You expect penalties from a young O line in a very noisy stadium but that doesn't excuse D lineman from beating the snap. (replays seemed to show that on 1 or 2 occasions they didn't cross the line of scrimmage.) Of course, you're never sure where the LOS or the line to gain is. The Irish got hosed on a 4th down spot if you could believe the TV line. Even then all the ball has to do is touch the stake and It looked like it might have. Weigman was not very effective. I'm not sure how much of that we can attribute to a very talented ND secondary. We do have two explosive running backs and Leonard picked up some critical yards. We can't afford to have him go down. O Line did what they had to in the fourth quarter. I'm giving credit to the ND trainers who had the ND team hydrated and ready to play. Seemed like a lot of aTm players left the game with cramping. Really nice win for Marcus. He has top coordinators and a favorable schedule. Could be a playoff year.
Just wanted to agree with Terry about the stadium scene. When you need a wheelchair to get through airports and get on cruise ships, you probably shouldn't be in stadiums. That's me.
I have to admit I’ve worried about this game since the end of last season. Kyle stadium is an intimidating place to play and there were over 100,000 there for this game. Crazy environment for sure. I turned the sound down to almost nothing cause I didn’t want to hear it. I also remember the last time the Irish played there and it wasn’t pretty for sure.
I don't really have anything on Northern Illinois except they won big last weekend. I listened to yesterday's press conference and the coaches were as expected very respectful of them. I do know that it's tough to come off of a big emotional win and play that same way the next weekend. But I hope the coaches and the team leaders will get the guys in the right frame of mind so that they come out and play with passion and put them away early. As we all know the longer you let an inferior team hang around the more likely something bad will happen. BTW: I've watched some stuff with Riley Leonard and man is that kid excited about being here and winning. Plus he sounds like an excited kid. Hard not to like him.
Prister is Mr Obvious here and spot on! Four times in the last nine years, the Irish have had letdowns: 1) The Virginia game following a win over Texas in 2015 that required a dramatic late TD pass from DeShone Kizer to Will Fuller, 2) Ball State (in a narrow 24-16 win) following a seven-point victory over Michigan in 2018, 3) After defeating Florida State in Tallahassee in overtime, Brian Kelly's last Irish team (2021) needed some Jack Coan magic to defeat Toledo, 32-29, the following week. And, of course, 4) in Marcus Freeman's first season, the Irish lost at Ohio State, which then snowballed into a home loss to Marshall.
Wow after an incredible break on the KO backing them up to the 2 yard line, NIU scores in 5 plays the last one being an 83 yd TD. Irish better watch out.
What an awful first half by the Irish, ends with a blocked FG. Irish go to the locker room down 13-7 having been outplayed by NIU except for the 1st drive.
Our passing attack is awful. Leonard can’t pull the trigger and when he finally does WRs like Greathouse crap in the bed. Mitchell Evans is a weapon and we see him once? Screw this dink and dunk offense.
After watching 2 games, I’m going to express my opinion that Leonard isn’t the answer. Spotty accuracy. Can’t throw long (must be true. If not, why aren’t they calling for long throws?) Indecisive under pressure. Not as good a runner as advertised. I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong many times before. I’m just calling it as I see it. Defense is a whole other subject.
If not the worst loss it's in the top 5 for the Irish. I'd agree with Sid, so far Riley Leonard as a QB has been average. He's made some good things happen for sure but he's just not the guy or at least he hasn't shown that so far in the first 2 games. The Huskies just out played and out coached us, we were supposed to have a top 10 defense and today we gave up big plays and couldn't stop the NIU running game consistently. This loss also cost coach Freeman a lot of support as a guy who can get us to be a contender for the playoffs every season.