Often we see what looks like a touchdown when the ball carrier's knee hits the ground before the ball crosses the plane. I think of all the plays that they review, this is the one that changes the original call the most often.
Notre Dame football is really unwatchable. All teams make bad plays on occasion but how many repeat the same dumb play? ND seemed to have the MSU game under control until we had a punt blocker hit by the punt as it came down and MSU recovered. It turned the game around. Today with a 20 point lead we did the exact same thing. :!: We lost the NC St. game on a blocked punt so today, we had another one. :!: And then there is my absolute favorite stupid play. We actually have a player on the front line of the kickoff return team that apparently doesn't know that an onside kick is a free ball and needs to be recovered. Our player just stood there watching the Miami player wait for the kick to travel 10 yds. before he recovered it. :!: :roll: :!: And then we muffed a punt into the endzone for a bunny TD. We gave up a 33 yd. punt return. Shazam, who the hell is our special teams coach Gomer Pyle? Got to give Miami a lot of credit. After falling behind 20 pts. on the road they hung in there, came back and took the lead. If it hadn't been for a lucky fumble recovery after another stupid play (a fumble at the goal line) the Canes might have won. They completely shut down our offense for almost 3 straight quarters.
The first qtr was fun to watch, the defense was really getting after the Miami offense, sacks, tackles for loss, an interception. Offense was playing well...what's not to like. 20-0. Then the mistakes and we give all the momentum to Miami. The muffed punt, lead to points. The onside kick some how didn't lead to points but the 2nd muffed punt leads to an easy TD and now Miami has all the momentum. Their QB is looking sharp, I thought we were going to lose when they went up 27-20, I thought we were going to lose when they pulled to 20-17, and then 20-20. Our offense was stagnent, no running game, Kizer not looking esp sharp. 4th and inches and we try that quick sideline pass. Now I know we had a 2 on 1 out there and all that, but gimme a break just qB sneak it Kizer is a big strong kid. I hate that play, I see it all the time in college and the NFL, I think it stinks no matter how many times its works. I was glad to see the offense finally get going in the 4th qtr and tie the game up and then win it. I was proud of the defense getting that sack to seal the win. Not a pretty win, and we surly tried to give Miami the game, but Kizer digging the ball out on the goal line when the TE fumbled and Trumbetti and Nyles Morgan getting Kaaya on the ground on the last play. I hope they've turned a corner. I don't understand the special teams problems though, anybody ever think they'd miss Fair Catch John Goodman? Anyway, Glad to get the win, glad to see Josh Adams seemingly get a little bit un-tracked with that long TD run, glad to see the defense get some sacks and make some plays. It's clear we are trending towards a bend don't break style that Bob Diaco favored. Keep the ponts down. Really the defense only gave up a couple of drives for TD's, the rest were on the special teams.
I can't think of another team that in that situation runs out of the shotgun every damn time. Getting an easy first down with a sneak is not in Kelly's offense. He's a stonehead.
Recogniziing the widespread weeping and gnashing of teeth and myself feeling deeply disappointed in this season so far, I take away a different look at yesterday''s game. Basically, following the 1st quarter, we did everything possible to lose the game....the freshman brain fart on the onside kick, the punt muff hitting the leg of our player, the dumb decision of #3 to try for the punt on the bounce at the goal line, #80 fumbling at the goal line (Whew!), etc., yet we won the game. Not pretty, in fact downright ugly. Yet at 27-20, we didn't give up and mail it in. We fought back and won. Like it or not, that's coaching. You don't motivate a team like we were motivated if you're a bad coach. Make no mistake. I'm not singing Kelly's praises. Nor am I calling him names. There are 4 games left in the season, so there's time left to salvage something. There's also time left to sink farther into despair. I'm a member of the jury that's still out. I'm not ready to come in yet with a verdict. In fact, I probably won't decide until I see what happens next season. It's possible that this season's "downs" can lead to next's "ups". Or not. We'll see. P.S. From Eric Hansen of the SBT:
That last play, the sack of Kaaya to end the game. The Irish defensive lineman who I think was either Trumbetti or Rochel got on top of Kaaya and wouldn't let him up. I don't think Miami had any TO's left so even if he'd gotten up it would have been nearly impossible to get them lined up to spike the ball. But I do wonder if that situation is like the Bush push, illegal but never called. Seems like it would be delay of game. That would have been our luck to have that called setting up a Hail Mary. I do think though that the guys made it at least look like they were fighting for a fumble so the refs didn't blow the whistle.
I bailed on the game in the early third quarter when the offense went completely flat. Kelly looks miserable; the players look somewhere between detached and amused. Navy gives us hell even when we are good and we are not good this year. The team is very, very hard to watch.
I would say they are frustrating to watch. You see them jump out to leads vs Duke and Stanford and then the offense go flat and the defense give up the lead. Just like this weekend, jump out to a big lead, you think we're going to kill these guys..but we don't. It's frustrating to not see a consistent effort the whole game. Obviously Kelly bears the brunt of the criticism for this, he is the HC. Even last year we played way too many close games, it was great to see Kizer bail us out with terrific plays, but really never should have come down to that. Frustration. I tell you the other frustration, just wondering what last year would have turned out like if we had canned BVG after year 1 and/or not played an obviously 75% Joe Schmidt and played Nyles Morgan instead. Nyles will be back next year and he's going to be an All-American. But to see the defense play pretty good after BVG was canned I have to wonder what this team would have been like if we'd had a new DCoord in Jan 2016 and had a defense the players could actually understand and execute. That's the biggest frustration. It's frustrating because we could have beaten everybody on our schedule so far if we'd had just a little above avg defense.
Yep. Morgan should have started last year. I believe we had that discussion at the time. We still haven't played an elite team this year, just to depress us a little more.
It's of course possible that if Morgan had played that the Mandrin defense BVG had going would have ruined him. I hated to see Joe get so much criticism for his play, the kid was a gamer and not only did he lose a step with the injury then he had that bum shoulder that was undisclosed during the season. Also it was Joe Schmidt who feel into Jarron Jones during training camp and he result was Jones missed the whole year, and it was Joe Schmidt who did the high five body slam with Drue Tranquil in the Ga.Tech game and of course Drue landed wrong and blew out his knee. Joe Btsplk ring a bell...