ND-14 G-Tech-10 Nobody predicted that score, not the closeness of it or its small stature. I'm still not quite sure what I saw last night. I think only time will tell. My grades are as follows: Offense O-Line : C All kinds of trouble early. BUt much better in the 2nd half. Young grew up as the game went on. Receivers : C A few drops, some penalties down field killed drives. Big catches in the clutch. McKnight is definitely going to steal some of Samardzgia thunder as he did last night. Running Backs: B+ Walker ran well all night. Schwapp blocks well. QB : C Workmanlike final results. Not Heisman quality by any stretch. A lot of credit to GT's defense and scheme. Quinn will always do the right thing in the end. Defense D-Line : D My biggest disappointment. Large holes in the first half which they tightened up later. Hardly any pressure all night. For a veteran group they played very ordinary. LBs : B Crum played big up the middle even though I think he belongs outside. Thomas finished with four tackles, two for losses in his first game ever at the position. The other side was a rotation. Definite speed upgrade but can they fend off the big linemen consistently. They were solely responsible for our improved pass rush in the second half. D-Backs : B+ Forget about Calvin Johnson's night.... he's a freak who could start in the NFL right now( did you see him school freshman Darrin Walls on that long pass down the sidelines?). They kept his damage to a minimum and really shut down the G-Tech passing attack in the second half. These guys played pretty solid. Punter : A- Price has a slow release but man can he boom it. He saved the Irish early when they could not establish any offense. Kicker : D Kickoffs were OK ( Renkes ). My only comment about Gioia is a question.... did Weis make him walk back to South Bend? Coaching : C Hey, it's win. I just had the feeling that G-Tech was better prepared than we were. Talent won out at the end. So..... It's an opening win on the road against a good team. Everyone else played cupcakes except Tenn(home) and possibly USC. As the season goes on this win could look better and better... I'm very interested in your opinions.
George I'm somewhat more generous than you are because I look at the game last night and I think that we should have won 20-10 We missed 2 very makable FGs. GTech. played with great emotion and their superior speed carried them for a quarter and a half. But starting with the last drive in the first half, the O line began to dominate. Quinn made some great plays including that gutsy QB draw to end the first half. I agree with your praise of the secondary. They did the job last night. Johnson all but disappeared in the second half. I'm not as down on the D line or as up on the LBs as you. I thought that the LBs didn't contain the QB draw way too often. Let's face it, we learned a lot more about our team yesterday than we would have playing North Texas or the Citadel. And lastly, I have to give Charlie some credit. First of all, his team did show poise under some pretty tough conditions. Comming back from down 10 on the road shows me something. The QB draw and going for it on 4th and 1 at the end showed his confidence in both the O and the D.
George, no one is ever interested in my opinions, but that has never stopped me. I am looking at the game in a different way. You say forget about Calvin Johnson's night. If you do that, we gave up only 148 yards total offense. Yes, Ball's 10-yd+ QB draws were agonizing for us to watch, but I can assure you I would rather have seen them than see him loft the ball to CJ, who basically was responsible for their only TD. Our entire defense came to play and played very well. I am relieved and happy to see that. It bodes well for us over the course of a 12-game season. I believe BQ had a difficult night despite his stats. However, he was a model of poise in the 2nd half and did what was necessary to win. Unlike the media, I could care less about the Heisman at this early stage of the season. If you want to go by opening game stats, he's out of the race. The other media-annointed candidates racked up much more impressive stats against non-GT type opponents. Some of those opponents were good teams, but they were not on the same level as GT. On a side note, I saw a graphic last night which showed that only 3 of the preseason top 10 teams (ND, Cal, USC) played what could be described as major D-1 programs in their first game. That's neither a criticism nor an excuse (I wouldn't have minded if we had played Ball State), just an observation. The offense did what it had to do to win the game. We got the ball back with 5:29 left in the game and never surrendered it . The entire free world knew that we were going up the middle on 4th and 1, and we got it done. I really liked the blocking of the WRs, which gives us strength running to the outside. Yes, RM was called for holding early, but overall IMO his and JS's blocking were key to the outside running game. Conversely, I was disappointed in what I saw of Carlson's blocking, especially in pass protection. I hope we get that corrected. I can't imagine facing a faster defense that GT. Even with their inexperienced secondary, they are going to be a very tough test for anyone on their schedule this year. They kept up the pressure for 60 minutes. I believe the speed of our WRs was the difference. Once BQ settled into a rythm with his two WRs, we were able to mix the plays enough to move the ball. In your grading, you combined the placekicker with the kickoffs. Weren't all of our kickoffs in the end zone or with my feeble memory did I miss one that wasn't? That's not chopped liver. No question we have a problem with our placekicker. We may see the freshman if it does not improve. Our punter did an excellent job IMO. No problems last night in this part of our game. We had too many illegal block penalties on our KO and punt returns. This must be corrected. All in all, I'll take the W, get out of town, and let the rating/Heisman chips fall where they may. Over the next few weeks, we will learn much about how this season is going to shake out. It's a long season with many bumps in the road. We hit a big bump right out of the gate. The road is no less bumpy next week and the week after and.................
