Really surprised that we didn't see Tyler Buchner at all in the 1st half. When he's in the game the running game magically seems to be better.
Irish defense has to come out and get the Cowboys off the field to start the 3rd qtr after letting them race down the field for a score to end the 1st half. I see much upset over the Irish essentially taking a knee with 37 seconds left rather than using their 3 TO's and the passing game to try to get in position for a FG attempt
OSU has an efficient 12 play TD drive to open the 3rd qtr. Irish blitz is being picked up easily by the OSU OL right now and Sanders is throwing laser strikes. As Lou would say the best way to answer a score is with a score. Irish offense needs to keep the pressure on OSU 28-21
Held them to a FG but it's now 31-28 Oklahoma State. Offense desperately needs to get untracked and put up a score.
Irish and OSU trade fumbles, OSU on the goal line. But the Irish can't take advantage and go 3 and out again. Right now it's all OSU
Another good drive by OSU and a FG. OSU 34-28 Irish defense is tired and they can't stop anything, they can't get to Sanders and he's making great throws and his receivers are making excellent catches.
Irish drive ends in a Coan interception. Unless the defense has a stop like a 3 and out in them I expect OSU to drive and put more points on the board.
Tough loss after the first half. It should wake up the fans to the fact that we haven't advanced as much as we thought. OSU had way more speed in the secondary than we do. They had faster WRs. They had a much better run game. Williams wasn't the reason we couldn't run the ball. The O-line was at fault. Their QB was a true dual threat game wrecker, unlike Buchner, who can run but so far hasn't proven to be a consistently accurate passer. In summary, we know what our weaknesses are going into the offseason. Today we clearly were the second best team on the field, but we fought hard for 60 minutes. I'm OK with that.
The belief that the O line had improved was wrong....our opponents defenses had just gotten worse. We're not as good a running team without Williams. We need captains who are "follow me" guys not "see ya, good luck" guys. Our early success was scheme generated by the defense OSU was running. When they changed their scheme we couldn't move the ball. Unlike his counterpart, Coan never took off and got a first down. He was usually good for 2 yds. at most. A new coach is exciting but speed at linebacker is at least as important.
Tough loss for the Irish. OSU figured some things out at half time and were the better team from that point on, if they don't fumble twice in the redzone the score would have looked much worse. I was most disappointed in our defense, I really thought we would be very good in this game. But they just went through us like a hot knife through butter in the 2nd half. And the offense with no running game, which I don't really even think Kyren Williams would have been able to run against that OSU defense there were just no holes for the backs. I never thought I'd see us go with the Air-Raid style of game plan. The result was typical for that style of offense. Lot of yards for the QB's, Jack Coan threw for over 500 yards on 68 passes. The Pirate would be proud of the play calling. Problem is that it's a lot of yards but doesn't translate into wins. Well Marcus Freeman continues the ND tradition of losing in New Years Bowl games. Been since the win over Texas A&M in the '94 Cotton Bowl that we've won a big bowl game. Well next up will be who is going to be our DCoord and will Harry Heistand be officially announced as the OL Coach and don't forget what will happen with Del Alexander. Fans want him fired.
I'll follow Gipper's and Terry's comments while these thoughts are fresh in my mind. Once my head hits the pillow, they'll be gone. In retrospect, our schedule wasn't very difficult this year. It showed today. What we thought was a near-miraculous transformation of our O-line was a mirage based on, 1) opponent quality (lower), 2) Williams' running, 3) a "developing" O-line, 4) lack of speed among skill players, and 5) lack of coverage speed in the defensive secondary. Did I miss something?
Like many ND fans I was disappointed that Buckner didn't get any playing time. Maybe the OSU defense intimidated our coaching staff into thinking that an experienced QB was needed. Next game is in the shoe and he won't have any additional game experience before then.
Yeah once the offense stalled in the 3rd qtr I thought we'd see them give Buchner a series to see if his change of pace would get us going again. Sid I hope you sleep well tonight, and I agree with your points.