Cross
- Thread starter THUNDERSTRUCK111
- Start date
He was dressed but didn't play. Good thing we won. Now he should be 100%
What a great game by our D again.
O. Did good enough. But our D was the star.
O. Did good enough. But our D was the star.
What game were you watching? 2023? They gave up almost 600 yards. I’m ecstatic about the win and I’ll give you that the D out scored both tOSU and Michigan but that was a rough day for Golden.
Yes, there were concerns about thr D. But there could be a silver lining to this... it'll force D to look at their weaknesses and clean up. ND hasn't truly been challenged since week 1. I think thats a good and a bad thing. And the defense in particular really hadn't been challenged until today.
To be fair the D had 199 offensive yards with those two returns. That's almost 50% of ND's offensive production.
We've pretty much played a dumpster fire of a schedule, so the D was rarely challenged all year. Plus, we are down about 7 of our two-deep on defense, which is having an impact.
Attrition at corner was apparent, we had safeties lining up on WRs all day. The DL attrition was visible, couldn’t get a pass rush.
Every team in the country has an off game.
It’s bound to happen. We played well enough to win. Survive and move on. Glad the d lapse happened today instead of round 1 playoff game. Jmo.
It’s bound to happen. We played well enough to win. Survive and move on. Glad the d lapse happened today instead of round 1 playoff game. Jmo.
USC has more talent and speed than their team utilizes. They could have beaten ND and I would not have been surprised. They lost because of turnovers. ND has to fix this defense. RL is still inconsistent throwing the ball downfield....he is just as likely to throw a pick as a completion. ND did well when Leonard shortened up the pass plays and kept USC off balance with his threat to tuck and run. He needs alot of help on offense and can't carry this team. That is OK as long as he plays within his strengths and the playcalling drives those strengths.
Overall a good complementary win against a talented opponent who did solve our pass defense…(missing those players showed and the defense was winded last 10 mins)
offense answered scores today and ran over the “good and much improved run defense” of SC
If not for the back to back drives with fumble and missed FG in 2Q, the game is never in doubt, but the team kept answering
Need to get healthy, fix FG, sure up the back 4
And kudos to MF and staff for the gutsy fake punt and 4th down calls…that kind of confidence following up on Love’s and Leonard’s in field leadership…was great to c
Team finished last 10 games strong
offense answered scores today and ran over the “good and much improved run defense” of SC
If not for the back to back drives with fumble and missed FG in 2Q, the game is never in doubt, but the team kept answering
Need to get healthy, fix FG, sure up the back 4
And kudos to MF and staff for the gutsy fake punt and 4th down calls…that kind of confidence following up on Love’s and Leonard’s in field leadership…was great to c
Team finished last 10 games strong
Didn’t you see the game stats?,
360 yards passing
197 yards rushing
Not exactly an outstanding defensive performance
I did watch the game Pat.
We tightened the screws when we needed to. Was it a heisman type day? No.
We had our backs to the wall and fought like tigers and won the day.
Thats the type of character this team has.
These are situations only games like these can provide to build confidence that we’re not going to fold.
I was happy with our performance given the circumstances.
Were you ?
We tightened the screws when we needed to. Was it a heisman type day? No.
We had our backs to the wall and fought like tigers and won the day.
Thats the type of character this team has.
These are situations only games like these can provide to build confidence that we’re not going to fold.
I was happy with our performance given the circumstances.
Were you ?
My buddy made a good point, USC had like 250 yards of offense late in the game when they got down 3 scores and had to chuck the ball all over. ND scored two defensive TDs which kept the ball in the hands of the USC offense and our defense on the field a long time in the 4th quarter specifically.
Not saying it was a great performance but a little context is all.
Not saying it was a great performance but a little context is all.
Not sure about solving pass defense; problems were mostly with the USC WR with greatest speed creating some issues for CB to stay with.
I thought the lack of pass rush was a central problem, kind of hangs the DB’s out to dry. SC has a pretty good OL. Effective blitz pick ups too.
D has been carrying us all year. It was time for the O to do their part and they damn well did (two turnovers hurt us, as USC just could not stop us.) That said, the D closed it out in epic fashion. The coliseum bled USC fans hurrying to the exits, as we Irish exploded with joy. Very tense game. Very pleased with the outcome. Proud of this team. Face a helluva lot of adversity and kept working.
Yes, I felt that the D was EXPOSED as one that can handle MIDDLING TEAMS easily but better ones PERHAPS NOT SO WELL.
What was MOST APPARENT from my vantage was how handicapped the D was by the players UNABLE TO PLAY: Cross, Mickey, Morrison, Traore, Botelho and KVA. If all of them had been available, we'd have seen a TIGHTER PERFORMANCE. But then, that's football. You fight with the army you bring.
ND was also fortunate that Marks went down. Had he been able to provide RUN BALANCE, USC could have made it even closer and perhaps even won. Talent-wise, the teams are quite CLOSE. What proved the difference was that ND is still the HARDER-NOSED TEAM. USC played JUMP-BALL/SCHOOLYARD while ND just POUNDED AWAY.
What also hurt USC was their PROPENSITY TO LOSE. That won't be the case with teams in the PLAYOFFS. ND needs to get healthy -- and that includes Love and Jeter -- and clean up whatever it can. No more claiming or allowance races. It's strictly STAKES from here.
