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Indiana Matchup

theskibro

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Aug 24, 2003
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I do not think this is a good matchup for us. I hope I’m wrong. It appears they are very good at stopping the run and have a creative, gimmicky passing offense.

I see this game going one of two ways - either we surprise with a dominant pressure rush and potent offense winning comfortably or it’s going to be a tight game

If IU gets ahead early, we could be in trouble
This is probably the first round team I least wanted to see.
 
Alot of the prognosticators are pointing to IU's games against OSU and Michigan. They beat Michigan. On paper, ND wins. IU is an exceptionally well coached team and they are a veteran team. That is worth 7 to 10 points by itself. IU won't be outcoached. They have to be outplayed.
 
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I’m sure they’ll stack the box like everyone else. We will need to throw it
 
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Not the least bit worried about Indiana. ND wins with easy. I like seeing IU in the playoffs but they have an even weaker season the ND had.
 
Indiana has a solid defense and a precision passer. The key to the game will be if ND can put pressure on Rourke, like Ohio State. If not, Rouke can have a field day - and expose Gray all day again, like USC did. Indiana’s run game is decent also.

On Talent level alone, ND should win, but IU is well coached and is pretty disciplined. ND weakness is they lose their worst games at home: NIU, Marshall, South Florida and Cincinnati (even though they were decent) and they have always failed to turn it up a notch in post season like the best teams do.

For those that think IND got blown out by ohio st - 2 special teams mishaps gave Ohio st 14 pts. Thats a 9pt game with 7 of those with 35 seconds left. Cignetti said that his biggest mistake was silent cadence. Best coaches adjust to deficiencies and they did beat the team that beat ohio st. Should be a good game. Looking forward to going next week!!!
 
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Indiana has a solid defense and a precision passer. The key to the game will be if ND can put pressure on Rourke, like Ohio State. If not, Rouke can have a field day - and expose Gray all day again, like USC did. Indiana’s run game is decent also.

On Talent level alone, ND should win, but IU is well coached and is pretty disciplined. ND weakness is they lose their worst games at home: NIU, Marshall, South Florida and Cincinnati (even though they were decent) and they have always failed to turn it up a notch in post season like the best teams do.

For those that think IND got blown out by ohio st - 2 special teams mishaps gave Ohio st 14 pts. Thats a 9pt game with 7 of those with 35 seconds left. Cignetti said that his biggest mistake was silent cadence. Best coaches adjust to deficiencies and they did beat the team that beat ohio st. Should be a good game. Looking forward to going next week!!!
You mean Cincy the playoff team? Yeah, they were decent. But I agree, IU is a totally capable team. They didn't win all these games by as big or bigger margin of victories than we did because they were lucky, or just okay. They have their shit together and can be formidable. They look well coached and well drilled and will be tough to beat.
 
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Indiana has a solid defense and a precision passer. The key to the game will be if ND can put pressure on Rourke, like Ohio State. If not, Rouke can have a field day - and expose Gray all day again, like USC did. Indiana’s run game is decent also.

On Talent level alone, ND should win, but IU is well coached and is pretty disciplined. ND weakness is they lose their worst games at home: NIU, Marshall, South Florida and Cincinnati (even though they were decent) and they have always failed to turn it up a notch in post season like the best teams do.

For those that think IND got blown out by ohio st - 2 special teams mishaps gave Ohio st 14 pts. Thats a 9pt game with 7 of those with 35 seconds left. Cignetti said that his biggest mistake was silent cadence. Best coaches adjust to deficiencies and they did beat the team that beat ohio st. Should be a good game. Looking forward to going next week!!!
The punt return for a touchdown is part of football. So I'm not giving Indiana any credit for that. The punter dropping a snap that was right to him is the play I'm not going to hold against them.
 
