Well, that was rather easy. Not since the 2012 Wake Forest game has Notre Dame won a game by such a large margin, and as we sit here today that season feels eons ago. Perhaps the best part for our collective blood pressure was that the game was never in doubt and quickly out of hand.
Let’s get to the review.
Stats on a Blowout
A hefty 31 first downs were made which is a season-high and the most since the Pinstripe Bowl against Rutgers to conclude the 2013 season. Notre Dame scored touchdowns on its first 4 possessions and didn’t punt during the game. The defense did force Army to punt on their first 2 possessions (always so crucial against academies) in addition to punts on 3 out of their first 4 drives. The Black Knights were limited to 12 total yards on those 3 drives ending in punts.
The Irish finished converting 10 out of 13 third downs which was needed badly. They held the ball for nearly 9 more minutes that Army, almost straight doubling the TOP over the final 3 quarters. Army had 3 attempts on 4th down and were stopped on 2 of those occasions. Notre Dame also out-rushed Army and had one more carry overall on the ground.
Throat Stomping it Wasn’t
As per usual, when the game felt like it was prime for a real honest-to-goodness beat down it never quite unfolded that way. In the first half 38 points were piled up only to see 6 points total in the second half. The Irish only scored touchdowns on 3 out of their 5 red zone trips. The defense did a pretty good job but Army only came away with 6 points on 3 red zone trips.
Thanks to a garbage time semi-successful drive with Malik Zaire and a couple long second half drives from Army (22 plays, 126 yards) the game finished with Notre Dame +1.8 in YPP which is a healthy margin but not completely overwhelming.
An Emerging Pattern
DeShone Kizer remains on pace to mirror his production from last year even though it doesn’t feel like he’s in the same stratosphere as a quarterback this year. A lot of that probably has to do with the weakened schedule for 2016.
However, it was another effort from Kizer where the stat line looks fine (3 touchdowns, no sacks!) but while watching it live there’s a lot left to be desired. The accuracy issues are still causing a lot of problems either in completions or little time or room for receivers to run for extra yardage.
Additionally, there was a really bad decision in the red zone while throwing an interception in the end zone–plus the 7.4 YPA really isn’t anything to write home about against an academy team with such a poor pass defense. I thought it was a curious decision that Brian Kelly gave Kizer the game ball, to be honest.
All You Need is Love
True freshman Julian Love was cleared to play following a concussion suffered last week against Navy and not only earned a starting spot against Army he got to play at safety. Don’t expect that position switch to continue as this was a triple-option decision only. Plus, Love is a bit too small at present (5-10, 190) to play in the back full-time.
Be that as it may, Love had several key snaps on Saturday with his first career interception, a pass break-up, and a half tackle for loss. I thought for sure he would be given the game ball.
Shamrock Break
So ends the 8-year run of the first iteration of the Shamrock Series as the Irish began the neutral site games at the Alamodome in 2009 and finish there in 2016. Notre Dame remained undefeated in these games but the spectacle really seemed to peak in 2013 against Arizona State. Since then, the traveling road show lost its luster and the opponents have been scraping the bottom of the barrel.
The series is supposed to come back (with promises for better competition which will be interesting to see the choices) in 2018 after the school breaks in the Crossroads project next fall. One more opponent is needed on the 2018 schedule with home games already scheduled against Michigan, Ball State, Syracuse, Stanford, Pitt, and Florida State. That’s probably the toughest home schedule in several years and would be a heck of a time to schedule a good team for a neutral site contest.
Uniforms
They were flawed as usual but the overall aesthetic looked cohesive. The drab Army green didn’t even look as bad as I thought it would. Granted, I’m a sucker for the green/gold color scheme.
The frieze logo was barely recognizable which was expected and in a way that was fine. From the in-game cameras it looked Notre Dame was wearing its regular helmets anyway. However, the sleeves with the sandstorm gold background and frieze logo did look a little out of place.
Damn Refs
I don’t like game officials. I don’t give them the benefit of the doubt. I look forward to our robot overlords judging the play on the field in the future. Out of the dozens of annoying and irritating behaviors displayed from referees nothing grinds my gears more than watching them act like concerned hall monitors after touchdowns.
