Three Guys in a Basement

On a day of off and on rain, sometimes torrential, Notre Dame won a huge game over Michigan.  While UM out gained Notre Dame, their day was filled with mistakes as Notre Dame capitalized on 6 Wolverine turnovers.  In the aftermath, there were naysayers who questioned the supposed “turnaround” of the Irish, but to be fair, the Irish played in the same conditions and found a way to not put the ball on the ground on every possession.

In other news, tgiab.com helped throw what was termed a “badass tailgate” by the Subway Alumni Show.  And badass it was.  To find out the official Michigan game and tailgate review, please read on…

The Offense

Robert Hughes ran for 79 yards and 2 TDs on 19 carries.  The only question is why he didn’t get more carries on the rain filled day.  While his numbers don’t seem overly impressive at only 4.2 yards per carry, ND was facing what was most likely the best defensive front four they will see this season (including, most likely, even USC).  The fact that the o-line was able to get a push against Michigan shows the line has already improved since week one.  If this improvement continues, the Irish will almost certainly be able to have a true rushing offense as this season continues.

In the passing game, Jimmy Clausen was 10 for 21 for 147 yards and 2 touchdowns.  While he also has 2 interceptions, one was at the very end of the game and probably shouldn’t count, so I won’t hold it against him.  In fact, the pass should have been caught by Michael Floyd for a third touchdown (the throw was a great one), but the ball bounced up off of his shoulder pads and was caught by a Wolverine receiver on the bounce.  Receiver Golden Tate had 4 catches for 127 yards and looks like a potential star as he now has two long touchdowns in the seasons first two games.  Beyond that, the o-line did not give up a sack for the seond straight game.  Again, against a very talented front four, the offensive line successfully kept Jimmy Clausen off of his butt and allowed the offense to make big plains when they were needed.

With that said, ND needs to have more sustained drives and less games where they rely on the big play.  It’s my suspicion that is something that could come soon, though I’ll leave the official thoughts on the future of the season to the others here at tgiab.com.  264 yards is not enough to put this team at an A, but keeping turnovers at a minimum and putting points on the board when they had the chance helped this team earn a very solid score this week.

Grade:  B+

Defense

The defense was also opportunistic in this game.  The defense had two interceptions that they returned to put the offense in good field position, returned a fumble for 6 points and successfully recovered fumbles when UM put the ball on the ground.  Of course, the defense allowed UM to throw for 229 yards and gain another 159 yards on the ground.  Of those 159 yards, Sam McGuffie gained 131, meaning the ND defense made him look like a Heisman contender.  This could be a problem if and when ND goes up against even better running backs (such as Javon Ringer this upcoming weekend).  For that reason, even with the opportunistic streak that they showed, ND’s defense showed tha they had room to improve.  The best thing, though, is that we at tgiab.com just hope that Pat Kuntz can talk the rest of the defense to get matching haircuts.

Grade: B

Special Teams

The special teams did a great job of coverage on kickoffs and punts.  The biggest highlight of the special teams efforts were those of Mike Anello.  The former walk-on earned a scholarship this season and has done everything in his power to show that he deserves it.  On Saturday, he showed his hustle and ability by recovering a fumble on the seonc ND kickoff of the game.  We here at tgiab.com consider the Mike Anello story one of the most inspiring in our time at and post ND.  We are definitely inspired to maybe try out for the team ourselves.

The overall score for the special teams is lowered by one simple fact: Twice ND went for it on 4th down when the game was clearly in hand and they were in field goal range.  The fact that ND doesn’t have faith to even try to kick a field goal shows that the kicking game remains to be a liability.  Until proven otherwise, I cannot give the team a better score than this.

Grade:  C

Coaching

The team was inspired and they didn’t make fatal errors.  More importantly, Weis got hurt and still stayed in the game to lead the troops.  This is what ND wanted when they signed Weis through 2015.  And for that reason, I have to give the coaches the following:

Grade:  A-

Overall Score (which has nothing to do with the other scores): A-

Tailgate

Shotguns were had, bags were played, more than ample amounts of food was consumed, and ridiculousness ensued.  And then more shotguns were had.  While there was no Thunder that I can remember, I think we all shotgunned enough to make up for it.  Even the rain could not put a damper on the game.  I’d also like to note that even with our perfectly timed playlist, not all members of the tgiab.com team made it into the game on time.  However, having made it in before the end of the first quarter was probably good enough since some of our group hasn’t seen the 1st quarter since 2002.  Of course, of the many great parts of the tailgate, one of the best was when we were trying to set the record for longest pass to oneself.  JoePa has a great video of that.  Maybe he can post it…

Grade: A+

For a more in-depth analysis from someone who remembers every facet of the game, instead of just jumping around alot during the first half pull away, go here.  Or, you can just watch the game over for yourself at NBC.

Filed under: Expert Analysis