Terry, Couldn't agree more. That's why getting Folston a lot of touches last week was really important as far as I'm concerned. I believe the the duo of Folston/McDaniel can get us a fair amount of yards in this game and it should do wonders for the passing game. If the D can keep them under 20 we should win.
Big Hockey games this weekend with the Gophers coming to Compton Ice Rink for 2 games. Irish should be a pretty good team this year.
The closer we get to game day, I keep thinking Irish by 17 or more. Call it a hunch. If it's closer than that, we're screwing up.
ND <t>Corey,<br/> <br/> You're right. If we come out and play our game with an average day for Rees and over a hundred yds on the ground we should win without much trouble. If we start making stupid mistakes/turnovers/penalties etc. we'll be in for another long game trying to pull it out at the end. You can only do that so many times before it catches up with you. Hopefully we start and finish strong for once. Go Irish!</t>
Unprepared from Kelly right down to the water boy. I am straining to think of a single player who had even a decent game. The closest I can come is Ben Koyack. The rest of them stunk on ice. I laughed when they showed Diaco upstairs looking at a monitor over his head. Musberger guessed he was reviewing a penalty call. I think he was watching Bama v LSU.
Very disappointing loss to say the least. From the BS ejection of Tuitt, to the fumble recovery that all we had to do was realize the whistle hadn't blown and pick the damn thing up and run it iinto the endzone, to Tommy's mind numbing Int's, to TJ Jones fumble, to the lack of a running game, to the play calling at times. I understand we've been really hurt with defensive injuries this season, and that sort of forgives Diaco but WTF has happened to Farley and Jackson. Those guys played well last year, Jackson has had a terrible year he's the corner back who not only can't cover guys but can't tackle, and Farley can't tackle either and both of those guys could cover and tackle last year. WTF. We got the bad Tommy Rees last night and no running game and don't get me started on GAIII. The good? it's hard to come up with some good. I guess at least in pass protection our OL did an excellent job, the bad Tommy wasn't because he was under duress all night, of course there were no holes for the running game but those guys can pass block. Oh and Ben Koyack is offically and excellent TE to go with Nikklas.
Oh yeah does anybody know a good reason why when Pitt ran for 4 yards on 1st down but was flagged for illegal formation that Kelly declined the penalty? I'll let Sid handle our special teams decisons, like the 55 yard FG or the kick coverage.
The team last night looked dazed and confused throughout the game. -I won't debate the anti-targeting crowd, Instead I will express my disappointment that a so-called All American DE approaches a tackle with his head down, a fundamentally wrong way to tackle. It put him in the position to incur a career-ending spinal injury. Unforgiveable. -Terry already has cited the failure of the defensive players to recover the fumble and play until the whistle is blown. That's fundamental coaching and awareness. Unforgiveable. -For those who are obsessed with Folston and McDaniel (I like them too), it's possible from the eye test that GAIII was our leading rusher last night. In any event, we have no running game. If our OL cannot open up running lanes vs. Pitt, how can we hope to do so against BYU or Stanford? Unforgiveable. -Defense? Where to begin? We simply cannot tackle. I'm not just talking about the DBs. How many times did the Pitt RB run up the middle and drag tacklers an extra 2-3-4 yards? We were unable to stop a mediocre to average rushing attack. Unforgiveable. -Pass rush? We made an average QB look like an All-American last night. Unforgiveable. -Jones' fumble in the end did not hurt us. We stopped Pitt and came back to score a TD. Rees' INTs are another story. As much as I've defended him, justifiably, he was as dazed and confused as the rest of the team, and it showed in his 2nd half performance. He really hurt us with those INTs and general failure to connect with his receivers. Unforgiveable. -Special teams? Our kickoff coverage continues to hurt us. I can't recall when we had decent kickoff coverage. Unforgiveable. (Other special teams play was decent but nothing to be proud of.) -Leadership? It doesn't exist. There are no leaders on this team. We are adrift. Overall, we were exposed last night as an average team who needs to play out the rest of the season, wave goodbye to the departing seniors, and hope like heck that next year will be different. Ugh!
You know it seems like everybody has an opponent like Pitt. They seem to play y'all tough every year recently. I know I hate when Alabama plays Vanderbilt. They play us tough every time we meet. Right now Vandy is pretty good but usually they are at the bottom of the league but it doesn't matter, they always scare the hell out of me.
Wasn't truly scared yesterday.... but should have been. Never saw so many walking so early out of the Swamp as they/we did yesterday.
KP's analogy is a good one. Vandy always seems to play the Tide tight, even in blowout losses. Those games are usually close for 3 quarters before the Tide pulls away. Pitt is, in a way, is our Vandy since the series renewed. We're clearly one of their biggest games of the year and we just don't seem to give a **** about playing them at all. As for the game last night, there was nothing on the field that should have shocked you. Nothing. I assume that is why a great many of you are so angry this morning. You knew it, but chose to believe it would be different. I just finished watching the replay. I went to sleep in the 3rd quarter. There are some games you just know it's hopeless.
Well sure we get everybody's best game, but so does Alabama, so does Ohio State, so does Texas, etc. Sure Pitt has played us tough, good for them. But it's still very disappointing when you are playing a team like Pitt that year after year does not get nearly the same level of talent that Notre Dame does, granted Star ratings and HS careers are just that, HS stuff and opinions of guys who run websites. But still.... Anyway, very disappointing loss. I watched Kelly's post game press conference and to his credit he took full credit for the teams play. Sure he pointed out that we failed to execute on offense and played poor defense, he wouldn't use Tuitt's ejection as the reason for the loss. It was a total team loss, coaches and players. The defense just has been way too soft for the most part this year, letting virtually every opposing QB, except the USC kid, get into a comfort and rhythm starting with the Temple kid, I think the Purdue QB who looked so good against us isn't even playing QB anymore inspite of looking all world against us. I was hoping for a solid win vs Pitt sending the team into a bye week on a high note, and hopefully using the bye week to refocus and come out ready to go vs BYU and Stanford. But I worry now that we could finish on a 3 game losing streak.
We seem to have reverted back to the defenses we had a few years ago. Our D has forced 0 turn overs in the last 2 games. That coupled with Mr. Generosity at QB and we lose the turnover battle every game. Manti may have had some imaginary friends but his INTs were real.
Kelly should accept responsibility because it was all on him. The team was not prepared to play and had no focus at all. Someone in another forum made an interesting observation. If ND falls behind in the second half Kelly will all but abandon the run. To me, the bonehead call of the game was the fade pass to TJ Jones from the 2" line. Not only is there no room for that pattern but you choose the shortest receiver on the field.
Regarding the pass to TJ from the 2 inch line....it's bizzare that our OL can't be trusted to punch it in from there, they are an excellent OL when pass blocking and everybody says that our young OL are really good. But never the less when it's 3 and 2 or 3rd and 3 I cringe because with our running game I have pretty low confidence that we will make it. Funny thing is that as a Texans fan I have the same problem. Even last year with a healthy Arian Foster and an offense that is run first, we could move it between the 20's but we always had to settle on FG's, inside the 5 we could not get anything running with one of the best backs in football. Bizzare. Also Schaub is the Pro version of Tommy Rees, no mobility suspect arm strength and prone to the oh crap decisions.
At least your guys can make it in to the endzone. Our guys are so disciplined they refuse to cross that line.... :cry: