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Re-watched our game vs OSU last night

demian w

Irish Insider
Sep 7, 2004
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I re-watched our game vs OSU last night. a few observations. We have to really account for Trayvean Henderson their TB, he got us for a long one last year. OSU defense looks better this year to me. Obviously OSU is a better team this year then they were last year. No doubt. But we are considerably better than last year. My observations =

we are soooooooo much better at linebacker this year than last year.
we better at WR in this game than last year OSU game because of a huge factor = Jordan Faison wasnt even in the rotation until two weeks after the OSU game
Tailbacks are better this year than last. A top shelf Love and a Price that takes a backseat to nobody and aneyas williams is better than Estime, sophomore love, freshman J Price, Paine, Ford
Leaonard is way better than Hartman in my opinion. WAY better. In so many categories that show up in winning. Hartman obviously was a better passer but thats where it ends
Our defensive line and pass rush is worse than last year vs OSU. Baptiste was good for us. We really need Bryce young or someone like him to get a pass rush off the edge
We are better tackling team than that game vs OSU last year. We missed many tackles last year. And thankfullly we have been tested by legit running backs the past two weeks to prepare us for this week as opposed to last year when we played OSU we hadnt played anybody yet. Our secondary is better this year. Corners seem like a wash almost. Hart and Morisoon vs Moore and Gray seem fairly a wash. But this year Watts is way better than he was in that game last year. Way better. Shuler, clark, heard is better than last years group.

But a huge element is this = WE ARE A MIILION TIMES BETTER IN THE COACHING CATEGORY THAN LAST YEARS GAME. Denbrock is a million times better than PArker at OC. Golden is on fire this year. Freeman is a million times bettter as a head coach than last year.

That game last year was the first time freeman had been in a HIgh profile elite game that came down to the wire. Golden probably hadnt been a DC in that scenario in years either. I know Golden was a linebackers coach with the benglas but thats different then calling a defense late in a crucial game to seal a win. Parker was never in that position in his life. Now we can draw from coaches and players who overcame Texas A&M on the road late in a ball game in primetime. A staff and players who overcame a late drive in crunchtime on the road vs USC with all the chips on the table. A staff and players who closed out Georgia the way champs are supposed to. A staff and players who made an amazing comeback and got key stops and key first downs to beat PSU with it all on the line.
 
I rewatched the game again as well. The OSU secondary was their weakness on defense. Multiple holding and PI flags. Herbstreit or Fowler even mentioned they were one of the most penalized secondary in the FBS. I'm surprised ND didn't attack the secondary more earlier in the game. Oh and don't tell me Leonard didn't have time, he did on many pass plays. There were plays where he was hurried and it was mostly when they brought extra bodies or blitzed.
 
I rewatched the game again as well. The OSU secondary was their weakness on defense. Multiple holding and PI flags. Herbstreit or Fowler even mentioned they were one of the most penalized secondary in the FBS. I'm surprised ND didn't attack the secondary more earlier in the game. Oh and don't tell me Leonard didn't have time, he did on many pass plays. There were plays where he was hurried and it was mostly when they brought extra bodies or blitzed.
I thought Leonard often had time too. I thought the o line held up ok in pass pro
 
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I rewatched the game again as well. The OSU secondary was their weakness on defense. Multiple holding and PI flags. Herbstreit or Fowler even mentioned they were one of the most penalized secondary in the FBS. I'm surprised ND didn't attack the secondary more earlier in the game. Oh and don't tell me Leonard didn't have time, he did on many pass plays. There were plays where he was hurried and it was mostly when they brought extra bodies or blitzed.
It's quite interesting that ND used to put WRs in the NFL under MF I'm not sure why that position is telling.
Don't get me wrong I really like MF it's just that position seems weaker
 
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I think NDs defense was vastly outcoached by OSU. Chip Kelly was 2 steps ahead of Golden all night. D was the weak link
 
I don’t know. Ohio State just looked better all around. Offensively just looked at all the playmakers. It was like , pick your poison. Defensively they shut ND down after the first drive until late when the Irish made a run. ND backs did nothing. RL was the best runner last night. What does that tell you ? Plus he’s to inconsistent as a passer. He missed some throws in the first half. This wasn’t ND/Alabama in the BCS championship. The Irish played their butts off and in spite of everything, made a game of it. But Ohio State is the better team and they took it to ND. ND is still not there just yet. They need to get some game changers on both sides and still need an elite QB.
 
I think NDs defense was vastly outcoached by OSU. Chip Kelly was 2 steps ahead of Golden all night. D was the weak link
"Chip Kelly was 2 steps ahead of Golden all night. D was the weak link"

Easy to do when you have an abundance of riches (talent) at your disposal.
 
