MSU Final Thoughts

[Donjuan]

Here's one last thread for everyone to vent in regarding the MSU loss.

[tdnd81]

One last thread??? where are the others??? just got online...

 

Anyway, we sucked.... Floyd's fumble was brutal, the picks were brutal..... You can't go from 3-9 to 12-0 period... I will stick with the 8-4 ,, L to UNC, L to BC, L to USC i thought we would lose to UM so i but UNC in there place:cool:

[IrishGuy]

The things I learned today....

 

1. Our line is not much better than it was last year. JC has learned to avoid pressure better (and throw the ball away), and that has resulted in fewer sacks. We cannot block....period.

 

2. JC needs to figure out that each play has more than one receiver.

 

3. Golden Tate is AMAZING!

 

4. We need to throw more and forget trying to establish a running game. With our line and line coach, we will never be a good running team.

 

 

....oh yeah, not having Walls is a lot more painful than I thought it was going to be.

 

I could keep going, but it isn't worth it.....

[IrishGuy]

One last thread??? where are the others??? just got online...

 

Anyway, we sucked.... Floyd's fumble was brutal, the picks were brutal..... You can't go from 3-9 to 12-0 period... I will stick with the 8-4 ,, L to UNC, L to BC, L to USC i thought we would lose to UM so i but UNC in there place:cool:

 

After today, I think our season turns out like the following....

 

SDSU - Win

scUM - Win

MUS - Loss

Purdue - Loss

Stanford - Win

NC - Loss

Washington - Loss

Pitt - Loss

BC - Loss

Navy - Win

Syracuse - Win

USC - Laugher

 

That is 5 - 7 by my count.

[Donjuan]

You'd think that Cierre would be licking his chops after repeatedly watching our RB's run into people. He's the type that can make something happen. He's got great vision and speed, and most importantly; patience. It just seems that we have a bunch of --college--Ryan Grants back there, running into people. Maybe I'm all wrong on this? I understand that our O-line didn't open any holes up, but our RB's would just keep trying to run into no-gap gaps. That's a vision problem.

[IrishGuy]

You'd think that Cierre would be licking his chops after repeatedly watching our RB's run into people. He's the type that can make something happen. He's got great vision and speed, and most importantly; patience. It just seems that we have a bunch of --college--Ryan Grants back there, running into people. Maybe I'm all wrong on this? I understand that our O-line didn't open any holes up, but our RB's would just keep trying to run into no-gap gaps. That's a vision problem.

 

Barry Sanders couldn't get yards in our offense.

 

Armando, Robert, and James would all be potential all american backs anywhere else. Hell, our RB corps has to be in the top 5 (on paper) in the nation....yet we are close to dead last in rushing offense.

[tdnd81]

IrishGuy.. i think your just pissed off right now... i hope your not right but i can see what your saying:(

 

Maybe it was asked in the other threads, and i haven't rewatched the game yet but did Robert Hughes only get a couple carries???? WTF???? I don't know if it would of mattered because like you said IG barry sanders would have been shut down but what happened?? And the play calling was like a flash back of Boob Davie, and the kicking was.... well Nd kicking:(

[mcdougal93]

After today, I think our season turns out like the following....

 

SDSU - Win

scUM - Win

MUS - Loss

Purdue - Loss

Stanford - Win

NC - Loss

Washington - Loss

Pitt - Loss

BC - Loss

Navy - Win

Syracuse - Win

USC - Laugher

 

That is 5 - 7 by my count.

 

If we lose to NC, Washington, and BC we're in trouble. I also think that Pitt is not a very good team and we should handle them.

 

Agree with tdnd81 on this. 8-4 is what I expect.

[Ray Herring]

I'm officially back on the fire Latina and Oliver bandwagon.

 

The only reason either line does not look completely horrible is because of improvments at QB, LB and our RBs are picking up the blitz better.

[steelirish]

While this loss is disappointing, I'm not discouraged by it. Our offense seemed to be clicking. We need to minimize turnovers. All 3 turnovers were extremely costly. I know its a what if thing, but there are clear and definite improvements. Also our defense did a good job i felt. Brian Smith is amazing.

 

That being said, we cannot afford to have 3 turnovers. Also our kicking game is terrible we definitely need to improve on that. I'm still seeing improvement every week.

[echo88]

Our backs are able---except AA. I love the guy, but he has been incredibly disappointing. I keep waiting and waiting for that big breakaway speed. I actuallt kept hoping they'd kick it Golden's way. Just doesn't look interesting anymore. Im not sad about the loss though. I had us losing here and USC.

[GeorgiaIrishFanChuck]

I agree that our OLine has obviously not improved as much as I thought but to say our line is not much better than last year is crazy. I have to watch the game over to be sure but I think it was their linebackers that were making all the plays. Although I know Long beat Turk several times. But I do agree our running game was amazing (in a bad way). I'm not sure how much you can blame on the Line. I watched the Georgia game. ASU was doing a Run Biltz thing to stop Knowshon Mareno. Georgia ran this beautiful play where the reciever did a crackback block that knocked the linebacker completely out of the play. It seems like ND coaches are slow to make adjustments.

