Good win for the Irish. Hopefully we'll be able to run the ball against Georgia. PJ in Jersey Go Irish...
A P.S. to my above post, on the plus side. We played a virtually penalty-free game. Two procedure penalties on the freshman OT Hainsey and one other I can't recall. Plus, we only had 1 TO, Wimbush's INT. That's not bad for the first game of the season. I hope we can maintain that level of play next week. Another negative: 2 missed FGs. We need to clean that up this coming week.
- QB: Wimbush looked real good for his 1st start. He knows how to run this offense and he doesn't rattle. Temple had a great defense with experienced pass rushers and 4 very good Dbacks. Wimbush shredded them. - OL: Looked great, especially our two All-Americans McGlinchey and Nelson. I have a feeling that we can run behind those two guys against anybody. - Running game: The defense held the Owls to minus 31 yards rushing, while the Irish had THREE backs with over 100 yards each. Josh Adams looked fabulous; he powered through tackles and ran away from Dbacks. He knows what he's doing. - TE/WR: This team has talent in depth at TE and the WRs are above average with a big-time target in EQ St. Brown. He's a good one. - Defense: Is much improved in all areas. I loved seeing Trumbetti out there all the time. Why previous DCs used him only part time was a mystery to me. He's a good one. The Irish also have a pass rush this year! It's been awhile. The only obvious weakness that I saw were the safeties. Opponents may be able to throw over the top against them... - Future: We'll know a LOT more after the Georgia game...
The stats I saw on the Notre Dame site showed that Temple had net 85 yards rushing. I also read on the ND site that this is the first time we've had three 100 yard rushers in a game since "at least" 1954. That's 63 years!
Ralph, gipper graduated in 1969. I graduated in 1966. It happened long before either of us set foot on campus. Let me put it another way. When it happened, gipper was 7 years old and I was 10. Now there's context to show how long ago it was.
O-Line looked unstoppable on therun but pass blocking on the right side looked sketchy to me. Wimbush got hit a lot. That left side is as good as it gets. Running backs looked very good. TE's as well. WRs are going to get better as the rhythm improves. Defense looks much quicker with much less to think about. Morgan still needs to firm up the middle more before he starts ranging around. DBs looked OK but there are a lot better QBs ahead. Tranquill at Rover was outstanding the entire game.
:? Notes: the right side of the OL is anchored by Hainsey, who's a true freshman. The other side has two All-Americans, so we're going to be lop-sided all season. re: - 31 yards rushing I heard that on TV. Now I can't find a written reference for it. Maybe that was in the 2nd half. My bad.
Regarding our D, we don't have a "power" defense. We just can't overpower the play at the line of scrimmage. Instead we have to read the play quickly and swarm to the ball. We don't have the monster bull rusher so we have to come at the QB from all different directions. From what I could see, we're well coached and buying into the plan. If we can stand up to a tough team like GA we'll be OK this season.