In my opinion, we just watched the most complete performance from a ND team that we have seen in a number of years, not to mention the absolute dominance of a ranked team. There was a lot of knee-knocking over this game with many people predicting a very close game. Even regular ND stalwart @joemontana admitted that he was “worried as hell about this game.” Nonetheless, this game was over before the 1st half ended.
In my posting after the VT game, I mentioned the following statistic:
Geek Stats- ND had nearly twice as many total yards as Syracuse (463-234) and had possession of the ball for nearly 4 and half minutes longer than Syracuse despite scoring quickly on short fields due to turnovers by Syracuse.
Pre-Game Post-of- the-Game-
Book- Another solid performance after a week off due to injury. He showed a little rust, but overall he had a very good day going 23-37 (62%) for 292 yards and 2 TDs. He added 16 yards on 6 rushes. He’s very elusive in the backfield and he really has great pocket awareness. You hate to see any QB throw an INT, but I was happy that it wasn’t the result of a bad read or throwing into double coverage. I got the sense that he was trying to make a quick snap and just kept the motion going as he fell down. Dumb move, but I don’t think he’s prone to repeating it.
Rushing- No, @marcsmooks was incorrect, Dexter Williams did not get 200 yards rushing. In fact the whole team didn’t get 200 yards on the ground. They did, however, gain 171 yards as a team on 36 carries for a respectable 4.8 yards per carry and 2 TDs. As good as the Syracuse run game appeared, ND still outgained them on the ground by more than 50 yards.
New ND November- 3-0 and soon to be perfect this November. Brian Kelly getting his groove back and once again showing what was once a great strength of his.
Shamrock Series Uniforms- Horrific. I’m trying to erase them from my memory and I’ll never speak of them again.
Khalid Kareem- Terrible penalty, roughing the passer right after Hayes and Coney had sacked DeVito at the 38 and DeVito then threw 2 incomplete passes. As bad as it seemed at the time, ND was up 36 points and the only effect of the penalty was to allow Syracuse to put a few points on the board, but they ultimately missed a FG attempt. Not his best game numbers wise, but I didn’t see him get blown up on any plays.
Penalties/Turnovers- Along that same line, ND had more penalties than Syracuse (7-3) but ND’s penalties only yielded 10 more yards than Syracuse’s (55-45). Nonetheless, they need to show more discipline in their game before it really hurts them. On a positive note, ND won the turnover battle 3-1 on the backs of that shutdown secondary.
Defense- Geek Stats right off the bat: This year Syracuse has scored 55, 62, 30, 51, 23, 37, 40, 51, 41, and 54 points (444 total) for an average of 44.4 points per game. Against ND, they scored 3 points… against the 2nd teamers… in garbage time. Let that sink in and think of how good your defense is. Syracuse was able to get some yardage on runs up the middle, but ND prevented them from getting any sustained drives. When it was all said and done, Syracuse managed 119 rushing yards on 38 carries for a paltry 3.1 yards per carry.
Pass Defense- In the passing defense, ND completely shut Syracuse down, allowing 15 completions on 35 attempts for 115 yards and an embarrassing 3.3 yards per completion. Outside of the Syracuse drive in the 2nd Q, whenever a receiver caught the ball he was immediately overwhelmed by ND tacklers. The ND secondary looks to be championship caliber.
Tranquill- Every time I see him linger on the ground I gasp, because he's that imprtant to this team. He was having a hell of a game with 2 sacks when he came out. Not sure if he returned after that but I did see Bilal fill in for him and do well.
O-Line- They didn’t get the push that they had last game and they gave up 2 sacks and 7 TFLs, but they were good when they had to be and gave Book plenty of time to make plays. Hainsey had several false starts but overall I thought he did a good job on the line. @Mizzo37 smartly reminds us that Mike McGlinchey had a few false starts in his time here, even earning the moniker “McFlinchey.” If I recall correctly he turned out alright.
Eichenberg and Banks- They’ve really solidified the left side of the O-Line and they look to be getting better moving into the final game.
The @UserND83 Exclamation Point Play of the Game! Syracuse is driving in the 2nd Q with ND up 13-0. DeVito throws a dart to Harris who probably catches it if Gilman doesn’t hit him with an attitude and catch the carom and run it back 54 yards. It was one of the best INTs I’ve ever seen and it adds to the Gilman legend.
It Was Over When- Jafar Armstrong punched it from 9 yards out after the Gilman INT. ND leads 20-0 before the half and the 2 teams exchange punts over the next 3 possessions.
@unclemikey rightly states, “This is not a good team.”
Post Game Post-of-the-Game-
Julian Love- He’s really improving his draft stock. He had 5 tackles, 2 for loss, and a QB hurry. Everytime someone near him got the ball they were hit and stopped immediately. He’s a very impressive player.
Coney- Another guy that continues to amaze me. 12 tackles, 3 solo, and half a sack. He just seems to be everywhere.
We’re on to USC to put the final Exclamation Point on this season. ND hasn’t won at USC since 2012. That changes this week. This magical regular season ends on a high note with ND routing the Trojans and solidifying their place in the CFP.
As an aside, I was watching clips of the OSU-Maryland game and saw Urban Meyer feigning medical issues of the sideline, likely throwing up the smokescreen for his departure from Columbus. Pathetic.
Have a great week everyone.
