A 2-0 start for Notre Dame hasn’t felt this bad since 2008, and perhaps much longer. The Irish were able to fight back late for a touchdown and accompanied backyard 2-point completion to post a 32-29 victory over visiting Toledo on Saturday. It’s always better to win than lose but the action this weekend continued to show many of the same flaws we witnessed last Sunday night in Tallahassee.
Are we in for a very long and frustrating season? Or will there be stable improvement coming quickly with a very challenging portion of the schedule just around the corner?
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | ROCKETS |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 29 |
| Plays | 75 | 63 |
| Total Yards | 449 | 353 |
| Yards Per Play | 5.98 | 5.60 |
| Conversions | 8/15 | 7/17 |
| Completions | 24 | 19 |
| Yards/Pass Attempt | 8.80 | 6.90 |
| Rushes | 39 | 31 |
| Rushing Success | 41.9% | 30.7% |
| 10+ Yds Rushes | 8 | 3 |
| 20+ Yds Passes | 3 | 2 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 33.3% | 26.6% |
*20+ yard passes has been added to the table for 2021.
Notre Dame did jump out to a quick 7-0 lead against Toledo with the feeling this could be an early blowout over a MAC team. Things absolutely did not continue along that path with the Rockets adding a trio of field goals and a pick six to take the lead into halftime. The Irish came back with a field goal and touchdown to lead 24-16 before Toledo capitalized with 2 massive 4th quarter touchdowns.
Thankfully, a quick touchdown drive brought Notre Dame the lead and a late forced fumble sealed the win.
Offense
QB: C
RB: C+
TE: B
OL: F
WR: B-
The run blocking continues to struggle, the backup left tackle left the game with a badly sprained ankle, and the pass blocking became as big of a struggle as we’ve seen during the Kelly era. Not a great recipe! Throw in a sack fumble, pick six, and late fumble leading to 17 Toledo points off turnovers in total and you’ve got your self the perfect mix for a near-upset.
Is the offense broken?
Things are really, really bleak at left tackle and it’s difficult to envision things getting much better when Michael Carmody’s ankle could keep him out a while, Blake Fisher probably isn’t returning until the Navy game in November, and Brian Kelly said they will not move a guard or anyone else (presumably Jarrett Patterson) to this position.
Tosh Baker has been hilariously bad as a pass blocker going back to the Blue-Gold Game in the spring and it really makes you wonder if Joe Alt is going to get a look this week to try and stabilize the situation. Just typing that out (Alt was like 218 pounds a year ago in high school) makes you think Kelly will retract his statement and move Patterson to left tackle by mid-week. Correl next to a true freshman seemed aggressively bold and now without Fisher it seems suicidal.
Even with Carmody, the line continued to struggle opening up running lanes. The fact that Patterson, Madden, and Lugg haven’t looked very good from the center through the right side is a huge, huge disappointment too. Everything just seems really off with the line as a whole and it’s entered nightmare territory. They could really use a bye week except Purdue comes to town in a week.
Even a tiny speck of Heisman love is dead now for Kyren Williams who musters just 5 successful carries against a MAC defense. Outside of his 43-yard touchdown scamper, Williams totaled just 35 yards on 15 carries. The speed of Chris Tyree (now up to only 43 total rushing yards through 2 games) is totally neutralized. Thankfully, the top Irish tailbacks (88 combined receiving yards) are getting it done in the passing game.
With Coan under center, this feels a lot like the 2010 inaugural Brian Kelly offense at Notre Dame. There are good running backs, really good playmakers at the skill positions overall with an elite tight end, except the difference is the 2021 line is having way more blocking problems and things are going to sputter quite often.
It’s a pretty terrible time to have a relatively immobile quarterback like Coan (6 sacks allowed paired with this run game is not a long-term successful strategy) which makes me feel personally bad for him. It’s possible he’ll get more comfortable, go through reads quicker, and allow fewer pressures by getting the ball out earlier leading to a more explosive passing game but that feels increasingly optimistic right now.
Rushing Success
Williams – 5 of 16 (31.2%)
Tyree – 3 of 7 (42.8%)
Coan – 1 of 2 (50.0%)
Buchner – 5 of 7 (71.4%)
I was utterly flabbergasted that Tyler Buchner came into the game at the 4-yard line no less, and proceeded to play as much as he did. Do we have a quarterback controversy on our hands??
