These things are a lot easier to write after wins, but here goes. Notre Dame lost to Ohio State 21-10 tonight, sending Marcus Freeman to 0-2 and creating the easiest wisecrack in the history of Twitter about the much-discussed and hyped new Notre Dame coach.
It’s funny how pregame narratives can be so wrong. What was every word about this game saying coming in? Notre Dame wasn’t going to even be in the game unless they decisively won the line of scrimmage, because their secondary is terrible and Ohio State’s receivers are incredible and on and on and on.
Instead, Notre Dame, frankly, lost the line of scrimmage on both sides – by a large margin, you might say – and yet this game was a toss-up until Ohio State got the ball back with 10 minutes left in the game and marched down for the backbreaking touchdown.
How? I’m still not sure I know, but here were a few takeaways:
The defense appears to be the goods, even though bits of it were disappointing
Al Golden being a well-regarded defensive coordinator, it’s not terribly surprising that he would field a good defense. It was a little stunning just how well his unit performed against an Ohio State group loaded with stars, especially considering the presumed recipe to slow them down didn’t work.
The easy theory was that ND would have to get into C.J. Stroud’s face to avoid being shredded by the Ohio State receivers. That didn’t at all happen. The Irish were able to force Stroud out of the pocket a bit, but outside of the one sack ND did get I’m not sure I’d say he was ever really under duress.
That part was a big disappointment. You’d like to think ND’s purportedly strong defensive front would be more of a factor in this one. However, that was somewhat mitigated by an excellent and unexpected performance by the secondary. That position group, so maligned after the awful second half in the Fiesta Bowl eight months ago, limited the Buckeye wideouts as much as could ever be expected. Clarence Lewis, who was basically stuffed in a locker by the Cowboys, was solid if unspectacular. Freshman Ben Morrison made a couple plays, as did TaRiq Bracy.
Also, the linebacking unit was, to my very untrained eye, very good. Again, you’d like more pressure on the QB, but they were also quite solid tackling, at least until they ran out of gas from carrying the offense on their backs all night. The final product could only be called outstanding – 21 points allowed against at worst the second-most explosive offense in the country.
Tyler Buchner’s grade: Incomplete
Tyler Buchner remains an open question after his first start. Let’s start by saying he didn’t turn it over – or come particularly close to doing so – nor did he ever really look unsettled. Those are good things.
However: Either Buchner was allowed to do essentially nothing throwing the ball – besides one throw up the seam to Kevin Bauman, did he throw anything other than short stuff or deep sideline routes all night? – or he’s not capable of it, or both. To me, he looked basically the same as the quarterback we saw in small doses in 2021. After an offseason of chatter that he’d taken steps forward, that part was very disappointing.
There were certainly good things. But if ND is going to win out, which obviously has to be the goal, I’m not sure this kid-gloves version of Buchner is going to be enough to do it, even if the defense really is that good.
Tommy Rees’ plan was…
OK, this is such a sports-talky hot take kind of a point, but it wasn’t entirely clear what Tommy Rees was trying to do at times. ND’s one TD drive featured a few terrific play calls, particularly that Bauman throw.
Before that and after that, there was…basically none of that? Which makes you wonder.
The Buchner stuff I covered above, but also, where was Lorenzo Styles? He’s supposed to be the anchor of the WR room. He had a fantastic first play and then…never saw the ball again? Was he even targeted? Maybe once more? Was he not open or not thrown to?
Alstein in our secret chat room said “we tried everything once”, which seems mostly accurate (except for the Tyree end around, which we tried twice, and predictably it did nothing the second time). There did not appear to be a cohesive plan, which is very strange because Rees’ time as OC has mostly been defined by cohesive plans. Remember him sticking Brent Venables’ head in a toilet and stealing his lunch money 2 years ago? We know he has it in him. It wasn’t there tonight – I assume by design, but who knows.
You can’t conservative your way to a win in Columbus. If the plan was to ball-control into an early lead to take the crowd out, congratulations, that worked in every way. But after that, ND seemed to make very little effort to manufacture any points. I’m not sure why.
Can they win out?
Obviously any thought of being a factor in the CFP race begins with winning 11 straight games. Also obviously, there’s not really any clear indication either way whether this group can or will do it. Clemson and USC loom as challenges. North Carolina can’t defend its way out of a wet paper bag, but they can score enough to be a problem if ND’s offense isn’t on point. BYU is probably similar. There are land mines.
