A QB steps up in response to DL pressure, he left the ball down low and the DL got his hands on it. His responsibility is to protect the ball on all plays not just plays where he gets perfect protection.
Out of curiosity, when a D lineman comes straight up the middle virtually unblocked just where is the QB supposed to hold the ball? Over his head?
Clausen had the ball down by his waist on that play. That is a no-no in any situation.. He was stepping up to avoid the rush. I don't blame him on that one... the hardest rush to avoid is the one right up the middle. His two interceptions were awful though. Our defense did not make a play all day and that gave us the long field the entire game. Every team has a lot of young players. No excuse.
That is bullsh*t and disingenuous at best. I read lots of 'youth' comparisons made out there and a whole lot of them don't hold water. We have no senior experience to lean on. Not too long ago, we were a program in which the best offensive linemen in America waited 3 years to get a sniff of grass in a game situation. Now they are in the 2 deep within 3 practices. Things happen in a game.. for all the grousing and teeth gnashing going on over at St NDNation's home for women and the testicularly challenged.. the mistakes we made are correctable and are mistakes that young players make. Floyd should have gone down at the end of the game. Clausen should have looked off the TE. That was a lazy mistake on his part. I agree with you, in part, that this team won't take it to the next level until they stop making excuses for themselves regarding youth and inexperience... however, that doesn't make those things any less valid.
Agree.. <t>George and it is pretty much the thoughts of most of the ND posters on other boards on our real average defense. Small slow down linemen backed up by slow linebackers backed up by Lambert and McNeil who would have trouble covering me most Saturdays. In short Weis must recruit his way out of this mess.<br/> I'm not interested in playing people close and looking better than last year.<br/> An ugly Saturday.</t>
Two safeties, Bruton and McCarthy, have over 30% of the teams total tackles. That would seem to bear you out, Larry.
ND <r>George and Larry,<br/> <br/> Chill out. You may not like close losses but last year we were getting our butts handed to us by the like of Navy no less! We played a good team on their home turf and came damn close to beating them! Yeah I'm sick that we didn't win but this team is a far cry from last years'. <br/> <br/> I would submit to you that CW IS recruiting his way out of this mess on defense. <br/> <br/> I keep saying it but it's worth repeating, this is the season we should have had last year. We are a year behind, I don't like it but is is what it is. We need to finish the 2nd half of the season with a minimum of 4-2 just like the first half and get into an nice bowl game and WIN!. That is a successful season for me.<br/> <br/> Admit it, compared to where we were last season at this time ND is coming along O.K. We have some solvable problems. This time last year it would have taken you 2 days to complete the list of all the problems we had!(thanks again Tyrone) <br/> <br/> We have an offense that seems to have found it's identity, and it's a nice one, Clausen will probably end up breaking Brady Q's records. He throws the long ball better and more accurate that Quinn did and it makes us a very dangerous team. The offensive line has made GREAT improvement over last years' mess! We have better receivers than we have in who knows how long. We will sooner or later have a good running game.<br/> <br/> The defense has a long way to go but even yesterday we were in the game till the end. It was turnovers not our defense that cost us the game. <br/> <br/> Last night was the first time in a long time that I slept WELL after an ND loss. Why? Because I finally see a competitive team that takes the field acting like they are going to win from the first kickoff and staying in the game for 60 minutes. <br/> <br/> Last year I had a hard time sleeping after every game because I felt that the next weekend we were going to get our butts kicked again! <br/> <br/> Now it's a week off then we fly out to Washington and kick TW's Huskies around then come back to SB ready to whip up on some Panthers. <br/> <br/> 2008 ...8-4 and a nice bowl game..........2009 ready or not ND will be back on top baby...and you know the media hates it!!!<br/> <E>8)</E></r>
Go back and watch the game again, that DL didn't come right up the the middle, if he had he would have run over Clausen. But instead he came at him from an angle and Clausen carelessly holding the ball low gave the DL a swat at the ball. It wasn't Clausens fault that the OL didn't give him the protection, but it was his fault that he didn't take care of the ball. It was almost the same thing as last week with the Texans where Sage Rosenfelds was rolling out and carelessly held the ball low and the Colt blitzer from the backside was able to knock it out of his hands and recover it. It wasn't Sages fault that the OL didn't pickup the backside blitz but it was his fault that he didn't protect the ball. But inspite of his mistakes Clausen had a great game and it was because of him (and his WR's) that we never were out of that game till the final gun. To me he's way ahead of where Quinn was as a sophmore and I think by the end of the season he'll be where Quinn was as a Jr. Barring injuries I think he'll end up the better College QB than Quinn was. As far as the defense goes, there is a lot of young talent on defense and Tenuata has only been coaching them for 6 games. They didn't force any turnovers this week, but they only gave up 22 points. That's not national championship numbers but for as young as they are that's pretty darn good and they have kept us in a position to win. Even against Mich State they gave up that big run to Ringer but other than that they were pretty solid. We need to get better, we need to recruit better on defense. Some of you guys would be unhappy with the Ohio State defense. Terry
Fellas, It's time to let go of Tyrone as a whipping boy. Charlie is in his 4th season. And his two best years were with Ty's players. What I'm not happy about are the phases of the game which show little or no improvement year over year. Our offensive running game is so primitive it hurts to watch. Have you seen a lineman pull since Charlie got their? Have you seen a two back set? Any misdirection? If we are young, slow or overmatched then we damn well be be deceptive.
