September 1st, 2018 at 11:07 PM ^
Really hope people don’t give the defense a pass just because they only gave up three in the second half. ND packed it in just like MSU did last year. They had no reason to take any chances. Offense was worse, but man what a dissapointment by Don Brown and company.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:29 PM ^
Defense came out flat. It is very disappointing to see a “top 5” defense that returns that many starters get lit up out of the gate and play with poor discipline. Second half was better but how much was due to ND playing conservatively
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:13 AM ^
3rd and 18 in your own end. ND goes with the conservative play call, a QB draw and they get the first down. Why doesn't Brown just concede a 5 or 10 yd play and get off the field???
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:19 AM ^
Saw a lot of the same last year. Overrated coaching and performance tonight.
September 2nd, 2018 at 4:08 PM ^
Players just doesn't make winning plays. Has been going on for 3 years. Players are in the right position they just miss the play.
ND at night on the road is tough. But UM looked eerily similar to last year.
Let's hope for major improvement in the next 5 weeks.
September 2nd, 2018 at 1:07 AM ^
I don't think Notre Dame turtled. If they could have dropped 40 or more, they would have.
September 2nd, 2018 at 3:09 AM ^
Exactly. Winbush came out and lobbed a bunch of passes that normal are incomplete, and the fell incomplete in the second. I'm pretty sure that was his best passing half of his career. Hats off to their wr who made some very good, clutch catches early.
September 2nd, 2018 at 1:13 PM ^
No, Kelly said today that after the first series in in the second half they played it very conservatively because UM’s O was awful.
September 2nd, 2018 at 6:01 AM ^
As much as I love the Defense and Don Brown, once again they got punched in the mouth by a bully and it took them too long to recover. We usually don't win, playing from behind.
1. Too many penalties, and a few extended drives, turned into points.
2. Corners struggled against big receivers and seemed outmatched.
3. NDs offense seemed to constantly capitalize on our aggressiveness and over-pursuit.
4. Several teams with mobile QBs have hurt us in the past by avoiding the sack and running.
5. Run defense was pretty stellar except when we over pursued and QB made us pay.
Shout-outs to: Ross, Woods, Gill and Watson, The entire D-Line did great, I think teams are simply using a game plan that uses our aggressiveness against us. This is a coaching issue that has to be fixed because slippery mobile QBs are killing us and it seems planned.
note: Kinnell is still inconsistent. Although he's a sure tackler, He takes the wrong angles, isn't a very good cover guy and gave up a few big plays as did the corners who always seemed to not know when the ball was coming. But for the big TD where he could have knocked the ball down, Hawkins was solid. (An ex-WR is supposed to catch that ball).
September 2nd, 2018 at 8:47 AM ^
I don't buy that ND "packed it in" and turtled. That's not Brian Kelly's style; he has no problem with running up a score on an opponent. Remember 2014?
September 2nd, 2018 at 9:32 AM ^
As you astutely point out, Kelly turtled in the second half like Dantonio. To say defense rebounded in second half is just the kind of notion that gets this fan base mocked.
There were bright spots by Winovich and Bush play.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:07 PM ^
Don browns unit put UM in a hole. He’s been out coached tonight
September 1st, 2018 at 11:08 PM ^
Don browns unit put UM in a hole. He’s been out coached tonight
September 2nd, 2018 at 9:58 AM ^
Jim harbaugh 3 straight runs and punt when you already down pissed me off
September 1st, 2018 at 11:08 PM ^
Don browns unit put UM in a hole. He’s been out coached tonight
September 1st, 2018 at 11:08 PM ^
Not a top 5 defense, without Mo. Not now, anyway
September 1st, 2018 at 11:34 PM ^
Makes you wonder how good out “top 5” defense was. What good offenses did we shut down last year, Wisconsin? Penn State? Ohio State?
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:16 AM ^
Exactly. Not very good at all. People put all their weight into stats and forget that they’re averages. Who cares if you shut down the bottom feeders and get rolled by any above average team.
There’s just something wrong with this program. No matter who coaches, no matter who plays, it’s the same shit - different day. I get my hopes up every year for nothing... I’m about done.
September 2nd, 2018 at 1:13 AM ^
That's some serious revisionist stuff right there. They didn't get rolled by Wisconsin or Ohio State.
September 2nd, 2018 at 1:31 AM ^
If we’re talking in terms of the whole team then no we didn’t get “rolled” (I definitely could have used a better word haha). But I think that’s subjective. I don’t think a team has to drop 50 on you for it to be considered a dominant or at least convincing offense performance.
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
You can go back to the second half of OSU in 2016 and the FSU bowl game. Don Browns has defenses haven’t shut done many good teams. But we are something else against Rutgers
September 2nd, 2018 at 1:00 AM ^
But the biggest problem was the cornerbacks, of all players. ND had receivers wide open all night. We couldn't cover a crossing route for the life of us and those early big plays were to pretty open receivers. Let's hope it just the first game rust. Because that was a bad secondary performance.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:10 PM ^
Gonna say it. This is the same as last year. Get ripped in the first half then shut them down in the second half. Great half time adjustments but the weekly game plan is meh. Who knew we were facing a running qb. Everybody. Not sure why this is so. That being said that o-line...ugh.
September 2nd, 2018 at 4:45 AM ^
Is it really shutting someone down when the opposing team is obviously crock-potting it? ND was playing to not lose after getting up big.
September 2nd, 2018 at 4:25 PM ^
I agree with this. Too many games with big first half deficits by this elite unit. Great halftime adjustments but also too many big plays. I think the b1G is figuring out dr blitz
September 1st, 2018 at 11:11 PM ^
It's hard to win games when you give up TD's left and right before the half. Seems to be a pattern.
