Navy Game Summary

Well, USC killed us once again. Virtually any chance of making it to the national championship game was erased Saturday when USC lost to Oregon State. It will take an implosion of several teams to get us there now. I'm not so sure I'd want to play in it anyway given our recent performance against quality opposition.

Saturday, as much as any other weekend of college football this year, proved that there really aren't any great teams (minus perhaps OSU) out there this year. Every team in the country is beatable. Good coaching can really make that happen. Personally, I wouldn't want to play Tennessee, WVU, Florida, Auburn, LSU, Texas, or Louisville. But they are all beatable.

Offense

Brady had arguably his best game of the year. A couple (two actually) of poor throws barely tainted an otherwise brilliant performance. He showed increased mobility and made several throws that are difficult, to say the least. Throwing across his body the last two weeks has been one of his strengths and his (recently improved?) ability to read the blitz, react quickly, and make the defense pay was on display Saturday. I don't think Quinn should win the Heisman Trophy (I didn't before the season nor at any time during it) but the ABC/ESPN campaign to anoint it on Troy Smith is undeserved. Troy Smith is a fantastic player and as clutch as they come. But the people around him are what make him good. It just shows that the Heisman is about perception and effective isn't necessarily what wins. Troy's big touchdown run is what wins Heisman Trophies. Never mind the fact that Quinn doesn't have a Ted Ginn, Anthony Gonzalez, or an offensive line. It was the same way with Matt Leinart. The best player in the country is Calvin Johnson. If Peterson hadn't gotten hurt there may be an argument for him as well.

David Grimes had another solid game. I hope the evolution continues because we will need someone to develop for next year.

Darius had a solid game. He ran much more North/South in this game and got the tough yards to finish runs.

Aldridge looks timid at times (probably the side-effect of being a freshman). That said, he runs downhill and has a very physically imposing physique. Once he learns he needs to run lower he will become even more effective.

The offensive line played better in this game getting to the next level and making solid blocks on the linebackers. John Sullivan had a particularly good game. I do wonder why we didn't just cave them down and kick out the outside defender with McConnell though.

John Carlson is earning himself (with Weis' help) a big time NFL paycheck. It isn't that he is great, he isn't. But he is solid, capable, and versatile. And in a year when there aren't any tight ends out there, he could likely be the first one chosen if he enters the draft.

Defense

Giving up greater than 200 yards rushing in a game, let alone in a half, is completely inexcusable. There is no excuse for the way we defended the option in the first half and even less of an excuse for not stopping the jet sweep they kept running. It looked like we were in a split-6 defense (modified 4-4) in the first half. We used our outside backer or Duke, depending on which side the play was to, to take the QB on the option. As my esteemed colleague (Panzer) informed me, that's just stupid. I think Minter et. al. was too focused on taking away the fullback. After we adjusted in the second half the play was much better.

Speaking of the second half, we once again held the opponent scoreless. Minter is money on the halftime adjustments thus far in the season.

Duke, Lambert, Crum, and Richardson like to hit.

Lambert is playing like a very solid corner. He has proved in recent weeks that his cover ability is pretty dang good. He proved this week he can support the run and lay the wood on people. I think he could become a very good secondary player in the future. He definitely has the speed.

Frome had a pretty poor game.

Abiamiri played very well. If we had any sort of respectable pass rush from the other side that prevented teams from doubling him all the time, he would be a 12-15 sack DE.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Zibi sitting next game. He seems to be in pain. He didn't play particularly well and tackled poorly also.

The Offensive Line Discussion: Downhill vs. Zone

I've had a lot of comments about this so I thought I would write. Here is my two cents on the offensive line and its struggles.

In my estimation there are two types or flavors of running plays. First, there is the more finesse running game which includes delays, draws, and most of the zone blocking plays (including the stretch play). Second, there is more of a straight ahead, physical (what they call downhill these days) running game. Each particular style of running has its pro's and con's and frequently the type of running back and/or offensive line dictates which style is favored by the offensive coaching staff.
I know that Darius is more of a finesse running back. This lends itself to more of the delay, draw, zone blocking running schemes that we typically run. The tough part about this is that it frequently requires a more disciplined and athletic offensive line. It is more of an area type of blocking scheme to try and wash out the stunting of the defenses and allow a back with good quickness and vision to pick his own holes. The philosophy focuses more on blocking a particular area rather than a person. For an offensive line that isn't as athletic, it becomes much more difficult to execute. I'm guessing this is the case with our offensive line. A lack of physical play also contributes.

On the flip side of the coin is what is typically referred to as downhill running. This is more of the trap, G, fold, down, out, and pulling style of running game where alleys are created for the running back by taking advantage of the angles between an offensive lineman's (or fullback's) position and a defenders position. This is more suited for a faster, straight-ahead type of running back like Travis Thomas. It also typically uses the fullback more on isolation plays and the like. This is a more easily executed play because the offensive lineman doesn't have an area, he has a particular defender. They just pull or block down and take out whoever is there. However, it requires a certain type of back to run it.

The best in the business on the former side of the equation would have to be James when he was at Indianapolis. They really used the stretch zone play well there and he more or less patented it. The best in the business on the latter side would have to be Nebraska back in the day before they unjustly fired Frank Solich.

My guess is that we have an offensive line more suited to do the latter but a back more suited for the former. Since Weis is reluctant (and justly so) to stick Aldridge, Prince, Schmidt, et. al. in the game in a close type of situation, we must do with what we have.

UCLA Game Summary

To say I'm disappointed would be an understatement. We barely edged it out against a middle of the road Pac Ten team. Despite what you saw on Saturday, UCLA isn't very good. Defensively they can pressure the QB, but other than that they stayed in the game via determined, gutsy play and pathetic offensive line play on our part. Like the Washington/USC game before it, this game between us and UCLA didn't say as much about how good UCLA is as much as it says how long we have to go to becoming a decent football team. People are going to say they have a great defense because of all the high rankings they have and whatnot. Go back and look who they have played (Utah, Rice, Washington, Stanford, Arizona, and Oregon). It isn't exactly a great lineup of offenses. Oregon ran the ball all over them last week. Against that competition our defense would be ranked highly as well and we should all know by now that our defense is average, at best. And there is no way they should have scored 7 points on us, much less 17. We're talking about a team that has no pass plays of more than 25 yards on the year and a backup quarterback who's barely taken a snap. And they torch us for two long pass plays? We can't handle a team with any sort of speed at defensive end. Typically the quicker, smaller defensive ends that can get after the passer are susceptible to being sort of pushed around in the running game. Forget about our offensive line outweighing theirs by a good margin, we couldn't push anyone around. Weis said he wasn't going to be miserable about a game like this. He should be, he should use it to point out to everyone on the team how we stack up against the rest of the country...not good. I almost hope we don't go to a BCS game because it could get ugly in a hurry against the likes of Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, OSU, Michigan, USC, LSU, WVU, etc.

