Might as well simply respond to kmoose's points, since he covers most of the bases:
Rees and our WRs also gained 70 yards through penalties, so it's probably more accurate to say they got 212 yards on 34 attempts.
MSU's DBs were mugging our WRs all day long, and I agree with Kelly that the refs could have given us a couple more PIs (even if 1-2 of those actually called were borderline).
As wooly pointed out in the MSU thread, Daniels was targeted something like 17 times today with man coverage, and only recorded 6 yards on 3 receptions. Though I believe he drew 3 of the 4 PIs, so we should probably give him credit for another 45 yards. Still, rough day for him. Now that he's proven his chops as a playmaker, he's got to improve his physicality; he can't get abused like that in man coverage.
I'm more inclined to blame Rees for ignoring his short and intermediate routes that Kelly or Martin.
We seemed less predictable today than we've been the last three weeks, though I'm not sure how much of that was MSU simply deciding to give us man coverage all day no matter what. Other than the two screens they blew up early in the game, I can't recall any plays where they obviously knew where we were going.
Their 3rd quarter scoring drive where they just pounded the ball made me nervous. Stopping that kind of power rushing attack is supposed to be our defense's strength, no?
Strangely enough, our pass rush seemed to be best in the 4th quarter when we were only rushing 3-4.
He did well with his limited reps today. The big TFL that killed that drive was on our OL (Lombard specifically, IIRC).
Absolutely. I put more blame on our OL's run blocking than on our backs, honestly. Mayock pointed out egregious failures by almost all of our OL on different rushing attempts; many of which killed drives. Lombard especially has looked bad. We all expected him to be a big upgrade over Golic, and I think he has been in pass protection, but Golic was at least competent at pulling.
I think we go 2-1 over the next three games, win out through our "soft" stretch, and then travel to Palo Alto with a BCS bid on the line.
I think this is a constructive thread beyond what I would have expected with the vitriol that has been sprayed around this season. That and the great quality of all the posts and I am going to rep each one of you.
Let me start with the one
HUGE point. Mark Mayock brought it up after a friend that had some familiarity with the QB position had like seven minutes earlier. ND often runs two routes, one to stretch the field and one under.
Tommy almost always picks the long one. My bud said, "I can almost hear him saying, what was that about me not having the arm strength?" Tommy has to get over it, or whatever it is and occasionally throw to the underneath receiver. There were times the guy on that route had a man playing off by three yards.
Tommy hasn't thrown to that guy all year; (How is that for tendencies Brian Kelly?) On all but one the plays where the receiver was forced out of bounds, and Tommy launched it to him anyway. By the way, check the tape at how many of those the defender used his hands down field to push CBreezey, DD, or whomever, as opposed to just using their body!
And today all my vitriol is pointed away from ND. Those guys were in a war yesterday. And basically they were prepared. As bad as something were, there was an improvement
everywhere. And that really counts for the O-line, and the D-line.
The O-line faced what I believe is one of the best couple fronts in the nation, with speed and athleticism blasting out of their @sses. What a group! Everyone played better. Lombard, (I haven't looked closely, but I am assuming he had half the ef-ups that he usually does.) The D-line looked better and more active, without having their heretofore most consistent player Sheldon Day!
Don't get this one wrong and miss it, this is the best antidote for the next three or four games. If this D-line gels now, and they were getting pressure yesterday with three men a couple times and four men often, we in business!
Other than that, fvck Mike Mayock, NBC should fire him. Saying you don't agree with a call once or twice is fine. But going on and on and on. I am sure the Big Ten Network would love to have him!
