well, we wanted to get off to a fast start. Rees looks awful and our safeties are invisible. If this doesn't change fast, we're going to get smoked.
Oh shite, I just saw the crew working this game. The Irish are screwed. Randy Christal and Co are bad and will make very biased calls.
RUNTHEF*CKINGBALL!!!!!!!! All this yap about the 3-3-5. there's a reason people don't go to it everywhere. Put 6 men down a hole and you run behind it.. It's NOT HARD.
We have Michigan at Michigan and USC at USC regularly. We got this. hahaha Our problem is us. That OPI call was just imaginary, but whatever. We should be running down their throat.
Ha! Didnt think about that. If you were playing Texas youd be singing a different tune. A few of those refs gave Bevo tatoos. I would agree - shove the ball down their throats...
Man, you're right. These officials are horse ****. Still, we (and by we I mean Rees) are killing ourselves right now. We're running the ball down their throat. Why stop? I know Hendrix has been referred to as a 'waste of time' here before and the other guy isn't ready allegedly, but I just don't see what Rees brings to the table right now. He may well come back and put up huge numbers again, but that negates the massive hole he's putting us in.
Ummm Corey I think SC is at ND this year... ND plays Stanford thanksgiving weekend your brother is going .. his first ND game a birthday present from gina
I know that mom. I was saying that we regularly play those teams at their place where strange calls happen.
No big. That place isn't easy to attend. In related news, I miss Everett Golson as much as Jennifer Anniston misses Brad Pitt.
If we lose to this team, I'm gonna be sick about it. We've pissed this away almost every way imaginable.
Quite possibly, we're absolutely stagnant until we embrace the fact that our offense is what it is and we can't keep jamming a square peg into a round hole. Congrats on the big win today. You're now the 2nd best team in Kentucky, and the 4th best team in Florida. You must be so proud.
Sigh... That was such a disappointing game. I didn't really know what to expect since we really haven't played well on either side of the ball this year. But to give up 2 quick scores like that is just discouraging. Then to be on the verge of getting the game back to even and have Tommy throw a terrible pick into double (or was it triple) coverage was even more discouraging. We alternately had some good series on defense and then just let them run free on some other series. Once we got down 14-0 we did some good things on offense, we sort of looked like we were going to get a running game going but inspite of running for 220yds, by far our best game of the year it never felt like we were in a groove running the ball. Tommy made some good throws but really only a few, the 2 TD's were good throws and there were a few other good throws but for the most part Tommy just didn't really ever get into any rhythm with the passing game. I liked getting Hendrix in as a thought, esp in the redzone and short yardage but while he made a few plays again not really enough plays to say yeah now we're cooking with gas. So after being down 14-0 we played them even on the scoreboard but really it never felt like it. It was a very uneven game for the Irish. I'm glad for the running game getting 200yds, Atkinson seemed to turn it upfield a little better and run tough, but still not great. Folston looked good on his 2 carries, maybe we'll start to see a little more of him, he looks like could develope into a physical North/South runner we haven't really had since Jonas Gray. Riddick was a tough N/S runner but he was not built like Folston who looks like a specimen. I don't think we have any answer at QB, I love Tommy and I wish he were better, but he's not and clearly Hendrix isn't better and the freshman Malik Zaire probably doesn't know the offense very well and would get killed out there esp since he's been out with Mono. So we'll have to dance with Tommy most likely. Maybe if we can take the next step with the running game then maybe it'll open things up for Tommy but right now he just can't make the type of throws that are available for him and he can't buy himself extra time and extend plays. I watched A&M/Ark and Manziel is a magician at extending plays and even the Ark QB who had a live arm, could get out and motor. Unless Diaco can get something consistent going on defense and Kelly can figure out how to mfg something on offense every game going forward is going to be a dogfight 7-5 looking like the high water mark. Last year we had such a solid defense that the offense didn't have to be great just efficient/consistent. This year we need improvement on both sides of the ball going forward. Jackson was talked about highly before the season along with Nix and Tuitt the best players on defense. They have all been somewhat disappointing. Jackson got lost out there today quite a bit, they double team Nix all the time and Ikard the OU center is the 5 Center this year to handle Nix starting with that kid from Temple. Probably not fair to knock Tuitt as he had that Surgery and then had another injury in fall camp. He just didn't have the type of offseason he needed to be the Tuitt we expected. I'm feeling a little positive about the OL and the running game and hope we see more of Folston in the comming weeks. I'm not about the passing game and I'm not about the defense.