Offense

Brady didn't look great the whole game in terms of reading coverages but the kid punched it in when it mattered. It's difficult to look good when you spend much of the game on your back. The kid is tough, he is clutch, and he knows what it takes to win. Brady Quinn has ice in his veins. On top of that, he really showed some much improved ability to throw the ball on the run. It's like when we have to have it, he delivers it, sometimes. He's almost at his best when the pressure is on. And there is no better attribute to have in your QB than that. I firmly believed this game will be one that Heisman voters look back at if Smith falters at all. It is a defining moment.

Our offensive line may be the worst in the country. I'm not exaggerating. We can't get push in the running game, we don't get to the second level to block linebackers, and we allow virtually anyone with any sort of decent speed to get to Brady almost at will. I don't know how we could go from our level of play last year to our level of play this year with virtually the same personnel, but it has happened. We do not play physical enough and we don't have that killer instinct that good offensive lines have. Latina has continued to disappoint me and I was very high on him because my cousin played for him at Ole Miss and sang his praises all the time.

I have come to the conclusion that we miss Travis Thomas and RPN. Darius is a fine, nearly complete back but without a change of pace, more downhill runner to complement him we seem to be constrained to what type of running plays we are capable of executing. I think we need to take the reins off Aldridge and Schmidt and let them earn their scholarships. We need someone who is a tough inside runner to show up and start earning us some tough yardage.

Samardzija finally did what we saw him do all of last year. He looked pretty good on Saturday and obviously was as clutch as they come. If he will get rid of the showboating I'd like him that much more.

David Grimes, David Grimes, David Grimes. Oh where have you been? He had more receptions Saturday than the whole year to date and it was much needed. I was impressed by his ability to catch the tough passes and come back to the ball. We need him to keep this up and be Mr. Dependability down the stretch. Even on some crucial plays he came up big.

I'm getting more and more concerned about Weis' ability to handle a team as a head coach. He says all the right things but they just don't show up on the field. There is no reason, after two weeks of preparation, we should have performed that way against a very average team. We haven't come out firing one time this season against anything that resembles a solid defense. We need to start off faster, put teams away early, and play for 60 minutes. I recall his "intelligent, hard working, nasty football team" comment and I don't see the nasty part at all. We are certainly intelligent, and extremely well prepared. And the defense works hard every play. But on offense we aren't nasty and sometimes lack the hard work part as well. That said, I don't know if Weis will ever miss a clock management issue. He is just too well prepared for it. If he doesn't manage the clock well at the end of the game there is no way we win. He did everything you could ask of a coach to put his players in a position to win. Fortunately for us, we were able to come through.

Again, why do we huddle?

Defense

How do you blitz as much as we did and not get pressure on their QB? I don't understand how we don't get to the QB more. Victor has been double-teamed (and held) all the freakin' time. Without someone opposite him to provide some sort of quality rush we will continue to not get to the QB.
Landri and Laws were great again, especially on their failed fourth down conversion. That was about 90% due to Landri alone. The kid is so quick off the ball.

Any time you don't sack a team a lot (and get the negative rushing yards for it) and still manage to hold them to like 25 yards rushing you are doing something good. That is impressive by any means. Actually, we held them to less than 250 total yards on offense. That is very respectable no matter who you are playing. We just can't continue to give up the big play and especially not to a team that never has them.

Lambert gets better every game. Don't be surprised to see him become a pretty dang good man-to-man corner next season. His interception was a textbook defensive play and that PI called on him was BS. He has speed to spare. Couple that with improved coaching and instincts and you will get a pretty good defensive back. With him on one side and Walls/McNeil on the other we may have a pretty stout secondary in the near future.

Mike Richardson does so many of the little things to be a good football player. He tackles extremely well, he is physical, and he is nearly never out of position. Kudos to him for being so improved.

Duke didn't look all that good in this game. He doesn't break down well enough when trying to tackle and that is critical for someone his size/height.

Zibby had a respectable game. I won't say good, but respectable.

David Bruton is becoming spot-on on the punt coverage team.

Did anyone see Clemson play on Saturday night? Don't count them out. Their offensive line looked fantastic and they have speed to spare all over the field. If Procter just plays well enough to not get them beat and the defense holds up they may make a run for it. They made Georgia Tech look really, really bad.

Brady Quinn vs. Troy Smith: The Heisman Argument

Now, I'm not one to think that stats like what I'm about to quote tell the whole story. I'm also not all that high on Brady Quinn in general so don't think this is a plug for him. I'm about as objective of a fan as there is out there when it comes to performance on the field in college football. Very rarely is anyone ever as great as they seem or as bad as they have recently played. The media and general college pseudo-fan who follows it on and off are extremely fickle. That's what makes good writing/reading. OSU obviously has a better running game which detracts from Smith's need to really throw the ball that much. Additionally, against MSU the game was over early and he didn't have to do much after that. On the opposite side, Quinn had to throw pretty much all game against MSU just to keep it even. However, this proves that the Heisman race is as much about perception as anything else. Quinn's stats were better than Leinart's last year (and his previous season) and are better than Smith's this year. That said, Smith, at least at this point, will win the Heisman because he does one thing as well, if not better, than any other player in the country...he plays big in big games. That doesn't mean putting up big numbers necessarily, but he is clutch and performs when it matters. That said, in their games against like opponents (Penn State and Michigan State), here are the stats for Troy Smith and Brady Quinn.

Brady Quinn
Passing: 45/73 606 yards 0.616 8 TD 1 INT
Rushing: 14/4 0 TD

Troy Smith
Passing: 27/44 349 yards 0.613 3 TD 2 INT
Rushing: 11/28 0 TD

Therefore, if you're going to say all that great stuff about Smith, give Quinn his due since he's playing on a team with far less talent. It is tough to convince me that Troy Smith is deserving of the Heisman because there is so much talent around him to make him better. Sure he is a big game QB but that isn't by his abilities alone. He doesn't have to play from behind, he has a running game, he has a defense, and he has a top-flight down-field threat in Ginn. By that measure, Matt Leinart should never have won it either. However, in recent years the Heisman Trophy has been awarded to the perceived most impressive player.

Weis Quotes: No Excuses

Sorry guys, I had to get some of these out. They are too good/profound to miss.

