Wow... what a game. Glad I didn't have a dog in that fight so I could just be interested to see how it plays out.
Congratulations to Ohio State. Both teams left it all on the field. I take comfort that we learned tonight we’re a very good team. We can - and we will - compete with anyone. Terry and I both have to go to the ER in the morning to get our ripped out hearts repaired or replaced.
Congrats to Notre Dame. That was a great game with two very well matched teams. I'm proud of the grit and spunk on that last drive (rather than winning on a fluke of some kind), but nonetheless I'm not sure we are the better of the two teams. I was on pins and needles the whole game. I did hear that Lou Holtz predictied an Irish win (no problem with that) but he must have said something to piss off Ryan Day.
My thoughts in the morning. Congratulations to Ohio St. They showed the skill, poise and execution to win a very hard fought football game. In the end their defense stopped the ND offense and got the ball back so that their offense could in it in the end. All this in a "hostile" green, loud environment. Well done. To the ND team. You played your hearts out and played well enough to win. Every player on the offense and defense played their hardest and deserved to get the best from the rest of the team. But they didn't. Coach Freeman you're vanity lost this game. When it's 4th and one in the first half your team has earned points by driving deep into the opponents territory. Send out the FG team to take the points. (Even if you made the first down you may have lost yardage or been penalized on the next series taking you out of FG range. You may not convert on the next series. You many Turn it over. TAKE THE POINTS. Last night you didn't make smart coaching decisions, you made proud inexperienced mistakes. Which brings me to the one individual who really let down his team mates, Spencer Shrader. Young man you are what they call in football a "specialist." You supposedly have a special talent which is kicking the football through the goal posts. You were given one opportunity last night. Your snap was good, the hold was fine and you missed it by a mile like a nervous first time kicker would. You're team's busting their asses out there and that's what you give them? Anyway before I end, let me just point out two parts of the ND team that made me smile last night. To our secondary that was charged with pulling the reins in on a stable of thoroughbred receivers, GOOD JOB. You did a great job in containing the deep threats and gave your best effort. Finally, Mitchell Evans, you were great. That one handed catch with a defender draped all over you was just the highlight in a night of highlights. Great game young man.
I saw the Holtz clip on the the Pat McAfee show he ran his mouth and said some inflamitory stuff that he should have kept to himself. The 4th down failures were tough and the missed FG was big. None bigger though than playing 10 men on defense on the last 2 plays, that was just plain stupid coaching errors. Irish defense kept one of the 2 Buckeye AA wr's in check but couldn't keep both of them in check. That was key. But congrats to the Buckeyes, they earned the win.
I can't criticize the defense. With 2 seconds left OSU had scored all of 10 pts. Maybe if we played with 11 men at the end we could have held it to 10.
Congratulations to the Buckeyes. That shows the heart of a champion that can win under those conditions. They were pushed to their absolute limit and responded. I think Ryan Day's nervous breakdown post game was an adrenaline release and a window for the rest of us into the pressure cooker conditions that he works under in Columbus. I would not be surprised if he released an apology for his outburst. Lou Holtz is 86 and appears to have slipped physically since his wife passed away a few years ago. We thought we had a major advantage at QB which turns out we did not. The Irish defense is definitely top shelf. Ben Morrison proved his AA status. Marcus Freeman outcoached himself at a few key moments. His proclamation that we are going for it every time on 4th and 1 is something you would expect from Coach Prime. Any time you can put points on the board you take it. We had the ball with 2:48 left and needed to get one first down to seal the game. We abandoned the run, OSU adjusted their defense and we obliged by stopping the clock for them. This is a very good Irish team that now must run the table to still have a chance at the playoffs. That includes Duke, Clemson and USC. And we have to wait and see how Hartman responds to the loss. We had everything set up perfectly on this night.
-- Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said he was trying to get a fourth defensive lineman on the field for the final play of the game in Saturday night's 17-14 loss to Ohio State, but didn't want to draw a penalty, so he stuck with 10 defenders on the play that allowed the winning touchdown.
Half the distance to the goal is 18 in. Do you want to defend 1 yd. with 10 men or 1/2 yd. with 11? Ans. 10 didn't work.
