Are you comparing Pitt's defense with Arizona's? Or comparing the inability of ND to score with all those yards and first downs unfavorably to Alabama's ability to close the deal?
You won't find this fan comparing ND to Alabama or any other top 10 team. Captain Obvious (aka Moi) declares that through 4 games, we have shown the following: 1. An offense capable of moving the ball consistently on the ground and in the air, which except for #3 below, is capable of having scored upwards of 40 points per game through the first 4 games vs. an average of about 25. 2. A defense that is improving by leaps and bounds compared to the recent decade+ but i still far, far from elite status. 3. A troubling tendency to shoot ourselves in the foot via turnovers and penalties not once, not twice, but several times during the game, especially in the red zone. 4. A steadily improving level of talent, which over the next few years via experience and physical and mental growth, should help to continue the upward trend of the program. 5. A remaining 2011 schedule which, while challenging, provides the opportunity for a very successful season (recognizing that each person's definition of success is different). I am speaking as a person whose heart has been cut out at least three times already in this young season but who has learned through the experience of 50 years as a devoted fan to either celebrate or cry for no more than 24 hours following a game, then move on. For the past 15 years, with a few isolated exceptions, I have been moving on each week with a heavy heart and a lack of optimism. What I've seen over the last 5 games of last season and the past 4 weeks gives me more hope and optimism than I've felt since the Lou Holtz years. If we work on #3 above and keep preparing well each week, even George should be convinced by the end of the season that we are on the road back to elite status. :wink:
:idea: Every week I write the same post, and yet the same problems continue week after week, so I'll make this short: 1. Tommy Rees... -Wouldn't be the starting QB for any team on our schedule. 2. Punt returns... - If the team isn't going to employ a real punt returner, why not just call for a fair catch every time? That way the team doesn't lose field position on the roll. 3. Carlo... - Knocks down passes too. I never see the other guy do that. 4. No passes to Floyd for three quarters... - Pitt doubled up on Floyd. OK, that leaves 9 to defend 10, with two Dbacks to defend three receivers. Exqueeze me, but the simple arithmetic of this situation tells me that SOMEWHERE there is either an uncovered WR or a TB/TE is being covered by a linebacker. Either Rees isn't finding the weakness or Kelly isn't planning for it. I suspect that the problem here is Rees. 5. The Defense... -Is keeping the team in these games and they get tougher when they substitute and bring in the younger, bigger, faster guys. Lynch, Tuitt and Niklas all made big contributions again today. 6. Turnovers... - Dead last in the country with more today. Nothing else matters until this problem is solved.
I'll piggyback Jim again..... 1. Throws into tight coverage a lot which tells me he is not seeing everything going on in front of him. I'd like to get a look at Hendrix in the right spot. 2. Did Bennett Jackson get caught with Kelly's daughter or something? 3. Watch Carlo when he is not making a tackle. You find him blowing up a double team or wiping out a lead blocking back. He is a punisher. That's why he belongs on the field more. 4. See comments under #1 5. Agree 100%. If Gray gets all his confidence back we will be really tight. I think it is coming. Lynch is a future AA. 6. Nothing more to say Kelly has regained his composure. If he loses it yesterday like he did in Week One , Pitt would win the game. This offensive scheme may be negating a very good offensive line. I'd love to see these guys play one game of power football.... counters, sweeps etc.
Here are the many differences. 1. ND turned the ball over losing scoring opportunities. 2. ND did not force ONE turnover. 3. Field position was terrible thanks to a number of bonehead plays see above. 4. Special teams are "special" as in Special Olympics. Missed FGs, Kick offs out of bounds, no punt retrun yards and failure to field punts giving up 10-15 more yds. Alabama is efficient, opportunistic and explosive. ND is inefficient and inept.