"For the first two weeks, I walked around with a clipboard. The coaches wore the usual coaching gear; I was in my usual business attire, wearing a shirt and tie. I was not leading the drills. I was just trying to learn the players. What I saw was that they were in crummy shape. What I heard was their bitching about how tough it was or yelling at a teammate who screwed up rather than helping him through a particular drill. It was just complain, complain, complain. There were excuses all over the place.For two weeks, I didn't say one word. I just took notes. On Monday night, before the third Tuesday of conditioning drills, I got all of the players together in a meeting room. I told them, 'Starting tomorrow, things are changing. I will not be in a shirt and tie. I'll be in sweats. I'll have a whistle. And things are changing.'That was all I said. Then I walked out of the room.The next day, they were mine. The clipboard was gone, as was the tie. I had a whistle around my neck and I was unmerciful. I was ruthless. I was on them and on them and on them and on them and on them and on them, from the time I blew the whistle for the start until the time I blew it for the end. I was killing them verbally, criticizing everything they did. To the ones who kept bitching and complaining, I said, 'Why don't you just quit? Just quit.' I planted the seed, figuring that if any players were going to walk away, that would be the time they were thinking about it.I kept the pressure on the entire off-season. There is a famous sign posted outside our locker room in Notre Dame Stadium, on the stairway leading down to the tunnel to the field. In blue letters on a gold background, it says, 'Play Like A Champion Today.' In March of 2005, before we left the locker room for the first practice of spring ball, I looked at that sign. Then I turned to the players and said, 'See that sign? I have a problem with that sign. We're not going on the game field today. We're going over to the practice fields. You should play like a champion every day, not just on Saturdays when you walk out on that game field.'I tried to run off as many of them as I could because if they weren't going to buy into the team, I wanted them gone. We started out with eighty-five kids. About seven or eight quit right off the bat. I didn't care. I was prepared to go into the season with fifty if I had to. By the time we got to training camp in the first week of August, we were into the low seventies. We could have had more guys quit, but a couple rallied themselves."

"The players also do a good job of policing themselves. The boss can't handle all of the problems. Sometimes the problem has to be handled by the team, not the head coach. In '05 I received a request through the leadership committee to make bars off-limits to players on Thursday night, as well as Friday night, before a Saturday game. In college, Thursday night is a big drinking night, and there were members of the committee who thought it was hurting the team's ability to be prepared and ready to go on Saturday. I went along with the request until there was one issue during the year that happened on a night other than Thursday or Friday. After that, the players weren't allowed to be in bars on any nights during the season.I give them the noose and let them hang themselves. I'll start of giving them some freedom. As soon as they give me the opportunity to tighten the noose, I tighten it...and I tighten it again...and again...and again. I try to treat them like men, not like kids, because I let them dictate how tight I'm going to make the noose."

"As the head coach, you're the CEO. Everyone is looking to you for leadership and guidance on and off the field. For example, I will never have a beer or any other alcoholic beverage in public. If I don't know somebody, I will not drink with him. When my staff's out, that doesn't hold for them. I'll take my assistant coaches out to a restaurant for dinner, and if they want to have a couple of drinks, they can do so. I can't. I'm setting the example. If you can't set the example and you're setting the rules, there's a conflict. There's a contradiction."Everything you do and say as a head coach starts with putting pressure on yourself. My feeling is, once I've taken the blame and put the pressure on myself, I feel free to 'spread the wealth' in private. I always take the blame publicly. Behind closed doors, it might not be exactly the same."

"This two-minute drive reminded me of Tommy Brady. There are a lot of similarities between Brady Quinn and Tommy Brady. Confidence. Leadership. Intelligence. Arm. By the way, they're both 'pretty boys.' I've seen all of the quarterbacks in the NFL in recent years. With the exception of Tommy Brady and Peyton Manning, you'd be hard-pressed not to want this kid, more than any other quarterback, on your team."

Stanford Game Summary

This will be short guys. Not a lot of things to say about this game mostly because there was a lot of good to see. This game, to me, was really two different games. The first half we were fairly inconsistent, off and on. The first and last drive we played well on offense but the rest was sort of a wash. On defense they really helped us out with missed opportunities. The game may have been different if they had capitalized on their opportunities and kept it close, a reoccurring theme for us this year. In the second half we pretty much shut them down. I'm in favor of getting it going early but when we did get it going we took command of the game.

Around the nation things really got shaken up. First, don't get into a hurry and think that Washington is good. The game against USC proved more about USC's lack of experience than Washington's improvement. USC will continue to be an on again, off again team for the rest of the season. I think this is the first year they (meaning USC) will really, really miss Norm Chow. It's not all that difficult to call plays when you have Bush, White, Mike Williams, Jarret, Leinart, etc. Additionally, John David Booty is the first QB to never get his tutelage as a starter. That will show, I believe, as time goes on. Second, Florida is beginning to make a believer out of me. So far they are disciplined, tough, physical, and apparently you can win with two QB's. I thought that offense would be too gimmicky in the SEC but perhaps I was wrong. Finally, I'm glad we played Tennessee the last two years. Cutcliffe has made a world of difference for Erik Ainge. I wish we hadn't lost him but I'm happy for him because he is a fine coach and an upstanding person.

Offense

For the first time all year, in the second half of this game, our offensive line played like they are capable of playing. I saw hat on hat a heck of a lot in the second half on pulling plays, zone blocking, and base blocking. Granted, Stanford isn't a great defensive football team. However, the 3-4 is one of the tougher defensive alignments to block those types of running plays against and they did it well. They also gave Brady a lot of protection on many plays. Stanford's star linebacker even gave them credit saying they were the best offensive line they've played this season.

Quinn had another disappointing performance. He is missing reads, lots of them. The TD pass to Carlson was poorly thrown and went to him even though Samardzija was trailing across the back of the endzone wide open. The pass he forced to Samardzija down the field where he almost made a fantastic catch was a poor throw and the wrong read. If Brady puts it more outside and deeper it's a piece of cake catch. However, on that play Carlson was wide open running down the other seam against man cover one and could have walked into the endzone. Brady deserved to have two or three interceptions as well. Finally, we need to stop using three step drops on third down. He frequently makes the wrong pre-snap read, stares down the receiver, and throws it regardless of whether or not he is covered. In addition to that, he has rarely thrown the ball well down field. Against inferior competition this dink and dunk stuff will work but eventually we will need to get the vertical passing game going. To his credit, it is difficult to throw deep without a running game, a speedy wide receiver to be a downfield threat, and while playing from behind. I'm also not sure that there is a QB in the college game who throws the deep out better. That is the throw the NFL scouts love.

Carlson played a phenomenal game. I'm not referring to his catch or even his production in the passing game. He had an excellent game blocking against small, quick linebackers who are typically difficult to get to the second level and block.

We have a future at running back folks. Prince can fly. He needs to put on some weight and get used to the speed of the game a little bit but the talent is there. And what's not to like about Aldridge. At this point, he looks fast, strong, and capable of really taking over a game when we need to work the clock. If Prince can improve the physical style of his running and Aldridge can become a good receiver out of the backfield they will both really contribute to the offense. I know this is a limited look at them but they did things on Saturday that really shows potential.

