First, I really enjoy the NBC Sports telecasts to the ABC/ESPN ones. I think NBC is much more even handed on their coverage. I'm not the biggest Doug Flutie fan, but he's better than the ESPN crew. He was pretty good for most of the game. Mike Tirico is very good, IMO.
On that topic, there was a Notre Dame video that NBC showed just before the game that I thought was just awesome. To me, it was a really powerful recruiting tool. If I was a kid looking at playing college football, the video definitely would have intrigued me.
On to the game itself. Not a lot to critique here and, like always, if I bring something up it's more of a talking point rather than a criticism. Overall, it was a great game for the Irish and I was happy to watch it. The opening drives by both teams had me thinking, "Oh boy, I've seen this before." It looked like we were gong to see another sluggish ND offense a week after lighting it up in Austin. Great catch by EQ St. Brown was eliminated by the Smythe pick, but it was a flash of what we were going to see later in the game.
On the other hand, I was a bit nervous that we were going to see the D from the Texas game during Nevada's first series. They moved the ball well and made at least deep challenges downfield that, while broken up, made me think the secondary was going to get torched again. Add in some penalties (offsides, facemask) and the injury to Crawford (More on that later) and it looked like Nevada was going to get something going. On one play, Ty Ganji, the #3 QB on the depth chart ran around to the left and made a nice gain. I've seen a lot of posters claim that the D is slow, and Ganji sure made them look slow on that particular play. He was stopped by Nyles Morgan,however (more on thatg later). Luckily, ND stemmed the tide and forced a punt. From there on, it was all ND andnever really in doubt.
I mentioned last week how well i thought Shaun Crawford played, and this week I'll say how much we're going to miss that kid. This really hurts the secondary. Crawford was one of the most explosive players on the team and his loss is going to hurt. It's going to hurt in terms of playmakers and it's going to hurt even more in terms of depth at position of need.
Tevon Coney stepped up and made some great plays in the game. It was a limited sample size, for sure, but I thought he played a great game.
Special teams- Overall, I think we've seen an improvement this year. I mentioned some deficiencies last week, but overall I think they're better than we've seen in the Kelly era. CJ Sanders is a breath of fresh air in the return game (Not to mention as a receiver! WOW!). I think there was only one kickoff/punt that he returned that reasonably could have been a touch back that he returned that I thought he should have let go. He's been very good. Perhaps more importantly, I think the coverage on the kickoffs has been a lot better this year. Yoon had a good game kicking the ball while Tyler Newsome was hit or miss with his punts.
Josh Adams is really something special. Sure, his long runs are impressive and he has great speed and great moves, but the thing that impresses me the most about him is his work in the short yardage game. He's tough. I don't think he had the ball in a short yardage situation where he didn't pick up the yards. While Dexter Williams had a good performance, it wasn't Tarean Folston's finest game. Part of the reason for that seemed, in my viewing, to be the fact that carried the ball on all of the obvoious runing situations. Depsite what some on the board will say, he's not the worst of the RB's.
@BGI User 3340 pointed this out in an excellent post he had earlier, but Daniel Cage had an awesome stop on 4th down that ended the Wolfpack drive. I thought he had an excellent overall game as did the rest of the D-Line after the opening Nevada possession. Jerron Cage, come on down!
Kizer is a surgeon and his blood pressure wouldn't go up in a plane crash. That is all. Nothing left to add there.
There is no pass rush. Need to generate something to keep teams honest. That is all. Nothing left to add there.
I was very happy to see how well Malik Zaire played. The play that sticks out in my mind, obviously, is the forward shovel pass he had. One of the better improvised plays I've seen in a while. I really like the kid and I hope they get him in the action moving forward. The way they run Kizer up the middle, Zaire better stay ready because he may be playing a lot. On that note, I wonder if the McGlinchey offsides was due to the 2 QB, not being used to the cadence of the different QB's.
The red zone offense is much improved with Kizer at QB.
He's no Jaylon Smith, but I saw Nyles Morgan make some unbelievable plays running to the outside and stopping runs. He blew past guys that had been well in front of him tracking down the runner. He's only going to get better.
I mentioned St. Brown and there's no doubt that kid is going to be a great receiver (I believe his stats were skewed by two long receptions that were called back) but the young guns, receivers Corey Holmes, Kevin Stepherson, Chris Finke (a former walk on!) and Chase Claypool really showed something to look forward to in the future.
Some real nice work by Cole Luke and Devin Studstill in the secondary.
Penalties- Sometimes the team seems undisciplined. 9 penalties for 94 yards this game and 11 penalties for 104 yards against Texas. Both times ND was on the wrong side of the penalty yardage. That needs to change.
I know it may be a regional thing, but there were so many political ads in the New England broadcast that I was begging for an Arby's commercial.
Crazy week at work so I'm off to a slow start and didn't get everything I wanted in here. Just like I do with every aspect of the team, I really want BVG to succeed. Hopefully this pushes the D to a great performance against MSU.
I've read several posts about injuries on the team (brought on by Crawford). One poster mentioned the number of lower extremity injuries. Anything to it? Conditioning/turf/cleats? I would assume they happen on every team, but it sure seems like we have a lot of these injuries.