In my posting after the VT game, I mentioned the following statistic:
Now people can spin this Shamrock Series game anyway they want, but these games are NOT home games. Sure, the majority of the crowd were ND fans, but ND travels well everywhere. For all intents and purposes, this was a road game, and it was a 33 point margin of victory over a ranked team. At the time of the VT game they were ranked #24 with a season high ranking of #12. Syracuse was ranked #12 at the time of this game. As impressive as the VT victory was, this was a much more impressive and decisive victory.
Geek Stats- ND had nearly twice as many total yards as Syracuse (463-234) and had possession of the ball for nearly 4 and half minutes longer than Syracuse despite scoring quickly on short fields due to turnovers by Syracuse.
Pre-Game Post-of- the-Game-
Marc pretty much hit this one right on the head with the exception of Dexter topping 200 yards. Book did spread the ball around, hitting 7 different receivers for 292 yards and 2 TDs. By comparison in the aforementioned VT game, he hit 6 different receivers for 271 yards and 2 TDs. Marc’s take at the end of the game was equally impressive:
Book- Another solid performance after a week off due to injury. He showed a little rust, but overall he had a very good day going 23-37 (62%) for 292 yards and 2 TDs. He added 16 yards on 6 rushes. He’s very elusive in the backfield and he really has great pocket awareness. You hate to see any QB throw an INT, but I was happy that it wasn’t the result of a bad read or throwing into double coverage. I got the sense that he was trying to make a quick snap and just kept the motion going as he fell down. Dumb move, but I don’t think he’s prone to repeating it.
Rushing- No, @marcsmooks was incorrect, Dexter Williams did not get 200 yards rushing. In fact the whole team didn’t get 200 yards on the ground. They did, however, gain 171 yards as a team on 36 carries for a respectable 4.8 yards per carry and 2 TDs. As good as the Syracuse run game appeared, ND still outgained them on the ground by more than 50 yards.
New ND November- 3-0 and soon to be perfect this November. Brian Kelly getting his groove back and once again showing what was once a great strength of his.
Shamrock Series Uniforms- Horrific. I’m trying to erase them from my memory and I’ll never speak of them again.
Khalid Kareem- Terrible penalty, roughing the passer right after Hayes and Coney had sacked DeVito at the 38 and DeVito then threw 2 incomplete passes. As bad as it seemed at the time, ND was up 36 points and the only effect of the penalty was to allow Syracuse to put a few points on the board, but they ultimately missed a FG attempt. Not his best game numbers wise, but I didn’t see him get blown up on any plays.
Penalties/Turnovers- Along that same line, ND had more penalties than Syracuse (7-3) but ND’s penalties only yielded 10 more yards than Syracuse’s (55-45). Nonetheless, they need to show more discipline in their game before it really hurts them. On a positive note, ND won the turnover battle 3-1 on the backs of that shutdown secondary.
Defense- Geek Stats right off the bat: This year Syracuse has scored 55, 62, 30, 51, 23, 37, 40, 51, 41, and 54 points (444 total) for an average of 44.4 points per game. Against ND, they scored 3 points… against the 2nd teamers… in garbage time. Let that sink in and think of how good your defense is. Syracuse was able to get some yardage on runs up the middle, but ND prevented them from getting any sustained drives. When it was all said and done, Syracuse managed 119 rushing yards on 38 carries for a paltry 3.1 yards per carry.
Pass Defense- In the passing defense, ND completely shut Syracuse down, allowing 15 completions on 35 attempts for 115 yards and an embarrassing 3.3 yards per completion. Outside of the Syracuse drive in the 2nd Q, whenever a receiver caught the ball he was immediately overwhelmed by ND tacklers. The ND secondary looks to be championship caliber.
Tranquill- Every time I see him linger on the ground I gasp, because he's that imprtant to this team. He was having a hell of a game with 2 sacks when he came out. Not sure if he returned after that but I did see Bilal fill in for him and do well.
O-Line- They didn’t get the push that they had last game and they gave up 2 sacks and 7 TFLs, but they were good when they had to be and gave Book plenty of time to make plays. Hainsey had several false starts but overall I thought he did a good job on the line. @Mizzo37 smartly reminds us that Mike McGlinchey had a few false starts in his time here, even earning the moniker “McFlinchey.” If I recall correctly he turned out alright.
Hopefully this will save me from being reported this week.
Eichenberg and Banks- They’ve really solidified the left side of the O-Line and they look to be getting better moving into the final game.
The @UserND83 Exclamation Point Play of the Game! Syracuse is driving in the 2nd Q with ND up 13-0. DeVito throws a dart to Harris who probably catches it if Gilman doesn’t hit him with an attitude and catch the carom and run it back 54 yards. It was one of the best INTs I’ve ever seen and it adds to the Gilman legend.
It Was Over When- Jafar Armstrong punched it from 9 yards out after the Gilman INT. ND leads 20-0 before the half and the 2 teams exchange punts over the next 3 possessions.
@unclemikey rightly states, “This is not a good team.”
Post Game Post-of-the-Game-
Julian Love- He’s really improving his draft stock. He had 5 tackles, 2 for loss, and a QB hurry. Everytime someone near him got the ball they were hit and stopped immediately. He’s a very impressive player.
Coney- Another guy that continues to amaze me. 12 tackles, 3 solo, and half a sack. He just seems to be everywhere.
We’re on to USC to put the final Exclamation Point on this season. ND hasn’t won at USC since 2012. That changes this week. This magical regular season ends on a high note with ND routing the Trojans and solidifying their place in the CFP.
As an aside, I was watching clips of the OSU-Maryland game and saw Urban Meyer feigning medical issues of the sideline, likely throwing up the smokescreen for his departure from Columbus. Pathetic.
Have a great week everyone.
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