They're like Boston College but without the class, or a decent bookie. Boston College is another one of our 'rivals' that I detest but don't truly consider them to be a rival....but that's for another week. I'm sure someone will come on and tell me about those warriors of the Allegheny ass kickers of days gone by... It won't make a dent. I don't care. I don't like them. I can't even think of someone who went to Pitt that I've met who I even liked.. I have a couple of buddies who went to Pitt for law school, one went for both undergrad and law school.. They're all d*cks AND they're shitty lawyers.. Oh I'm sure someone may point out their law school is ranked 21st... congrats, you and your football team (in banner years).. way to aim high boys. I just don't like Pitt at all. They absolutely live and love to ruin our season, but don't even have the sand to admit it.. They suck.
3 minutes left in the 1st half but this is a **** effort by everyone including the staff so far. The things we need to do to win this game are all within our reach, and this is a team we should handle..but right now the boys don't look on point.
Wow missing a short field goal give Notre Dame life and they win it in the next OT. I only got to watts the last half of the 4th quarter and then the OT, but congratulations on a big win. I'm watching LSU - Alabama and switching to the Oregon USC game sometimes.
Bill I don't think I've ever see an OT period where one team fumbles on the goal line and doesn't get a score, then the other team misses the FG and neither team get a score. I liked our chances in OT because our defense had been stuffing their offense the whole 4th Qtr.
I'm just taking the positives from this.. we won. I suppose it's possible that we could have played worse, but at the same time I have a hard time imagining that.. stupid penalties...piss poor play calling on both Kelly/Diaco for most all of the game.. turnovers... All that against a team that didn't make a mistake till the shank. But we still won... Screw Pitt
Every special season has to have a few "lucky" bounces. BUT... I think you guys just used up all of 'em with that chipshot miss! ND fans everywhere owe me. I got home and turned it on... VOILA! You guys make up the deficit and go to OT where you win it. Without me... your mojo just wasn't there. :wink:
It's funny but the theme that everybody is going to put on this game is that we were lucky that guy missed the kick. Maybe so, but Pitt was also lucky that Cierre Wood fumbled going in for the TD before that, and Pitt was lucky that we missed a PAT or we'd have won in regulation. I have no doubt given the way we stoned Pitts offense in the 4th qtr that had Wood not fumbled on the goal line and scored we'd have won in the 2nd OT, our defense was not going to let Pitt even get a 1st down in OT. That said and kudo's to Pitt for coming in a playing their butts off against us, but Kelly didn't exactly have his greatest game. I was ok with Tommy coming in for the last drive of the half. But it was a mistake to start him in the 2nd half, you can't expect magic with that move everytime you make eventually it'll come back and bite you. The defense didn't play great in the 1st half, can't say why really, that run that Pitt popped due to Spond not staying in his gap. Also we didn't get a lot of pressure. On offense we couldn't get any rhythm going but then the play calling seemed out of sync as well. That Pitt goal line stand, I don't understand why we didn't try to sneak it at least one time, not getting the TD there hurt. But 4th qtr the offense and defense took over the game and from their on out we played excellent. The defense started getting to the Pitt QB, they stopped the run, forced the punts. On offense we moved the ball, I wouldn't say at will, but we looked strong. That pick with Tyler wide open in the endzone hurt, but the kid Golson came back and just wouldn't quit carried us to the win. I was very confident going into OT that we would win, mainly because our defense had stuffed Pitt and I doubted seriously they could get anything more than a FG. I thought we would score a TD in the 1st OT, but we didn't and I think Kelly's play calling was suspect there. It was perfect in the other two OT's. Finally as Scott said most "special" seasons have some things bounce your way. Even though Pitt was lucky that Wood fumbled at the goal line, we were also lucky that the Pitt kid misses the kick, I just don't want people to forget that Pitt was even luckier that our kicker missed a PAT or they would have lost in regulation. 9-0
ND <r>Well now........where are those who said we couldn't win 8 games let alone 9.......where are they?.............nowhere because the Irish are 9-0! That's right <B><s></s><SIZE size="200"><s></s><e></e></SIZE>9-0!<br/> <e></e></B><br/> <br/> <B><s></s>I got news for the detractors it will be 11-0 in two weeks!<e></e></B><B><s></s> LOL<e></e></B><br/> <br/> <br/> <B><s></s>Go Irish!<e></e></B></r>
Note to Corey and the Kool-Aid Drinkers... The next time that I say a game is a banana peel...don't step on it! :roll: QB: - Golson was terrible in the 1st half. Replays showed wide open WRs that he just didn't see. One play in particular Troy Niklas was standing all alone in the middle of the field in front of the goal line. Golson needs to learn where all the WRs are supposed to be on every progression, because he's not going to grow any taller... - Last night at the HS game, the guys were asking me, "Why don't they just start Tommy Rees and play him all the time?" Gee whiz, I don't know. Why don't they make Mariano Rivera a starting pitcher? Then he could throw 9 no-hit innings every day instead of only one! Anyone who's good in short situations MUST be just as good in ALL situations...right? Then Kelly starts Tommy in the second half. I couldn't believe my eyes. That was dumb. Golson is learning and he has the tools to make adjustments when he's in there. Tommy isn't in there, because he DOESN'T have the tools to make all the adjustments! He may know where to throw it and still not be able to get it there. He's a situational player...that's all. Defense: The defense and Manti looked ordinary in the first half. But they came up big in the 4th qtr and in OT. It sure looked like they were looking past this opponent. There was a lot of that going around today. Not just ND, but Florida and certainly Arizona were caught looking the other way and in the case of the Cats, the UCLA Bruins tacked 66 points on them. That game was over as soon as they took the field. It's an old lesson that teams on all levels have to relearn every year: you have to respect everybody. Offense: I disagree that Kelly's play calling was poor. I saw receivers that were wide open, and blocks that were missed. Execution is the player's job and they didn't start executing until they got scared. The time to take yourself seriously is a LOT earlier than the 4th qtr... Special teams: Brindza is beginning to p*ss me off, so you know that Kelly must be on full meltdown alert too. Davonte Neal also had a curious game, with a fumble and allowing several punts to just roll 20 yards rather than call for a fair catch. We really miss Collinsworth here, but can't we at least try Cam McDaniel? He was a punt returner in HS too... Summary: I'd rather be lucky than good.