Even if we are trying to establish the run, I question our play calling at the beginning of the game. You can establish the run by running more than passing.

 

I believe you can make your players look better by calling plays that the other team is not geared up to stop. I like the Golden Tate end around.

The announcers were ready to give Wiley player of the game trophy but I would have loved to see a hitch and go on this guy who was over-reacting to everything. This may have required a rollout to give Jimmy some extra time. I would also like to see some halfback passes. If for no other reason than to keep the defense honest. You don't even have to complete them. We have playmakers. The play calling has to be more creative in my non-professional opinion.

[OddThomas]

We never looked like we wanted this game. 6 running plays to start with, I just can't get a grip on that strategy. I know their db's are good but holy moly it looked like we just assumed we conceded the passing game in the first quarter.

 

It should be obvious that our O line isn't overly athletic, little guy, big guys and any guys with speed have being running around our O line.

 

I just never had the sense that they thought they could win this game, from the coaching staff to the players.

[Donjuan]

I think this is a really good perspective.

 

http://www.ndnation.com/boards/showpost.php?b=football;pid=63395;d=this

[Guest irishrick]

i think that the coaching staff needs to get on a different page and lead by example , there is no emotion with this team , with the exception of a couple of players like Tate JC, and a few others, were playing freshmen in places , but this game i have to lay 60% of the blame to coaching , its hard to come back up, but this game will make the team better, and by the way Michigan S state played pretty good game at our expense. so lets get ready for the boilermakers and turn this thing around go Irish

[Guest SoDak Man]

I kind of felt like Lamberts was getting schooled by very average wide receivers. He was getting burned by 5 or 6 yards on quick slants. They he would get dragged for 5 yards when trying to tackle them.

[domeanddomer]

We never looked like we wanted this game. 6 running plays to start with, I just can't get a grip on that strategy. I know their db's are good but holy moly it looked like we just assumed we conceded the passing game in the first quarter.

 

It should be obvious that our O line isn't overly athletic, little guy, big guys and any guys with speed have being running around our O line.

 

I just never had the sense that they thought they could win this game, from the coaching staff to the players.

 

 

I made the same point yesterday about the first two series of play. I know that those plays are scripted and what they were TRYING to do...but after the first series it was clear that it wasn't going to work. So what does Haywood and CW do? Of course the stick to the gameplan and run another 4 times in a row. Sorry...but that's the kind of crap that infuriates me about CW. Those first two series set the tone for the game and completely destroyed the moral of the Oline. The result is we continued to struggle for the rest of the afternoon.

 

And I know that I'll get bashed for saying it...but I don't really give a S. JC made a couple great throws today, but there's no doubt that his two picks...which were clearly his fault unlike last week....cost us the game. He certainly has made some improvements, but there is still very much a big learning curve going on.

 

With Curtis Painter coming to town in 6 days, I hope that we find a replacement for Lambert because Painter will be licking his chops when he watches our film from yesterday.

[Guest sully179]

i almost feel like we are playing "not to screw up" and not playing to win. every time we get a carry or jimmy drops back to pass it almost feels like we are scared of something bad happening. Every time jimmy throws the ball i hold my breath. Maybe these are just scars from last year's fun season.

[Donjuan]

I made the same point yesterday about the first two series of play. I know that those plays are scripted and what they were TRYING to do...but after the first series it was clear that it wasn't going to work. So what does Haywood and CW do? Of course the stick to the gameplan and run another 4 times in a row. Sorry...but that's the kind of crap that infuriates me about CW. Those first two series set the tone for the game and completely destroyed the moral of the Oline. The result is we continued to struggle for the rest of the afternoon.

 

And I know that I'll get bashed for saying it...but I don't really give a S. JC made a couple great throws today, but there's no doubt that his two picks...which were clearly his fault unlike last week....cost us the game. He certainly has made some improvements, but there is still very much a big learning curve going on.

 

With Curtis Painter coming to town in 6 days, I hope that we find a replacement for Lambert because Painter will be licking his chops when he watches our film from yesterday.

 

Painter scares me, I better get a buzz on for this game.

[DJonesIRISH]

I'm officially back on the fire Latina and Oliver bandwagon.

 

The only reason either line does not look completely horrible is because of improvments at QB, LB and our RBs are picking up the blitz better.[/quote

 

Plz don't lump Oliver and Latina together Oliver ahs been doing something with nothing his entire career at ND. Kuntz, Brown, and Williams are all 3star or lower guys and at least Kuntz and Williams are servicable. All our D-line talent is stuck in the Freshman class.

 

Also, Lambert's mistakle lead to the long run by Ringer in the fourth quarter not the D-line.