It’s hard not to see how much Buchner loosens up the run game, though. He had successful 1st down runs of 26, 12, 11, and 7 yards while Kyren’s 43-yard score (also on 1st down) came on Buchner’s 1st series. The rest of the 1st down carries went for a miniscule 29 yards on 14 carries. It was a MAC defense and opponents will throw in adjustments, of course. But it’ll really make the coaching staff think a lot about the future and how Buchner opens up the playbook on the ground.
Either way, you have to be ecstatic about Buchner’s debut (146 total yards on 10 plays) where he looked far from overwhelmed, in command of his assignments, and maybe most of all an indication the staff know he’s The Future sooner rather than later.
Will Buchner eventually take this job? I doubt it, at least not until late in the season. The grim reality is that Coan may eventually get too dinged up or outright injured with this offensive line and I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens Pyne gets the nod to start. Yet, Buchner certainly seems in line to play a lot this year.
I went ahead and handed out not-terrible grades to everyone outside of the offensive line. The receivers are doing well (12 receptions on 19 targets) with everyone in the 2-deep catching a pass, including the first-career receptions for Lorenzo Styles and Deion Colzie. Michael Mayer is up to 16 catches for 201 yards and 3 touchdowns on the season and continues to thrive. The backs are basically shuffling their feet and internally panicking without much room to run which sucks for them because we know they are very talented and being wasted.
You really can’t have a pick six and your captain running back fumbling with 3:26 remaining sitting on a 2-point lead, though.
Defense
For me, the defense comes out of this close win in much better shape and a sneaky good rebound from the 4th quarter disaster at Florida State. We still saw some weirdness like defensive end Isaiah Foskey lined up at middle linebacker and insanely safe prevent looks on 3rd down but the scheme as a whole felt more solid against Toledo.
Obviously, the big plays given up continue to trouble this group. The Rockets 4 biggest plays went for 182 yards and the Irish have to button this up especially when the offense is having its own issues.
Still, the other 59 plays for Toledo went for just 171 yards or 2.89 yards per play. The stuff rate was tremendous, there were 5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss, and the Rockets’ success rate on the ground was really quite poor.
The Irish also stiffened big time in the red zone (Toledo settled for field goals on 3 of 4 trips) and if they found a little bit more luck with the flags (the Rockets had 3 first downs via penalty) and Hamilton’s interception was upheld this could’ve looked like a much different ballgame. I don’t think it takes much squinting to see a 49-17 type of score with people feeling good about the defense if only the Irish offensive line wasn’t in shambles.
DL: B+
LB: C+
DB: C-
The tackling was so much better, too. Is that a product of playing a much more inferior opponent than Florida State’s offensive skill players? That Seminole’s speed wasn’t there which naturally leads to better angles from Irish tacklers.
One issue for me is that Toledo had too many successful short-to-intermediate completions with 9 first down throws from just 19 completions overall. That’s a touch nit-picky, I know. Toledo really wasn’t doing much on the ground and this really kept their offense from completely shutting down.
Stuffs vs. Toledo
Bertrand – 6.5
Jayson Ademilola – 3
Hamilton – 2
MTA – 2
Foskey – 2
Justin Ademilola – 2
Pryor – 1
White – 1
Hart – 1
Bauer – 0.5
J.D. Bertrand looks like a Joe Schmidt clone in his uniform but was a menace on the field grabbing the game ball from Kelly after 11 tackles, 6.5 stuffs, 1 sack, 3 tackles for loss, and a fumble recovery.
Still, the linebacker corps as a whole seems really ineffectual right now. For the second straight game, the Rover spot didn’t do much and even Drew White (just 1 tackle!??) was super quiet. This scheme continually sends these guys towards the line of scrimmage and they’ve got to find a way to make more plays. The defensive line seems to carrying things up front and if they have a bad day I fear what that’ll look like for the linebackers.
The same thing goes for the secondary through 2 games. K.J. Wallace takes a terrible angle and Kyle Hamilton misses a tackle leading to a combined 133 yards of offense for Toledo (37.6% of their total offense against Notre Dame) and you’re just not sure about what this group is going to do against some of the better quarterbacks and offenses remaining on the schedule.