Come on down to the Sugar Bowl Irish. If we can somehow beat FSU it would be a very even match-up and fun to watch. I don't think ND needs to be BCS CG bound based on yesterday's performance. Not sure UF beats the noles however with our offensive struggles.
Terry, Wow you guys are getting paranoid! Pitt was "lucky" because they shouldn't have been in the game at all. It's a glaring trap game right after a huge emotional road win. Pitt is not good. ND should have chewed them up and spit them out, but... that ball ain't round and that's why you play the games. In the end, how ND won doesn't matter. My point was: if your team has a great season, there is almost always a game that came down to a few plays that went your way. This one looks like that game for ND. Take it and run. Finish 12 - 0 and no one will care HOW because so few pull it off. I sure would like to have a kicker who could make all his extra points and FG's. If we did... who knows where A&M would be right now...
Re: ND <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> Tim,<br/> <br/> There's 3 games left, why did you discount that one? <E>:?</E></r>
Terry I'm not sure that the missed PAT had much impact on the outcome. If Brindza had made it we most likely would have not gone for 2 after the TD to Riddick. (come to think of it, he would have had to kick the PAT at that point. We were probably lucky on that score. )
Trap game... Oh KMA.. that was a piss poor effort by all for 3 quarters. I'm quite angry about Diaco's game plan. Please do note how the game turned when we stopped playing underneath zone. We have better players than Pitt does. That's a fact. When we were finally pressed to 'try' to make things happen, we lined up nose on nose, playing man on an island coverage all the way around the back. Exactly how well did Pitt move the ball after that? They didn't. On offense, I am actually all about the Rees train (contrary to what Sid thinks) IN SO MUCH AS, he has ice in his veins and he comes in to make a clutch play when you'd normally just have a back up hand off. That does not mean Rees is a good qb. Pitt did what everyone else who has seen Rees trot onto the field should have done. They dropped 8, he was ineffective AND threw a Christmas ball at midfield hitting a wide open defensive back. Pitt is not a good football team. This was a good win because we showed heart, we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat... at the same time, I am not happy at all about how we prepared or attacked Pitt. I really wonder what the hell we were thinking. Everyone got cautious with this 'trap game' nonsense. We have better players. Let them play.
Yawn... did you watch the Alabama LSU game? I've said this for weeks now. Alabama can be had. LSU is a good team with some glaring holes, QB being the most notable. Oh I know, this is the SEC.. everything is different for you guys.. Zack found himself blah blah blah. I'll be interested to see what JFF does against the Tide. We're lucky because Pitt's kicker missed a FG... Our kicker missed a PAT and a FG. Why is that not luck? You play the games and find ways to win or lose. I watched your Gator game (all 4 quarters) and without Missouri's QB, you guys are spelling Citrus. The thing that fried me about this game (as I just said) is our coaching approach as well as the lack of execution of our players. Offensively, we should have done better in all 4 quarters and the Rees experiment damned near cost us the game. Defensively though, we played soft. You can blame the players and yes there were missed assignments, but why sit back and let the offense dictate to us? We don't have that kind of defense. We have 6 guys that no one can block.. can we just turn them loose please? I understand that big Louis was sick, and we couldn't use him early. He showed a ton of heart taking the field in the 2nd half and just not coming off the field. That was just a terrible, terrible game plan by Diaco. Still, he made the adjustment and we got the W. I'll take it. ps Scott.. you now have to watch all ND games. You did it to yourself, welcome aboard.
From the very beginning of the game I felt that Pitt was really focused for this game. You could tell from the bench reactions to plays that their team was really "up" for the game. Even though we had the ball for almost the whole first quarter, they kept on coming. We were in for a dog fight and we would have been able to handle them IF we didn't make any mistakes. But we did. Still they had to play a perfect game. At the end, they didn't, they missed that FG. Pitt played against us like we played against Oklahoma. Unlike OK we refused to let them steal the game.
Like ND.... UF was as a flat as a pancake yesterday and so was the sleepy noon kick-off crowd. Bama should have been beat.....but wasn't... and neither was ND. Corey..... what a huge difference taking on good if not great LSU team at night in Death Valley vs. taking on a 4-4 Pitt team at your place. That said.... Bama could be beat......but not by anybody else in 2012.
:twisted: Dave you really dont understand ND football do you... If you did then you know every game is a bowl game no matter what the opposing teams record is. ND is and always has been a target for all teams It can be a team with a 0 ans whatever record but the minute they step into the stadium they transform dedicated to the win over the Irish/ I have know a few of those opposing players that have gone there and played the Irish. they all say it is a transformation... that they feel different that their goal no matter what is to win at any costs.