Katzenboyer Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Didn't see a thread on this but saw it mentioned a couple times in the game thread. What's your theory on why we struggle so badly at home? Is it because we're a young team, and a mark of a young team is playing to their level of competition? Are there too many gameday distractions? Is it a fixable problem? What say you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OKCIrish99 Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 It really doesn't make any sense, at all. It seems like the breaks don't quite go our way until the end lol. Golson, also, does seem to play better on the road for sure also. Best games were MSU, Miami, and Oklahoma. Possibly, the team feels more pressure at home is the what may happening. Pretty perplexing really though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithInIrish Forever Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 very simple. Distractions ticket requests, pep rally, banquet, expectations at ND stadium.. Less so on the road Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katzenboyer Posted November 5, 2012 Author Share Posted November 5, 2012 very simple. Distractions ticket requests, pep rally, banquet, expectations at ND stadium.. Less so on the road I'm starting to go along with this line of reasoning as well. The players are a spectacle in South Bend, and the expectations are that they don't just play football on Saturdays. Regardless of what it is, SOMETHING needs to change. The team should be flying on Saturdays, not playing with the weight of a fanbase like they always seem to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocketsan Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 very simple. Distractions ticket requests, pep rally, banquet, expectations at ND stadium.. Less so on the road Always been the same sort of schedule...year in and year out. While I don't discount this can be taxing, there's got to be something else... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cameroncrazy Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Thankfully all games aside from Senior Day will be away, and this team will have no trouble getting up to play for its seniors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithInIrish Forever Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Always been the same sort of schedule...year in and year out. While I don't discount this can be taxing, there's got to be something else... even with the advent of the internet and the 24 hour media news cycle and the twitterverse? not trying to be a pain.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
97domer Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 very simple. Distractions ticket requests, pep rally, banquet, expectations at ND stadium.. Less so on the road I agree that these things exist, but there should be some home-comfort that counters these distractions. Why do the majority of other football teams (including those with the same history / pressure as ND) typically have an advantage and play better at home? I think it is something more. My speculation is that ND gets up for big games and has played down to the competition otherwise. Analysis below... Played well: Navy and Miami - big games because of the excitement of the location and the Miami name Stanford, MSU, and OU - big games because of the competition and their ranking Played poorly: Purdue, BYU, Pitt - team just didn't get up for these games. Did we play down to the competition? Were we looking forward to MSU and OU? Was there a let down after OU? Yes, yes, and yes.. The Michigan game is the outlier for me. I felt that the D played amazing, but would clasify this game as 'played poorly' overall and it should have been a game that we were up for based on my theory (rivalry, night game, Michigan ranking, etc)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Goblin Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 I think it's too many distractions plus they get too relaxed. I think when they go on the road they feel that hostile atmosphere and it just dials them right in. When that atmosphere isn't there, they just aren't as sharp. Think about it? We played our absolute best when it looked hopeless because they had the incentive to be dialed in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawaiiirish Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 The "distractions" theory sounds good , it certainly is a shop worn theory we have been hearing for a long time---but IMHO it is HIGHLY SUSPECT-- Most every top team has a home field advantage---often these are DRAMATIC advantages when you look at the home & away record---yet for some reason ALL THESE TEAMS do not suffer from DISTRACTION DYSFUNCTION---its only us---THAT ON ITS FACE DOES NOT RING TRUE! I would look elsewhere---- Some possibilities--- Our turf is very slow & sluggish , almost like playing in rain , it equalizes games and makes most games close--- Our crowd is notoriously low pitched generally---this is NOT really our fault its just we have a few thousand students to scream and LSU & michigan etc has a half million -- There is a psychological factor of playing ND that we all know about---everyone wants us as a notch on their belt--often more intensly then other games---when they come here into a relatively quiet , slow stadium it enhances their chances to get pumped-- Expectations---we have been playing poorly at home so often for so long it simply starts to become a self fullfilling prophecy and becomes an emotional BLOCK! I am willing to entertain other theories but the "distraction dysfunction" theory just does not explain why other schools do not suffer from the same malady---a good hypothesis should explain more then our anomaly but also why its us mainly. aloha's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corysold Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 (edited) I'm