Like Terry, I'm a Navy vet. I have a very soft spot for them, but the Irish should drill them. This isn't the same Middy team we've seen the last 3-4 years.
Oh my, Navy could have hung 50 on us today. When they punted in 4th qtr near the 50 after trying to draw us off side I knew they were feeling sorry for us, because there is no doubt they would have made the 4th and 1 and taken it in for a score. Our defense hadn't the faintest clue as to what to with Navy today. Probably the worst loss for ND football in a long time, mainly because they just dominated us from the start to finish, no wild finish, no OT heroics, just straight up domination. I thought maybe Navy was a little down this year on offense, but our defense was the penicillin for that infection! :? I hope the team can get itself back together and give Tulsa a good game next week. :roll:
Well now, that's why I don't bet on games. The defense is shockingly bad. This Navy team was shutout for an entire half by both Georgia Southern and SMU. Air Force held them to six points and Maryland held them to fourteen. They scored more than that in one half against the Irish. This was a total embarrassment on both sides of the ball, and makes me really wonder about the future of this program. If Brian Kelly was the answer he wouldn't be getting blown out by mediocre teams. He's got some explaining to do.
its very simple...they are not getting the Blue Chippers...They can either have a winning football team...or scholars. They have chosen the latter.
Our two worst losses were against Stanford and Navy which just shows how valid the theory is that our academic standards are too high.
I'm taking a lot of license with what Kelly said...but it seems to me that he implied in his post game press conf that Navy tricked him and came out in the Veer offense instead of their regular offense. After his comment post Stanford where he claimed he hadn't seen Stanford in a drop 8 defense, I am a little worried. He was right on the money when he said 4th and 1, with 70lbs/man advantage over the Navy DL, and a 230lb QB and you can't get 1/2 yd on the goal line...well you get what you deserve.
I guess that our offense was so upset that Navy was running the veer that they were only able to put 17 pts. on the board.
Ugh. What a mess. Now I'm worried too. 1. This defense was not prepared to play against this opponent. It doesn't matter what formation they lined up in. When a fullback gets 241 yards on straight ahead, fullback dive plays, there is a problem with the coaching, the players or both. Nobody even uses a fullback anymore. This is obscene. 2. Carlo got chewed up all day and they finally yanked him in favor of Dan Fox. The poor kid was out of position on nearly every play. The mis-direction was for him and he fell for it every time. He was so far out of position on most plays, that all Navy had to do was screen block him and hand it to the fullback who was running right at the area he had just vacated. 3. We made zero adjustments to what they were doing and they were doing the same things all day. How is this possible? 4. Dayne Crist will not be the starting QB next year. He's a good backup, but throwing wobbly toss-ups and running around like he's afraid to get hit won't allow him to keep his starting job. He wouldn't be the starter now if Andrew Hendrix was ready. 5. The red flag information of the week was when Kelly announced that our defense was having trouble containing Hendrix who was running Navy's offense with the scout team. That said something about Hendrix and our defense... 6. Are we going to make any adjustments for Utah and USC? Good grief... ............JO'Co
I did not see a moment of the game as I was flying north from Fla. But to expand... 1. The defense stunk for sure. If the LBs are getting blocked effectively, where were the D- Linemen? 2. Carlo had his worst game of the year but still had five tackles. Teo led with 13. Fox had seven. 3. Kelly was outcoached.... aqain. What he has discovered is that South Bend i a long way from Cincinnati. 4. Agree completely on Crist. He is simply not a spread QB. And his accuracy is sadly lacking. He may not start next week 5. See point three above 6. Based on what we have seen we have little chance against Utah and zero against USC. We will be the latter's "bowl" game and it could be very ugly.
Carlo got hurt on a play and never came back. Saw him limping a little on the sidelines. Never was at a game where after the first 2 minutes, there was never another shot to cheer. The stadium was shocked, and thankfully it was navy, because they were definitely classy about the win where as other teams might have been a lot worse. You know they are going to run the ball and you can't stop them at all equals some serious problems! Worse part of being at the game is where they show Navy players after a tackle or run and shows on jumbo tron......Joe Smith 5'10" 190....Smaller guys just dominated.
You got that right, Gipper. The Navy men are more mature because they have to be and work together as a cohesive unit. Their game planning is impeccable and they are technically close to perfect. You can beat them with superior manpower but they will never beat themselves.
I think that all of us hoped that our team would get better as the year went on, that the offense would show that it was starting to "get it" and that the defense would also improve. Tough first 6 games but then the stretch with WMU, Navy, Tulsa, would show the hard work from spring to fall to play a tough first 6 games would pay off by us looking good vs those teams, maybe even give us some hope that we could upset Utah and USC. But really didn't look all that great against WMU, lost to Navy and now Tulsa has had a week off to prepare for the Irish. Tulsa might be feeling a little overconfident right now, I hope so. I certainly expect to beat Tulsa but Tulsa probably is a simlar team to WMU in terms of athletes and ability, Todd Graham their HC is known as a defensive coach and he's seen lots of spread offenses, he coached at Rice and did an excellent job before moving back to Tulsa and he's won 2 GMAC bowls in 3 years. Soooooooooooooo I don't know what to expect! But I do expect Utah and USC to absolutely own us based on the season so far. Not what I'd hoped for starting out.
Sid's always told me that Sr. Leadership is critical on any team. I don't think we have any senior leadership on this team. In fact I wonder if we have developed good leadership for this team in any class. It's tough for freshman or sophs to be the team leaders, and I don't see any in the Jr. Sr. classes right now.