Darius had another great day. Running, passing, blocking, you name it, he did it. For the first time in a long time (perhaps against Stanford last season) he ran North and South and in a determined fashion. He played much better than he has all season. His availability for dumping off the ball and gaining yards is invaluable to this offense and Brady.

Ashley McConnell had a terrific game. He stood people up all day and contributed, along with the offensive line, to getting a hat on hat in the different blocking schemes. While Asaph typically tries to go for a knockout punch, Ashley seems to position himself a little better for his blocks.

Samardzija still doesn't look like the same receiver from last year. He got the ball a lot more this game but he just continues to be relatively unimpressive. I think that eventually he will break out to some extent or else Carlson and Rhema will continue to put up really good numbers.

Defense

Toryan Smith looked good in his backup duty. He was a step slow at times but that's just because he is adjusting to the speed of the game. He looks like he has the tools to be a good one.

Ray Herring played very well. Like Zibi he can run well, hits well, and has good range. I think he will become a very dependable player with more experience. Unfortunately for us, we need game changers, not dependable players.

We seem to really play well after settling in on defense. Giving up about 220 total yards of offense is a pretty good day, no matter who you play.

Laws was unblockable for a large part of this game. He seems to be a beast inside when he wants to be. It is quite impressive to see him get after the QB when he wants to. However, he also has the ability to really play the run well. He definitely can become the total package if he continues to improve.

Abiramiri played very well, obviously. He got after the QB and was running all over the place for most of the game.

It's difficult to tell if we played that much better or Stanford is that bad. When you rank at 100+ out of 119 teams in most critical categories you aren't very good. I am concerned about UCLA as they can throw the ball. Defensively, they aren't very good although both of their defensive ends can really apply pressure. But if a team can throw the ball it always gives me concern playing against our secondary.

Elite Selection Playoff Explanation

As many of you know, my friend Vinnie and I came up with our own version of the BCS. Each year we will release it beginning the sixth week of the season and going through the final regular season games (including conference championships). For extra flare we even gave it a name: the Elite Selection Playoff, or ESP.

Our goal was to understand how college football computer rankings and the BCS system work by creating our own version. Specifically, we wanted to develop a computer ranking to model the performance of college football teams using our own set of criteria. We examined the multiple computer rankings that are used in the BCS system but ultimately decided to start from scratch. We wanted the criteria to be both quantifiable and objective. We also wanted to keep the model fairly simplistic.

After some debate we narrowed it down to four things: quality wins and losses, strength of schedule, margin of victory, and adjusted win percentage. Quality wins and losses are wins against a ranked opponent and close losses (quantified by a specific scoring differential value) to a ranked opponent. A ranked opponent is a team in the top 25 of the computer ranking. This ranking changes as the season progresses. That is to say, a team only receives credit for wins and close losses against a team that is currently ranked in the top 25 of the computer ranking. We believe this to be a unique feature of our computer ranking.

Strength of schedule is as simple as it sounds and is probably calculated using a very similar method to the other computer rankings used by the BCS with one exception. A slight debit is given to the strength of schedule for teams who schedule opponents outside of Division IA. Credit for margin of victory is given based on the scoring differential, i.e. the difference between points scored and points allowed. Finally, the win percentage of each team is adjusted to give slightly more credit for road wins and a small debit for home losses.

There are three equally weighted parts to the final, ESP ranking: the AP Poll, Coachs' Poll, and AV computer ranking. We selected the AP and the Coachs' Poll because we tend to believe (perhaps incorrectly) that those who vote in these two polls are more educated about college football than the Harris Poll. The AV ranking is Vinnie and my computer ranking based on multiple part formulas calculated using a weighted average of the criteria discussed above.

Four things will be presented for the ESP. First, the final ESP ranking will be shown for the top 25 teams. Second is the ESP bracket, an eight team playoff bracket using the top eight ESP ranked teams. The third is the AV ranking for the top 25 teams. Finally, the top ten teams in each of the four AV ranking categories (strength of schedule, quality wins/losses, adjusted win %, and margin of victory) will be shown.

The ESP ranking file used to be posted on the internet but for various reasons (including keeping the formulas confidential) I decided to take it down. Updates will now be shown in the form of blog posts.

Purdue Game Summary

John L. Smith may need to be checked into a mental institution fairly soon. He's losing it and his team is along with him. The one thing you don't want to do after losing a game like MSU lost last week is have the coach hold onto it. See how Weis handled the loss to USC last year. Smith is not only holding onto it, he's losing his mind over it. Who slaps themselves in a press conference? I hope Georgia Tech continues to play well and make us look good because I know MSU won't.

I have some general concerns about things but I'll reserve that for within the two sides of the ball conversations. In general, we are an average, or slightly above average, football team.

Offense

Brady had a pretty dang good game. However, this was primarily due to inferior competition. Yes, he had more time, yes we ran the ball better, yes, he looked better in his reads, yes, their defense had, at times, four freshmen in the defensive backfield. That said, when Brady has a little time he isn't worried about moving the pocket as much and he is able to deliver better. Not sure what he was thinking on that long lob to Rhema where the ball was in the air for an hour and half but other than that he looked pretty solid. He missed Samardzija on that deep route but it was as much Samardzija's fault as it was his. I'm still not confident in his accuracy. He seems to play well against inferior competition but not show up in really big games. Of course, he was phenomenal against USC last year but their defense wasn't that good. In my opinion, Troy Smith will likely win the Heisman because he has shown up in the big games even though Quinn will end up with some really good numbers.

Samardzija didn't have a great game but they were doubling him all over the field.

Brock Spack should be fired. After last year I'm sure he was scared about the deep ball and about containing a Weis' offense in general. But Weis loves to dictate the tempo of the game via his play calling and Spack did nothing to stop this. He didn't blitz until near the end of the game and that was when they began getting pressure on Brady. Rather, he took his terrifically young team and asked them to sit back, react, and play base defense against one of the better offensive football minds in the game. Good job Spack. As soon as Weis is allowed to dictate the play calling and get a defense on their heels he is much more effective. You have to fight his aggressiveness with aggressiveness of your own. I would have thought Georgia Tech and Michigan would have shown that. I guess Spack doesn't watch much film. And it isn't that Weis doesn't have answers for an aggressive defense. He certainly does, an excellent screen game being the primary one. But our offensive line can't block themselves much less our opponents.

Rhema had a good game and showed he can really break well on the out routes. That has, and will continue to become a big, clutch, 3rd down play for us. Look for Weis to break out the out and up at some point as well. It will be 3rd and somewhat short on their side of the field. Weis will know he's going for it on fourth when he calls the third down play and he will call the out and up to McKnight. Rhema will be so open he will walk into the end zone.

