rd down, I think to McKnight for a first down.

All in all, I think the offense (at least the QB and receivers) will be ok....the line, well, I hope thye do. Hopefully JoePa doesn't decide to blitz LBs alot.

 

[Batch]

EXCELLENT effort by the defense. The best they have played since Ann Arbor in 2005 bar none.

I would not even attempt field goals. If THAT is the kicker that won the job in camp, I'd have waited for Kai Forbath.

I took the 6 1/2 points and ND won the game by 4. Everybody wins in my book.

Oh, and to all those people out there who think that Darius Walker isn't a gamebreaker or isn't "exciting" enough, that dripping you feel on the top of your head is me pissing on you. Walker and the defense won this game tonight.

Did Calvin Johnson come out of the locker room in the second half?

Yes, Most of the time I enjoy reading all the posts on this board. Please no more idiotic posts about Darius Walker not being a gamebreaking back. The guy went all most all the way across the field and still turned the corner on a cornerback to get into the endzone.

As usual I totally agree with Jigga.

 

[ND Lifer]

I think the defense is in trouble, especially at LB. The LB's didn't show me anything. They were out of position most time and were manhandled.

As far as Ball gaining all that yardage up the middle, the Irish D was set up to make sure Ball couldn't get out side and they funneled Ball inside, where we supposedly had more people to stop him... they just didn't stop him soon enough.

The corners are still a propblem. Wooden did look somewhat better, but Richardson will be replaced soon by either Walls of McNeil. Z and Duke played well.

Front four pass rush suffered because they were trying to contain Ball from getting outside. The pass rush will improve greatly in the next few games against Morelli and Henne because they are basically drop back passers. We will, however, have big problems with Stanton when we play MSU.

The offense will be fine. The OL will get it's act together next week. Remenber, Young was a freshman starting his first game and Harris was coming off an injury. Sullivan played a great game.

Kicking game was great on punts and kick offs. FG are atrocious. We'll either need to go for it on fourth downs all the time or else pray very hard. Burkhart can't be any worse than Goia. Give him a shot.

 

[irishfan81]

Passing Game D - Brady needs have a big game next week vs. PSU I was not satisfied 0 TD's comon not the BQ I'm used to seeing. Or else his Heisman chances are gone to Smith or Slaton or Ginn. He needs vs. PSU 5 or more TD's 40-45 completions and over 300 yds passing. To reclaim the front runner in the Heisman race.

Running Game B Without the running of Darius and Bradys toughness we would have lost. I want to see more improvement.

Recieving Game C The Shark sucked bad WHAT KIND OF RECIEVER IS HE get that baseball stuff out of his system not what you expect out of your All-American reciever. Rhema dropped a couple passes but hauled in crucial ones. We need to catch more balls

Offensive line C WE COULD NOT PICK UP THE BLITZ AT ALL they didn't give Brady anytime to pass. Latina has to work with them they were not focused and not intense at all all on passing. The 2nd half we started to run the ball more but where was that in the 1st half.

Defensive Line C we have to get a pass rush on and disrupt the timing of Ball to Johnson. Second half looked better we took Johnson out of the game.

Linebackers B Thats the best I've seen our Linebackers look in a long time they got some bad plays in there but overall a good performance

DB's C Zibby was the usual. But I want to see more from him though. Wooden and Richardson I can't stand. Walls hung with Johnson speed wise but needs to improve on ball skills. Lambert was good playing descent. Indukwe needs to improve or else Herring will start.

Kicking F GIOLA JUST LOST HIS SCHOLARSHIP IN MY MIND WERE IS BURKHARDT AT.

Punting A Price was booting the ball well.

Overall C We looked flat and we need to see more offensive explosion out of Brady, The Shark, Rhema, Darius. We need them boys to step up and put up numbers they are capable of doing now I will have to listen to Mark May bash us. We need to be more elite in every aspect.

 

[tommy]

i disagree with you nd lifer they played a tough squad stronger then any other team the top 10 played maybe tenn was tougher but i think cal just sucked but travis thomas was in on alot of plays mo crum was in on alot of plays i think as a whole the dfense impressed me now things have to get better but i know they will

 

[scooper]

Tech's offense returned most of their players, and both of their key guys, including the best WR in the game. They averaged 18 last year. Players improve, not just ours. Tech will not be an explosive offense, but they will average a hell of a lot more than 10 points. I'd be surprised if they don't average 21-24 points this year, especially with that defense creating turnovers.