None of them, of course, boasts the kind of talent across the depth chart as these Buckeyes, and ND played an OK game against them tonight. The offensive line, which was pretty darn bad tonight, will get Jarrett Patterson back at some point and has a recent history of developing into a good unit during the season. So the answer is…maybe.
See you next week.
Honestly, one of the best defensive performances I’ve seen in a while. Hate to see it wasted. ND’s 2nd half offensive performances under Freeman are becoming a major problem (sample size of 2, I know, but…). Hopefully playing a team not coached by Jim Knowles helps Freeman, Rees, and the offense to find their groove. Want to see a big bounce back game against Marshall next week
What’s interesting (again, sample size of 2) is that the problems start right at the end of the first half.
This is the second time in a row ND has made weird and dangerous decisions with the ball and the lead just before halftime. It seems like nobody knows what the plan is and there are competing/conflicting strategies coming from different coaches. I think Freeman needs to exercise his authority here — end-of-half strategy comes directly from him and nobody else, no questions asked.
Has to be Freeman on this one…
tOSU misses a FG, ND gets the ball back on their 22, with 31 seconds left. Tyree runs, 1 yard gain. Notre Dame calls a time out — which is the biggest head scratcher. Tommy Rees didn’t tell a ref to call a timeout from the booth. I just re-watched it, and it wasn’t a player who called it either, came from the sideline.
Sounds like in this case Rees did exactly what they had mentioned openly, just get it to half, which makes sense given no field position reasons to push. But then for some reason Freeman stopped the play and wanted them to try to gun it with one more shot down the field.
Why that timeout was called is the question. tOSU only had 1 TO left in the half, they couldn’t have applied pressure to get the ball back at first.
Honestly, the situation reads as if Freeman was operating with the idea tOSU had no timeouts left and that ND could just kill the clock on third down if the shot down field didn’t work. That became the issue when the 2nd down pass failed.
ND should have either passed on first down, if it fails then you can run twice on 2nd and 3rd and get to the half….Or just run on first and get to half. They did the absolute worst thing, run for nothing on first, stop the clock and then stop the clock again with an incomplete on second down. That’s on Freeman.
I dunno, Freeman looked pretty pissed about that whole sequence. When they showed him on the sideline, you could see him saying something like, “That’s fucking stupid.” Maybe he was just being really hard on himself, but I kind of doubt it.
In any event, we need better organization and communication for end of half situations.
I think you misread what happened. Freeman exploded into his headset “That was Stupid!!” after the pass play. I think he absolutely wanted to run out the clock. I think he was shouting at Rees.
That said, Freeman should have told his OC on first down, “run the ball, kill the clock”. It’s his show to run in that situation.
Yep
That doesn’t make sense. Rees ran the ball on first down and the half would have been over until Freeman took a timeout. At that point, why take the timeout if you’re just going to run it again for 2 yards? Taking that timeout meant take a shot.
But it was mis-timed by Freeman. You can’t stop the clock after first down and then take a shot on second down when the other team has a timeout.
Assuming this interpretation is right, this is exactly my point — you can’t go into your final possession of the half with the HC and OC on different pages about what the strategy is. This is a communication/chain of command issue.
According to the NBC play by play chart, both ND and OSU used a timeout after 1st and 3rd down. Did OSU call them 1st ? IDK But I’d guess they did as there would be no reason for them to use one otherwise. After 3rd down it was OSU’s 3rd timeout and therefore the incomplete pass on 2nd kept the clock from running out. IF OSU called the timeouts first, ND using their timeouts would have had no bearing on ND being able to run out the clock and not having to punt.
So yes, it does make sense.
No, Ohio State did not call the first timeout. I just re-watched it again. tOSU only had 1 timeout left, they had used 2 earlier in the half. The sequence is what I wrote:
tOSU missed FG, ND gets ball with 0:35 left.