Darius looked good and showed excellent conditioning. He didn't have to work as hard for many of the gains this week because there were actually holes. I still think he is as invaluable without the ball as he is with it. On the reverse play in the opening drive he took the fake and danced to the right taking two people with him. He could have just loafed or run straight ahead but he took off to the right and faked out two defenders. I'm not saying either of them would have caught West but it was just an incredibly heady play.

And speaking of the reverse by West for the touchdown...that was one of two plays that were very important in this game. That play and the fake field goal were clutch plays for us not just because they scored touchdowns but also because they are the type of plays that stand out to someone watching film. Opponents are going to have to prepare for them in the future and that will cause hesitation any time West comes on the field and any time we kick a field goal.

John Sullivan had an excellent game. He got to the next level and laid some vicious hits on linebackers. He really played well and he was physical. We still need to become more physical up front, in general. Where are the good old days when we used to line up and run over people? Ryan Harris had a pretty good game as well.

No turnovers and good third down conversion percentage are the reasons we won the game. We also scored 4 out of the first 6 possessions (not counting the fake field goal) and to start both halves. That is more like last year. Taking the opening kickoff down and scoring does so much to demoralize a defense and gain confidence for your offense.

We absolutely owned the time of possession. You don't need a good defense if you have the ball the whole game...unless they give up touchdowns in three or four plays.

Munir looked really fast in limited duty. He will be better when the offense has more time to work with him and get him more reps. They are used to Darius who is a completely different runner and the timing will need to develop more. Be patient with this, I have a feeling he will be a dandy. I would still like to get the ball to him out in the flat and see what he can do with it.

Defense

How bad are we? I think we are actually worse than last year. I would have loved to have been in the Purdue offensive play calling booth Saturday. I think they put their playbook up on a dart board and started throwing because it didn't matter what they called, everything worked. They threw the ball 45+ times and we didn't sack Painter once or intercept a pass. This is a game I am not looking forward to next year.

Zibi doesn't look good tackling. Actually, we don't look good tackling as a team. This was a concern after Penn State and has magnified.

We missed Thomas out there. Brockington looked lost at times. I can't believe we can't recruit decent linebackers to the University of Notre Dame. Thanks Willingham et. al.

Walls got abused out there. He looked like Clifford Jefferson. Calling Ruben Mendoza...get Walls into the weight room.

We couldn't cover the short pass with bump and run and we couldn't get enough pressure on Painter when they tried to go deep. If their receivers don't drop balls we have a different ball game.
We have to generate more turnovers. In a game like this where we turn the ball over we are in trouble.

They had 6 plays for 230+ yards. That's just ridiculous. And we can't give up points with two minutes to go in the half, especially not a touchdown. Add to that three drives of like 80 yards and you aren't going to win many games playing like that. When you give them a long field you have to stop them. Make them work for it and eventually most teams will make a mistake on their own. When we are giving up tons of big yardage plays we aren't making them work for it very hard.
I sat all game trying to think about what we could do to improve and stop them. We couldn't stop the short passing game with bump and run, we couldn't get pressure on Painter after play action and the deep ball. We really didn't stop the run all that well. I was just trying to think what Minter could have done to slow them down. It seemed like we gave him a lot of looks but we didn't disguise it very well. I went back and watched a little of the MSU game. Same thing really, we did a lot of different things on defense but we didn't disguise it much. If the offense is mixing in the run, short passes, and deep passing game I feel like we should line up the same pretty much all the time and then change it up post snap to give the QB less time to read. I don't know if that would have made much difference but it seems like we tip our hand too much.

#1 should not have had the day he did. I'm not saying that because he wasn't open, can't catch, isn't fast, etc. I'm saying that because he isn't seasoned. He isn't a veteran player. We (read Zibi) should have let him come across the middle, catch the ball, and then knock the snot out of him. I guarantee he wouldn't have wanted to catch another ball over the middle again. He would be looking for him all day. Zibi really hit hard and tackled well during Georgia Tech and PSU but since then has whiffed a lot and not tackled particularly well.

Special Teams

I thought the one punt coverage we had were Bruton just drilled the returner with a perfectly timed hit was just great. Those are the types of plays that can swing momentum if you need it. Kickoff coverage was terrible. Punting was, as usual, excellent. Price is earning himself and NFL paycheck.

General Comments

I'm getting very concerned about Weis' attitude towards the defense. Between the OSU game last year (most yards ever against a ND defense) and the game against Purdue (most yards receiving by a single player against an ND defense) we are setting some pretty dubious records. He seems to give a lot of attention to the offense but not to the defense. I feel this will really show up in recruiting. On the one hand you can say, "Look, we aren't very good on defense, you can come in and play now." But on the other, how is a young man going to react to playing on a team where his unit seems to be an afterthought? It was even pointed out to me that he always uses the word "we" when speaking of the offense and "they" when speaking of the defense. I know he doesn't want to get into Minter's hair but I think he needs to take a more active role in the defensive side of the ball. Minter is losing his hair anyway.

Another growing concern is Weis' (and Minter's) apparent satisfaction with our defense taking away the one, or few, thing(s) another team does very well and not let that beat us. Weis' said it, against teams like MSU, unless they choose to have hapless coaching staffs, they will score a lot of points on us and continue to do it all game long. I know you can't ever shut down a team completely but you can't say I'm going to shut down Dorien Bryant and Kory Sheets and let #1 go wild on you. Last week it was MSU's running game when we were supposed to shut down Trannon and Stanton. I know part of that is not having the people he necessarily feels comfortable with in winning the one-on-one battles but get creative and get out of your comfort zone if you have to in order to not get killed by someone. I just feel like this is a message we are sending to our players to settle in only stopping one objective instead of really shutting down a team.

We need to get better on defense soon and I don't mean our starting 11. We lose a lot on both sides of the ball this next year and if we can't score a lot of points with a raw, inexperienced QB, our defense will have to keep us in games. I don't care how good Clausen is supposed to be. If you don't have a line that can protect him, someone to hand off to, and people to throw to, it won't be a fun season for the Irish.

I see this game as a loss as much as a win. The only reason they didn't score on any single possession was due to their own mistakes and not ours. We need to get our defense improved and in a hurry. We need to come out and dominate teams on both sides of the ball. The team that played yesterday would have gotten spanked by USC in the 14-21 point range. These next few games aren't as big of cakewalks as we think they are. I'm especially concerned with UCLA as they can toss the ball around pretty good.

Running the Ball: The Weis Philosophy

It has been brought to my attention that it is concerning that we "can't" run the ball on offense or stop the run on defense. While I agree there are valid concerns in both areas I would like to point out a part of our coaching staff's (really Weis') philosophy that may ease some of your concerns.