As I said before I'm happy for the win, our defense has been playing very tough and with the exception of the DB's in the 2nd half of the UM game has been our strength. I will give Rees credit for being clutch. He did drive the team 85yds for the wining TD and completed the 2pt conversion for the win. He was perfect when we needed him to be perfect. But as has been pointed out it's all the struggles in between that are worrying. Pittsburgh paid attention to the success Mattison had in confusing Rees with blitzes and had a good blitz package for the Irish. You can bet that Purdue will come out of the tunnel blitzing Rees as well, as will everybody until he shows he can pick it up. Also as has already been pointed out when you make it job 1 to take away Michael Floyd, that should leave some favorable matchups some where, he's just not finding them. It would also help if the LT (Zach Martin) would do a better job of protecting his blindside, that's where the hits have come from that resulted in his fumbles, on both of them Martin looked confused on who to block so he didn't block anybody. Cierre Wood/Jonas Gray...I like how this is working out. Wood is the better back and should be the starter, but Gray has shown me something that he didn't show before...toughness and more speed than I thought. Good 1-2 punch. Not much else you can say about the defense a very solid unit that is getting better. I will say I was surprised to see Carlo out their on that 4th down play, sure he made the play, but since it had to be a pass why didn't we have another DB out there? The only criticism of the defense is that with our front 7 playing so well I really thought we'd have more forced turnovers, but we don't. Maybe they will come in time. I just don't get why John Goodman is the only guy on the team you can trust to field the ball on punts. Our special teams did not have a good day yesterday from Goodman to the long snapper rolling the ball back to the holder to poor kick coverage and to Kyle B kicking the ball out of bounds..which is a mortal sin. But as I said I'm glad for the win, better to play poorly on the road and still win than the reverse. Naturally Rees is getting tons of criticism, mostly deserved, and the calls for Gholson are starting to ratchet up. I do wonder if Kelly will make a change back to Crist if Rees continues to struggle. I can't see Gholson as the answer this year. Funny thing is we are headed for QB problems if does not return next year and Hendrix transfers. We have no QB's in this years class. It would be Rees and Gholson...yikes. On to Purdue.
Gip.....Chill! You're 50% correct but why throw in "inept"? C'mon. It's probably no surprise to you armchair coaches that I'm defending Goodman. I agree that his long stride is a negative to launching a punt return for a TD compared to smaller, more quick-footed guys. He is one of the fastest guys on the team so if he breaks free, he has as good a chance to run to daylight as anyone you would put in there in his place. I trust the coach's decision for whatever reason he has made it. Why can't you? Lou Holtz says that the most popular player on the field is the second string QB. That's being shown here in spades by a few of you, except that you are throwing in the 3rd and 4th string QBs and any other member of the team to return punts. If you don't have confidence in the coach, it's not going to get any better for you. You'll continue to question his decisions from now until he does what you want him to do. Then when that doesn't work out, you'll find something else to bitch about. Certainly this year's team through 4 games has fed the frustration that arises from unmet expectations. I get that. I'm part of the frustrated crowd. For me, however, I will trust the coach to make the decisions that give the team the best opportunity to win each time they take the field. If that means Tommy Rees as the starting QB or John Goodman returning punts or whatever, I'm on board. If I sense that he is not making the right decisions and we are not winning, as I've seen over the past 15 years until the second half of last season, then I'll cross over to your side. Until then, carry on. P.S. I'm not an Ohio State fan, but I respect and admire the way the Skybox OSU guys support their team through good and bad times. Certainly they've seen the worst over the past 10 months. They temper their expectations with a strong dose of reality and a very heavy dose of loyalty. Under the worst conditions, they remain loyal and supportive of their team, even with an unproven head coach who has - gasp - lost a nonconference game. They set a solid example for others to follow. Way to go, guys!
The long snapper who has a scholarship to do one thing, snap on kicks, rolls it back to the holdler and we miss our only FG try. The Kick off kicker who has a scholarship to do one thing, kick off, kicks it out of bounds. The punt returner who has two jobs, catch punts and run if possible, lets the ball bounce and never once returned a kick. I give up Sid...what do you call it?
Sid there is talk that there is poor Sr. Leadership on this team, I'm personally surprised since we have a lot of upperclassmen starting, but if it's true then that will cause problems all year. As far as Goodman, sure he makes the catch, but essentially it takes the threat of a punt return out of play. I have to assume that Kelly right now does not value that threat as much as a sure catch of the ball. I'll go with that but somewhere along the line he has to find a real punt returner that he can trust. Surely there is one on the team, maybe it's a freshman and he's just not ready to trust a freshman, but at some point he will have to trust someone else.