1+10: 1 yard Tyree run
NOTRE DAME TIMEOUT (0:31 left)
2+9: Incomplete pass attempt to Lenzy (0:23 left)
3+9: 5 yard Tyree run
OHIO STATE 3rd FINAL TIMEOUT (0:18 left)
4+4: ND punt
Freeman took the first timeout of the sequence, the whole strategy was on him and he bungled it. Not the end of the world.
tOSU could not have gotten the ball back if Freeman managed the situation correctly, by throwing on first down, the running on 2nd and if tOSU burnt their last TO, taking a knee on 3rd down and they couldn’t have stopped the clock. Freeman’s decision to stop the clock on 2+9 was wrong.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/playbyplay/_/gameId/401404124
I totally believe that ESPN is correct. Which means you are mistaken, if they hadn’t thrown a pass, time would have run out on two running plays ND wouldn’t have had to punt.
Thus Freeman blasting Rees.
That’s not my position and a very skewed way to look at the situation. If Freeman didn’t call the timeout, ND wouldn’t have to punt. Freeman is the head coach, it’s all on him anyways. He decided to have Rees call a pass when Freeman himself TOOK A TIMEOUT AND DIDN’T OPT TO RUN OUT THE CLOCK!
Second, I don’t think Freeman was blasting Rees at all, he was saying his own handling of the situation and calling a timeout was stupid clock management. Of his own doing, and for that he is correct.
Skewed ? You’re blaming the TO for the clock not running out. It was actually the incomplete pass that caused it. It was both actually. It surely wasn’t only the TO. As far as who Freeman was yelling at. He didn’t look like he was talking to himself. You think he called a pass play and then yelled at himself into the microphone, “That was fuckin stupid!!” ?? It was quite obvious that he was very mad that time was going to be left on the clock but, he’s the one that called a pass play? Interesting, if not logical.
I’ve already stated that it’s Freeman’s job to make sure things go as he wants in that situation. I don’t think they did. Again that’s on him in the end.
Freeman said he told Rees he wanted to take a shot but it got communicated late as he was talking with the D. Probably why he called the TO after 1st down. So his little tirade seems weird if he still wanted a pass play. If they had passed on 1st they still could have run out the clock if it failed. Not so after the run & TO on first. Whatever happened, the communication has to improve.
I thought that too–but he’s the guy in charge and knows what the play call is before it happens. Not impressed by that.
He seemed pretty pissed.
That was a way more exciting game than it had any business being. Defensive gameplan was tremendous, though it helped a *lot* that Ohio State’s #1 WR/Belitnikoff-favorite and #3 WR were out for nearly all of the game. Still, holding Henderson mostly in check (15 for 91 is a success against him) is a real win, and I look forward to their improvement once we play some o-lines where we can get a pass rush without blitzing 6+ guys. No reason to think we can’t win every other game we have scheduled, even if 10-2 or 9-3 remain the most likely results.
But: I think the “incomplete” grade for Buchner might be generous. Or, rather, it’s unclear what exactly he is, but we just need to acknowledge that we know what he is not, which that he’s not a special player. His stat line was generous to him, as two of his chunkier completions were bad passes that Mayer and Salerno made great plays on. To be clear, I don’t think they should go with Pyne. Buchner has more talent than Pyne and will be more fun to watch. But after a year+ on campus, and seeing what we’ve seen, also he’s just very clearly not The Special Guy Who Might Take Us To The Promised Land, because he really is not a good passer. To me that’s a bigger bummer in some ways than losing the game, because the Next Possible Special Guy won’t even be on campus until fall 2024.
He did seem to be under a lot of pressure and it’s not clear how much help he is getting from his WRs (I suspect not much at this point) so I think incomplete is a bit more fair than you are arguing for here.
I don’t think Stroud lit the world on fire in his first game as a starter last year. It took a few games before him and his 5 star Wrs got things going. Buchner is not playing with the same talent around him as Stroud was/is. I think giving him at least a few more games to see what he’s got before making any real hard and fast conclusions seems best.
Blaming Buchner, really ? Exactly who played well on offense ? Certainly not the Oline, 2 out of the 3 RBs, or the WRs.
I can only imagine the carnage if our starting QB last year had played tonight. For those that thought the Oline was going to be super out of the gate, sorry it doesn’t work that way. Do people not see the talent difference in the two WR groups in the game? It’s drastic. Same for the RBs. Having that much skilled talent, makes it easier to play QB.
Without rewatching I’m pretty comfortable saying Alt played really well, zero pressures and several good run blocks(?) and Fisher only dropped one twist that the broadcast noted. It seemed to be mostly Correll and Kristofic getting abused and RBs not being set correctly occasionally.
