Opening Drive- It’s great to accept the ball rather than defer if you’re confident you’re going to score and I think BK is always confident of that. ND came out with a great opening drive and scored on only 3 plays. Awesome touch by Kizer on the TD pass to Fuller. It set the tone for the game early on.
Special Teams- Again, this has become a real strength on this team. Whether it’s the punting game, field goals, punt/kickoff coverage, et al, they’re getting it done. CJ Sanders always seems to make the right play, and when he runs back returns he usually gets some great yardage. Mathias Farley had a great game and really made some impact plays. The only issue was the initial kickoff to Pitt by Newsome that went out of bounds. What a change from the past few years.
Defense- Van Gorder’s defense is the kind that you don’t really appreciate until you see the final score. During the game on Saturday, there were a lot of posters with negative comments about the defense. Among the comments were that the defensive line was getting pushed back a number of yards by the Pitt o-line on every play. Despite all of the issues, Pitt only scored 3 points in the first half. The first 2 Pitt drives resulted in 84 yards and 3 points while the next 5 drives netted 81 yards and no points. As I often point out, football is a game of adjustments, and I think Van Gorder makes good adjustments. ND was comfortably ahead before the blown coverage in garbage time. The final 7 Pitt points were scored by the defense. Chris Speilman said this in the 4th quarter: “The [ND] defense is outstanding this year and only getting better.” I agree.
Offensive Line- Continues to be very good. I saw Ronnie Stanley get beat by Juan Price one time, and Chase Hounshelle another, but other than that they had a solid group effort. Did I miss any false starts or holds? I can’t think of any off hand. Kizer had 6 touchdowns, but as a team ND had 175 yards rushing. Harry Hiestand is the man.
Josh Adams- His first carry was for about 20 yards. I was shocked by his acceleration after hitting the hole. All game he made great cuts, had great vision, and didn’t run upright, which was a common complaint about him when he was being recruited. Speaking of recruiting, he was a Rivals 3-star recruit. He had torn his ACL, I believe, which prevented him from playing for a year and led to the low ranking. One Rivals poster who was familiar with him (kadleman, perhaps) posted that the kid would have been a 5-star recruit and much more sought after if he wasn’t injured. In any event. We’re luckyb to have him and he’s damn good.
Kizer- What else is there to say? He’s been terrific. Outside of his running and passing, he took some big hits against Pitt and just shook them off. Juan Price blew past Chase Hounshell in the first quarter and put a big hit on him. He also took another shot on a corner blitz later in the game. He’s a very elusive player, too. He always seems to be able to just get out of the reach of the defense trying to grab him. He really threaded the needle on that TD pass to Torii Hunter. The only criticism I have from Saturday is that sometimes he locks in on his receivers and doesn’t see the rush coming, particularly from the left side. That was evident on the corner blitz. He had his back to the CB because I thin k he was locked in on Fuller. It seems like they moved Fuller around after that to give him some different looks. It happens with young QB’s. Not a big deal.
Romeo Okwara- The light must have come on for this guy because he has turned into a complete animal. He made a number of great plays, but the one that sticks out most in my mind is on Pitt’s opening drive, they had a 1st and 10 on the ND 43 and attempted a flea flicker. Okwara wasn’t fooled at all and wrecked the QB on the play, driving Pitt back to their own 44-yard line. That effectively stopped Pitt’s opening drive and set the tone for the game.
Jaylon Smith- He’s the man on so many levels. Right after the Okwara sack, Smith blitzed the Pitt QB who just barely got the ball off before Smith drove him to the ground. On another play, the Pitt running back was trying to turn the corner on the left side and the ND defense was forcing him to the outside. Smith ran through all of the ND defenders like they were standing still and made the tackle. It looked like something from The Matrix the way he was moving. Great game all around for Smith.
Max Redfield- It looked like Keivarae Russell was motioning to Redfield on the blown4th quarter Pitt TD pass. I’m not sure what the mix-up was there, but I thought Redfield had a good game from what I saw on TV. He made some saving tackles and delivered some solid hits. I read some posts by others who where critical of Redfield’s game against Pitt, but I didn’t see that.
Joe Schmidt- For all the complaints about this guy, I don’t really see the opposition trying to target him. Perhaps that’s more a function of the defensive line and, to a lesser extent, Jaylon Smith’s range, but I don’t see other teams going right at him. I saw him successfully defend one pass in his direction, but other than that he didn’t really seem to figure in a lot of the plays. Ideally, I would like to see more of a playmaker in his position, but I think the positives the coaches see in him outweigh the negatives.
Commentators- I listened to Sean McDonough for years as the Red Sox play by play man so I really like him a lot. He’s a great commentator at a number of different sports and different levels. His dad, Will McDonough was one of the great people in sports, and a real gentleman. Chris Speilman also did a great job. They were very complimentary to Brian Kelly and the ND program. Specifically, they were talking about the injuries we have had this year and how people have stepped up to fill the void. I believe it was McDonough who said: “Credit to Brian Kelly and his recruiting.” Overall, I think it was the best called ND game that I can remember over the past few years.
Miscellaneous- Great pass rushing from Andrew Trumbetti and James Onwualu. Nice job by Tevon Coney recovering the onside kick. Nice games by Amir Carlisle and Torii Hunter and great blocking by Chris Brown. Hopefully CJ Procise isn’t out long. I can’t understand why people empty out of the stadium so early. Six minutes left and the stands were almost empty. In between the 3rd and 4th quarters what were the Pitt players doing? Reminds me of:
I look forward to hearing other people’s opinions.
