I’m back after a brief hiatus. This was a solid win against a solid, well coached team and you never know what you’re gonna get in college football. Remember Brohm and Purdue throttled Ohio State in 2018.
Due to personnel losses from last year I think many expected there to be a drop off for ND this year which is too bad, because during the 1st 3 weeks of this season, nobody looks unbeatable. I dare say if last year’s ND team was competing this year I think they’d run the table and win the CFP.
First Drive- After the good starts at FSU and against Toledo, I thought the slow starts that we’ve seen from Kelly’s teams were a thing of the past, but this was a shocking opening. Starting with a sack on the opening play for a big loss and a false start right after that, it didn’t look good for the Irish. In fact, the 1st 3 possessions, they had 10 plays for a total of 6 yards, and every play looked dreadful. Even defensively, there were a lot of missed tackles and Purdue was looking pretty good.
Turning It Around- Two plays stand out in my mind that really turned this around: The 1st was Kyle Hamilton (more on him later) swinging in like Spider-Man to make that stop of 4th and 1 at the end of the 1st quarter. I watched that play a number of times and I’m not sure how he made that tackle. Watching the play in real time, I was sure Purdue would convert on the play. Little did I know how good and fast Hamilton is. That got the blood flowing for the team. Coan comes in and makes a big pass to Davis and then they bring in Buchner for a play. It was only a short run for Buchner, but the stiff arm he gave the Purdue player really got the crowd going. Coan threaded the needle perfectly on the next play with a the TD pass to Williams. Order had been restored.
QBs- Kelly has worked this 2 QB system pretty well so far but I think you always need one main QB and I think it’s Coan. He’s a tough hombre, has a big arm, and he’s pretty accurate, but you can’t put a premium on his experience. This wasn’t a great game for him, but he made the throws when he had to and didn’t turn the ball over. That’s important to me.That said, I think Buchner will get situational plays throughout the year and he’ll get the necessary experience for when he takes over next year. Training up the eventual replacement is one area where I don’t BK has done a particularly good job over the years. This is a fair assessment:
D Front- They made some great strides in this game, finally showing the ability to stop the run. After the disastrous showing at FSU where they gave up a whopping 264 yds rushing followed by 124 yds to Toledo, the D held Purdue to just 57 yards. Foskey and MTA made some great tackles in the backfield and really kept Purdue from establishing a ground game. This bodes well for the Wisconsin game. Right about the 4 minutes remaining mark in the 2nd Q Purdue ran for no gain, but the part that stood out was Hinish holding the line and allowing others to make the play. He doesn’t really do anything special, but he does the little things that make the unit more effective.
Hamilton- He’s one of the very best players I’ve seen here at ND. He was everywhere on Saturday, whether it was in solid coverage, the 4th and 1 that I mentioned earlier, a pass breakup and near Pick 6 on the 1st Purdue possession and, the eventual INT that he made, and leading the team in solo tackles. He’s an exceptional player and, as high as expectations were for him, he’s exceeded them.
Bertrand- Alternatively, we have Bertrand who, although a solid player, wasn’t expected to to be a starter, and wasn’t expected to be this good even when he was named the starter after Liufau was lost for the year. Let these Geek Stats settle in: Through 3 games, Bertrand has led the team in total tackles in EVERY game. He’s led the team in solo tackles twice and was tied for second in the other game. He has 34 total tackles, 21 solo, 4 tackles for loss, and 1 sack.
D in General- It was a solid job particularly in the red zone, holding Purdue to just one TD. After the board was all up in arms about Freeman for the first couple of weeks, I think he and the players have settled in and this is the tough type of defense that we’re going to see more of, and I agree with @thomasna that when Freeman gets more of the type of players that he’s looking for for the type of D he wants to run, it’s going to be championship caliber. Super Geek Stats: Over the past 3 years this is how Cincy’s Defense has ranked nationally under Freeman. 2018, 12th with it’s nearest major program being Alabama at 15. 2019, 35th, right behind Oklahoma. 2020, 13th, 2 behind Georgia and 2 in front of Penn State. My point is that this is the right coach in the right place and he’s going to attract a higher caliber of player than he did at Cincy and our D is going to be the strength of this team.
