My best friend (Scoggins) was kind enough to record the game for me so I could watch it last night. Unfortunately, his DVR was on the fritz and I wasn't able to see a large portion of the game. Due to this, I asked him to write something and he has done so. Peppered in are my comments.
First, I wanted to give a little comparison of the Virginia Tech game experience vs. one at ND. VT fans are crazy devoted. I've never seen so many cars in the team colors, magnets on the sides, tents with Hokie stuff plastered everywhere, etc. It was really incredible how they go all out in their paraphernalia. Lane stadium is also quite cool. It has an old school feel to it. It only holds ~65,000 but everyone is right up on the field and it gets pretty dang loud. My seats were incredible, on row five, right behind the Hokie bench and right next to all of their recruits. The great seats and great hosts made it a really good time. If you want to see a defense play, watch VT. I know it was Kent State, but VT's front seven are pretty much as good as any in the country. They don't even give up a touchdown a game. That's just obscene. Xavier Adibi is one of the best linebackers I've seen in person.
On the flip side of the coin was the commercialization of the game. I'm of the opinion that ND will pretty much sell their soul to make a dollar. owever, I count my blessings that the university doesn't taint our football games with advertising. Lane stadium had advertising all over the place in the form of banners and signs as well as commercials played on the jumbotron during time outs and the like. I'm glad and proud of the fact that ND doesn't do that, that they keep the experience about the game, and that we don't have so many bells and whistles in our stadium that it takes away from the game being played on the field. I would have thought we would have led this charge on this changing landscape of college football.
On to the game. Lots of help for our national title hunt this weekend. Mark my words, the comparisons are coming, and they aren't favorable. We will be compared with Arkansas who got absolutely housed by USC early in the year. People are going to say they aren't the same team, they are much better than us, they play better competition, etc. It's coming, get ready for it. It was only a matter of time until Texas lost (I believe Florida is in the same boat but I could be wrong because they have so much dang talent). Their secondary is terrible. It's kind of funny how national perception works. The national perception is that our defense is terrible against the pass yet Texas gives up way more yards in the air on a per game basis than we do. People love to hate on the Irish. A loss by Arkansas to LSU next weekend and then a win against Florida in the SEC title game would pretty much guarantee us an appearance in the national title game provided we take care of business against USC.
A few general comments. We average 71 plays a game this year. We only ran 46 against Air Force. Part of this is because everything worked on offense. Part of it is because our defense was horrendous on third down. That said, the game was over in the first quarter. There are, however, plenty of things to be concerned about. If we continue to improve as a team over the next week and don't turn the ball over, I don't see how we can't beat USC.
Offense
Brady Quinn played his best game of the year. He had time to throw and he put pretty much everything on the money. His stats are now superior to Troy Smith's in both touchdown passes and yards while even in the other areas. And all this without a defense or running game. It's ridiculous that they are even mentioned in the same sentence. Let Troy win the Heisman, be picked in the third round, and never start a game in the NFL. Who freakin' cares. Brady is really hitting his stride from what I can see. He made some absolutely tremendous throws on Saturday. His ability to throw on the run is continuing to improve. Right now, there isn't anyone in the country playing better. If our offensive line gives him time against USC he'll carve them up for the second straight year.
And speaking of Brady playing better and the offense getting in stride I'm going to take some shots at our front office. The reason our offense is hitting stride right now is because we have played a couple of mediocre defensive football teams in a row. Good job scheduling guys. Let's put them at the end of the season so we work out the offensive kinks for our last few opponents instead of looking at everyone else who puts their pushover games up front to prepare for the rest of the season.
Weis finally woke up and went no huddle on and off through the game. You just can't stop Quinn and company if you're limited to running basic defensive packages. The no huddle forces teams into doing this.
Weis' teams don't turn over the ball. I think there have been six or seven games this year where we haven't turned the ball over. That's just phenomenal. You will win a lot of games doing that, a whole heck of a lot.
Losing Carlson should not be understated. His ability to stretch the middle of the field is very valuable in this offense. Freeman is a competent backup, but I don't expect him to be able to go deep down the middle as well as Carlson.
Darius had a great game mostly because we were throwing down the field at will. He continues to be one of the best in the game at pass protection. People always say you have to be able to run the ball to open up the pass. That's true, but sometimes you can use the pass to open up the run. That is exactly what we did in this game.
Aldridge again looked good and the increase in meaningful playing time means Weis is liking what he sees more and more. He will play the best player so don't expect that Darius starting next year is a foregone conclusion. Just ask Wooden about that one.
It is difficult to play against an option offense. It takes discipline in the secondary and at the linebacker position. However, we got absolutely killed on play action. With a team like Air Force, you have to force them to beat you via third and long where play action isn't a threat. We didn't do that.
Allowing 400+ yards of all-purpose offense is just inexcusable against a team like this. There is no reason for us to be so bad on third down even if they are the national leader in that category. That had to be a point of emphasis going into the game and we didn't execute on it. Against a decent, let alone good, team we won't be so fortunate for them to not be able to take advantage of their opportunities.
We got lots of backups plenty of meaningful minutes.
Duke, Zibi, Lambert, and Richardson laid some pretty good licks out there.
Air Force obviously watched the Navy tape. Their first play from scrimmage was a jet sweep just like Navy ran with so much success.
Brockington had a pretty decent game. So did Lambert. The PI call on him wasn't a very good one.
Our kickoff coverage was shaky again and against the last ranked return team in the country no less. Allowing two blocked extra points and missing a third is just terrible. Weis better fix this fast. That is completely uncharacteristic of a team he coaches and the source of my concerns. Laws blocked yet another field goal attempt. The guy is making a living getting push on the inside. Bruton continues to do well covering punts down the field.
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