going to stay with my theme of the day. While ND seems more out of sync at home with more penalties and such, have they really played that much worse? For whatever reason, they just aren't finishing at home. Consequently, they are letting teams hang around, gain confidence and play better. If ND puts those first two possessions in the endzone, Pitt is down 14-3 and the game totally changes. Instead, it's 6-3 and they think they can win. Same with Purdue, ND had a chance to convert early and failed, and the game stayed closer than it should have. Taking away the Michigan game, which was a cluster for a number of reasons, ND on average is outgaining opponents 405-277 at home. They are getting 22 first downs to 14. They are out rushing teams 175-111 at home. So it isn't as though they are "playing" bad, it just appears that way because they aren't scoring as much as they should. Does that have anything to do with being at home? I don't know. But ND has dominated most of the games, the scoreboard just isn't showing that, which is obviously what is most important in the end. For example, at home ND converts red zone TD's only 36% of the time (9-25). On the road, they convert 57% TD's (12-21). Maybe they are playing better teams at home, who knows, but for whatever reason, they don't convert their scoring chances at home as well as they do on the road, hence all the close games that should be 13-20 point wins. Edited November 5, 2012 by corysold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
97domer Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Additional context from Stewart Mandel: Ten of the Irish's 11 turnovers have come at home... as well as 33 of their 48 penalties. I didn't think it was that bad... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/stewart_mandel/11/04/alabama-oregon-bcs-overtime/index.html#ixzz2BNIL2lVB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corysold Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Additional context from Stewart Mandel: Ten of the Irish's 11 turnovers have come at home... as well as 33 of their 48 penalties. I didn't think it was that bad... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/stewart_mandel/11/04/alabama-oregon-bcs-overtime/index.html#ixzz2BNIL2lVB Hmm. Those are interesting and would lead you to believe something mental is going on at home that isn't occurring on the road. That said, you wonder if having opposing referees at home has anything to do with the penalty disparity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawaiiirish Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 I would add the opposing referees to my list of contributing factors very happily---the reason i like this one is that it is EXCLUSIVELY on us---other schools simply DO NOT face that dilemma--so since we are an outliar as far as home records go---we are also outliars by being almost the only school without their conference refs at the game----this one deseves attention because like the problem of poor home play it affects ONLY ND and NOT OTHER SCHOOLS----good one cory-- If we look at saturday---i think home town refs could have VERY EASILY let the marginal holding call against davaris daniels go---that call cost us not only a touchdown from cierres 60 yarder but it changed the entire flow of the first half----right there is a case in point-- aloha's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zemaniak Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 NBC ratings conspiracy .... Surprised no one brought it up yet ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty88 Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Our stadium is Disneyland to our visitors, especially those like Pitt that have nothing to lose and play on house $. Our field does kinda suck but it would figure it would effect the opponent as well (still trying to find a way to explain this to SC fans:). Fickle fans, plain and simple. Our guys would rather get ridiculed on the road than booed at him (Tommy in Purdue game and pick any random game when alot of these guys visited under Weis) There are so many different factors besides football for home games, all there is on the road is preparation and team functions. That said, so glad there is only one more home game, cannot envision a letdown on Sr. day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGipperSB Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 I just think our schedule plays into a lot of what has happened. Jet lag probably played a much larger factor in that Purdue game than most people realize. They looked rather sluggish most of that game. We played great in the Stanford game...it was a close game, but that was a very great team we were playing. For the BYU week, we were caught in between Stanford game and Oklahoma game, not to mention that we had our back up QB starting. Sometimes after such emotional highs (Oklahoma game) the team can be emotional exhausted, thats what happened vs Pitt. Not to mention, that when all week you are hearing about how great you are, you start to believe the hype and not take your opponent as seriously as you should. I do not think our home crowd has anything to do with our performances..in fact i think if you were to switch our home games with our away games (except for Navy and Miami obviously) we might not be 9-0 right now. It's kind of a blessing that those "trap" games happened to be at home.. For a game like Oklahoma, it doesnt matter where the game is, the players will be hyped and ready to play...but if youre playing a BYU team or a Pitt team that all of the "experts" say you will steamroll, you relax a little bit. If those games are on the road...im not sure we pull through in triple overtime. That crowd was buzzing at the end of the game, and our players fed off it while the Pitt players $hit themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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