September 2nd, 2018 at 1:02 AM ^
Plus, those early td's really threw our offense out of whack. We deferred to the second half so our defense could shut them down. Those two early scores put our offense in a bigger hole than they are comfortable with.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:14 PM ^
Need pressure up the middle. Any good QB will simply step up and let Gary and Chase collide into each other.
Viper seemed to not be involved like the last few years.
Like always we didn't contain outside read
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:03 AM ^
Mo was a huge part of the D last year.
We don't get much push up the middle anymore, and that changes a lot of things . . . .
September 1st, 2018 at 11:14 PM ^
Levert struggled in the first half, which was shocking. Gary and Winovich were over aggressive in the first half, pursued too far upfield, got that corrected in the second half and were dominant. Dwumfor >>> Marshall, who got way too much time in the first half. Outside of the one hold by Ross where he panicked and the 3rd and 18 where I think Bush was cramping, LBs were OK. Thought Woods showed some things in the second half.
Our DT rotation baffled me.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:17 PM ^
Just so everyone is aware, I've discovered that I can keep these threads at the top of the board far easier than in the previous version of the site, so there is that.
As for the defense, they gave up:
7.73 yards per attempt in the air
14.17 yards per completion in the air
2.81 average yards per rush
...which doesn't seem totally bad on paper (but not spectacular, especially on pass defense), but paper didn't play that game, of course.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:28 PM ^
Paper didn’t play that game? The first half defense looked like 11 pieces of tissue paper running around.
Tonight was the first time I felt uneasy about them being on the field.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:51 PM ^
Winbush is a player, he looked really good throwing the ball in the first quarter. Those touchdowns were great throws as was the one called back in the second half. The linemen over-pursed in the first half as well and were caught too far up field.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:52 PM ^
Any idea what those numbers were for the first half?
A second half where ND only needed to make the smart conservative plays factor in to the numbers.
D was only average or a bit above average tonight, not elite unfortunately.
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:11 AM ^
two many stupid penalties costed us some points. and keep themselves on the field. Hope they can can correct that before the MSU game, because the refs there will be worse, so as OSU.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:18 PM ^
You had a running qb and you did the opposite of how to contain that... why!?!?! I know its early but this was an all or nothing season for me and I dont see us going anywhere now. That sucks. But its reality. And I usually post on how people have to calm down after a loss. This was the easiest road win in my opinion for us on the year. Well for the tough games at least.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:18 PM ^
The defense was pretty good after the first two series, and even the first two series had more unlucky plays than awful plays. This wasn't one of our better games, but I think this unit can be as good as last year's.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:25 PM ^
I don't think the UFR is going to gash us too badly all-in-all. Like you said, snowcrash, there were a number of unlucky plays that cost us big in the first half. D is not why we lost this game.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:58 PM ^
Sorry Yo,
the almighty UFR doesn't really cut it.
We look good ON PAPER and UFR because we give up 14 points in 3 minutes and then opposing coach goes into turtle mode.
Then we have lots of pretty tackle stats later in the game after the D gave up a hole our O can't possibly climb out of.
The D stank bad 1st half, and yes it was a team effort loss. You cannot spot a top ten team 14 and expect to win.
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:18 AM ^
Agree. 3 of the first 4 drives of the game for ND went: 75 yds for a TD, 96 yds for a TD and 75 yds for a TD. I think most realistic people expected this to be a low scoring dog fight. Being down 21-3 halfway through the second quarter was a hole to big for the offense to overcome.
September 2nd, 2018 at 1:01 AM ^
TD 1 - dropped int
TD 2 - bad PF call followed by a dropped int
TD 3 - bad PI call on 3rd down. Bad roughing the passer call on 3rd down. Holding on the TD
A lot of bad luck in those 3 TDs.
September 2nd, 2018 at 10:01 AM ^
Those were not all bad calls. Defense was undisciplined and gave away a lot of points with those drive extending penalties. Definitely not “bad luck.”
September 1st, 2018 at 11:20 PM ^
The targeting call against Metellus was iffy and hurt us. Maybe we should solve our problems with smart football?
September 1st, 2018 at 11:29 PM ^
Not iffy at all. That was one of the more clear/obvious targeting calls I've seen.
September 2nd, 2018 at 12:06 AM ^
It was a bad break, the receiver's head going down like that, but the rule exists to make the defenders avoid that and Metellus should have been careful.
BTW Wimbush's long prayer TD was right after that because, as the announcers correctly pointed out, he was going right at Metellus's replacement. Kinda lucky, but that is how the game is played.
The bad call was the PI on Lavert, which should have been OPI. That was a huuuuge pushoff.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:40 PM ^
Solve your problems with.... compassion? regression?
September 2nd, 2018 at 2:00 AM ^
That was one of the more obvious targeting calls I've seen. The only "iffy" part was the WR was falling and that made his head lower, so Metellus may not have intended to do that like he did. But still...it's 2018. You just cannot launch at a receiver like that anymore. Go for the ball, man.
September 2nd, 2018 at 11:24 AM ^
no... that was deserved call and a typically stupid play... we have a lot of stupid players on our team, feels like a team full of kalis'.
September 2nd, 2018 at 11:24 AM ^
no... that was deserved call and a typically stupid play... we have a lot of stupid players on our team, feels like a team full of kalis'.
September 1st, 2018 at 11:21 PM ^
Doesn't help when you rough the QB on 3rd down when it would have been 4th. Or when you hold the receiver on 3rd down when if you didn't it would have been 4th. Or... It was sloppy and undisciplined. They couldn't stop them on 3rd down FFS. Crazy.