Notre Dame vs Clemson.

Maybe the Vatican

 

Big night for you Terry.

Astro's about to win the World and Notre Dame probably ended Clemson's chances at the playoff.

 

Okay, maybe 8-4?

 

Alabama loses too.

 

Anyone here alive the last time Alabama and Clemson lost on the same day?

 

kp was the only one who had some faith in the Irish! None of Us ND fans thought it was possible.

 

The crowd was crazy! Can’t remember when it was that loud!!!

 

Many are saying this was the biggest win in ND Stadium since #1 FSU came to town in 1993

 

This is the type of game you dream of when you think about having when you have a lot of recruits in. Well ND had about 60 recruits in for this game. If you are a recruit you had to be impressed by what you saw in South Bend today. Absolutely Electric!

 

Tim, I assume you stayed awake for the entire game?

 

They continue to be the toughest team in sports to wager on with more personalities than Sybil. But last night they all landed on the same page for once and completely dominated an undefeated Clemson team.
Crowd : A+ Definitely an advantage for the Irish. Kudos to the lighting crew for special effects
Coaching : A+ Solid game plan. Resisted the temptation to deviate. Played to the conditions.
QB: B+ The wind could have killed him but he did not force anything. Opportunistic runs. More emotionally into the game than we have ever seen.
RB: A+ The three headed monster. The Three Amigos. Finished all their runs HARD. 250+ yards.
WR: B. The wind took them out of the game plan but they really blocked well on the edges and downfield.
TE: A+ Targeted every week but still produces. Great Blocking. The best there is and there is no doubt.
OL: AA++ Completely dominated Clemson's front seven for 60 minutes. Beat them down. Hiestand earned his salary last night.
DL: A+ dominated Clemson's OLine. Only the QB's size kept him in the game.Shipley paid for every yard.
LB: B+ Bertrand and Liafau were everywhere. Tackling was superb.
CB: A+ A star is born with Morrison. Reminded me of "Revis Island". Gang tackled all night.
S: A Blanket coverage and gang tackling.
Special Teams : B Did everything well on a very windy night. One missed FG but did not factor

They put it all together for one night and shows us the possibilities. For one week as good or better than anyone in the country.

 

I saw this one coming. Clemson has struggled in a couple of games that they should have won easily and Notre Dame has a very solid defense. The Clemson QB is not very good and they just seem to be underperforming. Now that I think about it except for QB performance, Clemson and Alabama are very similar this year. It just took Clemson longer to run up against a quality opponent.

 

I said last night that it's one obvious advantage of being independent. No conference fine.

Remember the conversation last week about poor DB tackling? Never mind.

 

Dabo Post game. He spent a couple of minutes talking to Freeman after the game in the middle of all that celebration and from what I saw he was being a very gracious loser. I'd love to know what he said. But here's the jist of what he said in his presser.


“Congrats to Notre Dame. They were outstanding. They dominated us in every facet of football: coaching, blocking, dominating … congrats to Coach Freeman and his staff”

“Defensively we couldn’t stop the run. Period … At the end of the day, they were the more physical team, the more disciplined team … this is a very disappointing day and its my responsibility … we gave up a score on offense and a score on defense and a score on special teams and that’s never happened since I’ve been here”

“We got out-coached in every facet of the game"

"they were clearly the more physical team "

ON NOTRE DAME COACH MARCUS FREEMAN “Marcus and his team, they had two disappointing (early) losses, they responded … they punched us in the mouth and beat a good football team tonight” “That was the first time I’ve met him. Very sharp coach. He’s done a great job … I saw that (from Notre Dame) coming into this game … they’d responded to disappointment”

“This was an ass kicking. Period. We got our tails kicked."

 

A lot of good stuff at this twitter feed. Too much to post all of them.

 

Also note that Irish fans left the goal posts alone. I guess they figured it would be too far to carry them to the St. Joesphs River!

 

And so Dr. Jekyll once again plays with focus and effort against a highly rated team. Unfortunately next week Mr. Hyde may well be back as Navy is the opponent. It's one thing if the team is disappointing week after week but this team is just frustrating.
I think weather had something to do with the game yesterday. It effected the passing games. I came down to the better running team and it was no contest.

 

One poster said the game turned at the end of the 1st half.

ND up 14-0. DJ drops back to pass deep in Clemson territory. Foskey nails him for a big loss. And #64 shoves Jayson Ademilola to the ground in an obvious personal foul. Brother Justin Ademilola gets in #64's face. A scrum ensues. The Irish do not back down. They go into the locker room jacked up like a house cat. After that, they just took Clemson apart. It was a thing of beauty.

We all know how bad the Marshall and Stanford losses were. But no one can ever say that this Marcus Freeman-coached team will ever back down. I know Marcus said the right thing to the NBC reporter on the sidelines. But he is instilling some toughness in this team.

All night long, ND ran the ball right at the number 7 ranked rush defense in the country and kicked their ass. Beautiful. Congrats, Coach Freeman. More please.

 

I feel really good for Marcus Freeman. after all that has happened he was finally rewarded for his efforts in this game. We are what we are and he took full advantage of it.