I'm also not surprised we were throwing on 3rd and 1. We tried running the ball in these situations a few times, and we weren't really getting a push. It's hard running the ball on teams when they're stacking the box. It opened up one on one matchups on the outside, which is why we were slinging it deep so much. I would have liked to see a RB in those situations though, or have Amir line up in the slot and maybe throw something out to the flat to get the 1st.
While Tommy didn't have a great game, he was careful with the ball yesterday and that was the difference. On the long passes he missed he kept it long and over the MSU defense as opposed to short. That may have been the difference, as MSU's "trick play" again ended up biting them in the butt for a 2nd straight year. The INT off the flea flicker set us up for the winning TD, huge turn of events for us.
I was disappointed with some of the fans calling in to the ND radio show as I was driving back from the game. A few were calling to bench Tommy, saying "Isn't this a good time to put Hendrix in?" Give me a break, this just seemed ridiculous. Hendrix only brings a somewhat more mobile option. That wouldn't have helped yesterday with MSU loading the box. Jack Nolan and Reggie Brooks pointed this out as well. They acknowledged that Tommy didn't have a great game, but that he still provides the best option at QB at this time. That was a tough defense that we faced yesterday, and all MSU was really giving us was the deep stuff on the outside. Passes over the middle weren't really open, and neither was the running game.
