Not certain why but coming back over the Pacific, I have jet lag issues. Coming back over the Atlantic... not so much. May have something to do with the date line... or, being on a 14.5 hour flight and getting to Chicago 10 minutes BEFORE I left Shanghai. :shock:
Purdue pep rally in front of the Rock. Please note Mike Golic, knowing that I'm a Texas grad and couldn't be there tonight, gives me a shout out with the "Hook'em Horns sign several times! <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-lr427AOb0s" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Congratulations. I thought we did ok. I thought we could have done a couple of things better. I think the best team won.
How'd you see the halftime show? I'm not surprised though, I think I read that Purdue has a patch on their helmet or Jersey to honor him as well. As for the game, we were lucky to win. I don't think we got that snap off on 3rd and 10 when Rees completed the ball to John Goodman to keep the drive going. I commented earlier in the thread that Purdue was supposed to have a very good DL, well either I was right or we have a terrible OL. Purdue DL out played our OL big time. Also key to the win was Hope going with TerBush to start the 2nd half after Marve was hot to end the 1st half. I liked most of what Golson did, he wasn't perfect but he did a pretty good job and really only that fumble in the red zone late in the game was a mark against him. Kelly said he hurt his hand on that play and that was why Tommy went into the game, sorry to hear the boos though as Rees I believe is a really good kid. Really glad to see him come through and lead us to the winning FG. Very surprised that we ran the ball so poorly, very very surprised to see so little of George Atkinson III. Any way a win is a win. We are going to have to play a whole lot better to be able to win at East Lansing against Michigan State.
My observations 1. Purdue committed to stopping the run putting 7 or 8 men in the box. With that defense and thier tough D linemen, we had to go to a passing offense early. Golson doesn't have the timing and still zeros in on his receiver early. 2. Because Golson isn't skilled in reading defenses yet, we had to come to a set to see what defense Purdue was running then signal in a play. This takes time and we burned time outs because of this. 3. There was no way we could have run the set/reset offense in a two minute drill. It would have taken way to long. 4. Our O line seems to get into a much better rhythm without the set/reset system. At least they seemed much more effective during the 2 min. drill under TR. 5. Kelly can't win. There are some that are actually criticizing his insertion of Rees. I admit, I wasn't happy and thought he had balls to do it. However, after the way that the game ended, how can any RATIONAL fan think it was the wrong move. 6. We had a number of key injuries. NBC gave us no info about them. Frustrating. 7. I think that Purdue has some really good players especially on the D line. I hope that they're as good as I think that they are.
Jamorous Slaughter - Shoulder Tyler Eifert - slight concussion Kapron Lewis-More - calf injury Davaris Daniels - sprained ankle Taucsh - Groin injury Sheldon Day - Dehydrated (freshman mistake not to properly hydrate) Golson- hand, Kelly said he couldn't grip the ball well after he lost the fumble. But I think gip has it right, Rees could run the 2 minute drill, Golson probably wouldn't have been able to do it as well as Rees.
ND <t>My observation: we have a good defense......that is all. We are going to have a looooooooong season if we play like that. Golson looked lost most of the time to me.</t>
I think Terry has it right. Injuries in key positions. Golson o.k. for starter against a very good team. Change of QB for two minute drill to experienced QB won the game. Nd Nation appoplectic.. as usual.
Nobody mentioned how much trouble our small corners had covering your bigger receivers and tight end. They tackled OK but couldn't stop the catches. Or I'm wrong.