Special Teams- Again, this has become a real strength on this team. Whether it’s the punting game, field goals, punt/kickoff coverage, et al, they’re getting it done. CJ Sanders always seems to make the right play, and when he runs back returns he usually gets some great yardage. Mathias Farley had a great game and really made some impact plays. The only issue was the initial kickoff to Pitt by Newsome that went out of bounds. What a change from the past few years.
Defense- Van Gorder’s defense is the kind that you don’t really appreciate until you see the final score. During the game on Saturday, there were a lot of posters with negative comments about the defense. Among the comments were that the defensive line was getting pushed back a number of yards by the Pitt o-line on every play. Despite all of the issues, Pitt only scored 3 points in the first half. The first 2 Pitt drives resulted in 84 yards and 3 points while the next 5 drives netted 81 yards and no points. As I often point out, football is a game of adjustments, and I think Van Gorder makes good adjustments. ND was comfortably ahead before the blown coverage in garbage time. The final 7 Pitt points were scored by the defense. Chris Speilman said this in the 4th quarter: “The [ND] defense is outstanding this year and only getting better.” I agree.
Offensive Line- Continues to be very good. I saw Ronnie Stanley get beat by Juan Price one time, and Chase Hounshelle another, but other than that they had a solid group effort. Did I miss any false starts or holds? I can’t think of any off hand. Kizer had 6 touchdowns, but as a team ND had 175 yards rushing. Harry Hiestand is the man.
Josh Adams- His first carry was for about 20 yards. I was shocked by his acceleration after hitting the hole. All game he made great cuts, had great vision, and didn’t run upright, which was a common complaint about him when he was being recruited. Speaking of recruiting, he was a Rivals 3-star recruit. He had torn his ACL, I believe, which prevented him from playing for a year and led to the low ranking. One Rivals poster who was familiar with him (kadleman, perhaps) posted that the kid would have been a 5-star recruit and much more sought after if he wasn’t injured. In any event. We’re luckyb to have him and he’s damn good.
Kizer- What else is there to say? He’s been terrific. Outside of his running and passing, he took some big hits against Pitt and just shook them off. Juan Price blew past Chase Hounshell in the first quarter and put a big hit on him. He also took another shot on a corner blitz later in the game. He’s a very elusive player, too. He always seems to be able to just get out of the reach of the defense trying to grab him. He really threaded the needle on that TD pass to Torii Hunter. The only criticism I have from Saturday is that sometimes he locks in on his receivers and doesn’t see the rush coming, particularly from the left side. That was evident on the corner blitz. He had his back to the CB because I thin k he was locked in on Fuller. It seems like they moved Fuller around after that to give him some different looks. It happens with young QB’s. Not a big deal.
Romeo Okwara- The light must have come on for this guy because he has turned into a complete animal. He made a number of great plays, but the one that sticks out most in my mind is on Pitt’s opening drive, they had a 1st and 10 on the ND 43 and attempted a flea flicker. Okwara wasn’t fooled at all and wrecked the QB on the play, driving Pitt back to their own 44-yard line. That effectively stopped Pitt’s opening drive and set the tone for the game.
Jaylon Smith- He’s the man on so many levels. Right after the Okwara sack, Smith blitzed the Pitt QB who just barely got the ball off before Smith drove him to the ground. On another play, the Pitt running back was trying to turn the corner on the left side and the ND defense was forcing him to the outside. Smith ran through all of the ND defenders like they were standing still and made the tackle. It looked like something from The Matrix the way he was moving. Great game all around for Smith.
Max Redfield- It looked like Keivarae Russell was motioning to Redfield on the blown4th quarter Pitt TD pass. I’m not sure what the mix-up was there, but I thought Redfield had a good game from what I saw on TV. He made some saving tackles and delivered some solid hits. I read some posts by others who where critical of Redfield’s game against Pitt, but I didn’t see that.
Joe Schmidt- For all the complaints about this guy, I don’t really see the opposition trying to target him. Perhaps that’s more a function of the defensive line and, to a lesser extent, Jaylon Smith’s range, but I don’t see other teams going right at him. I saw him successfully defend one pass in his direction, but other than that he didn’t really seem to figure in a lot of the plays. Ideally, I would like to see more of a playmaker in his position, but I think the positives the coaches see in him outweigh the negatives.
Commentators- I listened to Sean McDonough for years as the Red Sox play by play man so I really like him a lot. He’s a great commentator at a number of different sports and different levels. His dad, Will McDonough was one of the great people in sports, and a real gentleman. Chris Speilman also did a great job. They were very complimentary to Brian Kelly and the ND program. Specifically, they were talking about the injuries we have had this year and how people have stepped up to fill the void. I believe it was McDonough who said: “Credit to Brian Kelly and his recruiting.” Overall, I think it was the best called ND game that I can remember over the past few years.
Miscellaneous- Great pass rushing from Andrew Trumbetti and James Onwualu. Nice job by Tevon Coney recovering the onside kick. Nice games by Amir Carlisle and Torii Hunter and great blocking by Chris Brown. Hopefully CJ Procise isn’t out long. I can’t understand why people empty out of the stadium so early. Six minutes left and the stands were almost empty. In between the 3rd and 4th quarters what were the Pitt players doing? Reminds me of:
I look forward to hearing other people’s opinions.
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