As always with ND faithful (myself included in the past), there's handwringing and criticism. Today, there's a minimum of the former, and not much of the latter, which is a good thing. All in all, I think we realize that, in a losing cause, at least IMO, it's the best overall game we've played in years. Yes, there were mistakes and coaching decisions that are easy to second guess after the fact, but the talent, the effort, was outstanding. As I said last night, we can play with anyone, and we will the rest of the season. I can't predict wins and losses, but I'm confident this very talented and well-coached team will leave it all on the field in every game.
Actually we played a man short the final two plays of the game. I cannot even begin to explain how that happens.
I'm sure like all of you, I have read all sorts of post-game analysis, and they are all over the place. A lot of them felt like we should have thrown the ball more that it's hard to win these types of games anymore with 14 play run heavy drives. Lots of criticism of the 3rd and 19 strategy on defense and of course universal criticism of the 10 men on the field for the last 2 plays. But none of it changes that we lost, that we played a very good game against an elite team that just flat out has more NFL talent than we do at this time. The key is however that we have to regroup and get ready for what seems to be a very good Duke squad. We can't let Ohio State beat us twice. Need to get over the loss and get ready for Duke and beat them soundly. i see that we, as expected, dropped in the rankings 11 in the AP and 13 in the Coaches. As always teams ahead of us will lose, a game never very many undefeated teams by the end of October. We've picked up several recruits in the last few days, the QB Deuce Knight was the big name, but we've gotten a DL, RB, and a Vyper (LB/DE?). But I couldn't help dejaving about the 2005 Bush/Push game. USC had 2 Heisman Trophy winners in Leinart and Bush and several elite WR's along with a ton of talent everywhere on offense and defense. Yet in a classic game we had them in our sights with the lead late in the game. We had them in right in our sights but let them off the hook with a 4th down completion that set up the Bush/Push. Also in that game we missed a FG which would have made the Bush/Push play just a game tying play sending it to OT. For your memory. Darius Walker ran for 29 yards, and Quinn ran 5 yards for a touchdown, giving the Irish a 31–28 lead with just over two minutes remaining in the game. On the Trojans' drive, after an incomplete pass, Leinart was sacked for a loss of 10 yards with 1:44 left in the game. Leinart was able to complete an 11-yard pass to Bush to give the Trojans a fourth down and nine situation on their own 26-yard line with only 1:32 left in the game. Leinart signaled to Dwayne Jarrett at the line of scrimmage that he would be single covered. He threw a short fade to Jarrett down the sideline just over the outstretched arms of Irish cornerback Ambrose Wooden, and Jarrett slipped away to race all the way to the Irish 13-yard line. After two rushes by Bush brought the Trojans to the 2-yard line, Leinart scrambled toward the sideline, where linebacker Corey Mays caused Leinart to fumble the ball out of bounds. Replays of the play appear to show the ball was fumbled out of bounds at the 4 yard line. Replays also showed Brennan Carroll, son of head coach Pete Carroll and a Graduate Assistant at the time, attempting to call timeout despite the Trojans having none.[9] Although the time was stopped on field with seven seconds remaining, the stadium timekeeper let the scoreboard clock run. When the time ran out, the Notre Dame student section began to rush the field. After a brief delay to clear the field, play resumed with seven seconds shown on the clock. The officials placed the ball at the 1 yard line. On the last play of the game for second and goal, sometimes called the "Bush Push" and named one of the greatest college football plays ever,[10] Carroll signaled to Leinart to spike the ball and stop the game. As it would turn out, the gesture was merely a decoy. Carroll had really told Leinart to go for the touchdown and not to tie the game and cause overtime. Leinart, opting to keep the ball on the advice of Bush, tried to sneak into the end zone. When he was stopped by a large group of Irish players, Bush pushed him into the end zone for the winning score. After an excessive celebration penalty, a missed extra point, and a final, unsuccessful last-ditch attempt at a kickoff return for touchdown by Notre Dame with only 3 seconds left, the game ended with the Trojans winning 34–31.[11]