ND/GT <r>Well I said I would be happy if the team left Atlanta with a 1 point win and they must have taken me seriously! <br/> <br/> I did have a bad feelng about this game all week though. The closer the game came the worse I felt. After the first qtr, I was about to give up hope. <br/> <br/> Too many mistakes kept GT in the game way too long. You had to know that they would come out just like a bunch of crazed dogs and they did but ND miscuses kept them that way for too long. <br/> <br/> I wopn't go into the grades system like you guys did but for now I will say that <B><s></s>without Darius Walker and Charlie Weis<e></e></B>, this would have been a "L" instead of a "W". <br/> <br/> Many in the sports media this week said this was a trap game for the Irish and ND would be upset. <B><s></s>They were partially right<e></e></B>, it was a trap game but <U><s></s>the Irish pulled off a win anyway<e></e></U>. You would think they would give ND some credit but now they are saying last nights game shows we don't deserve our ranking and will probably lose 2 of the next three games. I don't know about you but I'm not impressed with a PSU team at home beating the Akron Zips, or a Michigan team playing at home beating Vanderbilt or MIchingan St. beating Idaho at home! None of them impressively by the way! My take on the next 2 games: We will beat PSU and mich.</r>
ND/GT <t>Just on more quicl tjhought on the GT game, Don't forget that the media kept telling us that this was the team that beat Auburn and Miami last year, the GT Giant killers. Now nowhere is the media saying that they were able to beat Auburn and Miami but just couldn't do the Irish in? Suddenly those previous wins by the giant killer aren't important anymore. Don't you just love the sports media's take on ND?</t>
Well no doubt this game was played against a fast/emotional/sky high defense that played over it's head for most of the 1st half. The crowd was wild and the early success by Ga.Tech defense just fueled it even more. But the Irish hung in there and weathered the storm and after the last drive of the 1st half dominated the game, even though the scoreboard doesn't show it. The Missed FG's are very troubling, I remember the years when Lou couldn't find anybody to make a kick and it cost us some games. Cost us the Tenn Game in 1991, it cost us the BYU game in 1996 and the USC game in 1996 and thats just off the top of my head. On the other hand I the KO guys was booming them, and Goeff Price finally seems to have found his groove. He was really booming them. We had a couple of missed plays that hurt, the clear drop by Rhema McKnight on the 7yd line that forced the field goal and the holding penalty way on the other side of the field against Ryan Harris that cost Darius Walker a big run, which was a typical B10 offical call on ND. But we also had some great plays, the big catch by Jeff S and the amazing catch by Carlson offset those gaffs. Darius Walker, you can't say enough about that guy he has the heart of a lion. When he took it into the endzone only to have it called back, he just took it to the endzone on the other side. He might not be the fastest guy in the world, but he's not slow and he's just a very good back. I was surprised when they brought in Travis Thomas to finish the game off though, I'm not sure what the thinking was there. He couldn't have been fresher than Darius and so I don't know why Darius wasn't playing. I could understand not giving the ball to Prince at that point in the game, he is a freshman. Speaking of Prince, he got in the game but he didn't carry the ball did he? And I must say that the last drive showed me that this team has a ton of heart, 5:29 and never giving up the ball. Just chewed up the clock. I don't care what anybody says, I thought Brady had a great game. John Tenuta threw everything but the kitchen sink at him in the first half and could create a turnover or gain any real advantage. I knew we'd beat them when Brady took it in right before the end of the half and they showed a stunned John Tenuta, he had that same look that the Purdue DCoord had last year. In a lot of ways a good tough opening game on the road like this is a good thing, sure I'd have loved to have hung 40 on them. But this gets everybody's attention that games will not be given to them just because they have on a gold helmet, they will have to win them the old fashioned way, grit and determination. Sid is big on Sr. Leadership and I think this win is a classic example of sr. leaders not allowing this team to lose. Go Irish. Terry
Tim also said he didn't give a crap about how last nights game affected Brady's Heisman campaign and I agree 100%. The bottom line is the team and not Brady's Heisman campaign.
Amen, Terry. That sums it up. If you have seniors who refuse to lose, it becomes the attitude of the entire team. IMO it's an intangible that cannot be measured but is a factor in close games like last night's.
I guess it is US vs. the World....It made me sick how bad the commentators were all for GT.....Bob Davie made a great comment about CW and time management, ha you were the WORST at time management.....HE MAKES ME SICK, He'd suck at high school football. sorry, just a little PO'ed from the telecast, no radio here in Jersey with the Mets on....... Penn State better beware of coming to South Bend!!! LET'S GO ND!!!!