“Hey, hey, hey stop walking now. Hey! What’s that hand gesture? Hey! Don’t make me throw a flag.”
How about getting out of the frame, ref? The funny thing is that they are trained to do this because they all do it. I especially like when the player keeps a hold of the ball while celebrating and the ref runs as fast as he’s ever run in his life to come get the ball out of the player’s hands. I don’t know maybe the ball will explode if the ref can’t gain possession?
I’d had a particular rough week (don’t ask), and was relieved to see us make the game easy.
During the second half, my wife came up to ask me a question (she walked up behind me). She said she started talking to me and then realized I was dead asleep. That gives you some idea of how intense I was during the second half.
I fell asleep late second quarter during the 2006 MSU game.
Things picked up rather nicely when I woke up.
I think just over 50% of us had a rough past week…
At least the Cubs are World Series champs, right?
This year’s team continues to have a problem keeping the momentum going after they get a lead. Even though this was a blowout, the limited production in the second half is further evidence of the pattern. Is it youth that lacks concentration to sustain focus? Conditioning? Excessive sensitivity to the emotions of their opponents? Predictable play calling once the lead is established? If DK is the leader of the offense, does his cool calm demeanor infect teammates who need some passionate intensity when their energy fades? Maybe DK is Spock… the team needs a Captain Kirk to throw a couple of hay makers, see the job through, and win (one for) the lady.
There’s definitely some excessive sensitivity at play. There didn’t appear to be any real attempt to score with Zaire in the game. Personally, I’m not a fan; I don’t want to be running trick plays up 40, but it would be nice for our backups to be running a “normal” playbook instead of a steady diet of runs.
To Anachronism:
Oh yeah, the Cubs being the World Series Champs was a big, big deal for me. I never thought I’d get to see it.
I had to laugh. The Archbishop of Chicago is in Rome to be elevated to Cardinal (NOT the baseball team). The Chicago ABC affiliate has a picture of him handing the Pope a Cubs hat and an autographed baseball. You cannot escape the Cubs.
Ricke002 nailed the bad part of my week.
Let’s Go Irish! Beat VaTech and let’s suck it up and go get U$C!
There is one thing I wanted to say about this year’s team.
I’ve caught portions of NFL games in which CJ Prosise (Seattle) and Will Fuller (Texans) are apparently playing big roles. We really lost some serious talent on the offensive side of the ball, didn’t we? It makes this year’s offensive performance look a little bit better from that perspective (and I think we’ve done reasonably well offensively this year).
I would say that Will Fuller has the inside track to offensive rookie of the year, unless Carson Wentz really turns it on down the stretch. I think we all knew he would be a huge loss but still most of us underestimated how much of a loss.
Prosise is in an interesting spot – Seattle has a couple of guys getting healthy, most notably Thomas Rawls, so his opportunities could go down. On the other hand, he has looked very good in his limited time, especially in the passing game where he has led the team in receiving yards twice this year. Basically in both games where he got real run. Carroll likes him a lot, which will definitely help.
Jaylon was also apparently the key piece that made VanGorder’s defenses passable, which as we can see from this year must mean he was indeed an otherworldly talent. Losing Sheldon Day and Max Redfield were big blows too. And that doesn’t even get into the injury losses of Shaun Crawford and Nick Watkins, which means we’re playing a third stringer opposite Cole Luke.
None of that excuses the product on the field this year, of course; we should still be no worse than 9-1. But if you’re looking for a ray of sunshine for next year, there’s that.
You don’t think a starting QB for Dallas would get a few votes for Rookie of the Year?!?
Or the Cowboys running back.
Or the negative view is that Kelly’s loyalty to BVG wasted the talents of Jaylon and Sheldon Day and undermined his best chance to make it to the elite of college football
/sad trombone
Yeah. I can only imagine what it would have been like to see Jaylon, Day, Rochell, Redfield, KVR, Luke, and Morgan playing together for a competent defensive coordinator. Such a shame.
/rends garments, screams at the sun
I must admit I was skeptical about CJ leaving early, but I must say I’m impressed. He looked very good vs the Pats.
I had a great week.