So many things are going wrong strategically and mechanically, it reminds me of Freeman’s first year.
Irish drive fizzles and we get a 39 yd FG 34-31. Carr has made some nice throws, but he doesn't have the open receivers like the Aggies have had most of the game. But he's also made some freshman mistakes that have cost us, he'll get better.
Reed takes a big shot trying to run and is down. That would be a huge loss for the Aggies if he can't finish the game.
Wow what a drive by ND, Carr and Love were magnificent. But we screwed up the extra point and now a A&M TD wins it ...dang it!! 40-34 ND Defense has to come up big now.
Where to start? After the Miami loss there was a lot of anger and worry. There's an old saying that in part goes "after a loss you're not as bad as you think you are..." Well, that's wrong, we are as bad as we thought after that game. My index finger is worn out. I was searching for ND's sack statistics in the FBS. In last place at the very bottom with Georga Southern and Eastern Michigan is Notre Dame with 1after 2 games. Incredible! Not that the secondary is playing with any competancy either. Check out Christian Gray no. 6 on this Craver 86 yd. TD. Watch his arms as he apparently tries to head butt the receiver out of bounds. Maybe he thought his teammate Beevis was going to tackle him. I don't know how many times A&M ran a short slant over the middle from right to left that went for big yardage but it was at least 4 times. After the 3rd time don't you think the D should make an adjustment? It was that same play that A&M ran for big yardage in their winning drive. ND should fire DC Ash now. Perhaps they're afraid it will illicit a profanity laced tirade from Brian VanGorder's daughter. Obviously, ND fans are upset, but if I were a Miami fan, I'd be worried too. After all, the Canes were only able to hang 27 pts. on this disorganized mob. I sure hope that the Lions get on track or this football season will be a return to the Willingham/Mariucci days.
Carr and the offense were much better, but that defense is a disaster and while you always hope it will get better I have my doubts and I can see a couple of more losses ahead. Hopefully we can beat Purdue but gong down to Fayetteville to face Arkansas who has a good dual threat QB might lead to another loss and USC always has a good QB so we might be in trouble there as well. Giving up 41 points at home is unforgiveable. We aren't a young defense, we had a fair amount of returning players from an excellent defense. Ash is starting to give me the Brian Van Gorder feel.
It's easy to forget how effective our defense was last year and how much experience we lost in the front seven. Terry, I respectfully disagree on one point. We are a young defense experience-wise, but I'm not ready to excuse the DC. According to what I've read, it's the first time in the program's history that we've lost our first two games to ranked teams. There's no question that A&M's receivers were faster than our DBs. That's not the fault of the DBs. The A&M QB is legit good but he didn't face the kind of pressure that would have helped our DB coverage. Their receivers had all day to get free. Heavy pressure on the QB is absolutely necessary in man to man pass defense. We had that last year. We don't have it through the first two games and possibly might not have it at all this season. On offense, our passing game is a work-in-progress and is coming along, but I'm concerned about our focus and our inability to get TDs in the red zone. Is it our OL? Play calling? Unfortunately, I think it's a combination of both. A&M was stacked to stop #4 and for the most part did a good job. Carr showed his rookie self with the panic INT toss and the stupid mistake toward the end of the first half. Both showed me a lack of focus. I'd like to thing he'll learn and not repeat those mistakes in the future. As bad as it is to have lost two close games to good teams, it's not like the game 2 loss last season....yet. IMO the season is salvageable, but the playoffs likely are out of the question. We'll see.
I was out last night running a lot of errands and taking the family to dinner afterward so I didn't know the outcome til it was over. (Ralph did text me scores from time to time so I knew it was close) I did watch the highlights, and it seemed like ND stadium was hopping pretty good. I almost got what I asked for: a great game with no injuries. I'm happy to report the outlook for Bryce Anderson seems about as good as it can. He is going to be fine its just a matter of how long it takes him get back to full strength. One thing seems pretty sure - no one turned off this game to watch another.
Glad to hear a good report about Anderson. It's always scary to see a kid laying there like that and not knowing what the outcome will be for him.
I didn't know until I watched the Colts game yesterday that Spencer Shrader, who finished his college career kicking for ND, is the Colts' kicker. I learned that he hasn't missed a field goal so far in his young pro career.
Someone on X posted these stats: "Notre Dame's havoc rate through two games is 8.8%. For PFF grading they are 103rd in tackling, 117th in pass rush, and 129th in coverage Last season they were ninth in tackling, 15th in pass rush, and 3rd in coverage." Assuming they're correct, they point out what I'm saying: This season's defensive front seven, at this stage of their college careers, are not close to last season's front seven in terms of experience and senior leadership. Yes, we have a different DC, but IMO he's doing the best he can with what he's got, having played against two apparently more experienced and stronger OLs in our first two games than we played against last season. We will get better.
There will need to be a significant improvement against Purdue, they have a new coach and no doubt more than a few portal kids, but if we can't get a pass rush against them we are in serious trouble.
54 transfers. 82 new players. Potential may be there but a lot of unknowns. I didn't like the showing of our O line's pass blocking against USC but maybe they just have a monster pass rush. I dunno.
The positive is scoring 40 points against a Mike Elko defense in the 2nd start of CJ Carr's career. Looking forward to his 3rd start. We probably will need to score a lot of points again.