I’d say Alt++, Mayer+, Fisher+ and those are probably the only three positive grades on the offense. It’s tough to tell what exactly was happening between Buchner and the WRs from the TV broadcast, but it really stunk.
For what its worth that’s not how PFF graded them out:
Alt had the best grade (not saying much) that is a barely passible 60. The rest were under that. Fisher the worst (by .1) at 50.6. Lugg was a clear 2nd and graded out pretty good at pass blocking (Alt was 2nd on pass blocking and pretty good but a clear step behind Lugg’s grade). Fisher graded out as the worst pass-blocker.
Mayer was basically the best (Salerno was technically first but he only played 8 snaps) but it wasn’t a great grade – 66.9.
Maybe Lugg was trying to make up for Fisher miscues but, I thought he was poor. I could see him being replaced by a younger guy. 70+yds on 30 carries. That’s pretty bad. Never mind the pass blocking.
I find PFF much better at marketing than grading at the CFB level.
You’ve watched the film and done some grading yourself to compare?
No, but I’ve seen some of the grades they hand out and they come from fantasy land. They are decent for the NFL , can’t possibly grade so many college players accurately and professionally
I don’t think nd09hls12 was “blaming Buchner” at all. On the contrary, he was quite clear that Buchner should not replaced by Pyne.
Yes, my comment was more big-picture than game-specific. There are guys who I would blame for this loss specifically more than Buchner, for sure. If you lined up folks 1-22 and ranked their play, he may have even been an above-average starter for ND today.
The point I’m lamenting is that, as Ari Wasserman has pointed out numerous times, you don’t need to recruit at the absolute elite Bama/UGA/OSU/recent A&M level to win a natty, but you do need an elite quarterback to win one with sub-elite recruiting. I think it’s fair to say, at this point, that Buchner does not appear to be on track for that. I guess with the rose-colored-est glasses you could squint and see the potential for him to turn into Marcus Mariota, but he would have to improve *so much* as a passer.
(Also in the interest of fairness upon review the pass to Salerno was not bad. That was a fair assessment of the Mayer pass, though.)
Updates big board to NO on the “Is Tyler Buchner on track to turn into a Heisman winning QB after one start” unasked question.
LOL
Ha, fair enough, particularly here where the Buchner hype has been pretty reasonable. I guess I’m arguing against the message board views widespread elsewhere, where lots of folks (and recruiting analyst types on the ND sites) saying Buchner was really an elite talent who caught a bad break by not being able to play his senior year his senior year of high school, and we’d all see that he really should have been a five star.
To be clear/FWIW, I’m not even so pessimistic to think that he can’t live up to his (high-four-star) rating. I also think he’s going to be fun in a lot of ways to watch given his style.
Maybe the lesson for me is to stop reading the recruiting sites.
Yeah, to the recruiting sites.
I also love the media talking heads’ references to Mel Kiper’s draft picks, and the other bozo they always refer to as if they know what they’re talking about.
Do you disagree? I think it was a solid opinion based on what we’ve seen.
Well Ari Wasserman is a hot take machine who has no business getting paid to comment on college football.
“you don’t need to recruit at the absolute elite Bama/UGA/OSU/recent A&M level to win a natty”
I’d say it’s MUCH more likely you win one with elite talent than without…. Did anyone think Buchner was going to light it up in Columbus in his first start ? I’m pleased with how he played and the poise that he showed…. The talent and depth difference at WR and RB was obvious (“elite” vs Not so sure) …. We needed to win in the trenches, we didn’t. The defense is going to be more than fine, while the Oline is still a work in progress, you might see a change at RG…Tommy Rees did not have a great night.
While true, Rees did what Freeman directed. Freeman openly said in his presser the game plan was to control the ball, keep it away from Ohio State, grind clock and not try to “out-score” them in a high scoring contest.
As in, reading between those lines I’m betting Freeman didn’t want another Fiesta Bowl where all Rees did was pass early and often and try to beat tOSU in a wide open game. (Not bad, in theory).
But the problem was, Notre Dame lost in the trenches and couldn’t run the ball. Remains unknown if a more aggressive strategy would have faired any better.
