When I was at the Syracuse game at Met Life stadium I wa surprised at the number of empty seats, about half of the upper deck. Probably 20,000 less than capacity. Yesterday the entire upper deck looked deserted at kickoff with patches of empties in the lower levels too.
I didn't watch the game as I said before, and even though I had it on my DVR I deleted it. I couldn't see the point in watching the game. But just some comments based mainly on stuff I have read. 1. It continues to be a disappointment that our OL has been a dominant force in any game. Our RB are healthy reportedly, and Kizer is a strong runner not a Lamar Jackson or Deshaun Watson, but he's certainly a QB who can hurt you running the ball. So why aren't we a better running team. 2. The passing game, I guess if you look at the stats Kizer had a pretty good game. But from what I'm reading he was not very accurate on his short throws and he missed a wide open Kevin Stepherson for a TD. He just hasn't been as sharp as he was last year. Don't get me wrong, he's a good QB and the best we've seen under Kelly. I have a hard time with all the hoopla that he's a 1st round NFL draft choice, and maybe even a top 5 pick. He has potential, he's got size and arm strength for sure. Maybe the young WR's are the problem, maybe it's the play calling or as some have suggested it's Kelly's constant ragging on his QB's that's the problem. But I thought this offense would be great by this point in the season. Instead we seem to be regressing, scoring fewer points. 3. Kelly's coaching decisions. I just don't know what to think here. As Krebs mentioned the decision to Kick a FG rather than go for it is a point in case. We hadn't stopped Navy all game apparently, and so why think we'd stop them now. If he'd gone for it and not made it, I'm sure there would have been criticism. Also another special teams error, apparently we had them stopped and had too many men on the field for the Punt Return. They took the penalty and went for it and made it. That was the game changer it seems. 4. This season has been much more discouraging than even 2007, mainly because even though we lost good players to the NFL, I felt this was a young team that would get better as the year went on, I never thought we'd be 12-0, I thought the upper end would be 10-2/9-3. I think we have way more talent than our record shows. We should have beaten Navy, they are good team but we still should have beaten them. 5. Kelly coming back, of course Jack has said he will be back. If he is in fact back then I hope he morphs into the CEO coach and lets Mike Sanford take over as the OCoord completely. In fact he needs to do what Frank Beamer did and that is take over the Special Teams. He of course needs to bring in a top college DCoord as well.
From the ND Insider. http://m.ndinsider.com/football/analysis-navy-bullied-notre-dame-where-and-when-it-mattered/article_f6550878-a47e-11e6-8730-6fcb89342e0d.html