I apologize for this coming late. I was in a beautiful wedding this weekend concerning two people who read this blog. As such, I didn't get to see the game until tonight. A few general comments, a few comments about offense, defense, and special teams. And a few general comments about the future and next week.
Let's not try and convince anyone we are good. We tried to give them the game every way we could. On top of that, we should send Christmas cards to John L. Smith. He's a freakin' idiot (not just because he gets ahead and plays conservative). Didn't he learn his lesson against us last year? His comment in the first half about his team planting the flag last week was not only bad form, it also showed his true side. The bottom line is that he gave us the game.
Did Davie have premonitions? He kept saying it...we'd get on track offensively. Does Musberger hate us or is it just me? He looked all game for things to wail on Weis about. Any time he had an opportunity to point out something bad about us he did. It's amazing to me. When we are bad, we are so terrible in the eyes of the media. But when we are good, we are over-rated at the first sign of mediocrity. It's ridiculous how people (insert Corso's comment about Brady being back on the Heisman trail) ride our wagon. Like Weis says, you are never as bad or as good as people say. I hate Craig James and John Saunders are idiots.
Not only do we get penalized quite a bit but we seem to have them at the most inopportune times. There's a lot of hidden yardage in there and we can't afford that against a USC.
I still have concerns about Weis not knowing how good we really are and thinking we are better than we are. The things we wanted to improve on this week (running the ball, third down conversion percentage, and a good, early start) didn't work out well.
I'm concerned people are figuring out how to stop us. Part of that is Brady's poor play and the tougher competition (defensively) in our first couple of games compared to last year. There are rumors out there that people are picking up on Brady's pre-snap signals. There are rumors people think Weis is predictable. We aren't executing as well as we did last year. But I always believed this would be a plus for us. I just can't explain it. It seems to have some truth from the results on the field. But how could Weis be so successful in the NFL against better competition and better coaching without a team of superstars and now not?
The officiating was pretty off again. They missed several false starts and multiple holding calls on their offensive line.
There is one large difference between this and last years' team and the teams of Willingham and Davie. They never give up, they never stop playing, and they always believe they can win.
The audacity of Weis never ceases to amaze me. I don't know if I agree with going for it on our side of the field that early in the game, but he dialed up a great play call. If Brady puts the ball on the money Carlson probably goes to the house with it.
We are an excellently conditioned football team and it showed late in the game.
Offense
Quinn gets his own billing this week. he kid has to get more consistent. When he's on, we control the game and move the ball. When he's off, we struggle. His leadership, composure, and toughness are commendable. But he has to get his head in the game.
The good...
The first touchdown pass to McKnight (actually both of them) were excellent passes. They were both very good catches and they were both balls that, previously to this game, Brady hadn't kept in bounds. Finally, he looked more like he did last year. Part of it was more time and better pass protection on many plays. Part of it, I think, was just getting things going. But the bottom line was that he, overall, played much better.
The bad...
On the first three drives, the reason we didn't move the ball was solely the fault of Brady Quinn. On the first play of the game Rhema lined up wide left and the defensive back turned squarely inside after lining up to Rhema's inside. Quinn should have audibled and gone to the fade. The defense practically begged for it. Two plays later, on third down, we ran all curl routes. Brady made the wrong pre-snap read, stared down Carlson who was very well covered, and then forced the ball. David Grimes was open on his left side, where he never looked, and there was nothing between him and the goaline. If he catches it and is able to get going quickly we may get a score out of it.
On the second drive Quinn missed McKnight badly on a wide open out route. On the third drive, third down, he dropped back, stared down his receiver, and missed Samardzija who broke wide open on the left running a post route. It was another potential touchdown Early on Brady was just off, no rhythm, no consistency. It just wasn't good. On top of that, he has to distribute the ball better. People are going to start ignoring Grimes and Chase. We have to get it going for everyone. I'm not sure what he was thinking on that pick six. Even if the defender wasn't there he didn't get it anywhere close to Darius. Even after things got going he still forced a couple of deep balls. A few of those get picked, maybe even one, and we probably lose the game. He has to be willing to dump it off. I can't believe he missed Samardzija in the fourth quarter one-on-one with the safety.
I don't like the running call on the two point conversion. I know you have the element of surprise because you haven't been doing it much during the game and whatnot but why not go to the fade with a 6'5" receiver?
And the rest...
Starting a game 0-6 on third down will end up in losses more often than not.
If you want to stop us it seems that the recipe has been set. Commit to stopping the run and watching out for the screen game, play press coverage, and get after the passer hoping our offensive line doesn't give Quinn enough time to get it deep down the field.
Why do we ever huddle?
When our defense got them to go three and out in the third quarter for the second time in the half and we got a short field because of a shanked punt we needed to take advantage.
Our receivers were open for much of the night. Brady just has to find them. Once he started doing it we kept scoring.
We can't start off slow against good teams with good coaching staffs and win many games. This is the exception, not the rule. Weis pointed out we are getting slaughtered in the first quarter.
Darius plays hard. He turned several passes that looked like nothing into gains. He may run sideline to sideline too much but I don't question his heart.
Seems like Samardzija doesn't want it as much as he did last year. It doesn't seem he has anything to prove. He pulled up on the deep ball on our fourth possession and if he had laid out he might have been able to get it. I think he believes he's better than he is. He missed at least one very catchable ball. He got open a lot more but he still doesn't seem to be the same player. The play he was matched up with the safety one-on-one he didn't even try for the ball.