I can see why you have to respect the tOSU offense and think big picture, but hopefully Freeman also learned the lesson about trying to “hold on” as he called it, instead of staying hungry for more. They could have pushed harder in the second half to try and score more, and that is where maybe the HC should have opened things up a little more, sending tOSU was on the ropes.
It’s hard to do much of anything when the OL is playing so poorly.
Also I don’t think I saw any comments about starting field position. It certainly doesn’t help matters when our average starting field position is like the 12 yard line (would like to see the actual stat but that’s what it felt like).
Yeah, I was disappointed with the kick team coverage team, especially as a first impression from the new ST coach with a good reputation. Every kick it looked like 4-5 tOSU players weren’t disrupted at all by blocking and able to blow up the return.
Also for a punt or field goal at one point it looked like they had to remind Mayer to go back in from the sidelines to play and he lined up fairly late. He was obviously thinking about the previous play that was a pass attempt for him.
I’m all for using good players on special teams, but I think there’s something to be said about the Bo Bauer type special teams aces of having good young players have a big role on those groups. They might not be thrilled with it, but I’d like to see more guys like Kollie and even Jordan Sneed there, don’t really need to see Mayer and Braden Lenzy on coverage teams.
There’s a reason Ohio State kicked it to the two yard line – that’s exactly what you should do, daring the other team to return it. I’m hoping that we were just taking our chances against a better team and will fair catch those against inferior opposition, but we’ll see.
The blocking (whiffing) on the kick returns was bad.
Totally agree, but my point is that even on a reasonably well-blocked return you can’t reasonably expect to get the ball to the 25 on average. We should be fair-catching those kicks, at least against the teams that we would expect to beat without a kickoff return score.
Yeah, running a kickoff back to the 12 yard line seems to be a Tyree specialty.
Bama does both–most incoming skill players debut on special teams.
Yes, Hook; also like I said elsewhere, my read of Freeman’s answer was he knows this. Brand new head coach as they say.
Hey Noise, how ya doing? Still across the pond??
Yep, looks like Freeman played not to lose by much, IMO.
I agree with most of this, but disagree re the elite needs. Elite QB alone isn’t enough. Receiving corps, RBs, CBs and lines have to be very good to elite.
Bama had everything but the Oline last year, which sucked and cost them the NC. Bryce Young still was able to win the Heisman and get them to the NCG due to the receivers, defense, and coaching, but the loss of his two receivers to injury (Metchie and Williams), plus being down to one semi healthy RB,didn’t allow him to overcome a trash (for Bama) oline.
You basically need to whole package to win it these days.
They also had way more depth. Take two of our three starting receivers out during the game and we have…what?
I thought Stroud feasted on weak opponents last year, and looked pretty bad in their losses. He and JSN were lucky Okie State was playing with a reserve running back at CB in the Rose Bowl, vastly inflating their stats.
I agree with both parts of this post ND09.
I was pleasantly surprised and even proud, despite the loss, at the fight the team showed.
Buchner has mechanical issues and isn’t fast enough or shifty enough to make up for it with his legs, now that teams have seen his film. Pretty poor passer IMO. Gutsy, smart, athletic, but not a big time QB.
It would help if he had receivers who could get separation, but that’s been a chronic issue lately with our receivers.
Not many QBs would have had a good game behind that line last night. They were dominated. It’s a little early to be forecasting Buchner’s ceiling.
About the game I expected, although lower scoring.
The defense did everything it needed to do to win this game. I would grade them very highly, especially on tackling. It’s only one game, but I think we can win 9-10 games with this defense. I am very encouraged by what I saw on defense tonight. That said….
Offense, woof. Unclear what if anything we are good at on that side of the ball. I’m sure we’ll magically look better next week, but no one should be fooled by that. Maybe the beat reporters should cool their jets on how amazing Tommy and Harry are.
Good point re: the game we expected. A lot expected we could try to hang with them for a while but they’d pull away eventually. I think most though were expecting the score to be about double what it was
Yeah, I was in the latter camp for sure, and was very pleasantly surprised.
Well that was disappointing. The lack of production from the lines wasted really great performances from Bracy, Joseph, and Kiser.
The absolute lack of efficiency on the offensive side of the ball was incredibly frustrating, 2.5 yards per carry for the game was ridiculously bad. The repeated QB draws when OSU would rush 4 with 2 LBs in shallow zones/spy were painful to watch, they had no chance to succeed.
