Notre Dame Snowflakes: The Offense

NDs night was summed up late in the game when I believe it was Spanellis that almost deposited that lb in the first row.

Loved that two-pronged running attack. Charbonnet looked a bit like Mike Hart, while Haskins reprised the role of Tim Biakabutuka.  

Dylan is the best QB on this team.

I do feel we did see the end of Turner though today. I've always liked him but it will be in his best interest to transfer out 

Hassan Haskins is an animal. Jay Harbaugh haters can fuck off

Game ball goes to the OL.   Down G'ed them to death and how about those funky counters?  Gattis and Coach Ed are getting on the same page.  OL plays like that against OSU ?  Going to be ball game.  Go Blue !!!

We play better in the rain... I've been thinking about it, watching the OL, watching the running game dominate etc. Given the conditions I think Shae played admirably well. Though I still think he makes some Frosh decisions that boggle the mind. Right when Herbie was about to call him a "Field General" Shea decides to throw a left handed pass, backwards, and out of bounds.

Secondly, Shae has never been comfortable under center, that exchange was bad, dropped ball; understand it was raining so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. However, again he made a bad decision to kneel and pick up the ball with his hands. Either a) You fall on it and curl up in the fetal position to protect the ball, or b) you grab it with your hands and shuffle forward for a yard or two. My preference, fall on the ball and curl up... it protects the drive.

He did "good", not "great", but "good". The pass that really grabbed my attention was his pass that caught up to the receiver in stride as the receiver was sweeping to the right side and fading up field; holy shit that looked beautiful... then there were some passes behind the receivers. The more I watch him, the more I feel that the game just moves TOO FAST for him. That's ok, he's done what he can with what skills he's got... if he irons out the bad decisions, and with a little luck we can win against the remaining opposition, except for OSU... we just don't have the talent, or experience with the new system yet.

Next year... (we hope)

McCaffery looked good, but I do feel that he's still very green, and understand why Harbaugh has him as the backup. Hopefully keeps progressing for next year.

Who was the lineman that pushed the defender out into the stands... that was beautiful. Pretty sure that's allowed as long as the block begins in bounds. Last note and edit... there were points in the game where it felt like the aggressiveness and chip on the shoulder of the late 90's; it was a breath of fresh air to see...

A New Hope... *enter Star Wars ballad*

I didn't see this coming. Domination. An imposition of will on #8. Suddenly, the future is bright. Assuming a constant level of play, we should be 9-2 heading into The Game.

I'm loving the run game now, with much of what worked last year integrated with more ZR and RPO concepts. Just keep repping this and mixing the plays up. It should get better and better. And it will be enough to beat Maryland and Indiana; it should be enough to beat MSU. Should.

The pass game - eh, Shea is what he is. Probably should have been 8/12 or 9/12 because of the drops. I liked what someone upthread said - Shea imposes the ceiling on our program. Fortunately, all things considered, it's currently a high ceiling. If we could figure out our road woes, I think we certainly would have beaten PSU and Wisconsin is a lot closer (see the defense thread). 

But look, the way this offense is being run now, it's clearly designed to focus on our strengths and de-emphasize an average QB. And that's probably good enough to get to OSU at 9-2. 

Nice job, offense. I was totally wrong about this.