My son and my granddaughter, his oldest, a second year Midshipman, in Baltimore at today's game. He left Indy this morning on a 5:30 am flight and returns tonight on a flight leaving BWI at 8:55. Sunny and high 60s at game time vs. snow here in Indy.
Irish offense off to a fast start, but the defense has been gashed a couple of times for big runs by the Navy FB. I hope ignore the FB isn't one of those new idea's that Golden had about defending the Navy option.
Irish defense is really missing JD Bertrand. Getting to see Jaylon Sneed a bunch at LB but he's never seen the Navy Option.
Another blocked punt! TD on the next play on a perfect strike from Pyne to Jayden Thomas who makes a great catch.
Wow that is so damn impressive! A Midshipman Granddaughter! I can’t even imagine the effort and hard work that your granddaughter must have gave in secondary school to get accepted at such at such a great institution.
Buckeyes up 28-7 at the half with snow flurries. M Williams goes down at running back with some type of injury. Our running game is in serious trouble at this point.
Navy came out in the 2nd half ready to go and the Irish are sleep walking so far this half and the Navy defense is dominating our OL and their offense is making the big play
Well this fits into the category of a win is a win and it's better than a loss. But the Mids came out and just stoned the Irish in the 2nd half and almost pulled it out. They shredded the Irish defense and their defense just overwhelmed the Irish. They sold out and sacked Pyne a bunch of times and stoned our running game. This one was IMHO an example of Marcus Freeman being outcoached by a more experienced HC, Navy came out of the half with a new purpose the Irish came out like they thought they'd already won and Navy wouldn't put up much of a fight. Sort of reminds me of the Oklahoma State bowl game last year. But it goes down as a win and a humbling experience for the team and the staff. They aren't as good as they might have thought they were after a dominating win over Clemson last week.
That’s our Drew Pyne for ya. Looked great for a half and then terrible for the 2nd. All that you can say is we got a win. Why do I feel like we lost after a win?
In my whining and crying i don't want to take anything away from those midshipmen who played a great game and never gave up. It's exactly what I'd expect from the young men who will be defending our country when they graduate. Duty, Honor, Country rings true to those guys.
I can see the ND brain trust at the half "we're scoring at will on these guys. No reason to embarrass Navy, we'll just run for a few first downs and let their offense eat up the clock." Great idea except Navy went all out stopping the run and we kept running into 8 or 9 defenders and gaining nothing. And of course when Pyne got put into a passing situation he choked. And another in a long line of batted third down passes with this one being a turnover. The team that played better lost today.
I like Marcu Freeman a lot and naturally I want him to succeed but this was a case of him being outcoached. Also some might say well Marcus is a defensive coach so he has to rely on Tommy Rees. That his experience is on the defensive side of the ball is immaterial, he's the HC and it's not an acceptable excuse. Nick Saban has no coaching experience on the offense, but he figured that part of being a HC out. Lots of HC have only experience on offense (Lincoln Riley) and they dont' get to say if we have problems on defense it's not my problem...it's your problem because you are the HC. I think Lou had little experience on offense, played LB in college coached DB's at Ohio State. I'm not sure about his other stops as an asst. But bottom line he was in charge and he didn't just turn things over to the OCoord and go hands off. Like Saban he knew what he wanted his offense to do and made sure that they did what he wanted to do. Marcus has to take ownership and while he's said he wants our team to be OL/DL driven and to run the football, he has to make sure the OCoord reflects that philosophy. Now to be fair nobody has all the answers for every game, neither Lou's, Saban or Holtz. I did think though that when we came out and scored right away that was a good sign, when we scored twice going into half that was a good thing and I fully expected to lay 50 on them before they pulled the 1st teamers. But Navy didn't see it that way and our guys seemed to have left their game on the field in the 1st half and weren't prepared for Navy to come out and punch them in the mouth
I was going to change my season prediction from 8 win to 9 but.....decided to keep it at 8-4 with a loss to BC and a win over usc. We seem to play hideous against terrible teams a good against ranked teams.
Anyone who even THINKS Drew Pyne should start next season is obviously mistaken. For God sake son it's a blitz just get the ball out to somebody! No need to see who's open, they ALL are!!!
Pyne needed to be throwing on a 3 step drop to several wide open WRs but he just kept trying to read progressions after the snap. That's hoping he can even see/ throw over the line. I like the kid, but good grief is it painful watching him.
Yeah I don't understand the offensive game plan in the 2nd half once it was clear that Navy was just selling out on every play. up to last week Tommy Rees has been a whipping boy, last week he was a hero, this week he's back to being a whipping boy. I guess the question was did he make some good calls that Pyne just failed to execute or were they bad calls. I'm just glad it was a win.
Irish women's soccer won it's opening match 5-0 vs Omaha in Alumni Stadium. Next 2 rounds will be at Notre Dame. Notre Dame will host a four-team regional for the Round of 32 and Sweet 16 next weekend. For Friday’s round, the Irish will host the winner of Santa Clara/California. The second game will feature No. 4 Michigan State vs No. 5 TCU. The two winners from Friday will meet Sunday at Alumni for a chance to get to the Elite Eight.