The Jerry Tillery Halftime Show- I’m not so bold as to think that the parents of any prospective recruit are reading my thoughts, but just in case I want to get this out before they get bored and stop reading. If you watched that piece on Tillery and see how he’s grown as a person and a football player, and the experiences that young man has had, you realize that THAT is the reason you send your children, in any sport, to play at ND. I know JT’s Mom used to post here, and to her I say, “Damn good job, Ma’am!”
The Game- It was ugly every bit as ugly as @cheta41’s 2nd and 3rd wives. After that opening drive by ND I’m sure everyone expected this to be a track meet where ND just blew them off the field. Alas, it was not to be. This really turned into a game. There were a lot of panicked folks posting throughout the game, but for me it was thoroughly enjoyable. There was no realistic way that ND was going to lose this game so I sat back and enjoyed it. I did think two things, however: 1. Was Skip Holtz coaching Ball St. because this game sure reminded me of the USF game a few years back and 2. Was Clark Lea calling the defense for both teams because their defense sure looked a lot like ours and it was every bit as effective. Now that I think of it, the game was as ugly as Cheats first wife, too.
What I expected- I thought ND was going to run the ball and run it some more and then run it down Ball State’s throat some more. Despite a good game from Jafar Armstrong and Tony Jones it never seemed like the running game could get a foothold, particularly from Wimbush. The Indianapolics Star may have said it best in their article, “Can’t Hide the Fact Notre Dame Can’t Run the Ball.” https://www.indystar.com/story/spor...ball-cant-hide-fact-irish-can-run/1250399002/ How much of this is scheme and how much is the o-line is up for debate.
Post of the Game-
Defense- I really enjoy telling people that ND is winning games with defense. Did you ever think that you’d hear that again in your lifetime? The front seven are dominant and Clark Lea is really showing me something as a first year coordinator. Big game by Jalen Elliott.
Wimbush- It’s early yet, I know, but this was supposed to be the year that he took a quantum leap forward. That hasn’t happened. The worst part of that not happening is that his improvement was supposed to propel ND in the CFP. This week he was 17-31 or 55%, but he lost 7 yards on 11 total carries and threw 3 interceptions. For the year, he has 1 TD pass and 4 INTs. That’s not going to cut it against some of our future opponents. @dhighduchek has been beating this drum for some time and he may be right. He had a great thread discussing the issue: https://notredame.forums.rivals.com/threads/wimbush-is-what-we-thought-he-was.128367/ Some of the passes that Wimbush threw, even ones that were completed, were odd choices of throwing into double coverage. He exhibited extremely poor judgement in many of his throws. Like it or not, we’re going ti see a lot of Ian Book this year and, quite frankly, we should have seen him at points yesterday. I wrote something else on this that I’ll try to get out this week.
Post Game Post-of-the-Game- This is how you break down football. It’s long but good.
Staff Predictions- Before the game I was assuming that I would get a chance to take the staff to task for predicting Ball St. would score 17-20 points as they all predicted. Where did they think Ball St. was going to get those points, I wondered? Well they didn’t get the 17-20, but they did get darn close, so there’s no gloating.
O-Line- I’m not sure what happened here. It looked like the linemen won many of the one on one battles, but failed to pick up the additional rusher when Ball St. sent an additional man. To make matters worse, the running backs often missed the rusher or just gave a half-hearted block. It wasn’t a good look for these guys. Is it the loss of Hiestand or just the personnel?While I would have preferred a bigger name than Jeff Quinn at the position, but BK’s greatest successes were the result of his collaboration with Quinn so I’m hopeful. Maverick had a good point worth sharing:
He Said it Best-
Geek Stat- Last year Ball St had 6 interceptions as a team all year (https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/ball-state/2017.html) and none in their first game this year. Nonetheless, three different players intercepted Wimbush
BK’s Post Michigan Speech- I’m not an excitable guy when watching sports, but that clip of BK talking to the team after beating Michigan got me excited. Does anybody have that video?
Geek Stat- 3rd Down Efficiency. Building off of @Bryan_Driskell’s point on 3rd down efficiency last week, this is the breakdown for this game: Ball St. was 8-23 (about 35%) while ND was 4-14 (about 29%), however Ball St. was 3-3 on 4th down while ND was 1-2. It was a definite and obvious drop-off for ND.
The Game- It was ugly every bit as ugly as @cheta41’s 2nd and 3rd wives. After that opening drive by ND I’m sure everyone expected this to be a track meet where ND just blew them off the field. Alas, it was not to be. This really turned into a game. There were a lot of panicked folks posting throughout the game, but for me it was thoroughly enjoyable. There was no realistic way that ND was going to lose this game so I sat back and enjoyed it. I did think two things, however: 1. Was Skip Holtz coaching Ball St. because this game sure reminded me of the USF game a few years back and 2. Was Clark Lea calling the defense for both teams because their defense sure looked a lot like ours and it was every bit as effective. Now that I think of it, the game was as ugly as Cheats first wife, too.
