Postgame - #10 Notre Dame at NC State (Win 45-24)

[FaithInIrish Forever 4,720]

Sudden change defense

Holden Staes

Secondary

45 points

Consistency

Football Focused Program

Depth

This is fun

[FaithInIrish Forever 4,720]

[ndmike88 136]

The penalties were the only thing that bothered me. The secondary looks much improved. 

 

[FaithInIrish Forever 4,720]

Just now, ndmike88 said:

The penalties were the only thing that bothered me. The secondary looks much improved. 

 

Very good point 7 points of the 24 were directly due to flags

[NYGoldenDomer 2,046]

11 minutes ago, ndmike88 said:

The penalties were the only thing that bothered me. The secondary looks much improved. 

The score isn't as close without all the BS calls.

[Baldy 1,251]

Offense: Hartman struggled big time in the first half, but got confidence by making some big plays and figured it out in the second half. The one thing that worries me is he gets in his own head, because it showed until he started making some plays. O-Line could not block at first, especially during heavy pressure blitzes. I’ll give it to Rudolph for figuring it out after the second half, because it got much better, hence the big time running plays from the RBs. WRs did great, mainly Staes. He reminds me more of a WR than a TE due to his smaller size, but in the end the TEs did contribute when needed. I was super happy to see Merriweather have a good game and make some big plays as well, and Greathouse is just amazing!

Defense: All I can say is that they’re so Jekyll and Hyde. Made great plays at times, but gave up some big plays too. Cam Hart’s one big play was a bit of a head scratcher, because he had his head turned toward the ball at first, and then turned away at the end. The defense was not suffocating like I wanted, but I won’t complain because they had three turnovers, with two back to back! Overall, they came up huge, and when it mattered most in the second half!

Specials Teams: Shrader still freaks me out, because while he made two field goals, and from pretty far out, both were not as accurate as I would like. I know the one he missed was 56 yards, and wasn’t too far off, but it is just not good. Punt block is so close to making a play, and kick and punt return is solid. Hopefully they’ll break one soon, on both sides.

Great game, and I’m super pleased! Go Irish!!! 🍀🏈

[mcgov12 1,237]

Some sloppy and lay and penalties, I take it with a grain of salt because it was made much worse by some awful officiating calls.

Hartman was not at his best, but stepped up and came through when it got tight, and had another great game.

Chunk plays today with Estime, Staes, Tyree were awesome. Staes was great today. Week after week, Estime deserves to be in the conversation as one of the best backs in the country.

Put the game away, and then made sure with another TD on an aggressive play call. Love to see it.

Secondary might be their best in years.

Edited September 9, 2023 by mcgov12

[Baldy 1,251]

6 minutes ago, NYGoldenDomer said:

The score isn't as close without all the BS calls.

My wife and I were losing it during all those calls when NC St. scored their first TD, and said the exact same thing! I really HATE playing the ACC!!

[FaithInIrish Forever 4,720]

 

[NYGoldenDomer 2,046]

24 minutes ago, NYGoldenDomer said:

The score isn't as close without all the BS calls.

15 minutes ago, Baldy said:

My wife and I were losing it during all those calls when NC St. scored their first TD, and said the exact same thing! I really HATE playing the ACC!!

And oddly enough, I felt like the game was closer than the score.  Regardless of that TD that resulted from all the stupid calls.  

[FaithInIrish Forever 4,720]

14 minutes ago, Baldy said:

 

Defense: All I can say is that they’re so Jekyll and Hyde. Made great plays at times, but gave up some big plays too. Cam Hart’s one big play was a bit of a head scratcher, because he had his head turned toward the ball at first, and then turned away at the end. The defense was not suffocating like I wanted, but I won’t complain because they had three turnovers, with two back to back! Overall, they came up huge, and when it mattered most in the second half!

 

Didn't mean to steal the thread, just wanted to get one going. 

Freeman wants to play man or cover 1 ALOT. So they are going to send a TON of blitzes. The results are your corners are 1 on 1. So we're going to make some plays and give up some shots. If they score faster we get more possessions if we force turnovers we get more possessions.

So the might be -24 but they set up 14 points

I thought they gave up about 10-17 really.

[4thand1 272]

ND has the potential to play for a NC this season.  Strong QB, running game and defensive secondary will give them a chance against any good team.  I have been using the term "nitpicking" a lot so far and if I were to nitpick I would say I wish the pass rush got home a bit more.  

[FaithInIrish Forever 4,720]

 

[estimebicep 22]

I guess i am not so positive as most on this performance. The dropped ball turned int for nd was a huge play as it would of been nd  giving up a 3rd and 15. Instead got ball in nc state territory and td. I didnt feel like nd imposed their will with the run, hartman was iffy then good,  wr separation was concerning and pass rush with just four is biggest concern. Trust me i am happy but i am trying to forecast if this was usc or ohio st. 

