Hogs couldn't score and turned it back to the Irish at the 15. Irish drive the field for another TD. 49-13 Irish. Late 3rd.
That's a wrap. 56-13 defense shuts them out in the 2nd half. Nations total offense leader was shutdown. CJ Carr > Arch Manning!!!
Now I know how the Euro fans have been feeling this week. Our line play was much improved on both sides. D backs did a nice job. Carr looks really goo. We finally have a corps of good receivers.
The offense was humming on all cylinders, and the defense showed improvement. We held an excellent QB to well below his average passing yardage, and we sacked him 3 times. The pressure from the front 7 gave our DBs better opportunities in coverage. Most important, we held them to 1 TD and 2 FGs. Overall it was a good showing on both sides of the ball. Hopefully, the defense can continue to improve against Boise State, and the offense, directed by a potentially great QB, can continue to play with the high level of confidence we've seen heretofore.
What did you think about that fake punt? One Arkansas fan commented...really up 18 and you run a fake punt on us...that's not cool. Personally I'm not sure when you should run a fake punt. Even up 18 points I kept waiting for the Ark offense to get on a roll and our pass defense regress. I'll second Sid's feelings, it's a good start to have such a big win, no matter who the opponent is at this point. We certainly need to play every game like it's an elimination game.
Re: the fake punt. At the time I didn’t think anything except that it was a well designed play. Upon reflection, I‘m still ok with it, primarily because of the strategy: Future opponents scouting the game tapes will have to be prepared for it.
Last time I recall a fake punt with a large lead was the game where they filmed the game scenes in Rudy. It was against BC. I got the feeling that the BC coach Tom Coughlin took it as kind of bush play and meant to embarass an already beaten BC. I'm sure he used it to motivate his team for the game the following year. The next year was 1993. In that game BC ran and won an onside kick early in the game. You could just sense they were out to get revenge and they did. It cost us a chance to play for the NC. Other than that, I have no thoughts about the fake punt.
After 4 games, we're ranked #21 and we had very close early season losses to the #3 and #6 teams, depending on whose rankings you follow. IMO there's no shame in that and we're showing improvement, but the season is young. If we continue to make progress, who knows? We may or may not make the playoffs, but given how the season started, I like where we are at the present time.
If that solid defense we saw in the second half on Sat. is no aberation I think the rest of the season will be entertaining. It's really enjoyable to see such explosive offensive weapons.
Marcus Freeman on the fake punt. “In terms of the fake punt, I didn't want to relax. We had to come out of that locker room with an aggression no different than the first half. There's no lead that's comfortable. There's no lead that's comfortable. When we went three-and-out, I think, on that first drive, I felt like it was the right time to send a message to our team. This was about our team that, hey, this is something we've worked on. Let's go execute it. “That also is something on film for the next opponents, right? I'm not even thinking about this opponent, but I'm thinking about I want to make sure the next couple opponents see that. I could really make them think deeply about how they want to attack our punt unit. That's what went into that decision-making. We didn't get any points off of it, but it was a mindset that we have to be aggressive. There is no taking your foot off the accelerator. This is what we're doing and they executed it well.”
Boise State is coming to South Bend for their first ever game with the Irish. Irish are favored, but they are as always a solid team and well coached. They did get upset by USF in a big way to open the season but have won 3 straight against weaker competition. Irish are big favorites, 20+ point spread. But we have to continue the defensive improvement and continue to play great offensive football. To me that is the key to the season going forward, can the defense improve every week to compliment what the offense is doing. Leonard Moore still not 100%, but the offense is healthy.
It should be mentioned that Arkansas' QB came into the game leading the nation in total offense. I enjoy shitting on the D as much as Mike does, but they played well this week. Onward.