Final Thoughts
I was struck by how calm Toledo head coach Jason Candle and his entire team were inside Notre Dame Stadium with a real chance to win. As much as anything, this kept bothering me as it looked like they weren’t worried at all about being beaten while exuding plenty of confidence. They should win a lot of games in the MAC.
You absolutely have to give it up to the Irish quarterbacks who acted about as perfect as you can expect given the situation. I’m including Drew Pyne who showed visible happiness for Coan and Buchner’s success while likely contemplating he may soon be 3rd string. I also loved Coan’s giddiness and appreciation on the sidelines for Buchner’s big plays, too. This seems like a really great quarterback room from a maturity standpoint–and while I loathe a 2-quarterback system–they all seem prepared to deal with it as best as you can expect.
We have a 100% success rate on game-winning drives when Coan dislocates his finger, so that’s cool.
During the off-season we saw promotional photos and recruits donning these hideous flesh gold and blue leg and arm sleeves. After the Florida State game, I thought we may not see them on the field but MTA and Lenzy had them on against Toledo. They are so ugly.
Bad leg sleeves.
Thoughts on the broadcast via Peacock? I figured I was about 2 plays and/or 90 seconds behind the live action which caused me to basically step away from our Slack chat and Twitter until there was a long stop in the action and I could catch up with everyone’s comments and analysis. I realize many people still watch games like it’s 1986 but for many of us that coordinated digital interaction with our community is kind of why we’re doing this in the first place, right?
Tip of the cap to Drew Brees who provided a really good first game as color commentator alongside Mike Tirico. If there’s a criticism to be made the halftime show on the field with 2 alums in Jack Collinsworth and Corey Robinson feels a little too cringe and full of nepotism for my taste.
Despite being calm as cucumbers, Toledo really had way too many boneheaded penalties that hurt their team and gave Notre Dame 4 free first downs. They also had a personal foul (did we ever see it?) after Notre Dame re-took the lead to push them back to their own 13-yard line of a touchback. Their quarterback Dequan Finn would’ve been wise to slide down near the goal line after he broke free for a touchdown with 1:35 remaining while trailing by 2 points. The Irish only had 1 timeout and Toledo could’ve run the clock all the way down before a chip-shot field goal.
I thought it was pretty cool that the offense started out with a completion to Avery Davis after he wasn’t targeted at all against Florida State and they finished with a Davis pass to Kyren Williams for the 2-point conversion.
It looks like the Irish are stuck in a no-man’s land with this Freeman defensive scheme a little bit. Everyone thought Freeman would adjust his scheme to the players but when the Rover name wasn’t changed I had fears. Now that Kiser seems like a ghost and Xavier Watts had to be moved to the position it makes me think Freeman doesn’t know what to do. We’re seeing similarities from his Cincinnati days with the center being covered all the time, more 3-man fronts, good DL play, and more Cover-1 but he relied heavily on 5 defensive backs with Sniper Jarell White being a complete menace near the line of scrimmage. The Irish continue to predominantly keep a 3rd linebacker on the field whether it’s Kiser or Pryor and they are not filling a similar role at all. Plus, I never saw Freeman move defensive end Myjai Sanders to inside linebacker like he’s doing occasionally with Isaiah Foskey so I don’t know what that’s all about.
Big old yikes to the attendance in the stadium for this game. I know we can still chalk a lot of this up to Covid and I’m sure not a ton of people were excited about a home opener against Toledo. It’s another brick in the wall where the overall capacity gets reduced in the future, in my opinion.
Here are the single-game lowest rushing yards for Notre Dame;s offense since 2017 began:
44 – Clemson, 2020
46 – Georgia, 2019
47 – Michigan, 2019
55 – Georgia, 2017
65 – FSU, 2021
80 – Pitt, 2018
88 – Clemson, 2018
Where things stand today, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wisconsin and Cincinnati games top this list. Without some improvement, Notre Dame may struggle for 50 combined yards on the ground against the Badgers and Bearcats. And they’ll likely lose both games.
That took a very dark turn at the end…RIP to the era of comfortable wins!
The more I think on it, the more it’s a shame Kelly isn’t going to optimize the OL. Correll isn’t built to be a guard, he should be playing center. Patterson’s never really been a college tackle, but at this point given LT injuries and woes they desperately need him to be.