I think NDs defense was vastly outcoached by OSU. Chip Kelly was 2 steps ahead of Golden all night. D was the weak link
OSU was the better team on Monday night. But that is not the same thing as saying they are the better team. I think OSU is probably the better team overall, but not by the margin that many seem to think. OSU had a couple of guys injured on their OL, but they were basically playing the game with all their starters healthy. ND, on the other hand, was a walking MASH unit, and all those injuries proved too much to surmount. I am convinced that that had Mills, Botelho, Traore and Morrison not been injured and had Howard Cross not been playing on one good leg there would have been a different outcome to the game, but of course we will never know that. We couldn't generate any pass rush at all and never got Will Howard to break into a sweat. He picked us apart because he has a bunch of 5* receivers to throw to and he had all day to throw. And then we didn't contain him when he ran. Not surprising OSU won under those circumstances. We made a gritty comeback to make the game interesting, but the hole we got ourselves into was just too deep. Morrison basically shut down MHJ last year; I'd like to think he would have done the same thing with Jeremiah Smith, though IMO Smith is more talented than MHJ. Even at that Smith didn't do much until the big 3rd down catch late in the game.

On offense we needed a healthy Jeremiyah Love, but outside of 2 spectacular runs he just wasn't himself after the knee injury in the USC game. So we had zero run game outside of RL. Outside of the middle 8 minutes of the game RL played pretty well, I thought. Jaden Greathouse played an inspired game.

We lost, but I am not as discouraged about the game as many are. The reality is that it was going to take a perfect game to beat OSU, and we just didn't get it. But it is a testament to the "next man in" culture that MF built that we competed like we did. The future is bright, I think.
 
I rewatched the game again as well. The OSU secondary was their weakness on defense. Multiple holding and PI flags. Herbstreit or Fowler even mentioned they were one of the most penalized secondary in the FBS. I'm surprised ND didn't attack the secondary more earlier in the game. Oh and don't tell me Leonard didn't have time, he did on many pass plays. There were plays where he was hurried and it was mostly when they brought extra bodies or blitzed.
How ? They only had 3 possessions before the score was 28-7. The first drive was a masterpiece. The 2nd was doomed by back to back penalties. The 3rd had a botched snap. No opportunities to "attack" until they were way behind. Nothing would have mattered unless they were able to get a stop. When they finally did the deficit was huge.
 
How ? They only had 3 possessions before the score was 28-7. The first drive was a masterpiece. The 2nd was doomed by back to back penalties. The 3rd had a botched snap. No opportunities to "attack" until they were way behind. Nothing would have mattered unless they were able to get a stop. When they finally did the deficit was huge.
What?
 
How ? They only had 3 possessions before the score was 28-7. The first drive was a masterpiece. The 2nd was doomed by back to back penalties. The 3rd had a botched snap. No opportunities to "attack" until they were way behind. Nothing would have mattered unless they were able to get a stop. When they finally did the deficit was huge.
Yep, I think the game was essentially lost in the second quarter. We couldn’t get an offensive drive going, giving their offense too many possessions. The defense couldn’t stop them, ultimately digging a hole too deep to overcome.
 
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No way Williams is better than Estime. I suggest you rewatch some of the 2023 games. Not is he better than a sophomore Love. This is recency bias.
 
ESPN was saying we were spent after the first drive. We battled back on heart, but RL took some serious hits on that first drive.
It didn't take ESPN to tell me that Riley Leonard was done running, at least to that intensity, after the first drive.
 
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The opening drive was not a masterpiece, it was a slog. It was impressive, and great that we got the TD, but it was almost like we shot our wad on that opening drive, so much so that our QB ran it nine times, and was puking on the sideline afterwards. It was not a good omen to start the game quite frankly, and that's how I took it, having to labor for every 1st down. And sure enough we found ourselves down 31-7, which is not what I was anticipating, but the thought was, we better be able to score a lot easier than that in our remaining possessions, or this is going to be a hard victory. And our defense is definitely going to have to deliver.

Because if that's how agonizing it's going to be every time we're on offense, we're not going to score too often.
 
ESPN was saying we were spent after the first drive. We battled back on heart, but RL took some serious hits on that first drive.
Yeah, agreed, that's what I just got through posting. I don't know how spent or not they were, but If that's what it's going to take score against tOSU, it's going to be a long night.
 
