ND/wash <r>Geez,<br/> <br/> all this Ty stuff I'm hearing all over the place is gettin out of hand now. I just want to get this one started and get it over with. Most of the kids on both rosters probably don't have any feelingS about the whole Ty/ND situation anyway. I'm sure they just want a win and our ND boys just want to get a win on the road and keep things moving in the right direction. It looks like Udubs' best shot for a win will be against WSU or UCLA. <br/> <br/> <br/> "THE HELL WITH WASHINGTON" <E></E></r>
ND/Wash <r>Well it's nice to get this one behind us. Great game for the defense and I'll take a 33-7 win anytime. Of course CW called off the dogs early as is his custom but it's just a game we needed to get through and over with. 5-2 at this point tells me we are going bowling somewhere. Goodbye Tyrone, please go somewhere now and be an assistant coach and forget about any future HC jobs. <E></E></r>
I could have done without the fake punt up 24-0. Then again, I was really pulling for a shutout. Could have been Clausen's worst passing day. The running attack however was very, very good.
I didn't really have a problem with the fake punt. It gives our future opponents something else to work on. All and all the Irish did what they had to do yesterday. And after last year any win is great. I thought the defense looked pretty good and the running game was sound. Hopefully Clausen got his bad game out of the way. PJ in Jersey
In .... <t>Spite of the time he was on the field I was impressed with the look of J. Gray. Good looking young back.</t>
Strangely, although the running game looked good yesterday, the O line seemed to take a step backward in pass protection. Jimmy did not have a good day but the UW D line did make it difficult for him at times. Our D was pretty good yesterday but those W receivers were awful. There were a number of drops that killed them early.
Clausen was holding onto the ball too long. He was indecisive. It wasn't the O lone's fault. He needs to work on better decision making and a quicker release. He has a long way to go.
ND/WASH <r>Sid,<br/> <br/> I saw the same thing you did. He wasn't getting rid of the ball fast enough a few times.<br/> <br/> <br/> But.....like I said before, this was a game we really needed to win and get behind us. Clausen had a down day but it gave the run offense plenty of action which they needed. <br/> <br/> All in all, I'm happy to put this game in the rear view mirror and keep moving forward. <br/> <br/> <br/> Next up....."THE HELL WITH PITT" <E>8)</E></r>
Well first I was glad for the win. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt! 1. I was disappointed in Clausen, as Sid said he held the ball too long, and he tried to force the ball into too mnay places instead of checking down to open recievers. I thought he we went to too many of those deep fades that Charlie likes to throw. He was lucky he only threw the 1 pick. In fact I think he probably got bailed out by the ref on the first pick that they called interference. 2. I was encouraged by the running game, it was esp good to see James Aldridge finally get some success. He looked very good last night. But I do have to put in context of the fact that it was against a very bad defense. 3. OL gets kudos for run blocking and some what the ? for their pass blocking, even given Clausen holding the ball too long. I mean come on UW had more sacks last night than they have had all season combined. 4. Fake punt was a non-issue for me at 24-0. In fact I really thought Charlie should have kept the foot on the gas a little bit more last night. All over college football teams score 50+ points and nobody cares anymore. Missouri didn't go into NFL mode when they were up 24-0, they kept running the offense, same for Texas Tech. Now I think there is a time late 3rd qtr maybe early 3rd qtr you start working in the 2nd and 3rd team guys, but you run the offense. 5. I was sort of sorry to see us lose the shutout, but it was the right thing to do to give the backups playing time. 6. Ever since the pick 6 to start the 2nd half at UNC, Kyle Rudolph has seemingly disappeared from the offense, JC did throw to him last night but not as much as I thought they would with Tate and Floyd requiring a lot of attention on the outside. 7. Glad to see Duval Kamara get the start in David Grimes absence. He did ok and it should help him rebuild his confidence and get ready for next year. I just wish we'd have taken advantage of all our great field position and beat UW 50-7. USC will do that and not blink an eye worrying about being mean or kicking a team when they are down.
A couple of other things. 1. I watched Charlies press conference and I thought he made his case very well for taking the red shirt off of Fauria last night. Last night there were some guys who were pretty pissed that he burned his redshirt. But Charlies point was that it really wasn't a good situation to try and play 6 games with 1 TE and a OG filing in as the #2 (Trevor Robinson). 2. His comments about the freshmen DL doing a good job gave me some heart that we'll be an improved defense through the rest of the year. 3. I have to say I thought Bob Davie did a good job last night, I thought he handled the whole situation with regards to his being a former HC at ND very well and he handled the whole Willingham situation very well also. He had nice things to say about ND and if he has any bad feelings about ND he just kept them to himself as he should.
ND/WASH <r>Terry,<br/> <br/> I agree with you also about getting the TE in. I had already thought about what might happen if Rudolph goes down and we have nobody with game experience ready to go in for him. Makes sense to me to get the kid in now.<br/> <br/> I also agree with you about B. Davie. He seems to have a genuine respect still for ND and it comes across in his comments. I don't think he was a good HC for ND but when you compare him to Tyrone....well......anyway, he's all right with me. I figured by now he would have taken a coaching job somewhere but maybe that ESPN money is too good to give to turn down for the grind of coaching. <E>8)</E></r>
All good points here. Clausen stunk a bit, but he's still a soph on the road. It will happen. Like it or not. UW was trying to take away the deep and make him throw under.. He didn't want to. I was glad to see Charlie greet him a few times on the sideline with a tongue lashing. That is selfish and against the very ethos of the offense (take what the defense gives you). Playing Fauria: People will yap no matter what. I didn't want to play the kid this year.. Then again, I didn't want our stud returning TE to blow out his knee in spring ball and then our one returning TE to get popped for underage drinking. Sh*t happens and we need him. Sliding TR over there isn't bad in 3 TE or runbased sets, but we all know (and so does the opposition) that we aren't throwing the ball to him anytime soon. We need another real TE. If, heaven forbid, anything happened to Rudolph then those same whiners now would go batsh*t crazy for not getting Fauria ready earlier even though Charlie knew he was down to one TE. Gray runs strong and Paskorz, although not big, manages to lay some nice blocks. I felt good about that combo.
I agree completely re: Bob Davie. He has become a very good analyst, as he showed Sat. night. He obviously has moved on from his ND experience.
:lol: 1 I never thoghtI would say this but can Bob Davie replace Pat Hayden we actually enjoyed the game .He was fair and square on calls. 2> Tyrone fired from Washington ......... Who would have guessed
It would cause a disturbance in the force to have Bob Davie become the Color Guy on the ND telecasts. I think he needs to stay where he is!!
Saturday night as the clock ran down towards halftime I was at a friend's house at a party. A teenage girl walked in the room and asked what the score was. Her Dad teasingly asked, "what do you care?" She said one of her teachers would be in a good mood if the Irish won. What she said next was priceless: She told us that her eighth grade history teacher, "has this sign on the wall near the door. He makes everyone touch it when we leave the class." I blurted out, "Does the sign say Play Like A Champion Today?" A little wide-eyed with surprise she replied, "Yes, and we all have to touch it." I cracked up, and once I explained it to the other adults they did too.