:shock: :x My God that was awful. If the Irish don't find a real offense soon, it will be another 8 win season with a minor bowl in December... re: Golson Let's compare him with another red-shirt freshman who was starting his second game today: UCLA's Brett Hundley. Golson has had two years to learn the offense under the same coach. But today we had to use all of our time-outs in both halfs to avoid penalties on the play clock. Nearly every play came down to the final seconds as the QB stared at the signals coming from the bench. One time the Irish called a time-out, then the entire line jumped offside, because they didn't understand the count or the play either. What was supposed to be a fast-paced, no huddle offense, is slogging along at a snail's pace that will not be able to produce enough points against quality opponents. Meanwhile at the Rose Bowl, Hundley's coach and brand new offense have been there less than one year. Hundley got the play with a quick glance, read the defense and ran the play in seconds. The Bruins pace was so fast, and Hundley ran so many plays, that the Nebraska defense was gasping for breath and making tired mistakes...especially late in the game. Young Mr. Hundley threw for four TDs and over 300 yards. He and his coach were on the same page all day long and they were turning the pages as fast as they could line up the team... re: Irish OL I agree that Purdue's DL had a lot to do with how our OL looked. I thought those guys (Purdue DLs) were pretty good, especially on the outside... re: Irish TEs Nobody has better TEs than Notre Dame...nobody. Eifert and Niklas are special talents and they go 6'6" and 6'8." Most of ND's opponents will have a difficult time matching up with them. BTW- Today ND had the best TE at the Rose Bowl too......Joseph Fauria. re: punt returns Finally! If they continue to allow Davonte Neal to keep returning those punts, with no restrictions, good things will happen. re: Veteran crew Ha! I knew Kelly wasn't stupid... OK, I was beginning to wonder... With two minutes left and a tie score, he puts in Tommy Rees at QB, John Goodman at WR and Robby Toma in the slot. Brilliant! Let the seniors do it! One question: if they're that reliable...why not use them BEFORE the team is two minutes from disaster? re: Irish defense Diaco must sleep well at night. He has monsters prowling everywhere on that defense, except at cornerback. The kids on the corners are learning, but Kev Russell and Jalen Brown were taught some harsh lessons by the Purdue WRs in this game... BTW-Tuitt will never play his senior year there. The NFL is coming to take him away... re: Kiddie Corps At one point in the game the Irish had three true freshmen on defense at the same time. Diaco substitutes freely and does a good job of developing the young players as he builds depth... Question of the day: why is QB still a problem? The differences that I saw today in the QB situations at ND and UCLA were dramatic....
I have to say it: Carlo nearly cost us that game. He was just awful in pass situations. He was badly beaten on the the 4th down that lead to the TD to end the first half and he was badly beaten in the TD that tied the game. He also whiffed on a big gainer for Purdue when he came up to help out the CB. I wish we'd try Garrett he couldn't be worse than Carlo in passing situations.
Carlo was poor on pass defense. So was Fox. So was Teo. You cannot expect 6'2" 250 lb. LBs to cover RBs and slotbacks running across the middle.
My biggest oncern about the game that has not been addressed by others is the lack of discipline among the senior co-captains and the unusually high number of penalties on them and on the rest of the team. The two stupidest penalties of the game, late hits, were committed by T'eo and Zack Martin, two guys who should know better. I hope this gets addressed immediately. On the other side, almost every time I saw a replay of our defensive line push, I could swear I saw two or three Purdue OL holding. Maybe they've redefined what constitutes a holding penalty. If not, the refs missed a lot. One more thing. On our first drive, when our receiver caught a pass, his foot came down beyond the 1st down marker before he was pushed back. We were not given a first down and ended up punting. I don't know what might have happened had the ball been spotted correctly, but that definitely was a momentum killer.
Sid All good points OK ND fans, there's a big debate on whether or not Kelly should have gone to Rees at the end. I think he made the right call since Golson can't read defenses and they couldn't run that set/reset offense we used the whole game at that point. Some wanted EG to get the crunch time experience. What do you think?
re: Tommy Rees I was cheering when Kelly put him in. I'm not a TR fan as you know, but a more experienced QB, who had run the two-minute drill for three years was the right call. The idea is to win the game...right here...right now... and save those arguments for later. Only losers have to explain, the winners can just smile and walk out. I knew it would work. The Irish have had red zone problems with Tommy. That has nothing to do with getting close enough for a field goal and Brindza has a good leg. As a coach, I won a lot of games by substituting in a lesser talented player who could look me in the eye and say, "I can do it." This was one of those... re: Captains Thank you Sid. I forgot to mention it, but our captains were a disgrace. The captains lead by example and the Irish can't move forward to the next level with their "leaders" taking cheap shots after the whistle and out of bounds. A championship result begins with a championship effort and I didn't see it from our captains yesterday.