There are coaching losses and there are coaching losses. For this game, the plan was fine (good, even – had one of those inside runs broken maybe it all would feel different), the placalling was fine. Turnovers, if you (as you should) count Cincy’s missed field goals as turnovers, ended up even.

But. ND set a half on fire by starting Jack Coan. Nothing against the kid but he just cannot get it done now that opponents understand the general offensive weaknesses, and his specific ones. He threw an egregious pick on the goal line. The notion of balancing Coan’s weaknesses with a package for Tyler Buchner led to another egregious interception, and more points for the Bearcats.

The offense averaged 5.48 yards per play with Pyne at the helm. Not a stunning figure, but credible. In the first half, they averaged 4.2 yards per play. A +1.3 YPP differential in a game between two teams would be a quasi-butt kicking. It’s not a fraught decision from a competitive perspective.

Kelly should’ve started Pyne. He should’ve put Pyne in earlier.  He didn’t and it resulted in a dreck of a game and a bad loss to a not-that-special Cincinnati team.

We will now be largely irrelveant for the rest of the season, nationally speaking (something which is bad on its face but carries benefits of its own).

 

Some stray observations:

  • Incredible that we finally lose a game when the OL puts together, by some measure, its best performance of the season
  • Brutal, brutal game for Kevin Austin
  • Mayer’s hamstring (groin?) injury is something to worry about going forward
  • A surprisingy unlikeable Cincinnati team! Have to say I’m not dreading the prospect of watching them get pasted 91-0 by Alabama in the playoff

Finally, some good look-alikes this game. Luke Fickell could step into the next Michael Meyers film as the hapless hardass sheriff of Haddonfield, IL and no one would miss a beat.  Desmond Ridder, impossibly, looks and acts exactly like a young Billy Bob Thornton (unintentionally, I think). Most of all, Drew Pyne looks and acts exactly like Mac from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (less confident in the untinetnionality here).

 

Well, from here the season becomes an intimate affair among us hardcore fans.  Let’s be excelent to each other