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Here are some facts:

1) the highest-ranked rushing offense IU faced: Ohio State (59th)
2) ND's rushing rank: 10th (3rd in ypc)
3) number of G5 transfers starting on IU's defense: 8

So they haven't faced a rushing attack like ours, and from a talent perspective, they don't really match up. But they're a veteran, well-coached team, and we'll have to play well to get the W.
 
Indiana has a solid defense and a precision passer. The key to the game will be if ND can put pressure on Rourke, like Ohio State. If not, Rouke can have a field day - and expose Gray all day again, like USC did. Indiana’s run game is decent also.

On Talent level alone, ND should win, but IU is well coached and is pretty disciplined. ND weakness is they lose their worst games at home: NIU, Marshall, South Florida and Cincinnati (even though they were decent) and they have always failed to turn it up a notch in post season like the best teams do.

For those that think IND got blown out by ohio st - 2 special teams mishaps gave Ohio st 14 pts. Thats a 9pt game with 7 of those with 35 seconds left. Cignetti said that his biggest mistake was silent cadence. Best coaches adjust to deficiencies and they did beat the team that beat ohio st. Should be a good game. Looking forward to going next week!!!
If both teams play their best game ND wins comfortably. We shall see.
 
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I do not think this is a good matchup for us. I hope I’m wrong. It appears they are very good at stopping the run and have a creative, gimmicky passing offense.

I see this game going one of two ways - either we surprise with a dominant pressure rush and potent offense winning comfortably or it’s going to be a tight game

If IU gets ahead early, we could be in trouble
This is probably the first round team I least wanted to see.
Ski, I get anxious before every BIG Notre Dame game. My anxiety was well placed during Kelly’s tenure, but far less so with Freeman, but anxious nonetheless.

Indiana’s rush defense is legit, but they are pretty average in the defensive backfield. Their ability to pressure on pass plays is largely dependent on their excellent rush DE. If we neutralize their pass pressure, we should be able to move the ball through the air, and via Leonard scrambles. On rushing, it’s their strength against ours, and I think we win this in grinding fashion.

Their passing offense is very good. The way they moved down the field and scored on their first possession against Ohio State was scary good. But they proved pretty inadequate after this when Ohio St figured out how to bring a lot of pressure. I think getting a lot of pressure on their qb is the key to our winning, and Golden will have to figure out a variety of blitz schemes, since our DL isn’t likely to get this done on its own.

So, like you I am anxious as they have good coaching, great experience, and some serious offensive and defensive weapons. But, Freeman and company have shown time and again to excel at getting the team ready for these BIG games, and I think our overall talent and coaching prevails. I hope convincingly, but a simple win will do!
 
Ski, I get anxious before every BIG Notre Dame game. My anxiety was well placed during Kelly’s tenure, but far less so with Freeman, but anxious nonetheless.

Indiana’s rush defense is legit, but they are pretty average in the defensive backfield. Their ability to pressure on pass plays is largely dependent on their excellent rush DE. If we neutralize their pass pressure, we should be able to move the ball through the air, and via Leonard scrambles. On rushing, it’s their strength against ours, and I think we win this in grinding fashion.

Their passing offense is very good. The way they moved down the field and scored on their first possession against Ohio State was scary good. But they proved pretty inadequate after this when Ohio St figured out how to bring a lot of pressure. I think getting a lot of pressure on their qb is the key to our winning, and Golden will have to figure out a variety of blitz schemes, since our DL isn’t likely to get this done on its own.

So, like you I am anxious as they have good coaching, great experience, and some serious offensive and defensive weapons. But, Freeman and company have shown time and again to excel at getting the team ready for these BIG games, and I think our overall talent and coaching prevails. I hope convincingly, but a simple win will do!
Think you hit the nail on the head.

If the irish can run the ball effectively against them, which to be honest, I think we will, its going to be a long night for the hoosiers. I'm not sure Indiana can deal with both a two headed rushing attack plus a mobile QB all while keeping their DB's out of harms way. Thats a lot of problems to solve every snap.