Offense in General- Here I’m not as optimistic. As great a game manager as Rees was as a player, it seems like he’s doing On-The-Job Training as an OC. I think many of his plays are predictable and that he may be the cause of the offensive inconsistency. When your team goes out and gets the best DC coordinator available, your OC shouldn’t be learning the ropes.
O-Line- It’s still a work in progress. Early in the first quarter they displayed a graphic showing sacks allowed throughout the year. FSU had 4 sacks, Toledo 6 and, up to that point Purdue had 2 in the first Q. They ended up with 4 total. A significant number, no doubt, but they straightened things out as the game went on. Tosh Baker had his hands full with Karlaftis early on, but then started getting the upper hand to the point that Purdue moved Karlaftis to the other side as the game wore on. Add to that, ND had its 2nd consecutive game with over 100 yards on the ground. I honestly believe that what we’ve seen so far is a unit that needs to gel more before we see the final product. There was one play in the Toledo game where 2 rushers split 3 ND linemen toward the end of the game and sacked Coan. It was’t them getting overmatched with strength or speed, it was a group that needs to work in concert more and improve their team technique. I think this will work itself out over the next few weeks. Props to @U2fan for pointing out Cain Madden’s road paving on Williams’ long TD run.
Special Teams- Remember when ST were an absolute disaster on this team? No more. Sure, Doerer missed a FGA this week and last, but he’s made some big kicks when they count and on XP. Kick returing has been sure-handed efficient and Bramblett did a great job keeping Purdue on the wrong side of the field all game.
Coan/O-Line 2nd Half- This is what had me most excited. If you watch that long TD pass to Davis, Coan had almost perfect protection. The ring around him looked like that of a good NFL team. He had time, distance from defenders, and he could step into the ball and placed it perfectly. I like the pro-style QBs. They work best when you have a good O-line, and traditionally the line is an area ND recruits very well. Not only that, get a good pro-style QB in the NFL and he’s advertising your program every week. Just my opinion. I thought the game was over at this point but Purdue had other ideas.
It Was Over When- It was really over when Williams broke out on that long TD run to put ND up 27-13 mid-way through the 4th. A couple of ND INTs helped seal it, but Williams slammed the door on Perdue and broke their backs.
Post Game Post of-The-Game- From @GoldenJudge :
Due to personnel losses from last year I think many expected there to be a drop off for ND this year which is too bad, because during the 1st 3 weeks of this season, nobody looks unbeatable. I dare say if last year’s ND team was competing this year I think they’d run the table and win the CFP.
First Drive- After the good starts at FSU and against Toledo, I thought the slow starts that we’ve seen from Kelly’s teams were a thing of the past, but this was a shocking opening. Starting with a sack on the opening play for a big loss and a false start right after that, it didn’t look good for the Irish. In fact, the 1st 3 possessions, they had 10 plays for a total of 6 yards, and every play looked dreadful. Even defensively, there were a lot of missed tackles and Purdue was looking pretty good.
Turning It Around- Two plays stand out in my mind that really turned this around: The 1st was Kyle Hamilton (more on him later) swinging in like Spider-Man to make that stop of 4th and 1 at the end of the 1st quarter. I watched that play a number of times and I’m not sure how he made that tackle. Watching the play in real time, I was sure Purdue would convert on the play. Little did I know how good and fast Hamilton is. That got the blood flowing for the team. Coan comes in and makes a big pass to Davis and then they bring in Buchner for a play. It was only a short run for Buchner, but the stiff arm he gave the Purdue player really got the crowd going. Coan threaded the needle perfectly on the next play with a the TD pass to Williams. Order had been restored.
QBs- Kelly has worked this 2 QB system pretty well so far but I think you always need one main QB and I think it’s Coan. He’s a tough hombre, has a big arm, and he’s pretty accurate, but you can’t put a premium on his experience. This wasn’t a great game for him, but he made the throws when he had to and didn’t turn the ball over. That’s important to me.That said, I think Buchner will get situational plays throughout the year and he’ll get the necessary experience for when he takes over next year. Training up the eventual replacement is one area where I don’t BK has done a particularly good job over the years. This is a fair assessment:
D Front- They made some great strides in this game, finally showing the ability to stop the run. After the disastrous showing at FSU where they gave up a whopping 264 yds rushing followed by 124 yds to Toledo, the D held Purdue to just 57 yards. Foskey and MTA made some great tackles in the backfield and really kept Purdue from establishing a ground game. This bodes well for the Wisconsin game. Right about the 4 minutes remaining mark in the 2nd Q Purdue ran for no gain, but the part that stood out was Hinish holding the line and allowing others to make the play. He doesn’t really do anything special, but he does the little things that make the unit more effective.