I have a very hard time blaming Nix when the other team is constantly using 2 and 3 guys to block him. There's only 11 guys on the field. If 2 are taking him (sometimes 3) and one is the QB who is giving the ball to someone else, that leaves anywhere from 6 to 7 guys to block 10. That shouldn't work. I think if anything, blaming Nix just ignores how totally underwhelming Grace and Fox have been. I think the loss of Springmann really hurt our depth more than we thought it would. Honestly, that kid played a lot in the rotation last year. Fresh legs equal fresh motors. That thing you and I all felt on offense today was a by God identity. We keep junking it. I actually like the design of the offense, but you have to have the right kind of players on the field to execute it. Rees is not that guy. Just by having Hendrix on the field, it totally changed what Oklahoma could key on. When Rees is in the game, the defense knows just what we can do.. more importantly, they know what we can't do. We junked the Hendrix package way too soon, and why?!? To go back to putting in a guy who was cold all night?? We had no business losing to that Oklahoma team. None.
Add Carlo into that underwhelming group, he made a good play today...1 good play that was all. I saw him fall down on the 3rd OU TD, fell on his ass. I'll grant you it might be unfair to say anything negative about Nix, he has been double teamed. But isn't that the life of a NG? I hope the defense gets right and Nix has a good finish to the year. But I fear he won't and that he can kiss his 1st round status good bye.
Carlo was the team's leading tackler with 10. Two for a loss. One huge stop on third down when the game was in doubt.
My take: Tommy Rees had a horrific game against Mich St and double down on it yesterday with one of the worst game you will ever see. 25-9-3-104 . That computes to a QB rating of 10.3. He was literally more than the team could overcome. Add to that his body language was terrible and he appeared to be loudly whining all night long. We were leaderless on the field from his first pick. Troy Nicklas appears to miss more than his share of assignments( runs wrong routes, misses blocking assignments. O-line blocked well. Running game worked. Doesn't matter who we put back to catch punts. I am now convinced that our defensive scheme is the #1 problem on this team. We have too much talent to be this porous. Diaco is trying to make available talent fit his system rather than the other way around. I would go to a 4-3-4 immediately because all of the problems begin up front. I was watching the Buckeye D-backs last night. They are so much faster than ours and they keep their eyes on the QB and the ball. And they are up tight at the LOS. Ours play off the ball, turn their backs to the play and are easily turned around like the guy who turned Bennett Jackson inside out on that ridiculous TD right before half. The worst part? Bell is not even a good passing QB. Players we miss the most, in order: Golson, Motta, Eifert, Teo
Agreed George, but I think Niklas is a much better blocker than Eifert ever was. Tyler was effected as a blocker. Nicklas seals entire perimeters. I will never understand the criticism of Carlo. Twice he stopped the vaunted "Belldozer" in his tracks all by himself. Carlo routinely dives right into the line to sacrifice himself and blow up blocking schemes (that frees up lanes for our non-existent safeties and our other MLBs to fill gaps.. that they don't fill). The one valid knock on him is that he's a floater on pass coverage. Well, I don't care. He does 2 things incredibly well and 1 thing slightly effectively. The Belldozer will get into the Big12 and will resume running people over. He got dropped easy by our D all night. Name one effing thing that Grace or Fox do effectively. (getting beat isn't a category). Jaylon Smith is amazing. I still can't believe that (seriously, stop and think about this) we're using a true freshman to shut down the field side coverage and run game. If you watch our games, you'll see we get beat A gap and short side A LOT. I really hate the targeting rule btw.. HaHaDix has now been re-instated twice. Chase got launched. HaHa hit a kid clearly after he dropped the ball, but the officials subjectively view 'no malice', but our kid makes a huge hit on a ball carrier who is actively in the play in a bang bang situation.. but gets ejected.. This rule is stupid.