Corey, things down here are great. I have been pushing for Wisconsin and Miami to be ranked higher from the start but too many were enamored with TCU, OSU and other one loss teams. George, Frequent Flyer miles should be Notre Dame's reward. If they want credit for a 13th game against a quality opponent then they need to make other arrangements. 8)
Good luck against Mercer today, KP. Think you cover the -49.5 ? Does this count as one of your 13 games?
haha these debates are always fantastic between ND fans and Alabama fans.. Let's be fair to Mercer, they almost dumped Auburn earlier in the year Speaking of Auburn, they're all tied up with one of the Louisiana schools that aren't LSU..
Well I am naturally happy for the win, it was typical of our games with Navy lately. They just keep hitting us and keeping our defense on it's heels and somehow their undersized defense just gets leverage on our OL led by 2 NFL 1st round draft picks. But a win is a win. Amazing they out possessed the ball 45 minutes to 15 minutes. Yet they lost. I think the Navy coach outsmarted himself first on the play they threw the pick, they had us on our heels on defense they didn't need to throw that play. Sure it could have worked and been a big play, but they don't throw the ball very well so why? And that trick play at the end, again not sure why they would go to that, they were moving the ball and if they needed to throw the ball I don't think that was the best choice. Wimbush made some good throws, made some terrible throws, his receivers made some terrible drops, I don't understand why we came out throwing right away. Why didn't we just try to pound them. Oh well, as I said I'm glad for the win, for awhile it looked like Navy was going to be in a position to tie and force OT or go for 2 and the win. So a win is a win. Josh Adams isn't right. That one play where broke it up the middle, earlier in the season he would have taken that to the house, yet when he got into the open it didn't look like he had that extra gear he showed earlier in the season. Lot of respect for the Navy team, they come to play and they play hard and never quit. Go Navy , Beat Army!
George, yes it is one of the 13. Its not one that will get us to the 13th game though. How far was the flight to Miami....of Ohio? :wink:
The easiest way to beat Navy is to get up more than 2 scores and let them choose from suicide by clock consumption or suicide by passing. The easiest way to lose to Navy is to piss away possessions. ND starts with the ball and immediately calls 3 passing plays for its 51% QB who misses the first, throws a pathetic flanker screen second and scrambles short of a first down on the second. Advantage Navy. After pissing away that possession ND has a chance to get the ball back after forcing Navy into a 4th down and 2. The D jumps offside and ND pisses away another chance at a possession. Not to be outdone, the special teams get into the act and after the D forces a punt, the returner fumbles the ball back to Navy. 3 possessions pissed away in the first half. That's how you end up hanging on at the end to get by a team you should have beaten by at least 17. Kelly, you're a moron. You'll never learn how to play Navy.
I wonder how that one Irish receiver is doing after he landed ugly (and down right scary) on his head as it twisted his neck..I had to leave the game watching at that point.
My original post on this topic reads like the script for the game. No surprises here but I did learn that there is a Mercer and they have a football team. How Alabama was able to rate a spot on their schedule with the likes of Wofford, East Tennessee St, , Citadel and WCU already on it remains a mystery.
Ha you guys can whine and complain all you want, it's all good. Just bring it on. Hopefully we can solve all of this in the playoffs. I've heard all of these same arguments for the last 9 or 10 National Championships! 8)
:roll: I hate the Navy game. It was unwatchable. So many blimp shots and odd angles from the TV crew. I couldn't follow the game. NBC should fire their entire operation. That was the worst telecast that I saw all year.
Our uniforms were fantastic though. Ditch the Rockne on the back with the 3 stars and those things are keepers. From the helmets to the cleats, the old school look was done to well.
I thought the uniforms were good, I could have done without the way they did the helmet, but it was not bad IMHO. I thought the shoes and Jersey's were outstanding. Looks like St. Brown will not be available for Stanford. I'm not sure that it's a big loss, he really has not been a dominant receiver, of course having a QB who is accurate and on time would have helped. Claypool who left the game is just banged up according to Kelly. Myles Boykin filled in there pretty well and I think increased playing time will be a good thing for him. reading some of the post game analysis of the Irish defense made me feel a little better, not much, but when you look at all that time of possession resulting in only 17 points the defense bent but didn't break. Irish Women went to Corvalis and beat a pretty good Oregon State team. While the Men have headed out to Hawaii to play in the Maui classic will be on tonight vs Chaminade. Both mens and womens soccer teams are now out of the NCAA tourney, Women upset Texas A&M, then lost to Bayor, while the men lost to Wisconsin.
Lou's team always handled Navy well. Of course Navy didn't win many games in those days. But Lou's philosophy about facing them was interesting. He said "you don't defend the triple option, you ATTACK it." If you do that you might not be on the field for 3/4 of the game.
I'm not sure Lou's teams ever faced the Navy Triple Option, they did however face the Air Force triple option teams, losing only in 1996. He of course never lost to Navy no matter what their offense was, but I think they ( Navy) went to the triple option when Paul Johnson came from Ga.Southern in 2002 I was listening to the pre-game on XM and they were talking about the approaches that have worked best vs Navy and it's exactly what Gip said...attack it. They said Matt Rhule at Temple had a lot of success and he attacked the gaps. If you look at the stats, the Temple defense shut down the Navy option this year most likely using the knowledge left over from Rhule. The same Temple defense that gave up a ton of yards and 49 points to the Irish.
Consistent with the "attack" approach, I read that Greer Martini had a career high 15 tackles (7 solo, 8 assist) because he is a "downhill" player, which I interpret as an attacker. After the game, the Navy coach shook his hand and asked, Are you graduating? When Martini answered yes, the coach said, Thank God!