How often do you leave a Notre Dame game essentially without a complaint?
My last time would have to be the 2015 season opener against Texas. Until tonight.
A 38-18 road win over Michigan State will do that. Pretty much every concern ND fans had about this team was, if not solved, at least addressed.
Brandon Wimbush has looked like garbage throwing the ball? Just rewatch the play on which he broke loose from the pocket and flicked a near-perfect sidearm toss to Dexter Williams in the end zone for six – or really any number of other solid throws the junior made. For most of the game, he looked night and day different from the guy who couldn’t hit a woolly mammoth at times in the first three weeks. Most of his throws were either right on the money or close. Final numbers: 14/20, 173 yards, 1 TD, 52 rushing yards, another TD. That’ll play.
Defense coming off a merely decent rather than good performance? They gave up some yards (ok, a lot of yards – 496), but they also made their share of big plays, and two long MSU drives in garbage time had something to do with the final total. The secondary, thought to be an area of deep concern to ND, was explosive all night and played good enough coverage to fluster MSU’s young quarterback Brian Lewerke. (When was the last time ND had a good old ‘break on the ball for a pick-6 you know is a pick-6 as soon as he catches the ball’ play? That was fun.
Shaun Crawford, who just always seems to be doing something good, made a spectacular play to knock the ball from L.J. Scott on his way into the end zone. ND quickly turned that into a TD on the back end. Instead of 21-14, it was 28-7. It was indisputably the turning point of the game. From then on, the Irish defense didn’t really have much of a problem with the Spartans.
Also, I can get on board with this secondary constantly wrestling footballs away from their opponents. Julian Love very nearly had an interception on the sideline that would’ve given ND two straight weeks with a pure-effort pick.
Not spreading the RB workload enough? Deon McIntosh led Notre Dame in carries. No one had more than 12. Josh Adams and Dexter Williams both looked good in brief duty. All told, the Irish ran for nearly five yards per carry. You’ll take that every time. And the offensive line deserves a hefty high-five for this; the ballcarriers often had big gaps to run through.
And worth noting – ND ran 40 times and passed 20, even with Wimbush throwing the ball well. We can officially put to bed, for this year anyway, the idea that this team won’t run the football when it makes sense to do so.
Various schedule worries? This isn’t directly related to this game, but a lot of things happened today that at least theoretically could portend good things for the Irish. First of all, Georgia obliterated Mississippi State. It’s possible the Bulldogs are just really good. In a way it makes the loss two weeks ago even more frustrating because of where ND might be sitting right now if they’d won, but to take the optimistic view, it means it’s at least possible the Irish already played their best opponent.
Also, BC played Clemson close most of the game before the Tigers decided to start scoring every other play in the last few minutes; USC was less than overwhelming again at Cal; and Miami gave up 30 points to Toledo and were in a game until the last few minutes. (Also, on the other side, NC State won in Tallahassee, which could mean ND gets another shot at a ranked team later.)
Neither of those last two entries by any stretch guarantees victory in those matchups, presumably ND’s most difficult two remaining games. But they, combined with ND’s performance the past two weeks, makes them seem a bit less daunting, if nothing else.
It was only one game. We don’t know much about MSU – they could fall off the planet like Temple has. But hell, they did that last year and ND still lost to them, so this is still a pretty cool evening. We don’t get many opportunities to just have some good feelings about this program, so let’s enjoy it.
(Photo credit: USA Today)
+1
Wooly Mammoth reference auto-rec
Domination. Just like Eric predicted.
🙂 🙂 🙂
Eric always throwing the word domination around. Be careful for Pete’s sake Eric. It paid off this time, your liberal (or illiberal as it were) use of “domination” will make you look silly one day Eric.
..
Per my comments of the last week, I did think the Wimbush talk was overly harsh. He’s a young, inexperienced QB and naturally he’s inconsistent. The gameplan and playcalls didn’t seem to do his confidence many favors last week, tonight it looked a lot better. Of course, he threw a dime to ESB for a 41 yard gain on the first drive and that always helps too.
Maybe it’s just a BVG hangover but Elko is worth his weight in gold. He puts them in position and the d boys are playing their hearts out. Very proud of them. Not always pretty but it can’t be all luck that they keep finding ways to stop the opponents, even the UGA game that wasn’t on them, very much unlike so many games last year.
Also is it just me or did Adams not really play that much in the second half? I get the game was a bit out of reach but he looked a little ginger. Maybe overly paranoid but hopefully he is OK. Loved to see Dex show out.
Huge win for Kelly, he really couldn’t afford to lose this one. With UNC losing today, 5-1 looks very realistic, and dare I say that SC hasn’t been all that impressive this year. Far from waking up the echoes just yet but this season looks enjoyable after a quality road win at night (which I’m calling this, no matter what MSU does going forward, just based on recent series history).
