I'll say again ND Defense isnt athletic enough for a mobile QB. How Kollie hasn't seen the field is beyond me.

[irishwolfpack]

Agree somewhat. It's hard to play well against the most challenging style of QB when you only see them once a week. ND defense has practiced against Pyne and Angeli for the majority of this season. Pivoting to the top dual threats on game day is like going against 12.

 

[NDDadx3]

You gotta stop, man. Seriously, it's played out. I know that if we had a better QB, if we had Caleb Williams on our team, someone that good, that maybe we would have won that game, and maybe we'd be undefeated right now, because that's what happens when you have superstars on your team, superstar QBs no less.....

But that doesn't mean you blame our current QB, who is indeed mediocre in his pure talent and tools, and yet nevertheless put up outright Heisman caliber numbers himself vs USC last night. So I don't know why we lost the game yesterday, only the football gods know the answer to mysteries like that, but Drew Pyne was certainly not the reason. I would blame the defense. That was always where the game was going to be won or lost, and our defense did NOT rise up and hold them into the 20s. And Drew Pyne absolutely delivered and played a fairly phenomenal game, and there really wasn't much more he could have done short of being literally 100% perfect.

In any case, the DP bashing has gotten out of hand. USC was just straight better than us, end of story. And hypothesizing about how we might have won if some mythical better player was on the roster is what losers do, no offense. Pyne cost us the Stanford game, maybe you could make that argument if you were so inclined. He did not cost us last night in any way shape or form. He helped keep it as competitive as it was is what he did....

Oh, and I don't imagine we're going to be taking a portal QB, if that makes you feel any better. And Drew Pyne could easily be our starter next season as well....

I doubt starts next year unless somethings gone wrong again (significant injury) but he does have a season under his belt and he’s a tough kid. If he does start and leads ND to a playoff appearance that would be quite a story. The last word is yours now, have at it. Go Irish.

 

[HDK]

USC ran for 204 Yards and Williams only accounted for 35 of those 204 yards.

Maybe you should watch the video again !

Are you blind or did you mistakenly watch another game?

 

[mirer03]

The only area they looked less athletic is at LB and DE. ND WR and TE made more plays than USC's.

If you don't think that the cornerbacks we're less athletic I'm not sure what game you watched. They gave up 100 yard cushions and got ran around all night. Not unexpected considering injuries, but it's a fact

 

[Quest4Twelve]

If you don't think that the cornerbacks we're less athletic I'm not sure what game you watched. They gave up 100 yard cushions and got ran around all night. Not unexpected considering injuries, but it's a fact

Cushion is on the scheme not athletic ability. They did miss a s ton of tackles.

 

[Patrirish]

True. But Williams had about 300 yards running around the backfield before making a big throw. As another poster said. We should have had one guy spy him all game . We didn’t.

Williams ran 9 times for a total of 35 yards.

Some of his run-around throws were incomplete

Would the guy who spied on him cross the LOS ?

 

[Patrirish]

Pyne will start for the Irish next season after another offseason of TR tutelage!

What odds are you giving ?

 

[Patrirish]

He was literally on his way to a perfect game. Until he underthrew Lenzy, I think it was, and it was like, there's the old shitty Drew Pyne again... why can't that guy compete every single pass in a football game, is that too much to ask for him to bo 100% completion??? I don't think so, I don't think it's too much, so I put all the blame on him.

Yeah, so, I think everyone knows DP is not some elite NFL talent, and that if anything TR gameplans around him too crudely and blatantly, like a young, stupid OC like Rees might do. But we didn't lose because of Pyne. You're angrily fantasizing that if we had Trevor Lawrence back there that everything would be fine and we could have won and maybe that's true. But nevertheless we didn't lose because of DP and he's not the one to be pointing the finger at AT ALL......

I mean, come on man....

👍

 

[mbd11]

I didn't think our defense played that badly. Some of those plays, you just have to tip your cap to the opposing QB, because he made some great plays. Alabama gave up over 50 to Tennessee and couldn't stop Hooker, either.

So maybe our D's not as good as Georgia's, which is the one D that seemingly can shut down just about any team. But no other Ds in the country are that good. I think we're among the top 10 defenses in the country.

 

[savvyandsassier]

I doubt starts next year unless somethings gone wrong again (significant injury) but he does have a season under his belt and he’s a tough kid. If he does start and leads ND to a playoff appearance that would be quite a story. The last word is yours now, have at it. Go Irish.

Alright then I will have the last word, thank you very much....

Drew Pyne has become a whipping boy, no surprise there. And I suppose there is some justification for it in that he's not a great talent, no one's really going to argue with that. And most definitely, that is somehow more apparent in a big game vs a top team with a top QB. So there's the nod to all the Pyne haters who I would submit are neverthelesss overdoing it. He's had a pretty decent year all year, and as far as Saturday night goes, he had a fantastic night. Blame Rees for not opening up the offense from the start, and not having enough faith in his charges. That's why we fell behind.

In any case I'm still anticipating Buchner starting next season.....

 

[nptb]

This. My frustration with Mickey turned to empathy fairly early in the game. SC isolated him and took advantage of that matchup all night. He looked even worse than Lewis in the Fiesta Bowl. That is the type of performance that a ton of guys don’t ever recover from.

In his favor, he was going against some very good veteran experienced receivers. You know Jerry's son can run some damn good routes.

 

[Telx1]

Williams changes the whole defensive dynamic in so many ways. Not having Hart and Bracy was a huge issue, and Lewis and Henderson and Mickey are poor substitutes for what these two bring to our secondary. We may have schemed to protect the deep pass by playing big yards off the receivers, but that scheme reflects the limitations of these guys in covering As opposed to a preferred defensive approach. But No excuse for the kind of arm tackling and bad angles taken by our defensive backs. On a positive note, Watts played a lot and his development is encouraging for next year, and of course, Morrison is elite. Jury still out on Mickey.