Weis seems to have a unique philosophy on offense in the sense that if something isn't working, he doesn't keep trying to do it. He isn't particularly inclined to force things and he won't ask our players to do things they aren't a) good at and b) comfortable with. It just isn't a part of his philosophy. That doesn't mean he doesn't try and develop the shortcomings of our athletes so that they can do more things well, he just doesn't believe in trying to win by overcoming our weaknesses at the current time. Weis isn't short-sided enough to not work on our running game. But if the other team is trying to take that away from us, he isn't going to do it. He will look at how that opens up other aspects of their defense and try and exploit those. Weis' offense is diverse enough to do nearly everything. But for a given personnel package, i.e. a given set of players, he will adjust his playbook to do what they can. Currently, we are capable of running and passing pretty well.

On defense it seems our staff game plans to take away the best aspect(s) of their offense. However, they realize it isn't necessarily possible to always shut down every aspect of the opponent's game. In some cases they have to live with giving up, for example, some fairly significant rushing yards in order to slow down the passing game. This doesn't mean we can't stop the run, it just means our coaching staff has identified the aspect of the opposition's offense that most allows them to win and has attempted to stop it.

Many times Weis' offensive and defensive plans are aligned, i.e. he will use certain aspects of his offense to help the defense. This is most commonly evident in our staggeringly favorable time of possession statistics which simply keeps the opposing offense off the field.

Therefore, it seems that in most cases we won't be great in all areas of our game. However, we will be good enough at enough things that the game becomes a chess match. And guess what? We nearly always win those.

Michigan State Game Summary

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.

Michigan State Keys To Winning

Ok guys, here's my take, again. I said last week that a three-pronged attack against Michigan all geared at field position and ball control was how to win. Against an explosive offense this week, that becomes even more important.

Offense

This isn't just a cliche, games are won and lost in the trenches. Our offensive line needs to play well in order to win this game. They need to be physical, they need to dominate the line of scrimmage and they need to open up the holes for the running game. If we can't run the ball, we will lose. We have to get better on first and second down. If we go more than a few 3 and outs I think we will lose. We can't give MSU a short field to work with and we can't leave our defense on the field for a long portion of the game. They hold up, but no defense can be out on the field all game. The offensive line is the key to us being able to control the clock and converting on third down.

On a slight side note to running the ball effectively, MSU's number one and two tacklers on defense are their safeties. We have to be able to run the ball well and keep them committed to stoping it. Then we need to take advantage of play action and one-on-one matchups down field.

We need to get back to the Weis offense of spreading the field and making the opposing defense defend everything and everyone. We don't have great speed at wide out and running back so we have to make sure we stretch the field by creating for all of our players. Part of this may be going no huddle in an attempt to force the defense into a base package and creating personel mismatches. Part of it may be getting the ball into the hands of multiple receivers, backs, tight ends, etc. All of it will start with the offensive line giving Brady and Darius enough time to operate the offense.

Defense

Contain Stanton. This doesn't mean pressure or sack Stanton, but watch out for his ability to run and pass. You can bet MSU has seen the GT game film and watched Reggie Ball run up the middle on QB draws for 20+ yards. We need to be ready for the option, for roll out passes, for read plays, and for the designed QB run. This doesn't mean we have to get sacks, we just need to get pressure and contain him. We can't let his scrambling ability get them a ton of first downs like Troy Smith did in the Fiesta Bowl last year. We need to get their explosive offense off the field.

To the tune of my first point above, we need to get them off the field on third down. This is the exact type of offense our defense got geared for in the summer. Let's stay back, keep everything in front of us, and make them work for everything. Our increased speed in the secondary and at linebacker should play right into this. And it isn't like they are going to line up and run the ball down our throats so Zibi and Duke can play the deep ball and not worry about stopping the run.

We need to generate some turnovers. We won PSU not because we played that much better but because we forced them into mistakes early on in the game and capitalized on those mistakes. It was the same last weekend except we were on the opposite side of things.

Michigan Game Summary

I'm not going to write much guys. This was a pretty devastating loss for me and I don't really know what to say. I'm not organizing this, just bulleting items. I don't even think I'm going to tie it all together.

I'm encouraged by the things Weis is saying after this game. Things like, "Pick your heads up guys. Look at me. We all win as a team and we all lose as a team. And that includes me. But this is not acceptable. It's not OK to play like this. We will not stay at the status quo, things are going to change." I like how he says his confidence isn't shaken. I like how he understands where the players are mentally, where he needs to get them, but at the same time not allowing them to have excuses. I'm skeptical that he knows everything he thinks he does. I'm discouraged because I thought beat downs like this were a thing of the past. Losing is one thing, getting your butt handed to you is quite another. You are going to hear all this weak about how Michigan has better players than us, better athletes. Well that just isn't true. Michigan recruited Brady, Michigan recruited Darius, Michigan recruited John Ryan and Robby Parris. It isn't the athletes. We have the horses, we just weren't prepared or in the right frame of mind to play. Part of that is coaching, part of it isn't. The coaches didn't turn the ball over, but the coaches did put Lambert one-on-one with Manningham...twice. After the first touchdown I would have thought we would have learned. I know the guy is the fastest defensive back we have but Clifford Jefferson was lightning fast and we all know how good he was. I would like to be optimistic, but the last four games have really been pretty poor performances. I hope Weis is the man to lead us back to the promise land. I don't mind if we lose the occasional game to a good team. It just makes me physically ill when we get beaten so bad.

We really gave them the game. Five turnovers, two for scores directly and one inside our own 25ish yard line doesn't win games. If you turn the ball over five times, you aren't going to win against a top 25 team unless they turn it over several times as well. Add to that the fact that we went 3 and out 8 times during the game and you have two of the top three correlations for winning football games going against you. That isn't all coaching, that's partly the players. You don't make the opposition work very hard when you go 3 and out and don't change the field position much.
I've said this for quite some time now and people haven't really listened to me, thought I was cynical, etc. Brady Quinn is not a great quarterback. He hasn't looked great this whole year. His accuracy is poor and he doesn't read defenses incredibly well. People will say things to the contrary but if you go back and look at great quarterbacks, they don't make mistakes on too many throws and they always know who to go to. Going back and looking at film, Brady has missed tons of open receivers. Now, to his credit, he is a tough kid, has a strong arm, and is a good leader. I also think his scrambling ability is underrated (this wouldn't even need to be noticed if our offensive line could block someone). But as a quarterback looking to go to the next level, I don't think he has what it takes to really succeed at this point. Maybe I'm wrong, Weis loves the guy and he knows far more than I do, but I think his receivers and Darius make him look much better than he is. I hope I'm wrong but I haven't seen more than a handful of times that he consistently looks good during a drive, much less a game. I think BYU was an example last year but other than that I'm not sure there has been many good outings for him save a couple of 2 minute drills.