Hamilton- He’s one of the very best players I’ve seen here at ND. He was everywhere on Saturday, whether it was in solid coverage, the 4th and 1 that I mentioned earlier, a pass breakup and near Pick 6 on the 1st Purdue possession and, the eventual INT that he made, and leading the team in solo tackles. He’s an exceptional player and, as high as expectations were for him, he’s exceeded them.
Bertrand- Alternatively, we have Bertrand who, although a solid player, wasn’t expected to to be a starter, and wasn’t expected to be this good even when he was named the starter after Liufau was lost for the year. Let these Geek Stats settle in: Through 3 games, Bertrand has led the team in total tackles in EVERY game. He’s led the team in solo tackles twice and was tied for second in the other game. He has 34 total tackles, 21 solo, 4 tackles for loss, and 1 sack.
D in General- It was a solid job particularly in the red zone, holding Purdue to just one TD. After the board was all up in arms about Freeman for the first couple of weeks, I think he and the players have settled in and this is the tough type of defense that we’re going to see more of, and I agree with @thomasna that when Freeman gets more of the type of players that he’s looking for for the type of D he wants to run, it’s going to be championship caliber. Super Geek Stats: Over the past 3 years this is how Cincy’s Defense has ranked nationally under Freeman. 2018, 12th with it’s nearest major program being Alabama at 15. 2019, 35th, right behind Oklahoma. 2020, 13th, 2 behind Georgia and 2 in front of Penn State. My point is that this is the right coach in the right place and he’s going to attract a higher caliber of player than he did at Cincy and our D is going to be the strength of this team.
Offense in General- Here I’m not as optimistic. As great a game manager as Rees was as a player, it seems like he’s doing On-The-Job Training as an OC. I think many of his plays are predictable and that he may be the cause of the offensive inconsistency. When your team goes out and gets the best DC coordinator available, your OC shouldn’t be learning the ropes.
O-Line- It’s still a work in progress. Early in the first quarter they displayed a graphic showing sacks allowed throughout the year. FSU had 4 sacks, Toledo 6 and, up to that point Purdue had 2 in the first Q. They ended up with 4 total. A significant number, no doubt, but they straightened things out as the game went on. Tosh Baker had his hands full with Karlaftis early on, but then started getting the upper hand to the point that Purdue moved Karlaftis to the other side as the game wore on. Add to that, ND had its 2nd consecutive game with over 100 yards on the ground. I honestly believe that what we’ve seen so far is a unit that needs to gel more before we see the final product. There was one play in the Toledo game where 2 rushers split 3 ND linemen toward the end of the game and sacked Coan. It was’t them getting overmatched with strength or speed, it was a group that needs to work in concert more and improve their team technique. I think this will work itself out over the next few weeks. Props to @U2fan for pointing out Cain Madden’s road paving on Williams’ long TD run.
Special Teams- Remember when ST were an absolute disaster on this team? No more. Sure, Doerer missed a FGA this week and last, but he’s made some big kicks when they count and on XP. Kick returing has been sure-handed efficient and Bramblett did a great job keeping Purdue on the wrong side of the field all game.
Coan/O-Line 2nd Half- This is what had me most excited. If you watch that long TD pass to Davis, Coan had almost perfect protection. The ring around him looked like that of a good NFL team. He had time, distance from defenders, and he could step into the ball and placed it perfectly. I like the pro-style QBs. They work best when you have a good O-line, and traditionally the line is an area ND recruits very well. Not only that, get a good pro-style QB in the NFL and he’s advertising your program every week. Just my opinion. I thought the game was over at this point but Purdue had other ideas.
It Was Over When- It was really over when Williams broke out on that long TD run to put ND up 27-13 mid-way through the 4th. A couple of ND INTs helped seal it, but Williams slammed the door on Perdue and broke their backs.
Post Game Post of-The-Game- From @GoldenJudge :
Keep In Mind-