Did you see me propelling estime on that 80yd run?

 

Go irish

 

[Baldy 1,251]

1 hour ago, FaithInIrish Forever said:

Didn't mean to steal the thread, just wanted to get one going. 

Freeman wants to play man or cover 1 ALOT. So they are going to send a TON of blitzes. The results are your corners are 1 on 1. So we're going to make some plays and give up some shots. If they score faster we get more possessions if we force turnovers we get more possessions.

So the might be -24 but they set up 14 points

I thought they gave up about 10-17 really.

Hey, all good!

I do love our DBs playing 1 on 1, because they are that good. Really, the way it should be and what will make a difference!

Like you said, more turnovers and getting more possessions!

[jessemoore97 1,291]

Overall, and I agree with Rocket and others, that this was what we needed to see.  Hostile crowd/away game at a tough venue, vs a decent defense, rain delay, challenges that we hadn't seen before today and how we'd react.

Offense:  Hartman struggled early obviously.  Some of his sacks were on him holding the ball too long.  He kept looking for longer shots, when stuff was open underneath especially to the safety valve RB screen.  He did produce some really great throws ala the Greathouse TD which was a very small window.  We knew he has off games here and there, hopefully this was his big off game this season given his history with NCST too.

Estime is awesome.  That 80 yarder after the rain delay was huge and really helped reset us after a dismal 1Q.  Really nice to see the other backs getting worked in to spell Estime, and having some success.  It will prove very useful going forward.

OL had some issues in the middle with pressure.  They got better and Hartman had time to throw when we got their D opened up a bit.  We do pretty well with the pin and pull for runs.

WR and TE, not the fastest lot for getting separation plus conditions may have slowed them down a bit for cutting?  Should have gotten the TE involved sooner, especially Staes who is a mismatch.  Needed more underneath or quick slants/outs for Tyree IMO also.  Greathouse is going to be a good one.  We started getting better passing the more we spread it around.

Defense, need more discipline in areas like the offsides stuff.  Secondary did pretty well today.  We left a few INTs and fumbles on the field today, Benny should've had two picks.  Hart needs to break up that long pass by getting his hands up.  Pressure was there at times on the QB, but not enough for the amount of blitzing we did.  However we did contain their run and boxed in Armstrong pretty well overall.  

Special teams.  Nice to know we have a leg, albeit inconsistent.  He tied the school distance and missed by a couple inches of breaking it with that  56 yard attempt.  Punt team has to break down and tackle better.  The returner wasn't fair catching and the was no reason he should've been getting positive yards like he did early on.

Penalties, my God I hate ACC refs.  They were terrible holding their flags on State for holding, our guys were getting mugged out there.  That roughing the passer we got to a hand to the QB helmet was ridiculous, especially after Hartman was drug down by his helmet in the first half.  So inconsistent.

Coaches.  Freeman is growing as a coach, his demeanor has gotten better and his confidence has grown since last year.  He didn't lose it when things weren't going our way, especially towards the players and remained cool and calm.  I think our adjustments got better as the game went on.

[jimbo 377]

A good win for sure. The TD throw to Greathouse was a thing of beauty. I like how Hartman spreads the ball around and not just keying on 1-2 guys to target. And it will only get better as now Hartman has a few games under his belt with his new teammates.

NC St has a pretty good D so that has to enter in the equation when evaluating the O this game.

Do you think part of the D game plan was forcing the QB to stay in the pocket and not let him loose to run around and create?

[jessemoore97 1,291]

Think Freeman said in his presser that they wanted to contain Armstrong and not overpursue him.  I think they stayed with that game plan pretty well as he didn't really break contain and hurt us with his feet.

[97domer 74]

Offense and Oline had me a little worried. I’ll chalk it up to what I’m hoping is a really good NC State defense and maybe a slightly off Hartman. It especially bothered me how much we struggled to have sustained drives. On the other hand, the chunk plays will force future defenses to think about how they defend us

Defensively, I was really pleased. Remember back in the day when we used to struggle against a scrambling QB? - We did an A+ junior yesterday! Hopefully that will translate to the USC game. 

 

[ND_JACK 321]

What I liked is that a couple of the positions that I was concerned about performed better then I thought they would.

🎩🎩First two hats off to the DB’s I thought they played very good. Harper, Brown, Henderson, Morrison and Watts.

🎩Second one hat off to the receivers we weren’t seeing much production from. Staes, Merriweather, Tyree(65 yard play) and I even throw in Greathouse he’s not a surprise anymore but still he a true freshman 

 

Edited September 10, 2023 by ND_JACK