Even with the limited attempt to run the ball (playing from behind and throwing so much), we didn't execute in run blocking particularly well. You can't win big ball games without being able to effectively run the ball. This is especially true in close games. Morton played poorly again, he holds as much as any offensive lineman I've seen in quite some time. On multiple third downs he was the weak link. The offensive line did manage to give Brady more time in many cases. Harris had another pretty good game. Young tackled the guy when he was called for holding on that last drive of the first half but overall I think he is playing pretty well for a freshman.
Defense
Early on the defense didn't tackle very well.
The defensive line played very hard, and very physical all night long. They missed a few holding penalties (believe it or not) because Laws and Landri were unblockable much of the night. At times they couldn't contain Stanton but at other times they fought off the blocks to bring him down. I thought they showed a ton of heart throughout the game.
You've gotta love Duke coming in there and stripping Stanton. He just wanted it more. You have to like that.
Zibi didn't have a particularly good game. But, like Walker, the guy never gives up. He's a tough, tough kid. The punt return was another example of pure determination. The holding call was a farce.
Not sure what our defensive strategy was. We weren't spying until the second half and played two deep man a lot of the game. If anyone watched this game the way to beat us is spread us out and run it straight at us. I thought this is what our defense is geared up to stop. I can't believe we kept getting beat deep over the middle.
The first MSU touchdown was just a thing of beauty. Stanton read the coverage, saw Crum one-on-one with his receiver, and put it right on the money.
Richardson played pretty well. If you don't ask him to do to much, he can play well. Too bad the last coaching staff was too inept to see that. The last interception Lambert had, Richardson baited Stanton and made a great play on the ball to tip it to Lambert. On the Zibi punt he laid a guy out to spring Zibi. Too bad we got the holding call.
We seemed to defend the option pretty well.
Don't buy into this they are faster than us, we don't have any speed, blah, blah, blah stuff. It just takes putting it all together to be effective. Every person on defense has to do his job. You can't play as well in the second half as we did and have a huge talent mismatch like they (Craig James, Kirk Herbstreit, etc.) suggested near or at halftime. If we can hang with USC last year with the same personnel we don't have a speed problem. According to the media, when we lose it's because we don't have the athletes and when we win it's because we have better coaching. That simply isn't true. Look at the games we won when Willingham was coach (Michigan) where we won on pure talent. You don't beat Michigan as often as we have over the past few years and not have talent. If people think Michigan has talent, we have just as much. Now, depth is a major, major concern. As was pointed out to me this weekend, there isn't another D-I team in the country that has eight juniors. Thank our previous, gloriously lazy coaching staff for that.
Lambert played with an attitude this game. I think it's easy to label him as having a great game. I think he played well, but he also played with more confidence and assertiveness.
We hit Stanton early and often. Nothing shakes a quarterback more than that.
Our linebackers didn't play particularly well. They looked to have problems all night because they were being asked to do a lot, i.e. contain Stanton, play the pass, and defend the run. Crum avoided contact on several plays. We have to get more physical and take on and shed those blocks. Davie made the comment that we have become more of a finesse team. I agree, even more on offense than defense. And that is a concern. We have to be able to grind it out. I think right now, Weis doesn't believe we have the personnel to do it but last year we did it with essentially the same people in many games against many teams. That said, we did stop their running game most of the second half when it really mattered.
I understand we gave up a lot of yards rushing but it's kind of like you pick your poison. I think we believed we'd give up fewer big plays in the running game than in the passing game. I'm just concerned how we didn't contain Stanton. That said, we still have concerns about stopping the run. If we're down close in a big game, that will come into play.
Walls has to be more physical. He plays like he is still in high school. He avoids blockers instead of taking them on. Some of that is timidness because if you hear the guy talk he doesn't exactly inspire fear in you. There were several plays that it took very little effort to block him. We don't need a Deon Sanders type of corner that every team wants to run at because he can't tackle. I hope he puts some meat on his bones and gets stronger. That said, he played fairly well in terms of not getting beat deep.
They kept hitting us in the middle of the field on that two deep zone. We didn't adjust until the second half. Speaking of adjusting, Minter has been spot on in the second half. I just don't understand why he can't do it sooner.
I still don't believe that hit on Duke was a late hit. I'm not saying it wasn't unnecessary roughness, but it wasn't late. I don't like that we got in a fight, but I do like that we have spirit. I think we instigated it. I don't like that. That isn't what ND is about. I thought the coach who grabbed Trannon was a little rough in doing it.
Special Teams
Gunners (Bruton) have to be better about breaking down to stop the returner. Getting down the field quickly is only part of the battle. It's tough to do with long punts, but can't turn the returner loose and run right by him.
Our kickoff coverage wasn't tremendous except when we got called for offsides which was a huge change in field position.
You can't fumble a punt return. It's tough to get good returns bobbling two. We are fortunate there.
I didn't see the holding on the punt return. It may have been a block in the back but he barely pushed him. It was a better acting job than anything else.
I like George West returning kickoff's. He's prime to break one. He's going to gain more confidence and put a move on someone when he gets them one-on-one and take it to the house. Right now he's still conservative.
Final Comments
We are entering a stretch of "easy" games. The easiest trap to fall into is thinking we are good and not playing to our level but playing to theirs. No disrespect to Purdue, but we should win by 21+ points. I'll be disappointed if Weis doesn't carve up Spock for the second straight year.
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