Ugly.... <t>First half with the O-Line returning to last years form especially Turgovich.<br/> Claussen looks average with two picks so lets hope we wake up but they look like a struggling program today.<br/> <br/> Man is Florida putting it to the Vols.</t>
I would have been surprised if Notre Dame won today. Spartans have a good solid ball club. Clausen is learning and I think he will be a good field general down the road. Don
Tough loss, they just made too many errors on offense. You can't do that on the road vs a good team. Irish defense I thought played well, they finally gave up the big play to Ringer, but in general kept us in the ball game till very late. Irish offense was the problem. :cry:
Once again.... Do Irish fans lack all perspective or am I just losing my mind on Kool-Aid? We have an incredibly young offense. The mistakes we have made are those of youth. Young teams make red-zone mistakes at the wrong time and that is exactly what the Irish have done. When the struggled against SDSU, turnovers in scoring situations were what kept the game close. I missed the first half and most of the 3rd qtr (although I was able to pick up the Sirius broadcast after half-time). Reading the numbers and watching some of the highlites, it appears that we did the same thing vs MSU. This is a young team that, hopefully, will turn the corner on doing those little things right... If they do, it changes the entire complexion of these games.
I'm encouraged by the huge improvement in our passing attack, and I agree with Corey that because we are young we will make the kind of mistakes that we made yesterday and we will pay for them, especially against a good team. We played a good team and stayed with them until our mistakes on offense forced the D to stay on the field too long against a relentless rushing attack. I'm concerned about our inability to run the ball, but I'm hoping that the better passing game will help the running game to make positive strides as the season moves along. I like our defense. If you told me before the season started that we'd be 2-1 after 3 games, I would have been very happy. Baby steps......forward.
Sid, We are, once again, opinion twins on this subject. The funny thing to me is, during the pre-season predictions, this is EXACTLY where the 'polly predictors' said that we would be.. Beating SDSU and Michigan, too young and making too many mistakes to an experienced MSU on the road.. 2-1. I agree with most of the doomsday crowd in regards to what has transpired to lead us to this point, at the same time, one cannot expect this miracle turnaround given the parameters of the job. Good/Great coaching staffs put their kids in positions to win/have success. That is exactly what our staff has done. If the kids make the plays in front of them, we win... including the MSU game. BTW, Kamara is a jersey kid.. I wish he'd grow a pair and act like it. We really need him. Tate and Floyd are making defenses nervous.. If we can add Kamara to that mix we are potent and running lanes open as teams cannot stack the box. Parris can enter the mix then as a possession guy because he'll get man and that bubble screen to him will work as designed. One 'what the hell' note... Clausen did give up on Rudolph too soon on the playcall the announcers questioned.. I believe it was Griese that caught this.. The safety rolled to the sideline thus giving up the middle of the field. Clausen looked away from him to try to force the pass on the sideline. Had he gone back to it, that would have been 6... Again though... youth.
My concern is that we still are unable to run the ball, not even a little bit. Certainly the season will be judged on the overall improvement and if our team looks much better at the end of the year gaining some balence in the offense then I will regain some optimism that I lost in the poor effort vs SDSU. We remain a work in progress no doubt. Terry
Same with me Sid. BTW, I hope Ringer is the best we'll see this year. What a tough little runner he is. He reminds me of Darius Walker. PJ in Jersey