Of course doing that means we control the ball and clock, keeping their offense on the bench. I also believe that our defense coaching and playcalling is better than OSU and fully expect a lot of confusion and disguised blitz packages to keep the IU QB on his heels. That was OSU's blueprint and it worked. We're better defensively than OSU I believe.

Either way, I don't think this will be a cake walk game. Its the playoffs, all the teams we will face in the post season are good enough to beat us and we'll need a complete, well planned game to win.
 
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Look at Indiana’s schedule this year. They played 1 team that finished in the top 25 and got beat. Most of the teams they played had losing records. There are teams that didn’t even make the playoffs that would be double digit favorites over them. This new system is a joke and most of the country knows it.
 
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Look at Indiana’s schedule this year. They played 1 team that finished in the top 25 and got beat. Most of the teams they played had losing records. There are teams that didn’t even make the playoffs that would be double digit favorites over them. This new system is a joke and most of the country knows it.
While I agree with you that the new system is not great, ND hasn't exactly played world beaters all year either. SOS between the two is pretty similar. This will be a dog fight.
 
While I agree with you that the new system is not great, ND hasn't exactly played world beaters all year either. SOS between the two is pretty similar. This will be a dog fight.
Agree that ND hasn't played a tough schedule either. But disagree it will be a dogfight. ND will win by at least 2 scores. IU's season has been a cool story this year but it ends soon.
 
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the neutral field will even things out somewhat but ND wins by 13-17 points
 
Here are some facts:

1) the highest-ranked rushing offense IU faced: Ohio State (59th)
2) ND's rushing rank: 10th (3rd in ypc)
3) number of G5 transfers starting on IU's defense: 8

So they haven't faced a rushing attack like ours, and from a talent perspective, they don't really match up. But they're a veteran, well-coached team, and we'll have to play well to get the W.
Still, that's a pretty impressive stat line. 70 ypg rushing is all they allow. Damn, I didn't realize that. Well, shit, we're just going to have beat them somehow.
 
Indiana should be prepared for an ass beating.
I'll play devil's advocate for a moment. What happens to IU if Notre Dame wins? Now, think for a second.....What happens to ND if IU wins? Notre Dame has alot more on the line in this game than IU does. IU can do whatever they damm well please in this game....in order to win. This is a dangerous game for Notre Dame. IU is playing with House money.
 
I'll play devil's advocate for a moment. What happens to IU if Notre Dame wins? Now, think for a second.....What happens to ND if IU wins? Notre Dame has alot more on the line in this game than IU does. IU can do whatever they damm well please in this game....in order to win. This is a dangerous game for Notre Dame. IU is playing with House money.
That bothers the hell out of me. I wish I shared everyone elses confidence in this game but until we win post season games, I'm not taking any of these opponents lightly. ND is going to have to show up and play well to win. I hope i'm wrong and we roll over them and put in our backups in the 4th quarter, i just don't see it.
 
That bothers the hell out of me. I wish I shared everyone elses confidence in this game but until we win post season games, I'm not taking any of these opponents lightly. ND is going to have to show up and play well to win. I hope i'm wrong and we roll over them and put in our backups in the 4th quarter, i just don't see it.
I feel the same way.
 
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My feeling is that IU will sell out to stop the run. Especially early in the game. The first half of the year the Irish struggled passing the ball as each game went by they got better in that area. My guess is this will be a big game for Mitchel Evans. If ND can get the Hoosiers to respect the pass, the run game will open up. Just my thoughts. This is the most determined looking ND team since 2012
 
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Indiana has a solid defense and a precision passer. The key to the game will be if ND can put pressure on Rourke, like Ohio State. If not, Rouke can have a field day - and expose Gray all day again, like USC did. Indiana’s run game is decent also.

On Talent level alone, ND should win, but IU is well coached and is pretty disciplined. ND weakness is they lose their worst games at home: NIU, Marshall, South Florida and Cincinnati (even though they were decent) and they have always failed to turn it up a notch in post season like the best teams do.