I'm very concerned that people are beginning to figure Weis out. It seems incredibly unlikely that it could happen given the fact that it didn't seem to happen in the NFL but our offense just hasn't looked like they did at all last year. Last year there were a few games where we were really just clicking on all cylinders. This year it seems like we haven't had a drive like that save a few first half ending hurry up drives (which begs the question why we ever huddle at all). I thought Weis was going to carve young, first time defensive coordinator Ron English up. I was poorly mistaken. I thought this would always be an advantage for us. I'm not so sure now. Of course, it's tough to call plays when you are down by 20+ points. Doesn't leave you a lot of options and the defense pretty much knows what you're going to do and can turn loose after Brady.

They kept rushing the passer relentlessly and bringing pressure...where were the screens? And no, those little tight end screens don't count. Carlson doesn't have the shiftiness to make people miss in the open field.

I thought we had a chance at halftime. We were down three scores, we have an offense that is supposed to be capable of scoring a lot. But then we start the second half and go 3 and out twice. No sense of urgency in that one. Our defense held, our offense didn't deliver.

We can't block on the offensive line and we can't run the ball. I don't know what else to say about this. Doesn't make much sense that we could do it last year and not this year with virtually the same offensive line.

Zibi went back to his old form of biting on play action. On Manningham's last touchdown he should have been helping over the top.

Wooden can't bite on a short out when covering Manningham on the first touchdown reception if he is locked up on him one-on-one. If you are on an island you give the receiver the short out to prevent the big play on the out and up. That isn't rocket science, it's football 101. That said, I hope we didn't lose him to injury. I don't like a Stanton lining up across from a freshman.

I thought our defensive line played particularly well. Actually, I thought our defense as a whole played all right (minus a handful of those big plays). I pin the last Manningham touchdown on Minter. Don't leave Lambert one-on-one on him. A lot of the other scores were from turnovers directly or indirectly. We gave up a relatively large number of rushing yards but like 75 of them came on like 5 plays. Being on the field for so long, they had to get tired and a few plays like that are going to happen. But overall, I think they played physically and pretty well. My concerns about stopping the run are somewhat relieved although they did manage to bring our safeties up via play action.
Once again Minter made excellent halftime adjustments. Carr didn't go conservative like he usually does and like John L. Smith did last year in the MSU game. They kept calling the plays and the defense got much better in the second half, particularly on third down.

Thomas had a pretty good game. Minter must have been saving that delayed blitz with him. It worked pretty well.

I said we had to make Henne beat us. While we gave up some easy throws down the field, give the kid some credit. He played very well especially after giving up an early interception. It takes a lot to bounce back like that.

I don't understand how Samardzija can't get open. And if he is being double and triple covered, why isn't someone else open. And if someone else is open, why can't Brady find them?

I'm very concerned about our approach to this game. We came out and looked like we expected to win, which is good, but we didn't seem to understand what it took to win. We were physically manhandled on the offensive side of the ball. We just looked uninspired. As a top team in the country, you have to come out every week with a chip on your shoulder, wanting it, being physical. We can't just be a good team when we are facing adversity and playing against the odds. We can't just play well when we are the underdog. We have to be able to handle successes, to win when we are expected to, to not play to the level of our competition. To be honest, we looked like a Willingham or Davie coached team. I'm really interested to see where we go next week but I'd be lying if I said I'm looking forward to it. I'm also extremely concerned about how this will affect recruiting. If I was a potential recruit in town for this game/watching this game I wouldn't want to come play for us. Weis seemed to indicate he got the opposite impression from those in town but I don't know.

Michigan Keys To Winning

Another stab at what it will take for us to win this weekend...

Offense

I think the primary key to winning this game will be to get going early and get up on them in the first quarter. This goes along with points 1) and 2) for the defense in forcing them to play from behind and throw the ball a lot. I think our offense and defense need to work together to make Henne beat us. Getting up early is part of that as are the first two defensive points I make below.

Control the aggressiveness of their outside pressure via screens and draws. Michigan likes to use an outside pass rush from their two defensive ends. I think using screens and draws to keep them off balance is key. Doing this early to make them hesitant for the rest of the game will go a long way in determining how successful we can be when we drop back and pass. Weis did this same thing last year with Tennessee when he opened the game with a double screen and then ran another screen on the next play. He also did this against Philadelphia in the Superbowl to start the second half. We have always been a good screen team (minus against Georgia Tech) so let's use it to our advantage.

The offensive line must play better. Weis said it took until about Purdue of last year to really get ourselves in the positions we wanted and play like a team on the offensive line. He expects that earlier this year. This game would be the prime time for them to come together as a unit and play well. Let's hope Morton doesn't let every other defensive lineman run right by him.

Defense

We must stop the run game. This is part one of the necessary thing(s) we have to do on the defensive side of the ball and, like I said above, is a three-prong attack on Michigan. We need to play outside-in since we have speed and not size at most positions on defense. Don't be surprised to see Minter pull out something "unorthodox" to do this as well.

Along with stopping the running game we must force Henne to beat us. Ever since the guy lost Edwards and can't just throw the ball anywhere (a la Reggie Ball and Calvin Johnson) he hasn't put up very good numbers. It's one thing to have good production as a player coming out of nowhere. It's another thing to do it year in and year out. I guarantee you if you asked Leinart which year was his toughest to perform in he would say his last. After his first year coming out of nowhere other teams were able to gameplan for Henne. The result...he hasn't looked that good. We need to force him to beat us. And when I say this I don't mean force Michigan to beat us with the pass. I mean force Henne to beat us. Make him work to complete a pass, pressure him, chase him around, take a page out of the Georgia Tech defensive playbook where they made Brady beat them. This isn't simply stopping the run and making Michigan pass. This is stopping the run and forcing Michigan into obvious, long passing situations where all of the pressure is on Henne because we know they have to throw.

Force turnovers. In a game like this turnovers could be the difference. We can't have them and we need to force some from them. This is especially true early on in the game so that we can get ahead.

I'll throw one more item in there. We need to win the special teams battle to get field position. We need to shut down Breaston (which we did last year) on returns and we need our kickoff return coverage to be more like Georgia Tech, not PSU.

Penn State Game Summary

Well my friends, we played better, if not great. Flashes of greatness were peppered in there with a lot of pretty good play. Make no mistake though, we didn't beat Penn State so much as they lost to us. Not capitalizing on quite a few opportunities on their part allowed the game to get away from them. On the flip side of that is the fact that we took advantage of that situation and put the game away, really in the first half/first series of the second half. Weis made a comment about how we played pretty well in all phases of the game: offense, defense, and special teams. That's true to a certain degree. I think we played good, albeit not great, in all three phases of the game. It was also great to get so many subs in the game. As we see this year, that experience is invaluable. I never really felt that we were going to lose this game. We seemed to always have it in control and our players really do have a much improved attitude (over the previous coaching staff(s)) that has continued from what we saw last year. I really don't have a tremendous amount to say regarding this game so this will be shorter than most summaries. As a general comment, both last week and this week we looked fresh the whole game. I think that is a tribute to Mendoza and his training program but also to Weis' commitment to play multiple players deep at many positions.