2 targets to Styles is almost as inexcusable as the QB draws. I just have no idea what could be the thought of not getting the ball in his hands more, especially because I know he wasn’t being bracketed most of the game because they were keeping two on Mayer and six at the line a lot.
Anyway, it’s disappointing to have to wait until January to beat Ohio State. Looking forward to being on campus next week for Marshall, who look way more interesting having put up 55 points in the first 40 minutes of their game today.
Rees’s last two second halves have been exceptionally bad.
Take from that what you will.
The play design to Bauman was one of the prettiest things I’ve seen a Notre Dame team run, freeze the LBs with the play action, abuse the safeties lean toward Mayer, and create a open space for an easy throw for your QB.
Why couldn’t he ever recreate that during the game? With the LBs so shallow how did we never throw an intermediate to deep cross the entire game? The Styles play right at the beginning of the game was an RPO read on the DE by Buchner and it worked great, why so few reads the rest of the game?
Flashes of really good stuff and then it turns to ash the rest of the game. Handoff from the OSU 48 on second and 18 for no gain followed by a QB draw? What happened to creating mismatches and finding one on ones as soon as we hit the third quarter? So weird and frustrating.
I’m sure the Rams will come calling at some point
The Bears would be more his speed.
Maybe Styles doesn’t separate much, or often enough? I couldn’t tell, but that’s been a chronic issue for several years with our WRs
Defense played well without a doubt. Terrible play call on the safety blitz for OSU’s second TD. Didn’t make sense to get aggressive there at all. 3rd down and playing to the field goal.
Not sure all of the hand wringing over Buchner. Yeah he missed some throws, but he also made some throws including the very first throw to Styles with a blitzed right in his grill.
The oline sucked, plain and simple. The RB’s aren’t good enough and don’t have a home run threat. Yeah I know Tyree is fast, but I don’t think any of us would call him a true HR threat as a RB.
Offensive play calling was not good at all. Everything was outside the numbers, nothing down the seams or over the middle of field. It was timid and playing not to lose instead of trying to win.
The same echo chamber that brought you “Buchner isn’t good and Wimbush 2.0” not being impressed is predictable. Not much to see there, he was and will be downplayed all season.
Hell, Stroud himself looked very ordinary and was more inaccurate than Buchner for three quarters. For a first start, on the road in front of 106k hostiles, against a very good defense and without much for WR, Buchner was good. Not great, but drawing any big conclusions is a waste.
Speaking of bad preseason comparisons, how about, “This offense can be like LSU 2019!”
Buchner has limitations; that isn’t a surprise and it doesn’t mean he’s bad.
3 completions to the WRs. OSU was playing stop the run first and that’s all ND could accomplish at WR ?? I think that tells you all you need to know about the talent at WR. Maybe the younger guys can grow some during the season.
I agree on Stroud–the D made him look pretty average (maybe he is? BiG isn’t exactly a walk over glass).
Buchner’s throwing motion is seriously off. Don’t know why Rees hasn’t addressed that. Given the talent differential, he wasn’t far off Stroud, but neither was good, although Stroud is clearly a better pure passer.
If you would have told me 11 point loss that was nd leading with a minute left in 3rd I would have been feeling pretty good. Then it happens and ehh.
Offensively not sure of 1 player or coach I feel more confident in today than I did 24 hours ago. Maybe ohio state is an elite defense based on recruiting and new DC, but man tonight was rough. I mean the salerno OPI call was just such an unatheltic play from him. and we are calling plays for him with 12 minutes left in our biggest game. woof
Defensively thought they were good. little disappointing up front. didn’t really wreak havoc in stroud but obviously D played well overall
The fact that Salerno has playing time at receiver in our biggest game of the season, in a non-blowout, should be a wake up call to those who say we have a talented receiver corps.
He’s good at fair catching punts, but as a receiver. Nah. Gutsy, lots of heart, athletic, but wouldn’t see the field at receiver on the top tier teams.
-That game plan was weird. When they ran it, felt like they should have passed it. When they passed it, seemed like they should have ran it. Probably just the mark of being over-matched and bound to not get it right, when nothing is working out.
-Looked like they couldn’t attack the edges of the defense, got caved in the middle and had little going besides flinging it down field and hoping for the best, never a recipe for success and it wasn’t.