For those that think IND got blown out by ohio st - 2 special teams mishaps gave Ohio st 14 pts. Thats a 9pt game with 7 of those with 35 seconds left. Cignetti said that his biggest mistake was silent cadence. Best coaches adjust to deficiencies and they did beat the team that beat ohio st. Should be a good game. Looking forward to going next week!!!
I agree that ND must get to Rourke. It's almost IMPERATIVE. It was ND's failure to get to USC'S QB that opened the door to their wideouts.

I'm also concerned about ND's RUN-D. Film from the USC game shows ND's DL being pushed back consistently, and it could HAPPEN AGAIN.

Today, Navy's D-LINE played much better against Army than ND's did and held Army and their tough FB-like QB to far fewer yards.

To beat Indiana, ND must win in the TRENCHES. And on the O-SIDE, that means being able to GASH IU's D which was excellent this year against the run. The GOOD NEWS there though is that IU achieved this against teams that had very weak run games.
 
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My feeling is that IU will sell out to stop the run. Especially early in the game. The first half of the year the Irish struggled passing the ball as each game went by they got better in that area. My guess is this will be a big game for Mitchel Evans. If ND can get the Hoosiers to respect the pass, the run game will open up. Just my thoughts. This is the most determined looking ND team since 2012
Pretty much every opponent has sold out to stop the run. I expect Indiana will do the same as it's their best chance. I just don't expect them to be successful. Agree about Evans. He's rounding into form at just the right time.
 
My feeling is that IU will sell out to stop the run. Especially early in the game. The first half of the year the Irish struggled passing the ball as each game went by they got better in that area. My guess is this will be a big game for Mitchel Evans. If ND can get the Hoosiers to respect the pass, the run game will open up. Just my thoughts. This is the most determined looking ND team since 2012
That's a pretty good guess. They're already good at stopping the run, so they probably will feel like they like their chances. But it seems like ND is pretty good at offsetting that, and mixing it up and making defenses pay for that. So a good run defense is less than ideal, but as always what we don't want two TDs. Nobody wants that. But we really don't want that. A team like LSU can eat up a deficit pretty quick with someone like Nussmeier, but ND would be in more of a spot. And IU has been very prolific offensively.

Mainly it just seems like IU are a good team that are well coached and don't underperform, just like ND. So they don't have elite individual talent, but as a unit they are productive for sure. So I suppose to match that we need to be equally sharp.
 
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Cignetti is skilled and experienced enough to apply lessons learned from the Michigan and OSU games; ie countering the talent gap "to some degree". Whether or not that degree is enough to affect the outcome remains to be seen. Its not like Curt Cignetti will just throw his hands up resigned to having inferior talent. I would argue that Marshall cracked the code in much the same way IU is capable of. The line is -7.5.
 
I grew up a Hoosier and Irish fan. I leaned a little more to IU only living 40 minutes from Bloomington. Freeman has done a great job molding this team into a very tough minded team as has Cignetti at IU. I was shocked to see that both teams strength of schedule are fairly similar. It will be interesting to see if IU can stop ND's running attack, without giving up a coverage. It will also be interesting to see if ND can generate the same pressure that OSU and Michigan did. If either of those happen it will be a long night for IU. I am looking forward to the game. Ido believe that whichever teams wins that game will stand a very good chance of beating Georgia and I will look forward to seeing them in the Orange Bowl.
 
Weather forecasting an inch of snow. This help us or IU more in your opinion ?

My guess is it helps Indiana, as they seem to be less athletic than ND. They benefit from an inclement weather making it a slugfest. Although you'd think ND has bigger and stronger athletes here.

More specifically, I think snow diminishes Riley Leonard as a runner and play action passer. Big loss for ND game. Never mind losing deep passing. Indiana doesn't seem prolific in offense or defense when it comes to passing, so they benefit.
 
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