On a slightly tangential note...did anyone else love the Vonage commercials played during the game? I thought Berkte was going to choke himself laughing.

Offense

First of all, I would like to say that I love going no huddle 4 wide on the opening play and using it to set the tempo of the game. This was a great move by Weis because it tired and frustrated their defense, forced them into making mistakes (on both sides of the ball) that they normally wouldn't have due to making them feel an urgency in their play, and allowed our offense (and Brady) to get some confidence. The fake pass to Samardzija/handoff to Darius on 4th down of our second scoring drive was simply a brilliant play call by Weis. Still, I don't know why he insisted on trying to run the ball when we couldn't do it. I think he should have just kept throwing the ball until it looked like that would open up the run. While we cut down on penalties the hold on the first drive and false start on the second in the red zone helped kill those two drives and settle for field goals rather than touchdowns. We can't do that against good football teams, we will miss the opportunities to put the game away. I do like the fact that we had the ball for almost 2/3 of the first half.

We don't turn the ball over. It's hard to lose when you don't do that. Combine that with good red zone efficiency and you have a winning recipe.

Our offensive line looked a little better but not good. Morton was owned all day long (as he was last week as well...bring in Mattes) and we couldn't block Alford to save our lives. While Brady did have some time, we still don't seem to be a very dominant offensive line. It helped that they didn't blitz much through the first part of the game either. We still can't run the ball up the middle. Darius isn't really an outside runner due to his speed. We need to be able to dominate the line of scrimmage and Penn State controlled it most of the game. They aren't even close to being the best defensive line we will face this year. Young got worked on a few plays but he is still playing well for a freshman. We don't need him to be great, we just need him to not hurt us. Thank Latina for jumping all over the O-line at a critical point in the game. From that point on we started scoring touchdowns instead of field goals.

Quinn looked brilliant at times and reverted back to his first two years at others. It didn't help that Chase et. al. made him look bad at times by dropping catchable balls. But he forced some balls, should have been picked off twice, and missed a few blatantly open receivers. Having said that, he did what he wasn't able to do against Georgia Tech. He read the blitzes when they came and found the open receiver to get the ball to them. I don't know of Georgia Tech was better/faster but they seemed to cover the open spaces they were blitzing from more quickly then Penn State was able to. Quinn made them pay. All in all, he looked better. Not flawless, but better. Two of those passes to Carlson were about as difficult and perfect of throws as you can ask a QB to make. The bottom line is that Quinn commanded this game much better than last week. And even though his throws were errant at times (I wanted to shoot him for missing Rhema on the second scoring drive when we faked the arrow route to Samardzija. That was one of those plays Weis was waiting to dial up and it was open if Brady keeps the ball out of the camera man's hands.), he still has yet to fumble or throw a pick. Lastly, he is difficult to take down when the pass rush gets to him.

Samardzija had a better game than last week. He sat down in the open areas of the zone a couple of times. His touchdown reception was an unreal catch. Really, his only poor play was the one drop (the second drop that would have been another touchdown was a pretty tough catch to make). It looks like people are paying him a lot of attention but as the season goes on and Carlson becomes much more of a threat, things should open up. Very few defenses will be able to cover him, Rhema, Darius, and Carlson.

Carlson looked great. He really stretches the field and that is something we need given the fact that Samardzija and Rhema can't seem to get very open down the outside of the field. Freeman needs some work. It was his holding penalty that killed the first drive and his lack of effort getting the first down on our first touchdown scoring drive almost put us in a fourth down situation. He looks too relaxed and without enough determination in his play.

Darius continues to be a great all-around back for us. Having a back that is so good on screens and catching balls out of the backfield really does a great deal for our offense in terms of opening things up. Prince will add a completely different aspect to that in the future since he has the potential to take it to the house every time he touches the ball. It is also noteworthy that Darius just doesn't fumble.

It looks like Yeatman is getting the early nod over Reuland on three tight end sets. Perhaps that is because he is a better blocker since we tend to run more out of those formations.

No one notices him, but Chase really blocks well down field. Walker should thank him for the screen TD. He held his block for a good amount of time to allow him to spring it open and score. He is also a standout special teams player. These types of players making these types of plays are what makes a good team great.

Defense

Our front four still didn't get a lot of pressure on Morelli. We had Duke coming off the corner a lot yesterday and playing up near the line of scrimmage even more. I will give the D-line credit for running down a lot of screens from behind. We just need them to be more dominating in a four man pass rush.

We played a lot of Nickel yesterday. Last year we played almost no 5+ defensive back packages because we didn't have the defensive backs. This year we may play a lot of Nickel because we don't have the linebackers. I know Weis said he wanted to focus on shutting down their wide receivers but we are giving up a lot of running yards on a per carry basis. I understand you give some of that up if you really want to shut down their receivers but when Michigan comes to town this week we better get ready for some iso plays. I'm very concerned about it and I'm not sold on our defense being that good. Their offensive coordinator is really an idiot. We didn't stop the run all game. Why not continue to do it and keep our offense off the field?

We held them to somewhere around 30% on third down conversions. You'll win a lot of games doing that.

I'm surprised Zibi hasn't killed someone yet. He hits so freakin' hard.

Thomas is fast and an excellent tackler. Add that to his special teams play and his absolutely crushing touchdown run and he really had a good game. The point of moving him over to defense was to get more speed on the field and I'm here to tell you that our defense is much faster than they were last year. That isn't just because of Thomas. It looks like Mendoza had a big focus on that in the off-season.

Crum had a pretty good game. He was all over the field.

Duke was hit or miss yesterday. He played well coming off the edge and containing the deep routes but missed a few open field tackles at times.

Lambert played well in his Nickel back role after he settled in. He did get two P.I. penalties but one (the second one) was questionable. Richardson played pretty well too. He tackled well and was good in coverage when he was asked to be.

Special Teams

The play Lambert made on the 60 yard punt by Price to go one-on-one with Williams and take him down in the open field was an excellent play. Zibi's muffed punt and diving catch made me nervous. The fake punt was executed to perfection (and would have scored a touchdown if Thomas had blockers faster than he is) and looked like something Weis did because he knew he ahead of time it was something guaranteed. If they are rushing the punter in such a way that they leave a lane open Weis is going to make them pay. This served as a warning for the future to other teams. I think Laws may have even blocked that first field goal that they muffed the snap on. All in all, we played pretty well on special teams. It wasn't without mistakes and our kickoff return game wasn't as good as it was last week, but we are far ahead of where we were during Davie or Willingham. I do think we need to work on our punting when it comes to pinning them deep in their own territory.

For the second straight week the officiating was terrible.