But as written, it’s troubling the veteran right side of the line isn’t doing much either. Might not be a great solution available. Just hope Rees calls quick plays and instead of a vertical passing game, why not have more of the short passing game Book did well in? Coan could too, he’s accurate enough. Him holding the ball or waiting for deep shots to develop isn’t going to work.
Eric’s calling Baker “hilariously bad” might understate how bad he was. It would be coaching malpractice to watch this game tape and roll him out next week like nothing happened. Not sure what the solution is or if one even exists – sure, give Alt a try first, why not – but BK preemptively ruling out moving Patterson to LT is not particularly wise I don’t think.
Is it possible that Patterson really isn’t a tackle (as BK said not a “left” tackle I believe)? I know some players could play both center and left tackle but just because Patterson is our best OL doesn’t mean he’s one of them. And isn’t it easier to help a tackle on pass blocking (with a back or TE) than a center or guard?
Good points. Also… when before the season we were talking that Correll was a more natural center, BK mentioned that Patterson’s best position was center, and I think with a veiled reference to him going to the next level better that way. Which means BK (and no doubt Jeff Quinn) may have an even stronger reinforcement to not wanting to move Patterson. But I am so with Eric, it’s a shambles, and it seems like the situation calls for desperate measures.
Great analysis, as per usual. So much going on with this game – and then seeing Florida State losing to Jax State, admittedly on a fluke though – that I’m not even sure where to start. Not a lot positive going on beyond our five stars looking like future first-round draft picks. Seems like 9 regular season wins would be very surprising at this point.
But, it could be worse: we could be USC or Texas right now!
haha yea it could be worse: we genuinely could be 0-2.
And frankly – who on our schedule has done anything so far? I just hope we can pull it together against Cincinnati. The rest of our top teams have all lost (to teams that don’t seem particularly strong). Hopefully, at worst we’ll be in a lot of close games with them and manage to win enough (with some improvement).
Wisc. – loss to PSU (ok this is a decent loss, but the O looked BAD
USC – loss to stanford
UNC – loss to VT
Cinci hasn’t really played anyone yet.
My hope is that Freeman’s knowledge of Cincinnati will be an X factor that will help the defense and so that it will be a low-scoring game.
I’m with you both here. We look like an 8 win team. But our schedule looks very beatable (other than maybe UC). We look wayyyyy worse than I expected. But after all this, I still think I’ve only shifted my expectation to 1 more loss.
Which five stars are you talking about? Do you mean 5 star rated or five players who are stars? Beyond Hamilton and Mayer, I do not see 5 future first round picks on this team.
He’s gotta be talking about our 5 star recruits – which he must mean Hamilton and Mayer. Though technically Hamilton was a 4 star composite. Only Mayer was a composite 5 star.
Yes I just meant Hamilton and Mayer. I suppose Austin is another bright spot. But that’s basically it so far this year.
They better have also given a game ball to that trainer who fixed Coan’s finger. Not only did he do it quickly but he somehow was paying close enough attention and realized that Coan needed medical help as he was running over and was able to meet him just on the field. All-star effort there.
Yeah, I badly dislocated my ring finger running into a wall in a squash game when I lived in Hong Kong in 2010. It was at a total 90 degree angle from the knuckle closest to my ring. Looked gruesome and hurt. When I got to the medico, it took him a split second to fix it. When he did, I burst out laughing, it was so amazing, and I asked him if I could have done it myself. He said no.
To this day I cant get my wedding ring off.
I’m sure Mrs. Kiwi appreciates that side effect at least! 🙂
Eric we need a 2018 type “replace wimbush with book” article from you except one that magically fixes the entire offensive line. And I said the same thing yesterday, I really like Coan and he could have thrived behind a competent offensive line with this skill talent, but he’s going to struggle behind this line. Sucks for him. On the pick-6 he had 2 dudes coming open downfield for big gains but doesn’t trust the line to hang in there.
It just sucks that rankings work the way they do. Some team is gonna get credit for a top 10 win over a way overrated team. (And I hate to say this but watching Michigan last night they were so much better, especially up front: gross)
I didn’t see any of the game but, don’t forget that Washington lost to Montana St. last week.
I’d pump the brakes on Michigan a bit. They look like a typical Harbaugh team — a defense that clobbers putrid offenses (which is being charitable to Washington) in home games, combined with a herky-jerky offense with iffy QB play.