I always appreciate the comments and take them all constructively. I just throw my thoughts out there to stimulate the conversation, so have at it.
Have a great weekend, folks.
On that topic, there was a Notre Dame video that NBC showed just before the game that I thought was just awesome. To me, it was a really powerful recruiting tool. If I was a kid looking at playing college football, the video definitely would have intrigued me.
On to the game itself. Not a lot to critique here and, like always, if I bring something up it's more of a talking point rather than a criticism. Overall, it was a great game for the Irish and I was happy to watch it. The opening drives by both teams had me thinking, "Oh boy, I've seen this before." It looked like we were gong to see another sluggish ND offense a week after lighting it up in Austin. Great catch by EQ St. Brown was eliminated by the Smythe pick, but it was a flash of what we were going to see later in the game.
On the other hand, I was a bit nervous that we were going to see the D from the Texas game during Nevada's first series. They moved the ball well and made at least deep challenges downfield that, while broken up, made me think the secondary was going to get torched again. Add in some penalties (offsides, facemask) and the injury to Crawford (More on that later) and it looked like Nevada was going to get something going. On one play, Ty Ganji, the #3 QB on the depth chart ran around to the left and made a nice gain. I've seen a lot of posters claim that the D is slow, and Ganji sure made them look slow on that particular play. He was stopped by Nyles Morgan,however (more on thatg later). Luckily, ND stemmed the tide and forced a punt. From there on, it was all ND andnever really in doubt.
I mentioned last week how well i thought Shaun Crawford played, and this week I'll say how much we're going to miss that kid. This really hurts the secondary. Crawford was one of the most explosive players on the team and his loss is going to hurt. It's going to hurt in terms of playmakers and it's going to hurt even more in terms of depth at position of need.
Tevon Coney stepped up and made some great plays in the game. It was a limited sample size, for sure, but I thought he played a great game.
Special teams- Overall, I think we've seen an improvement this year. I mentioned some deficiencies last week, but overall I think they're better than we've seen in the Kelly era. CJ Sanders is a breath of fresh air in the return game (Not to mention as a receiver! WOW!). I think there was only one kickoff/punt that he returned that reasonably could have been a touch back that he returned that I thought he should have let go. He's been very good. Perhaps more importantly, I think the coverage on the kickoffs has been a lot better this year. Yoon had a good game kicking the ball while Tyler Newsome was hit or miss with his punts.
Josh Adams is really something special. Sure, his long runs are impressive and he has great speed and great moves, but the thing that impresses me the most about him is his work in the short yardage game. He's tough. I don't think he had the ball in a short yardage situation where he didn't pick up the yards. While Dexter Williams had a good performance, it wasn't Tarean Folston's finest game. Part of the reason for that seemed, in my viewing, to be the fact that carried the ball on all of the obvoious runing situations. Depsite what some on the board will say, he's not the worst of the RB's.
@BGI User 3340 pointed this out in an excellent post he had earlier, but Daniel Cage had an awesome stop on 4th down that ended the Wolfpack drive. I thought he had an excellent overall game as did the rest of the D-Line after the opening Nevada possession. Jerron Cage, come on down!
Kizer is a surgeon and his blood pressure wouldn't go up in a plane crash. That is all. Nothing left to add there.
There is no pass rush. Need to generate something to keep teams honest. That is all. Nothing left to add there.
I was very happy to see how well Malik Zaire played. The play that sticks out in my mind, obviously, is the forward shovel pass he had. One of the better improvised plays I've seen in a while. I really like the kid and I hope they get him in the action moving forward. The way they run Kizer up the middle, Zaire better stay ready because he may be playing a lot. On that note, I wonder if the McGlinchey offsides was due to the 2 QB, not being used to the cadence of the different QB's.
The red zone offense is much improved with Kizer at QB.
He's no Jaylon Smith, but I saw Nyles Morgan make some unbelievable plays running to the outside and stopping runs. He blew past guys that had been well in front of him tracking down the runner. He's only going to get better.
I mentioned St. Brown and there's no doubt that kid is going to be a great receiver (I believe his stats were skewed by two long receptions that were called back) but the young guns, receivers Corey Holmes, Kevin Stepherson, Chris Finke (a former walk on!) and Chase Claypool really showed something to look forward to in the future.
Some real nice work by Cole Luke and Devin Studstill in the secondary.
Penalties- Sometimes the team seems undisciplined. 9 penalties for 94 yards this game and 11 penalties for 104 yards against Texas. Both times ND was on the wrong side of the penalty yardage. That needs to change.
I know it may be a regional thing, but there were so many political ads in the New England broadcast that I was begging for an Arby's commercial.
Crazy week at work so I'm off to a slow start and didn't get everything I wanted in here. Just like I do with every aspect of the team, I really want BVG to succeed. Hopefully this pushes the D to a great performance against MSU.
I've read several posts about injuries on the team (brought on by Crawford). One poster mentioned the number of lower extremity injuries. Anything to it? Conditioning/turf/cleats? I would assume they happen on every team, but it sure seems like we have a lot of these injuries.
I always appreciate the comments and take them all constructively. I just throw my thoughts out there to stimulate the conversation, so have at it.
Have a great weekend, folks.
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