What I expected- I thought ND was going to run the ball and run it some more and then run it down Ball State’s throat some more. Despite a good game from Jafar Armstrong and Tony Jones it never seemed like the running game could get a foothold, particularly from Wimbush. The Indianapolics Star may have said it best in their article, “Can’t Hide the Fact Notre Dame Can’t Run the Ball.” https://www.indystar.com/story/spor...ball-cant-hide-fact-irish-can-run/1250399002/ How much of this is scheme and how much is the o-line is up for debate.
Post of the Game-
Not sure if true, but it sure looked like it yesterday.
Defense- I really enjoy telling people that ND is winning games with defense. Did you ever think that you’d hear that again in your lifetime? The front seven are dominant and Clark Lea is really showing me something as a first year coordinator. Big game by Jalen Elliott.
Wimbush- It’s early yet, I know, but this was supposed to be the year that he took a quantum leap forward. That hasn’t happened. The worst part of that not happening is that his improvement was supposed to propel ND in the CFP. This week he was 17-31 or 55%, but he lost 7 yards on 11 total carries and threw 3 interceptions. For the year, he has 1 TD pass and 4 INTs. That’s not going to cut it against some of our future opponents. @dhighduchek has been beating this drum for some time and he may be right. He had a great thread discussing the issue: https://notredame.forums.rivals.com/threads/wimbush-is-what-we-thought-he-was.128367/ Some of the passes that Wimbush threw, even ones that were completed, were odd choices of throwing into double coverage. He exhibited extremely poor judgement in many of his throws. Like it or not, we’re going ti see a lot of Ian Book this year and, quite frankly, we should have seen him at points yesterday. I wrote something else on this that I’ll try to get out this week.
Post Game Post-of-the-Game- This is how you break down football. It’s long but good.
OL play was bad, Avery Davis dropped an easy one for a TD, and Boykin dropped one over the middle. Where is the critical analysis when Wimbush does this from Wimbush supporters...
WTF is Wimbush doing here and how does this not make you want to strangle him? Four Ball State defenders between him and a ND receiver. He throws it anyways. I think it was the RB who missed the block but that is NO excuse for throwing this ball. A experienced 14 game starter did this instead of eating the ball and taking the sack. There was 0% chance of completing this ball to anyone other than a BSU defender for a pick 6. Should have been a pick 6 but luckily wasn't. I am sure that this was just a one time mistake though.
I have read that Wimbush got no help from his WR's. Bullshit.
Claypool made a big time grab on a poorly thrown ball. That is a +1 for Wimbush getting help most QBs wouldn't. Let's take a closer look at this one though.
It took Wimbush about 3 seconds to throw to a wide open Claypool and he throws him out of bounds. Just throw what should be a pretty easy pass for a strong arm QB like Wimbush and Claypool can turn this upfield for at least another 5-10 yard gain.
This is also a poorly thrown pass that Miles Boykin makes a shoestring catch on and turns into a big gain. Another +1 for helping Wimbush out which negates the drop in my mind by Boykin earlier.
I couldn't get the zoomed in angle but the ball comes millimeters away from hitting the ground. Nice hands by Boykin and nice run after the catch.
I have also heard that the reason Wimbush made some bad decision was that he was under extreme pressure. This is true. He was under a lot of pressure and the OL play has to get better. Much better but what do you Wimbush folks have to say about this...
Extremely dumb decision with plenty of time and good protection. This is just chalked up as a bad decision but it is more than that to me. This is an experienced QB that continues to lob it up into double or triple coverage. This is a mistake he should not be making if he is truly learning from his mistakes. I am not sure Boykin is ever open but he throws it up anyways. Lucky that is not a pick and would have been close to a pick 6. He stares him down the whole way. What progression did he go through?
He is so frustrating to watch play. He has arm talent and speed but man he does not have a high football IQ, consistent accuracy, or instincts for the position.
Staff Predictions- Before the game I was assuming that I would get a chance to take the staff to task for predicting Ball St. would score 17-20 points as they all predicted. Where did they think Ball St. was going to get those points, I wondered? Well they didn’t get the 17-20, but they did get darn close, so there’s no gloating.
O-Line- I’m not sure what happened here. It looked like the linemen won many of the one on one battles, but failed to pick up the additional rusher when Ball St. sent an additional man. To make matters worse, the running backs often missed the rusher or just gave a half-hearted block. It wasn’t a good look for these guys. Is it the loss of Hiestand or just the personnel?While I would have preferred a bigger name than Jeff Quinn at the position, but BK’s greatest successes were the result of his collaboration with Quinn so I’m hopeful. Maverick had a good point worth sharing:
He Said it Best-
Geek Stat- Last year Ball St had 6 interceptions as a team all year (https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/ball-state/2017.html) and none in their first game this year. Nonetheless, three different players intercepted Wimbush
BK’s Post Michigan Speech- I’m not an excitable guy when watching sports, but that clip of BK talking to the team after beating Michigan got me excited. Does anybody have that video?
Geek Stat- 3rd Down Efficiency. Building off of @Bryan_Driskell’s point on 3rd down efficiency last week, this is the breakdown for this game: Ball St. was 8-23 (about 35%) while ND was 4-14 (about 29%), however Ball St. was 3-3 on 4th down while ND was 1-2. It was a definite and obvious drop-off for ND.