“They’re still sh*tty”.
Washington is one of the worst coached teams in football, from what I saw last night.
Norvell not much better at FSU.
I’m at a loss as to how things got this bad this quickly on OL. For four straight years, the whole offensive philosophy of this program has been controlling the middle of the field with size and power. We’ve done it more consistently than almost any team in the country, and won a Joe Moore Award along the way.
Now we do not have enough players to field a functional offensive line. What the hell?
Peacock — I quickly realized the point of it is to keep fans from switching away to other games. It sucks and is contrary to the whole point of having ND games on broadcast TV. If NBC wants to tinker with an app for English soccer games and the Lady Parts show, they can do that on their own time.
I realize we were relying on a freshmen for LT to begin with. But to be fair, not too many teams in the country would feel very comfortable with their 3rd string LT playing a lot of snaps.
Sure, I get that. But one of Kelly’s big post-2016 changes was recruiting for depth so we could survive the injury/transfer/suspension waves that sunk previous seasons like 2014. So how did we end up in a position where we have no answers, at all, at LT, two games into the season?
I think Eric would say we need to just recruit more offensive lineman!
Seems like a good topic for an article this week.
But in all seriousness, we’ve recruited OL as good as anyone and is certainly generally been the position with the most talent. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out (not every talented player works out, injuries take their toll in a very specific way that makes it harder to handle, etc.).
Honestly I think ppl just forget the line at the start of 2018 wasn’t very good either (the year after they lost Q and McGlinchey). Yesterday was their “rush for 117 yards on 41 carries against Ball St” performance.
Just takes time to develop an OL. Kinda weird how in the off-season most can generally acknowledge the line is starting fresh this year after losing 4 players to the NFL and going to be a work in progress…And now that it is a work in progress, and suffered injuries, suddenly there’s panic that Notre Dame can’t instantly reload and consistently have a Joe Moore caliber line.
it’s frustrating but needs a little patience to get on track. If that’s even possible losing the LT for most/all the season.
yea, i think we’re feeling more worry because of the LT injuries too. OL need some time to gel too it seems. I still think with all the talent they can improve. But I am worried about a 3rd string LT.
I’m not asking for a Joe Moore Award caliber line; just being mediocre would be a huge improvement on this atrocious line.
A couple things for start of 2018, Michigan d line was really really good, wimbush made the line worse and this line is just getting their ass kicked time and again. I have no idea how they could even get to mediocre. Lugg was getting wrecked, madden is a Marshall 6th year player for a reason, it’s just a mess.
That’s fair, maybe the “progress” part of the “work in progress” won’t come. It’s just very odd to me that as a birthright ND fans just expect a good offensive line, even when they know going into the season it’s not going to be great at first because it’s a whole new line.
I think you’re reading things people aren’t saying.
I don’t think anyone expected this OL to be good or great, especially not right away. Every season preview I read acknowledged we lost a lot on OL and the new OL would need time to gel and would probably be a step down from where we were the past few years.
There’s a difference between “new and not great” and “giving up sacks at a rate that eclipses the 2007 OL.” We are 126th in sacks allowed right now. And that’s a real problem because our starting QB is a pocket passer who needs, you know, a pocket.
OL play like this wasn’t acceptable under Weis, and it isn’t acceptable now.
If you didn’t expect it to be good, then it shouldn’t shocking and appaling that they need time (and are bad right now). It’s been 2 games, and they’ve lost 2 LT’s, gotta be a little accepting of circumstances in a small sample.
And, that said, a sack total isn’t necessarily strictly on the OL. Without going through each one it could also be on the QB to move it quicker and the OC to help out by calling plays that don’t take forever to develop.
Well the o line seems equally bad at pass blocking and run blocking, so I’d say fielding A 2007-level line is mostly the issue.
A 2018-like scenario is the optimistic view, and I’m holding out some hope it’s possible.
But right now, we just need the OL to get to regular bad, not Joe Moore level. I think it’s totally fair for fans to be wondering what the hell is going on when the biggest strength of our team for four years running is now its most glaring flaw.
3/5 of the line got drafted in the first 95 picks in April, that’s what the hell happened to the line. Not sure how that’s a hot take, rosters are cyclical and this one has cycled back to being new.