I would award a game ball to our strength coach (forgot his name)--ND was clearly in better shape than GT, and it really showed in the 4th qt. If you get a chance listen to CW press conference from today--very interesting. stephen
I agree Stephen, we didn't collapse in the 4th Qtr. They kept saying all night that all Ga. Tech wanted was a close game in the 4th qtr. They got it and couldn't do anything. As far as Penn State. I expect another tight physical game, I don't expect it to be high scoring either.
I was in Gainesville for the Gator opening game. But let me say this a first game win against a quality opponent is always a good thing!
This was a good win under difficult conditions on the road: I'll take it. During the 4th qtr, I too was thinking how this was the kind of game that Davie and TW always lost, because they always ran out of ideas. Charlie just kept probing until he got a small lead, then he iced the clock. You figure out where you went wrong back in the film room, but first you win the game. Davie or TW would have been working on their excuses. Charlie worked on the clock... To support what Stephenoh was saying, I also was thinking about our conditioning coach, Coach Mendoza, in the 4th qtr. Brent "the cheerleader" Mussberger was whining and crying that GT appeared to be out of gas and weak on the field, while the Irish kept coming at full speed. (boo hoo.) We won this game the old-fashioned way: we out-conditioned them... My analysis- Give some credit to the other team! I thought Georgia Tech played as well as they can play and they conceded nothing. That's AOK with me and having survived their kitchen sink attempt, we will be better for it. GT had 3 Dbacks playing in their first game against the likes of Jeff Samardzija and Rhema McKnight with Brady Quinn passing while holding them to zero TD passes. Their team also had zero turnovers against a team that started 18 seniors! Now that's good football and that's OK with me too... re: offense I'm not worried about the offense. I agree with Lou Holtz, the team is loaded with offensive talent and has an offensive guru as head coach. So the timing was off on timing passes on opening day: so what? These are the kind of problems that get corrected in practice and they will be... The margin of victory might have been much greater if we had kicked some chip shot field goals. Now THAT concerns me. A ten point or greater lead in the 2nd half would have forced GT to pass on every down and you saw what happened to them when they HAD to pass. It was sack-city, but without those field goals, they could run their offense and avoid taking risks until very late in the game... re: kick returns How about little Georgie West? West and David Grimes are a threat to take it to the house on every kickoff. This area is a vast improvement over last season, when kickoffs were returned by Chase Anastasio and that kid who transferred out... re: freshmen Wow! There were some rookie moments, like Sam Young jumping off or Darin Walls getting taken to school by Calvin Johnson, but taken all together this was a great debut for nine very good football players who will be big-time contributors as early as later this season. The ones who really caught my attention besides Young and Walls were: LB Morrice Richardson- He is fast, fast, fast! Our pass rush picked up speed with him in there... DB Raeshon McNeil- a special teams terror and DB who can hit and cover. TB Munir Prince- don't look for him to be Darius Walker's replacement. That's not what he does and that's Travis Thomas' job anyway. Prince adds a new demension to the offense that I suspect we will see unveiled against either Penn State or Michigan. Charlie's using him the way USC used Reggie Bush: more like a wingback than a TB. When he's in the game, he's more of a receiving threat than running threat. Watch for him to get the ball on draws and traps too. He's a speed back. We haven't had one of those in awhile! BTW- Chico called me after the game and reported that two of our frosh look like absolute monsters warming up before the game: Sam Young and Conrad Reuland. He said they were the biggest players on either team... re: new players I also like safety Ray Herring and punter Geoff Price. Herring will replace either Zibby or Chinedum when they go and we won't lose a thing back there. If anything, he's a better cover back than Chinedum... Why wasn't Price punting before? He's been there for years and he comes out booming the ball 60-70 yards? Holy cow! Where has he been? re: defense backs The Dbacks are dramatically improved and depth is the biggest reason for that. We can now employ real nickle and dime packages in passing situations and substitute to solve problems and make adjustments during the game. None of that was possible last season, when we had only one good and experienced Dback (Zibby) and a bunch of converted WRs back there. Its not a great group yet, but it should improve as the year goes along and its pretty good right now... re: OL The OL looked OK, but it wasn't one of their better games. Santucci better watch his arse and Harris too. There's depth there now and they can be yanked. In fact, Santucci WAS yanked in the first half, but he was given a second chance... re: LB The weakness of our defense is at linebacker. I didn't like what I saw there. The strong side backers were less-than-adequate. Mitchell Thomas looked confused at times and I'm sure the film schemers at PSU and Michigan are talking about him right now. Maurice Crum looked too small for his middle LB position at times, but he gave a great effort as always. I think he's out of position in the middle and I won't be surprised if he moves back to strong side LB when Toryan Smith is ready to take over the middle. The weak side backers were surprisingly good and made very few mistakes, which is a tribute to the tenacity of Travis Thomas... It was opening day and there were more positive surprises than negative. We should be OK overall and improved in all areas, except linebacker... ..............JO'Co BTW- My favorite Game Day sign in the crowd was: Calvin... Defeating Catholics Since 1509.
Hey I just noticed something! This is the first time in years Krebs hasn't ranted on a DB or DB's, I wonder what he's doing with all this extra time!!