Notre Dame is trying to kill me. They must be, as that is about the only explanation for the roller coaster ride they took us all on Saturday night. I've listed my customary five things below, but -- taking a broader view of the season -- ND still has a lot of work to do. The defense, while strong at the end (thank Stanton!), still was shredded in the first half. Purdue will not be as easy a win as people are suggesting, but the rest of the schedule does set up well for the Irish to meet USC 11-1. The pass defense better be much improved by the time that happens.
Five Things I Didn't Like
1. Stupid turnovers: this was the theme of the Michigan game as well. The offense and special teams simply needs to stop giving away scoring opportunities with this frequency. UM and MSU are good teams that will capitalize on mistakes (and did). Scoring 19 in the fourth quarter was incredible, but it was an aberration.
2. Inability to run the football: I realize that ND was forced to pass for most of the game to catch up, but even before MSU leaped far ahead, the running game was nonexistent.
3. The wide receivers constantly bitching: seriously, guys, just make the play. Complaining to the ref after every pass play is getting really old very quickly.
4. Arm-tackling by the safeties: Zibby and Ndukwe looked awful in this game. I know MSU has a huge tailback/fullback, but you simply cannot get run over that many times and expect to win a game. They both looked more than a step slow. I love both those guys, but they really need to play a lot better for ND to win 11 games.
5. Bob Davie: someone seriously needs to jab a cattleprod in this guy's scrotum (metaphorically speaking, of course). At every possible opportunity, he denigrated the effort of the Irish and played up the skill of MSU. When the game finally ended, it was all about how MSU blew it (which, of course, they did) and nothing about how ND show resolve and came back and won it. I particularly enjoy his criticism of both teams' clock management skills again.
To review, Bob Davie was the worst coach in the history of college football at clock management. He would still be the coach of ND if he had learned how to effectively manage the clock at the end of the half. He lost at least 7 games during his tenure there due to his retarded monkey clock management. And btw, why doesn't ESPN/ABC just have John Saunders, Mark May and Davie call every game involving ND? That way no announcer could ever be accused of saying something positive about the Irish.
Five Things I Liked
1. Heart: I did not believe we could come back. Not just "would" but "could." I did not see the ability to stop the MSU offense and I certainly did not see the O-line giving Quinn enough time to feel comfortable (btw, Quinn REALLY needs to work on the side-out pass to his left. Terrible right now). The comeback was about MSU's mistakes, but mostly it was about the heart to believe you could come back. Props to Weis for getting the team to believe.
2. The fourth quarter: I wish I had a tape of just the fourth quarter (and by tape, I mean electronically available replay on my computer). I think I would watch it about 70 times this week.
3. The defense when it mattered: Love that these guys were able to step it up and force some turnovers. The last interception was incredible (and was the last TD/interception).
4. Beating MSU: whether we beat UM or not, I feel like the winner at the end of the game should shake the hand of the loser. The rivalry is heated and competitive, but respectful. Playing MSU is like playing basketball at the Y with some jackass that tries to grab your nuts while you rebound. I hope John L. Smith, especially after his utterly classless description of planting the flag, someday realizes what a piece of shit he is.
5. 40-37. 3-1. Go Irish.
5 comments:
Yes we sucked on defense, special teams, and offense again for the first half. All that said, this is my favorite game hands down as an ND fan (close #2 beating U of M at home in 1998 when they were defending champs). Here's why.
1. The most amazing comeback in college football I have ever seen. Play those last 10 minutes 100 more times that does not happen again more than once.
2. Exposed MSU as the stupidest football team in America.
3. The looks on MSU fans. I absolutely hate this school. They have the most obnoxious/ignorant/hooliganish fans I have ever seen. Not to mention half of my high school graduating class went there. And my ex-girlfriend. I will honestly treasure this moment for a long time to come.
If we're talking about college onward, I am partial to the UM game, both because it was such an absolute beatdown of a defending champ and also because my first date with my wife was that evening. All in all a very good day.
I do agree, however, that this was a hell of a game and is in my top 5. I think winning the game this way was even better than a blowout would have been.
I can honestly say that I was just stunned at the game. My brother-in-law accused me of being manic and bipolar on Saturday night, and he was right (at least I wasn't soaking wet and wearing green & white)!
The first half killed me. I put it all on Quinn for not being on. MPS, you were right, the 5-10 yd out route to the left side was terribly executed by BQ. And Zibby has got to stop putting the ball on the ground.
On the bright side, this should be the last time we hear Bob Davie call an ND game until the USC game.
As for other games this weekend, after checking the NFL scores yesterday afternoon I felt like JoePa did vs. OSU. I had a bad case of the shits. Good lord, I lost 3 games by 1 point on the spread. This will be #1 of my 3 toss-away weeks.
By the way, to all those @sswipes who said that CW and TW had the same records after 15 games, how do you like us now?
Herbstreit said it best that "ND teams in the past would not have been able to come back and win or compete after a first half like that." Nice little shot at both Ty Willie and his booth partner Bob....
...and while I'm speaking of Bob, not only was he the worst in time management, he was also the king of flat teams. Go back and watch his games or check his stats. His teams laid down in the 1st & 3rd quarters (the 3rd especially).
I was a wreck Saturday night. We were at my parent's and I watched the first 3 quarters there. I was taping the game (DVR) at home and figured I would be fast forwarding through 99% of it. Little did I know that we would come back like we did. What a great game! The wife had to calm me down so that I wouldn't wake the kid up. All in all a great ending. I had the pleasure of witnessing the beatdown we received in '98 and this definitely put a smile on my face. Spraguend said it best!
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