Pretty much a defensive struggle in the 2nd half...UM defense was great in the 2nd half really got up on our OL and shut us down for the most part. Your DE's were just too much for our Tackles to handle. But getting out to that lead and our defense playing well all night was key.
ND <t>Vegas was right!<br/> <br/> Irish played great defense. Offense did enough against another really good defense. Gotta love getting this win to start the season.</t>
Seems like only a few years ago that we went half a season before we registered our first sack. The pressure of the front 7 was really impressive. Great atmosphere in the stadium last night. Polian must be a great recruiter.
The Irish won this game with defense, period. Good play all the way around , especially from the front line and the D Backs. Offensively, our O-Line was manhandled by the Michigan front, which was not totally unexpected. Wimbush gave us a typical night which will not nearly be good enough as the season wears on. Kicking game was very good.
The Irish won this game with defense, period. Good play all the way around , especially from the front line and the D Backs. Offensively, our O-Line was manhandled by the Michigan front, which was not totally unexpected. Wimbush gave us a typical night which will not nearly be good enough as the season wears on. Kicking game was very good.
It appeared to me that the problem is still BW's accuracy on short passes. He seemed to be ok with the flanker screens, which was an improvement from last season but he still can't throw the short crossing pass or the slant. I can think of 2 attempts last night, one the woeful screen pass and a short crossing pass to Claypoole that he barely got his fingertips on that demonstrated how inaccurate he still is. He's better on intermediate and long passes however the tackles just couldn't give him enough time for the pattern to develop. Instead of running for 2 yds. on first down as we often did a short pass for 6 would have made for a much better offensive showing. We won't run into as much defensive pressure for a while but Stan., VaT, FSU and SC will make life difficult if we don't solve the problem.
ND <r>George,<br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> With respect, the way I see it, Wimbush's performance was good enough to get a win against probably the best D-Line he will see all season. You can't deny what his legs and speed did to win the game and he got just enough pass completions to get us points. With a little more time given by the O-Line I think he will be just fine and get better as the season rolls on. I honestly was not convinced he could get any better than what he was last year. This game against a relly good defense gave me hope.</r>
Yeah it's a little early to bail on Brandon, Mich DE's pinned their ears back and came after him in the 2nd half. He didn't have much time
ND <t>It was refreshing to see the green in the stands all over the place yesterday too. <br/> <br/> One downside to beating Michigan is that now we have to root for them<br/> The rest of the season🤨</t>
:idea: A good, solid win. I wasn't happy about the offense playing it safe in the second half, but it did tell us two things: the Irish coaches believe they have a great defense and they still respect Michigan... - RB Jafar Armstrong looked great and Tony Jones Jr. is one hell of a backup. We have running backs. BTW watch #3. Remember that Avery Davis is being played at RB and WR, but he's really a QB. I can close my eyes and visualize him tossing a halfback pass for a TD against USC... - OL I thought the OL did very well against what was supposed to be one of the top front sevens in the nation. The exception was RT, where Hainsey was routed by Winovich. It was such a mismatch that I couldn't tell if Hainsey is that bad or Winovich is just that good. - QB We have two good QBs. We'll be OK. - WRs Loads of talent here and lots of tall guys. - Defense Talent and experience in depth. Jerry Tillery is a beast in the middle. Te'von Coney is one of the best LBs in the country and Khalid Kareem is a fantastic play maker who often looked like the best player on the field. The Dbacks are solid and cover well. We should be OK on defense. - K We have good kickers. - Pregame. George's pregame analysis was perfect.
I haven't seen where folks are bailing on Wimbush. He's a baller, who took one hell of a pounding from M and kept going. He's still an elusive hard running rusher when he takes off. He has limitations that were exploited by opponents late in the season last season and some of them remain. What we do and don't do on offense is dictated by his abilities.
We'll know by Oct if Brandon has made improvements in his game since last season. He doesn't need to be Joe Montana, if he can be an efficient mid/short passer though we should be very hard to beat. He's good enough on the deep throws. Our Wr's did look like we should be improved there, and I liked what I saw out of Armstrong and Jones.
Our WRs were beating their very good DBs regularly. We have a few issues to shore up, but I think we will hold the advantage there all year. Barring injury, we've got a lot of weapons to go to, if we can get the rock to them. I really liked what I saw from our defense and I think M's fan base is/was being a tad harsh on them. (yes, I went and read the mgoblow blog threads) I still think Kelly is **** at game management in terms of putting teams away. He likes to race out to a lead and then bleed the clock, which almost always leads to things getting interesting down the stretch because we can't just keep leaving the defense on the field all day...That'll probably never change and I should just shut up and get use to it.
Was in St Louis over the weekend for a wedding. Didn't get online. But congratulations on a nice win for the Irish. Looks like things might be set up nicely for a good run by Notre Dame. Will be watching to see how it unfolds. Now if my Gators can just find footing under our new coach.
ND <r>ND vs Michigan ICON video. Good stuff.<br/> <br/> <URL url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oxnuEwqh4k&t=333s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oxnuEwqh4k&t=333s</URL></r>
These ICON videos are always well done. Interesting Harbaugh and Brady Hoke have basically the same record at this point in their Michigan tenures. As Tim said though, now that we have the W it would be helpful for the Irish if UM gets on a roll and has an excellent season. Also this was a big recruiting weekend for the Irish with a lot of kids on campus. Reports are that the atmosphere in the Stadium was awesome and that the recruits all had great times. I saw that Jaylon Smith was there, along with Kizer and Justin Tuck. Great players returning!
These ICON videos are always well done. Interesting Harbaugh and Brady Hoke have basically the same record at this point in their Michigan tenures. As Tim said though, now that we have the W it would be helpful for the Irish if UM gets on a roll and has an excellent season. Also this was a big recruiting weekend for the Irish with a lot of kids on campus. Reports are that the atmosphere in the Stadium was awesome and that the recruits all had great times. I saw that Jaylon Smith was there, along with Kizer and Justin Tuck. Great players returning!