What they did again was dance the Clog; which means somehow the Irish pulled it out of the hat again. How did this team get to 4-1? Absolutely amazing. The colonel and I may have switched roles this week because he is a bit more positive sounding than I feel about the future.
Let’s start with some onsite notes. You MUST watch the halftime show on NBC.com. It was terrific. It featured TWO dances, some great arrangements, heavy rain in the sound track, raincoats, AND the Victory March! Check it out. Ran into Lady Killer Dix in the stadium and was able to exchange some football analysis. He kindly indicated that he reads the blog so thanks for that Kevin. No one can accuse Irish fans of being “fair weather” fans. The place was pretty full at the end despite day-long cold rain and it was rockin’. No one will ever put ND stadium on any 10 loudest lists because of our learned-analytical fans but boy it was loud last night. Interesting how the rain did not seem to make a big difference in the plays with the exception of a couple of Clausen slips. It was still an aerial circus. One last personal note: I hate the “shake your keys on a key play” thing but when the band pretends to shake air keys on those plays I hate it even more!
Highlights. Jimmy once again shows he has all the tools and continues to show great judgment. We might be 0-5 without him. To steal a word from the Colonel, Hughes is a bull! That 2-pt conversion was absolutely amazing. I was fortunate to be at the north end 10-yard line where most of the late game theatrics occurred and that run was something else. Charlie once again showed his creativity by finding ways to get the ball in playmaker hands. I do think we got a little too cute for our britches a couple times but it worked out. Tausch is money on field goals and despite getting stalled several times it was nice to be able to count on a sure 3. That makes a difference. Offense is really fun to watch; nobody was leaving their TV screens again which has to make NBC happy.
Lowlights. Our defense is really bad and shows little signs of improvement. Look at it this way: it was probably our best defensive performance in a lot of ways with 3 terrific goal line stands yet we still gave up 457 yards and had to go to OT against a clearly weaker team. Great point on the defensive stars Colonel, one of my game notes is “our cornerbacks stink”. Tackling fundamentals are just horrible. Somebody make a play! Again, 6 penalties for 43 yards and a couple came at really bad times.
The big picture. So here we are at the bye week standing at 4-1 just where I expected we would be. The bottom line in my view: we are a good team but not a very good team. I doubt we will crack the top 25 this week but we might next week when other teams slide out before the USC game. We have to play better to beat the Trojans; in fact there is a chance they could stomp us. We have missed the spread in the last 4 games which means our talent is under performing (hint: coaching) and turning potentially comfortable wins into shootouts. Fun games to watch but not really memorable classics against great teams. The USC game will tell us so much more. On the bright side this team shows great heart and perseverance; even the defense kept fighting against some tough odds. Can we finally turn the corner and put it all together? I have my doubts to be honest but I do feel we are seeing one of the best characteristics of great ND teams: they find a way to reach down deep for something extra and make it happen.
Go Irish! Beat Trojans!
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I, too, predicted 4-1 at this point, although by a different route (thought we'd beat UofM and lose to either Purdue or MSU). And yes, the defense can't be called good, goal-line stands aside. SC has enough money players on offense that if we don't turn in our best tackling performance of the year, we're toast. They will make plays if you give them the chance.
Our O vs their D is going to be an interesting match-up. Both very good-to-excellent. We'll have to get in the end zone more often than we kick FGs, however, if we expect to win.
So study up, sports fans. I'll bet SC is favored by 4-6 points. Won't know until next week about that. Cal laid another egg last week, so I don't know how good the Trojans are on offense.
Have a good bye week.
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