This… happy with the win; but it brings some major concerns if we play a capable passing offense with a good oline. Our dline and half our secondary was terrible. Give usc credit for a high risk high reward game plan that paid off
I do not like the mindset our D had, very soft and timid
I thought that for the first time this season the BLITZING didn't work. USC's line was strong enough to give their QB just enough time to pass. That put additional pressure on ND's secondary which had not seen anything close to USC's receiving corps.
To me, it wasn't timidity so much as SHEER NEUTRALIZATION by what USC could muster.
ND'S D is good, but IT DOESN'T WALK ON WATER.
I said last week I doubt the Cross plays -- but got blasted for it.
I thought our secondary was very timid, and our lbs were no where near as physical tackling as they had been
The reality is, if you have a good oline, only mills is a player you would even consider putting help on. We need cross back at 100%
Also, no more frichan boots. That's great to use for practice preventatively but burnham can't move in it.
Burnham needs these 3 weeks as much as anyone. I saw him walking after the fsu game and the limp was very noticeable. I'm surprised he was able to go the next weeks. He could barely walk. He's a beast for playing through it this year
I wonder how much of this was tired legs. Going coast to coast in six days! Bad bad scheduling. But given what happened around the country with college football, a win is a win!!!! Go Irish! Beat UNLV.
Could have been. But I've watched USC's receivers all year. THEY GET OPEN. All FOUR OF THEM. And they're all SOPHOMORES.
That ND played them as well as they did was, to me, an accomplishment. Espcially in the absence of an EFFECTIVE pass rush.
Big time respect to Burnham for playing this year.
I hope he's healthy next season and goes off.
I think you know a lot about football because I've seen you point out things in real time that other posters don't pick up on, but some of your criticism is just so off the wall it's impossible to take seriously. For instance, "I do not like the mindset our D had, very soft and timid." That, on its face, is just plain ridiculous. I can just hear Golden in the locker room before the game, saying "Alright men, remember to not try to tackle them too hard and make sure you count to three before rushing the quarterback." They were playing their asses off. The fact is USC has plenty of talent on that offense. It had nothing to do with any timidness on our defense's part.
The D was not attacking… of course golden did not say play soft and timid.
It looked like the team didn’t know or trust their game plan well enough on D to fly around and play physical. It looks like they weren’t confident in what they were doing. And we did run more zone than normal.
You can’t play fast and physical if, as freeman says, you don’t have clarity. Our d did not look like they had clarity. Almost like golden for the first time all year tried to be so complex to confuse the younger usc qb nds d was the one confused.
Give SC the credit due. Their QB was outstanding up until the last 4 minutes of the game. ND was playing as well as anyone could, but for 3+ quarters SCs offense was unstoppable
I disagree that ND played as good as anyone could.
Definitely give Riley and the USC offense credit, they had a good plan.
But ND had a lot of confusion on some early crossing routes, they struggled to get deep enough in their zones, and then gray was obviously playing what seemed like in quick sand on an island for almost the entire game. ND looked prepared to stop their quick passing game behind the LOS, but it didn't look like they were prepared for USC to be throwing the ball downfield.
Now, a big part of the problem was probably our Dline having NO ability to get any pressure. This was the game where we went up against a good oline and they just dominated our ends.
USC ran some nice WR screens early on when we brought the pressure.
This forces us to play more zone on early downs. It seemed like a good scheme by usc. Just my 2 cents.
This forces us to play more zone on early downs. It seemed like a good scheme by usc. Just my 2 cents.
I think the KEY was the lack of D-Line pressure against the best O-Line ND played. And without Cross, Traore and Bothelo. Plus, no Morrison in the secondary. USC's receivers are simply too good, and it was a rivalry away game with everything on the line for ND and nothing to lose for USC.
You have to wonder if ND had played USC's schedule, would it be heading to the playoffs right now? ND easily outclassed Purdue, Army, Navy, Stanford, Virginia, Florida State and Miami of Ohio. And it played well enough and tough enough to win closer games against A&M and Louisville. But of the seven best ACC teams, it played only TWO, and GT was without its outstanding QB. So, it's ACC slate was even softer than usual.
All told, it wasn't as if ND was seeing the caliber of play USC is capable of on a week by week basis.
And now for the TOUGH PART OF THE SEASON in which we will see just HOW GOOD OR NOT ND is. I think this is a good team, but the question remains HOW GOOD? The margin for error will now be much slimmer. So, both the D-Line and secondary must be up to it and PERFORM BETTER than against USC. Can they? AND AGAINST EVEN TOUGHER COMPETITION?
We shall see. Because giving up close to 600 YARDS won't do it.
ND gave up 7 points with 38 seconds to go in 1st half and that was after a fumble in their own territory & a missed fg. The drive before the end of the 1st half got USC rolling & ND's db's on their heels. Still even after they gave up the 2nd half opening drive to tie the game at 21, we score to go up 28-21 the d got a stop. The offense turned it over in +territory & the d got a turnover on downs, then we score to go up 35-21 the D gets another stop.
There is a misconception that USC did whatever they wanted all game that simply wasnt the case.
There is a misconception that USC did whatever they wanted all game that simply wasnt the case.