Are rosters cyclical? I mean yes there is a constant turnover, but obviously there are different ends of the spectrum like Alabama (constantly the best every year, basically) and say Iowa (goes up and down and you can tell when they have a team full of seniors). And the bottom goes down from there too. If there’s on position Notre Dame should withstand losing 3/5 players it’s probably OL, yet it looks more like we lost our entire two deep from last year.
Breaking news – Notre Dame isn’t Alabama!
Yeah, it’s cyclical. For OL, given how they play, you can’t really have a solid Junior/senior ready to jump in when a Banks or Eichenberg leaves, you’re going to start all over and find the next quality young player to take his spot and be good for 3 years.
That’s just kinda how it goes. When Nelson and McGlinchey left, the new o-line was terrible against Michigan and Ball State. They got together and figured it out and eventually were very good. Now it’s been bad early, with multiple injuries compounding the matter.
(Also not even Alabama would be getting great o-line play through 2 games if they were on their 3rd string LT just 1.5 games in)
No, ND isn’t Alabama, but it isn’t Iowa either, is it? This isn’t merely a bad LT play, the entire line looks flat. That level of drop off shouldn’t be expected or accepted given the reputation of the program and recruiting results especially at OL. Three top WRs leave? I’d totally expect ND to have issues. This should probably be the one place that ND doesn’t completely crater one season to the next.
We’ll see, I mean it’s only been 2 games. The ND run game had 120 yards on 14 carries with Buchner in. I think it’s more Coan can’t run and teams will crash 6-7 defenders when they see zone read and ND with 5 or 6 blockers with a TE in isn’t going to match those numbers.
I also think it’s virtually impossible to be too harsh on judging a line that’s gone through 3 LT in less than two games. Of course it’s not going to be cohesive or consistent with that kind of churn, how could it not be? Also, ND lines as mentioned often start slow when they re-load. I get the “I knew it would be bad but I can’t believe it’s this bad” perspective, but I don’t see that as totally fair.
OSU had 7 defensive players either drafted or sign with NFL teams as UDFA’s. Everyone will be shocked to learn their defense is struggling this year. I definitely underestimated the cost of player turnover, even for the schools that are elite recruiters (other than Bama).
We could be on our 4th LT next week. All of them being very young. You can’t rush experience. 2LTs lost to injury in the first two weeks would hurt any team but, especially one replacing three other OLine positions too.
Yeah it’s been brutal, but the three guys we’re lined up at LT are true frosh, redshirt frosh and redshirt frosh. And might be looking at *another* true frosh next week. It’s a lot to put on a young kid’s plate.
That said, the right side (and Patterson) need to be playing a lot better.
One question is why we don’t have a quality upperclassman LT available who could have started the season rather than a series of frosh (red shirt or true), with all the Oline recruiting we’ve done.
Yes, precisely this. It sure looks like the depth chart at that position has been disastrously mismanaged.
How do you know it’s been disastrously mismanaged unless you know how its been managed?
In other words, what would you have done differently?
Not had the starter get hurt in the first game, duh.
Exactly what kiwifan said — manage recruiting and the depth chart so that we would not have been starting any kind of freshman at LT. There’s really no excuse for ND, of all programs, to be in that kind of position.
A quick look at the roster and there aren’t any juniors or seniors that aren’t already in the lineup. John Dirksen being the lone exception. You would think they’d be a couple more upper classmen.
Clemson is starting a true freshman at guard who was ranked 70 spots lower than Fisher. His backup is either a sophomore who was the #485 recruit and unplayable last year, or a true freshman ranked 175 spots lower than Fisher. It happens, even to the best programs. I’m not saying it’s ideal, but again, losing 4 OL to the NFL is going to wreck any team’s depth.
The guys we lost were all starters, we didn’t lose backups to the draft. Where did the upper class LTs go?
With the scholarship rules we could’ve carried an additional 25 senior offensive linemen this year!!
Wasn’t Madden at least supposed to be better than this? Are defenses just attacking away from him? Going to be a long year though if defenses can consistently drop 7 and still get pressure…
Switching sources to live TV was as simple as a channel change. I can see the problem if you’re streaming it all on one device though.
Ditto on your Peacock comment.
Kiwifan — you’re back! Re your other post, good thing you didn’t have to change wedding rings!
Hi Noise!