Ball got his yards up the middle on draws. But the running backs didn't do much. They had a few positive runs but not many.

Johnson got his early. Know why they didn't throw to him in the second half? They probably couldn't find him. That's called making adjustments. The problem with taking away a player like Johnson is, sometimes it leaves holes elsewhere. So GT got some gains, especially on QB draws.

The LB's were out of position quite a bit. I agree with that. But this was the first game for two of them, one of which has only been a LB for a few weeks. It's hard to pressure a QB who has the green light and ability to scramble. Rush too deep and he will kill you. You'll notice the pass rush got better in the second half when GT HAD to throw. It's hard to judge the line after a game like this. Next week will be more telling.

The secondary played well. Johnson had a couple big plays. And he got his yards. He is probably the best WR and maybe one of the 5 best players in the game. He's going to get yards. It was telling that he was taken out play in the second half. Duke played better. He was in better position. As was Zibby. Duke's drilling of Johnson to knock the ball loose was a big time play. He already looks better.

All things considered, they gave up 10 points. And gave up very little at all for the entire second half. I'm giving them a B.

Quinn had trouble making decisions and held on to the ball too long in the first half.

The O-line could get no push up the middle and let the pressure get to Quinn.

The receivers looked good, but Rhema's drop in the red zone stalled a drive that could have meant a huge TD.

Walker is a warrior. As is Travis Thomas. Ace got the big yards up the middle. He's a prototypical FB. The running backs were clearly the highlight of the offense. I think had they gone to Walker more in the first half, the score would have been higher in our favor.

Overall, they played against a good D, but 14 is not going to be enough. D+ The plus is in honor of the running backs who saved this game.

Its's not fair to judge the special teams as a whole. The field goal unit gets an F The kick/punt coverage and return units get an A

Overall, the team gets a C+. Better than average is worth a win. Maybe this will be good for the team after having their butts kissed all summer.



We are 1-0 and still ND. Bring on Penn St.

 

[Bubba]

... Maybe they just looked bad because they couldn't cheat on the run due to paying so much attention to #21.....

That was my point of view as well. Without #21 on the field the run-D would have been much better.

 

[jiggafini19]

That damn QB draw worked nearly every time they ran it.

It seemed that the first guy missed more often than not. Missed tackles are unacceptable.

Linebacking could be trouble down the road, but these guys need minutes badly.

I was pleased with the effort of the secondary and as a whole, I thought the D did well.

This was the biggest game at Georgia Tech in 20 years. They were in a pretty hostile environment. Not so in the next two weeks.

 

[scooper]

That damn QB draw worked nearly every time they ran it.

It seemed that the first guy missed more often than not. Missed tackles are unacceptable.

Linebacking could be trouble down the road, but these guys need minutes badly.

I was pleased with the effort of the secondary and as a whole, I thought the D did well.

This was the biggest game at Georgia Tech in 20 years. They were in a pretty hostile environment. Not so in the next two weeks.

Yeah, I'm still concerned about the linebackers. It seemed a lot of their issues were due to being out of position, especially on some of the QB draws. This is stuff that can hopefully be fixed. Thomas was quick as advertised. He has more speed to make up for mistakes than last year's group.

Thomas, I think had some troubles last night.

It was good to seem more DB's on the field, though, rather than LB's covering WR's on 3rd and long. That alone should make the D better this year.

 

[ND Lifer]

If you look at the LB corp, they only made 8 tackles the whole night, 4 by Crum, 4 by Travis Thomas, but none by Mitchell Thomas/Vernaglia. Zibby had 8 by himself. That tells a big story. The safties had to make the tackles that the LB's didn't make. This puts more pressure on the secondary to stop the run, when their first responsibility is to protect against the pass. We really need improvement at LB or power runnung teams, ala UM, will have a field day against us.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

Please no more idiotic posts about Darius Walker not being a gamebreaking back. The guy went all most all the way across the field and still turned the corner on a cornerback to get into the endzone.

Game changer? Yes. He was a big game changer in the 2nd half.

Gamebreaker? Check back in 3-4 weeks.

Cmon, he had ONE good series in the whole game. (39 yards rushing, 12 receiving)

That's nearly half his total yardage rushing. In the VERY LAST series he got 23 more yards. 2/3 of his rushing came in 2 drives.

HOWEVER, the reason I think he is a game changer is that in the second half GT was forced to focus on him and it opened up the pass a bit more. In many ways, that's his key role. Force the Defense to adjust to him and get more receivers open.