The first two are individual mistakes which can happen at any time in any game. The third is the punt returner following the coach's instructions. You could have thrown in the roughing-the-kicker penalty which led to a Pitt TD, or #70's stupid 15 yd. penalty which killed a drive, or Rees' InT near the goal line. Despite all those heart-wrenching individual plays, to globally label the team inept is IMO a bit harsh. If that in fact is the case, it will show in how we play in the remaining games. I haven't seen it so far, but it certainly is a tough thing to identify this early in the season. The senior OL certainly blocked well on our final TD drive, and the senior DBs like Smith played well at the end to stifle Pitt. Since it's been mentioned, it certainly is something to keep an eye on. I've defended my boy Goodman and offered my input, so on that topic I'll lie low and let the conversation continue without further comment from moi.
Sid I explained that Alabama and ND had the same amount of offense but the Tide scored 23 more points. I attribute it to team ineptitude. You attribute it to a bunch of individual mistakes. Big difference.....not.
:idea: re: punt returners Weren't Collinsworth, McDaniel and Toma legendary punt returners in high school? I think Harrison Smith fits into that category as well. I believe they were and I sure wish that someone would give them a chance... re: chance given One of the players who made the travel roster to Pittsburgh was walk-on freshman middle linebacker Joe Schmidt. He's not just any walk-on. He was the captain of the team at Mater Dei HS last year and he turned down several offers from lesser schools to walk-on at Notre Dame. Like his best friend Troy Niklas, he's a beastie boy to watch...
John Goodman also was legendary in HS as a QB, WR, KO returner, PR, etc., etc. So your point is......? Geezus. Why don't you apply for an assistant coach's job at ND so you can get in Kelly's ear. Oh...I forgot....there are 83,000 applications ahead of you, a couple of which are from your fellow Skybox members..
:roll: Exqueeze me for having an opinion. My point concerning our punt return team is exactly the same as the point I was making about our QB situation. In an area where there has been measurable underperformance, the coaches should give a chance to other players. I was criticizing the coaches, not the players. I'm still not convinced that these guys (the coaches) know what they're doing and it appears to me that several of the players are out of position. The very fact that they even attempted to make a kick returner out of Golson set off alarm bells with me. re: Goodman This is a player that I'd like to see MORE of: not less. I think he's a better receiver than Riddick, whom I would like to see moved back to TB. I was questioning the coach's use of his talents; not his talents. I could give other examples, but I guess that I could summarize that long list by simply saying that this coaching staff has not yet won my trust. I do trust them to recruit well, but game planning, game management and player management appear to be amateurish at best.
In the 2 nights I've slept since I took on my Skybox friends, I realize that I may have overreacted "a bit." I apologize to Jim for my harsh words. I will try to be more composed in the future. It won't work, but I'll try. :roll:
I also have wondered why Goodman has not made an impact as a WR by now. He's clearly a talented athlete, if you remember he was the backup plan at QB several times under Charlie, they even had a Goodman package and there was one spring where I believe he spent more time at QB than WR. He's got speed, size and athleticism. But he just hasn't been able to get on the field enough, I have to assume that he doesn't run good routes, or they don't trust him to make the tough catch or maybe he doesn't block I don't know. But on paper he looks like he should be a player. But Goodman is a Sr now, can you believe that! If he doesn't make an impact this year somehow I don't see how he'll be brought back with the young kids on the way. He'll graduate this year, and if his total contribution this year is fair catching punts then he'll not be offered a 5th year and shouldn't be offered. I remember watching that perfect pass/catch/run from Crist to Goodman in the Wazzu game at San Antonio thinking...yea baby we're going to see a lot of that in the future. Then Crist blows out his knee and Goodman disappears.
Sid, No offense taken and no apology is necessary. It's frustrating when you've seen a player since he was in high school and you know how good he is, but the coaches don't give him a chance. Certainly Goodman falls into that category and so did your own son Brian. I was astounded when I saw Brian's high school stats; Lou should have given him the ball. You can't put up numbers like that, unless you are hellaciously fast. We needed more of that then and we need a more sure-handed slot receiver now. I don't care who the coaches are. I'm very confident in my ability to put players into the right position where they can help the team the most. I think Corey would agree that was my strongest area as a coach and it's an area that I feel passionate about. I would have tossed both Goodman and Baker in there until they either succeeded or failed. I also would never have pulled a starting QB at halftime of the opening game, but that's another story. I've always wanted Hendrix in there anyway...