Heart attack season so far eh? But at least we have two Ws instead of Ls.
I used to like playing with my ring in meetings, not possible anymore. And I used up all my wedding ring mistakes 20 years ago😊
I understand your frustrations trying to get access to the game from overseas. I had the same issue when we lived in China and New Zealand for 7 years. I finally got around it by somehow logging into my brother’s account in Cleveland using a fakeout vpn and his password.
Hey Kiwi!
Crazy tension, these games, for sure. And coming up, me with lots of tough Purdue memories — and Brees as a commentator to boot.
Life optempo over here crazy but at least fun again, the “health pass” is actually working.
Once NBC starts showing the games I can get those on USTV (which I found thanks to somebody on this site).
I thought his name was Joc Collinsworth? Also, is it possible that Chris Collinsworth is both his father AND his mother?
I think it’s just Jac.
Makes sense. 25% faster to write/type.
My bad!
Also, I’m leaving it.
I think they showed a replay of it. I want to say #11 on Toledo just shoved a guy over? Wasn’t crazy egregious, but I think it was well after the touchback occured.
Yes, now that you mention it that’s right. The shoving over seemed to be in the context of “blocking” though with our guy still running down to get the potential ball carrier. The replay didn’t include the whistle so it was hard to tell I thought when it occurred in relation to the whistle.
I thought you could see the kick returner in the background already “done” doing his touchback
I thought the ball just hit in the endzone and so the guy didn’t even catch it. And the “block” was definitely after the ball hit, but just couldn’t hear how much after the whistle the block was.
One thought (wish, hope?) that Baker might be better next week and the weeks after: before the Fisher injury he was on the depth chart at right tackle. Maybe he was getting a lot more reps on right tackle than he had at left tackle. And so as he gets a little more comfortable on the left, he’ll improve.
Just noticed that the final Mayer touchdown was scored while we were running four verts. That’s cool.
Coan should be looking to that left slot player more….Seams are open
https://twitter.com/greg2126/status/1437060584655110144
It would be interesting to know his progressions on this play. Seems like Austin is #1 option and so he chose to throw there whereas Davis might be the 3rd option and why he “missed” him.
Yeah, I think he was going to Austin all the way if single covered. Which I don’t necessarily knock, they need to be going out of their way to get him the ball. But it would be nice if the big pocket QB can find the open man streaking to the end zone, was kinda tricky for the offense for a while after the first drive.
I think we ran 4 verts on some the prior plays on that drive too. With the kind of receiving options we have that is very tough to cover.
Very new position for us and a reason why I would be loath to move on from Coan. Even with the bad OL play has resulted in some bigtime throws so that even just a small improvement from the OL could make a huge difference. Where the ceiling with Buchner right now (not showing yet that he can make those kind of throws/mental decisions) is much lower.
Right, absolutely – we can’t run that with Buchner. I’m pretty sure the Buchner offense didn’t get up to five different plays (maybe three plays total out of a few different formations). He’s effectively an option quarterback right now.
But, if both QBs can handle being swapped in and out, that might be the best strategy if and until our offensive line gels a bit. For at least some of the game we need a QB who can run away from a pass rush.
Agreed. Also saves Coan some hits. What happens if he gets hurt?
Anybody else a little nervous about Coan’s finger? I know it was popped back in and he was able to throw a great pass, but I’ve had that happen to me as a QB. Once the adrenaline wears off and that thing starts swelling up, you can have a real problem. Stiffness / ligament issues, that can really linger for a week or so or more.
Hoping all good. I think this team is best served by playing Coan (and hoping the OLine can make incremental improvements combined with some more focused playcalling to cover for its shortcomings) with a change up from Buchner. Would be a shame if we couldn’t keep that going this week.
This is a type of injury that Kelly won’t talk about all week (or will downplay) and then on Saturday we’re going to find out he’s limited or recovering, so I think we’ll just have to wait and fine out.
I think that’s a great point. It crossed my mind once, but I think you are probably right that we should be more concerned. To continue playing right after it happened is one thing. To do it a couple days later or a week later is another. I’m glad to hear though that it might only be a week of healing. I thought the torn ligaments from it might take multiple weeks.
I didn’t have any problems with mine after it was popped in. Played the next day, in fact. The only issue is that the knuckle remains permanently enlarged.