Bring on the Wolverines

Step one – have a very positive opening game at home. Check that box, baby.

Other than the rain in the second half, not too much to complain about today. The Irish took care of business against an obviously inferior Rice squad. And I’ll even say that Rice didn’t look like they were trying really hard, on either side of the ball. Godfather can correct me if I misinterpreted from 2118 miles away.

Once we got through the first two 3-and-outs, it was a heck of a show. Not the blinding pace I think we were expecting, but that might have been kept under wraps to unveil next week. Only 66 snaps form scrimmage (ignoring punts and field goal attempts) vice the 90 I heard we were shooting for. But that wasn’t necessary today, and in the 4th quarter we were taking our time. Wait and see on that.

Lots to like on the offensive side, obviously. The line looks pretty solid. Everett hit six different receivers and he was definitely large and in charge. I’d almost be willing to go out on a limb and say he garnered some Heisman points with his performance. Three solid tailbacks who hopefully will be happy enough sharing the load. McDaniel, Folston and Bryant all looked solid hitting the holes, patient when needed. Very few runs for loss toady. No delay of games or wasted timeouts to avoid one. A few false starts by Nick Martin (!) but that will autocorrect.

And hooray for the special teams. Three very-good-to-excellent kickoff and punt returns. Good punt coverage, and we stuffed (by a yard) Rice’s one fake punt attempt. And while Brindza’s first FGA was horrid, he had seven touchbacks on kickoffs! Blinding flash of the obvious – when the kicker has 7 touchbacks, the team is probably doing something right! Rice’s first four drives of the second half started after touchbacks, when good field position may have kept things closer. And our first four possessions of the second half ended TD, TD, FG, TD. Let’s hope all our second halfs start as such!

I only counted three penalties, and none on defense. And a 2-0 turnover ratio, not counting their unsuccessful fake punt. Pretty good for game one.

Oh, and things could have been worse for Rice; EG had two long drops that would have meant more points for the boys in blue and gold. And props to Malik Zaire and his 57 yard scamper on his first play from scrimmage, leading the last TD drive. Zaire for 57, Zaire for 2, Bryant for 17, Touchdown. Nice.

So while I can’t pick much at the offense other than those drops, I think our defense definitely has a lot of “go-do’s” on its list. Losing Austin Collinsworth (which I didn’t know about until today) is a bad break. No real specifics given out during the broadcast about prognosis. Hope it’s not season ending and hope to see him back. He’s got game smarts beyond his years and a nose for the ball. Heal quickly, Austin.

His absence definitely showed on Rice’s two TDs and on some downfield drops that could have meant more Owl scoring opportunities. Overall, I would describe the defensive performance as a B-, maybe a B, primarily due to pass defense. Run defense was pretty solid, but we didn’t rush that well and let the QB break contain some, in addition to the two bad plays on their TDs. I think it’s good that they’ll have lots to work on this week. One interesting thing—with Collinsworth out, we had only 2 Senior starters on defense. Bodes well moving forward.

We did not have a 1st and Goal on offense or defense today, so those parts of our game are unknown at this point. That’s unfortunate going in to Game 2 vs. the Wolverines.
Other than some great long fly patterns, I don’t think we tried to be too flashy on offense. Only one completion to a running back, which was a bit odd, but maybe on purpose. We really didn’t push the tempo, but then again, we didn’t really have to. Maybe would have been nice to try that on one drive today as a tune up for next week. And I think we played a pretty vanilla defense. I’m sure more of the offense and the defense will be unveiled next week.

Boy I really want to beat Michigan next week. More than usual. Maybe because the series ends for a while. I want them walking off the field with the bad taste in their mouths. Really bad taste. I hold up Michigan as our second best rivalry, next to Southern Cal. Lots of respect for them, love the rivalry, and really want to best them as we go on hiatus. I’m guessing we’ll be favored by 7-10 points. We’ll see.

Enough looking ahead. Let’s savor this one for at least 24 more hours.

This one felt good, really good. Hopefully a good omen for a successful 2014 campaign. Well played, Irish.

GO IRISH!!!! MUCK FICHIGAN!!!

The Colonel