I think we are young, not slow or overmatched. The defense gave up 22 points yesterday. You guys are talking like they were blown into the weeds. When you toss in Clausen's fumble/strip in plus territory, that set up UNC for a short field TD. Hell, UNC scored 3 TDs in the game. One was a pick 6, the other was a short field after the fumble (started drive on ND's 42). One TD was a 69 yard drive. To me, the one downside of the defense is that they didn't generate any turnovers. Aside from that, the only real trouble they had was the bad spots the offense put them in. There is a lot of mention that UNC is using their 3rd team QB, but it also should be mention that he has looked substantially better than the starter or backup. He has also looked better each week. With real depth, those kind of things happen. We don't have that luxury. I'd say the program has moved on and forward. You can not want to blame Ty all you want, but no one seemed to offer a single counter point to any of the articles I posted over the past 2 weeks that accurately detail what Ty has done to our program... as well as what he did to Stanford and is doing to Washington. To say he won with "Ty's players" is also unadulterated bullsh*t. As documented, in the articles I posted previously.. Ty's one 'good' class was his first.. and that was a class built largely by Bob Davie. In fact, the only player I can remember in that class that was a true 'Ty guy' was Rhema McKnight. The rest of them, Quinn included were guys coming on board. I understand the beef about lack of pulling etc.. I also get the beef made over the lack of 2-back sets. At the same time, that isn't the offense we run. UNC played a mistake free game and we had 4 turnovers that included a pick 6. Despite handing them a huge turnover advantage, that game came down to the last seconds with Floyd opting to 'pitch' the ball from UNC's 9 yard line when he should have just gone down. I get that you all want to just go out there and 'blow out' a team that appears to be well in the hunt for the ACC title on their home field.. Want in one hand, crap in the other. Sometimes wishes aren't reality.
I'm on board with Corey, we have improved, we are young. The two reasons Ty is gone is that his teams after 2005 were terrible and he recruited terrible. Charlie won with that 1 class plus some Davie holdovers When they left Charlie was left with nothing. Last year he didn't do a good job of coaching, we should have been better even with the talent level. This years team is not just unbelieveably better than last years, but it's better since the begining of the year and I believe they will get better. They have holes, the OL is much better at pass blocking but not so much at run blocking, our RB's have been playing better in spurts but not consistently. Our Defense is better but we aren't getting sacks and turnovers in bunches like Championship defenses do. Charlie has done a good job of recruiting D talent, but he doesn't have the luxury of working those guys like Filer, Ethan Johnson, RJ Blanton into an experienced defense. Those guys have to play and play as regulars. Our best players Brian Smith, Kyle McCarthy, Bruton, Harrison Smith are all 1st time starters and they are playing very well, not like Jr/Sr all americans. Nobody knows where Charlie will be able to take us, but he's got us pointed north and he's working his butt off recruiting players, unlike Davie and Willingham. Terry
I have to admit I didn't feel so bad after the loss myself. My brother in law gave me ND +6 for $25. Drinks were on him last night. 8)
YES <t>We are slow on defense in comparison to the big boys in college football.<br/> <br/> Quote from another board that is point on..............<br/> <br/> "Too many points,” said linebacker Brian Smith. “You can say what you want, they put up too many points.”<br/> <br/> A stats survey reveals an Irish rush defense ranked a middling No. 66 nationally. Can the Irish live with that? It depends on their aspirations. It’s no surprise that national title contenders Alabama, Texas and Georgia rank second, third and fourth, respectively. USC checks in at No. 10. Penn State is 11th.<br/> <br/> For Notre Dame to play the kind of football found in Tuscaloosa, Austin, Athens, Los Angeles and Happy Valley, upgrading this defensive from isn’t desirable; it’s essential.</t>
Well I won't argue that Weis needs more players on defense. But you guys were jumping off the bridge over our defense. Texas defense has young guys making an impact, but they also have experienced vets so those young guys have a lot of experienc around them. Irish defense doesn't have that for the young guys, the young guys on offense and defense are the leaders. That's not the way it's supposed to be, and if Weis can snag a few more guys this year and have another monster class in 2010 those guys will have upper classmen in leadership positions both on and off the field. Last years Texas Defense gave up 25 points in 8 games. more than 30 points in 4 games, and more than 40 points twice. Would you have called for Mack to have to recruit his way out of "this mess"? Amazing what getting a year older does for some players.
Who's jumping off a bridge? All I did was state the obvious. The defense did not make any big plays and our safeties account for 1/3 of the total team tackles for the season. I thought the whole game turned when we were leading by 8 and had UNC 3 and 17 in their own territory and they converted it. That energized their QB who in turn fired up the whole team.
Failure to get them off the field on 3rd and 18 was the biggest play that they didn't make made no doubt. Just as Clausen locking on to the reciever and telegraphing where he was throwing allowing the UNC Lb to jump the route for the TD was the biggest mistake the offense made. But correct me if I have misread your posts, I have read them as you think our Defense stinks.
The D has been playing a "bend not break" style all year. They are much improved over previous years in tackling and downfield coverage. Still soft up front. As everyone is pointing out, they lack playmakers. Crum is having a down year and quite honestly I thought Bruton might play AA caliber ball this year, which he is not. Harrison Smith is a playmaker of the future and the others we have not met yet.