One Down...

File this game under “decent start”.

The running game was overall pretty good, averaging over 4 yards per carry. Armando and Cierre seem like a good tandem. Robert Hughes played but didn’t carry—is he just a blocking back now?

The passing game was OK, with DC going 19 for 26; a decent debut, and if Tim Floyd hadn’t fumbled going in to the end zone, I might be talking differently. Had we gone up 27-3, the game would have looked much much different, methinks. And no delay of game or illegal procedure penalties, which is a pleasant surprise in a season’s first game.

The defense gave up over 300 total yards, and that seven minute drive was agonizing. Probably more agonizing for Purdue, though, since they got no points off that. We gave up 31 completions overall, but we kept the receivers in front of us, at least on the completions. Longest pass play was 17 yards, and their 5.2 yards-per-attempt is a good stat for our defense. And we had four sacks, which hopefully bodes well. And only one Boiler TD drive, and on a short field at that (after the free kick from the 20 following the safety).

We lost the time of possession battle by over 10 minutes, which usually doesn’t mean a victory. But we gave them long fields all day with our good kickoff coverage. And we started six drives with field position at least as good as our 40 yard line, so we were playing with short fields much of the day.

And we were three for three on field goals at short, medium and semi-long (47 yards) distances. We still don’t have a good punter. But we had at least one very good punt return (AA for 40 yards setting up our second TD) and a few decent kickoff run backs. So special teams played well overall.

The safety was a true debacle—there were three defenders ready to tackle Armando in the end zone. And that was in the middle of a piece of the game where I wrote down multiple times “shades of 2009”. In sequence, we had the Floyd fumble, the Purdue 15 play seven minute drive, the safety, Purdue’s TD drive, and an Irish 3-and-out including a sack on 3rd and 10. Wasn’t looking good there for a while. Stadium was sounding kinda quiet too.

But we righted things with our 9 play field goal drive, aided by a dumb end zone penalty by Purdue which gave us good field position. And the defense held on the two ensuing drives to close it out. Game over.

So it’s on to a matchup with the Wolverines, who looked pretty good themselves against UConn. Denard Robinson will be the key—19 for 22, 186 yards passing, PLUS 29 rushes for 197 yards. Wow. Don’t forget the problems we had when Purdue subbed their running QB in the second quarter. And they ran 80 plays from scrimmage; we ran only 55 yesterday. So we’ll have a long week of preparation.

But let’s savor the first win of the Brian Kelly era for a day or two before we start worrying about the Wolverines. Here’s hoping we have many more Ws to write about his season.

GO IRISH!!! BEAT WOLVERINES!!!

The Colonel