-Can’t have 10 total drives and 8 punts and win on the road against a quality team. No turnovers was nice, at least, but punting is basically a turnover against a top team these days. The Smith-Njigba injury really knocked tOSU off course for a while, but eventually they overcame that.
-Nothing really for getting Styles, Lenzy and Tyree going. Lots of Estime and up the middle when they were hitting him basically in the backfield every play. No real screens besides the tunnel ones and RPO quick hits to the outside.
-Speaking of, from watching video Chambers and especially little Eichenberg were outright liabilities last year, and probably 2 of the best players on the field last night. Big turnaround that wasn’t boding well. 51 was in the backfield all night. Even if Patterson played, Correll looked absolutely awful to me, not sure why in the world they needed him on the field so badly.
-Seeing the predictable uncertainty and grumbling online about Freeman, but I have no real worries. Team looked focused and was prepared. Played disciplined and well, and very hard. Got a lot of fortunate breaks in the first half and hung close. All of that was about the best case scenario for 40 minutes. But Ohio State was the better and more talented team, and at home to boot. No real shame in not measuring up. Onto the next.
To the discussions above about the offensive game plan — they had planned to run a lot on first down (and did) to milk the clock. That worked although it set up tough subsequent calls as our WRs were apparently not getting open whatsoever (yes, tough to judge on TV). I think the issue was acknowledged by Coach Freeman in his after game presser, and alluded to by one of you above: around the middle of the third quarter we REALLY needed to open up, but did not. Seemed very much like we were trying to hang on, and MF said that exactly — and added “even me”.
As for the o-line, yep — Patterson was more key than we even feared, I think. Correll needs him on his left to be all he can be.
Nobody mentioned the vaunted d-line running out of gas, except to allude to OSU’s running back talent. Those two drives were brutal. That said, concur 100% on the safety blitz leading to their go-ahead TD, but did not Tariq leave the game that play with a cramp or something (I had the sound off by that time at 4:30 am my time) — anyway, Mickey got completely turned around which perhaps is more kudos to Bracy, I am really glad he has picked up his game.
Really liked Bracy’s play. Who would have guessed Hart would look like the weak link at CB? He was supposed to be the top dog and getting a lot of off-season hype. I realize he was recently somewhat dinged up and maybe not 100%, but that was not the guy to expect to see targeted and picked on a little.
Morrison as a freshman had a couple nice looking moments too. I think that is one of the bright spots for the future that Notre Dame is getting more quantity of DB talent in lately.
Once again, a solid defense is left out to dry by an idiotic grab bag offense featuring Tommy Rees, and I’m having flashbacks to 2011.
Well, on the bright side, we didn’t have a 99-yard fumble return!
This is my biggest problem looking back on the game. I’m not a very educated football watcher. But I can watch a game and tell what the offense is trying to do strategically, if not tactically. Watching that game, it wasn’t clear to me what TFR’s plan was going into this game. At first we seemed to be trying to milk the clock, establish a ground game. Great. Then it seemed like we went away from that, and/or stopped having success executing it. Rees does not seem good at adjusting, anticipating defensive adjustments to plan A, mixing things up. I never understood the idea of him as some sort of wunderkind. Seems like more of a tautology than anything else, plus his agent playing up the “Rees to Rams” rumors in the media
Styles had at least one more target on a fade where he burned the DB and was open for at least a big gain if not a TD but the pass was juuuuuuuust out of reach iirc
We were always going to need a lucky break or two to beat tOSU on the road. We got one when their RB slipped on the sideline and stepped out of bounds, but never did get the lucky tip or strip sack or big return (WTH are you fair catching everything for Brandon Joseph?). They got another when Mayer fumbled because he’s good for at least another 10 yards and one good stiff arm and he’s got 25 more.
tOSU got their lucky break on the touchdown on third and 11 when both safeties blitzed from way back. Seems a pretty clear miscommunication, probably only one safety was meant to fire as the corner was playing like he should have had help. We hold them to a FG and game is still tied, or maybe get lucky and they miss another one.
I think they called a zero blitz on that play, both safeties coming for some reason. Bad call, as the “keep it in front of you plan” was working.
Yep, Golden was having a nearly perfect day to that point. That was brutal.