Well, 4 yards short from sending that game into OT. I’m not saying that ND would have won in OT, but it would have been nice to have had a chance to beat them in the extra period when ND would have been riding the momentum. But ND came up short. So close, but no cigar. What did Saturday mean? I’m saying it meant that this team fights. While we knew that, it was nice to see it against the best team on the schedule.
As far as the game and season goes, here are some quick thoughts – I’m not putting this one on Weis. He has the guys playing hard, and fighting to the end. He has some amazingly talented skill position players. Now we need a defense and an offensive line that can stop a team like USC’s rush. Anyways, I am on a wait-and-see approach with Weis, and am promising not to call for his head if he wins out. And if he wins out, I actually do expect to be in a BCS bowl game, and I’m guessing that will get Weis another year unless he punches a player in the middle of the game. My thoughts on that last drive – sure sucks that the timing route was to Kumara, but you know that Tate and Rudolph are probably going to be blanketed and Parris was out. Still, I’d like that to go to one of the big guns. More to the point, I would have preferred to roll Jimmy out to see if he could go through the receivers and find an open man, instead of trying to plan a quick timing route pass. That drive was a make or break play for Jimmy, Tate and Rudolph… I’d have liked to have seen Weis let them try to decide their legacies against USC with their abilities and not his scheming acumen. But those are just nits that I have to pick, and I remain excited for the next 7 games (because we are making it to a New Years Bowl… or Weis won’t be coaching that bowl game).
The biggest question remains the defense. I’m pretty sure that the Tenuta experiment is a complete failure, as the defense has gotten worse since last year when Brown had more actual say in the defensive system. Especially appalling is the way that the secondary has regressed tremendously. There is too much talent back there for them to be the 117th ranked pass defense. In fact, that makes me angry about the coaching, so I’m moving on from that topic…
Besides the defense, my other concern remains the offensive line. It is clearly improved from last year, but Clausen was pressured quite a bit on Saturday. This tells me that our line play (and this includes the defensive front) is still behind our competition in terms of their physical play. However, this is the first game where I felt that the o-line was completely dominated. It shows me that while our receivers and QB are good enough to play at USC, and that Allen would almost certainly be a contributor there, our offensive line as a unit is part of what keeps this team from being a real good team, and instead has left it in the top 15-35 (I want to see what they do in the last 6 games before deciding my thoughts on where they really stand in the big scheme of things in college football).
What does the second half of the season offer? I’m not sure. I can actually see this team winning the last 6. That means the BCS may be calling. No guarantees, but it would be a possibility if the right teams ahead of ND lose and ND wins out. 10-2 is a good record, and the schedule has turned out more difficult than many thought before the season began (I’m not saying easy, but these teams aren’t exactly all MAC material). Of course, I could also see two losses, and that isn’t something that CW can afford, not with the fan base going crazy over at NDNation today.
Filed under: Notre Dame
http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/10/17/its-deja-vu-all-over-again-for-irish/#cont
In case anyone hasn’t seen it, I’ve been really enjoying reading John Walters’ blog. I think he does a pretty good job covering the Irish, so I thought I’d make sure everyone here saw what he had to say about the USC game (as well as giving some insight into his thoughts on the team in general and a link to the real blog).
Just some food for thought about CW. This comes from Blue Gray Sky, which I like because it is mostly levelheaded analysis of the team and coaches. Here’s the link and the important two paragraphs that comes up at the end (http://bluegraysky.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html#8947359072948584685):
“It seems that fans are starting to really dig in for a protracted argument about whether Charlie will be back next year or if he’ll be let go. However, while mulling the topic on the flight home, I think much of the current debate is largely wasted bandwidth and ink. Nearly all angles have been exhausted and at this point much of the discussion is the equivalent of shouting past each other. With the team already saddled with two losses, the results on the field the rest of the season should make the decision about Charlie largely obvious. Either the team will build off the late rally against the Trojans, play up to their ability the rest of the season, and run the table, or perform a redux of the second half of 2008 and drop a few clearly winnable games against teams with inferior talent.
We all hope that Jack Swarbrick is performing any and all necessary due diligence to prepare for a coaching change, if needed. At the same time, Charlie’s fate still rests solely in his hands: there are six games left to play. Let’s just hold off on the hard and fast conclusions for a bit and see where he takes us over the next few weeks. By then we should know what the next steps should be and can all move in that direction together.”