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ESPN concluded Riley Leonard was spent because he was puking on the sidelines and gasping for air. At the post-game press conference, he said he had fallen on the ball. So I'm going to split the difference here. I think he was beat after that first drive and I think it was exacerbated by getting the wind knocked out of him. The offense got a nice long rest during OSU's first drive, including a long break at the end of the first quarter. So while I'm not going to say Leonard could have replicated that first drive three or four more times, I don't think it was responsible for the penalties that screwed up our second possession or the screwed up snap that doomed the third possession, or, most importantly, the defense's inability to get a timely stop.

I've yet to rewatch the game. but I still have questions about why Love was such a non-factor. It looked like OSU was picking him up when he came out of the backfield on pass plays, but it seemed like we abandoned the run before re really had to.
 
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ESPN concluded Riley Leonard was spent because he was puking on the sidelines and gasping for air. At the post-game press conference, he said he had fallen on the ball. So I'm going to split the difference here. I think he was beat after that first drive and I think it was exacerbated by getting the wind knocked out of him. The offense got a nice long rest during OSU's first drive, including a long break at the end of the first quarter. So while I'm not going to say Leonard could have replicated that first drive three or four more times, I don't think it was responsible for the penalties that screwed up our second possession or the screwed up snap that doomed the third possession, or, most importantly, the defense's inability to get a timely stop.

I've yet to rewatch the game. but I still have questions about why Love was such a non-factor. It looked like OSU was picking him up when he came out of the backfield on pass plays, but it seemed like we abandoned the run before re really had to.
Questions????? Jeremiyah Love was injured, not 100%%%%, and the OL got zero push..

End of story.
 
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It's quite interesting that ND used to put WRs in the NFL under MF I'm not sure why that position is telling.
Don't get me wrong I really like MF it's just that position seems weaker
I think it's gonna be a loaded room next season.

Fields
Greathouse (starting to really emerge)
Faison
The UW Transfer

Sophomore group:
Williams
Gilbert
Saldate

I'm sure left some people out too
 
I think it's gonna be a loaded room next season.

Fields
Greathouse (starting to really emerge)
Faison
The UW Transfer

Sophomore group:
Williams
Gilbert
Saldate

I'm sure left some people out too
Well, I guess it depends on your definition of "...loaded." IMO there is no one in that room that matches the first two WR's at Ohio State.
 
I would take Kyren Williams in almost any year. He had the 6th sense.
I would take Kyren, but the OP was talking about Aneyas Williams being better than all of our backs last year. I’m not sure you can say that when a majority of his carries were in garbage time vs Army and Stanford.
 
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I think it's gonna be a loaded room next season.

Fields
Greathouse (starting to really emerge)
Faison
The UW Transfer

Sophomore group:
Williams
Gilbert
Saldate

I'm sure left some people out too
I think the WR group has potential to be very good, but not elite. I don't see a Floyd or Tate in this group. I think the rotation will be Faison, Greathouse, Fields starting. Backed up by Pauling, and then we need 2 of Williams, Gilbert, Saldate, or KK Smith to emerge and complete the rotation. Williams is supposedly the most talented of the group, so I'm hoping he breaks out.
 
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I don't think Golden was out-coached in that game. Sure, we got out schemed at times, caught with our pants around our ankles but thats what a OC does, creates mismatches AND there were quite a few to be had all night against our defense.

Bottom line for me is that we simply didn't have enough horses to match up with their horses. That OSU offense, who was clicking throughout the playoffs, is simply too hard to stop. We ran into a "bigger bear".

But Golden made some nice adjustments at the half to allow our offense to claw their way back into it. I pretty much predicted how this game was going to go. Our defense hanging on for dear life all game, trying to limit the damages.
 
The opening drive was not a masterpiece, it was a slog. It was impressive, and great that we got the TD, but it was almost like we shot our wad on that opening drive, so much so that our QB ran it nine times, and was puking on the sideline afterwards. It was not a good omen to start the game quite frankly, and that's how I took it, having to labor for every 1st down. And sure enough we found ourselves down 31-7, which is not what I was anticipating, but the thought was, we better be able to score a lot easier than that in our remaining possessions, or this is going to be a hard victory. And our defense is definitely going to have to deliver.

Because if that's how agonizing it's going to be every time we're on offense, we're not going to score too often.
I would take Kyren, but the OP was talking about Aneyas Williams being better than all of our backs last year. I’m not sure you can say that when a majority of his carries were in garbage time vs Army and Stanford.
I gotta admit I might have been drunk when I made that comment about williams lol haha lol. Thank you for correcting me. I honestly stand correected on that OP about Williams lol. He was GREAT in that second half vs PSU but not better than Estime lol haha. Please allow some grace from the IPA's lol
 
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