Tale of Two Halves

Once again the Irish pull out a close game with a solid second half performance against a good team.  One has to like the coaching and the adjustments we are making during games.  I particularly like that we seem to get stronger with the run game and the defense as the game goes on.  BYU put up a good fight but we took care of business and prevailed.  Another great spectator game that kept my attention throughout and kept the seats filled until the final whistle. 

Game Notes:

The BYU fans were at the game in quantity and showed a resilient spirit by making some noise. One of those times when you saw a lot of opposing fans wandering across campus; probably partly because some students being on break.

Tommy showed us a solid back up performance but reinforced my view that Golson has to be the starter.  It is great to play your second guy and still beat a top 25 team but we need more versatility in the offense to beat the big guys.  The run game is coming together and the balance will be better with Golson throwing and mixing in the read option.  I long for the good old days of the Brady Quinn era when we had drives where EVERY play worked.  I think we will see that happen sometime this year, hopefully as soon as next week.  Incidentally, it was nice to see Eifert put together a good game with several key catches again.
Special teams continues to be neutral at best for ND.  Our punt trades give away field position in many cases and with our inconsistent offense makes long drives that much more difficult.  We get almost nothing on punt returns as well.  Missing two field goals could have cost the game yesterday, have to clean that up.  Kickoffs have been good however with many touchbacks.

We sat in row 2 at the South 5 yard line so had an atypical view of the action.  My favorite play of the day was the Atkinson touchdown.  The BYU linebacker was in the right place but George made a move to scoot by him for the score.  A thing of beauty.  Key penalties were frustrating again, they can at times that shifted momentum and hurt our cause.  But again, the Irish seemed to shake those off and get right back to work.  We never really folded or got back on our heels in my judgment.

The next BIG game becomes Oklahoma of course.  Probably the best team we will face this year (though we always get the best from USC).  We will have to get more production from the offense (particularly in the red zone) next week.  We are capable but we will see what happens on the field.  ESPN GameDay will be onsite again and the hype machine is going full speed.  I understand we are about 10 point underdogs already.  Prediction later this week.

In the meantime let's celebrate the 7-0 record and being in the BCS conversation.

GO IRISH!  BEAT SOONERS!