The Wimbush talk one week ago was just taken to far IMO. It was just a bad game and nothing more. A few fans here and on other sites should feel a little silly. I can understand if BW had multiple games like that or if he had a history of not being accurate but he doesn’t. There were a couple of throws tonight that were extremely impressive. Throws with very tight windows and he put the football where it had to go. We have a dynamic playmaker who is getting better. I think he is going to special!
Last week’s passer rating was the lowest (non-hurricane) since 2008 USC I believe. Wimbush can certainly bounce back, Clausen did, but there was definite reason for concern especially with so little other game tape.
Really like how the gameplan was set up to allow Wimbush to contribute but not have to carry the team though. You could make the argument that the BC game was a partial hangover from asking too much of a young QB vs. Georgia. He can learn and grow after a game like this.
Well there WERE “multiple games” where he couldnt hit a receiver. Temple, GA, BC. Three data points indicate a trend and it went from “ok” against temple to, “bad” against GA to “Terrible” against BC. That is a serious downward trend.
I’m really glad we decided to sit Brandon Wimbush in favor of this Brian Winbush kid.
I really like what Brian has been able to do in limited time.
Really nice win. On Wimbush, it was great to see him manage the game and not look intimidated by the moment. The running game is good enough to win if we can just sprinkle in some key throws here and there. Getting Claypool involved early was critical to give BW some more options down the field.
With a young QB, we’re dealing with a small sample size. He was legit bad passing the last two weeks but did just what was needed last night. Hopefully this builds some confidence and leads to more of the same.
Great game all round. If I had a nit to pick it’d be the officiating, good thing it didn’t matter.
Oh hush
😛
My nit would be the wide receivers not cutting up field on their screens. I noticed Claypool try to get to the outside at least twice despite his blockers. But damn, that’s about the only thing. That was one hell of a game.
Watching stanford-ucla. Announcer described pass interference as “a lot of bump and grind going on down the sideline.” Love it. 18s after dark.
What do we know about Adams and Williams? Why were they out, while Wimbush was still in?
More in-game experience for Wimbush?
This. It’s a fine line between not risking injury and getting actual game experience. But it felt like Wimbush probably was in one or two series more than he would have been if he was a well developed and seasoned QB. Not sure if either RB was out because of injury, but Adams at least certainly doesn’t need the game experience.
i think maybe Adams is a little banged up. During the week BK was talking about resting him, and once today he got up gingerly. Between that and perhaps the staff just thought this was a good time to get McIntosh some snaps. If top 3 RBs aren’t in perfect health next week McIntosh showed he can step in.
I think Book would have gone in earlier if we weren’t pinned back in our own territory. I think we started at our own 6 and that drive ended with a field goal.
I’d just like to point out – 100% red zone efficiency, 16/18 TDs – tied for 1st nationally
Great game all the way around. Would like to see the pass coverage get tightened up but no complaints. Brandon “Winbush” stats will not blow you over but I thought he had a really solid game. He made plays when we had to have them and that’s what you want from your starter. Huge game that we had to have. Seeing Brian Kelly’s reaction in the locker room was epic. I have not seen him act like that since the U$C win a few years ago that locked up a 12-0 regular season.
No one is talking that much about the dirty play of the MSU defenders. There were three to four plays were they tried to hurt Wimbush.
I agree with you on MSU playing a little dirty. TV pointed out a spearing call that was missed. There were others that were “on the edge”.
I also agree with the announcers that the late hit on Wimbush down the sideline was wrong. The defender started to make the tackle before Wimbush stepped out. BW needs to get out of bounds a little sooner on those runs. No need to take those extra hits. He’s lucky he wasn’t hurt.
On his play over all. It was way better but, his mechanics are still not good (side arm short passes) and he’s still not seeing wide open receivers. I think we’ll see inconsistent play from him for a while still. If he can hit some passes early in games and not turn it over, that might be good enough until he improves things.
The play calling also helped Wimbush. Quick passes out to the WRs and not much intermediate stuff. We need to work on the screen game, especially to the RBs. There are plenty of things the offense can improve on. That’s a good thing.
If I am thinking of the same side-arm pass you are, I think he did it because a defender was flashing in between him and the receiver(Dexter?). Just did it to get a little more separation.
Really like the downhill running from all the RBs. No more, “wait and see where the hole is.” Now it’s,”the hole will be there so get to it as fast as you can.”
That was fun to watch. I love me some Sparty being Sparty. Combine that with the UGA domination of Mississippi State (though, of course, the transitive property of college football is risky. But I’d like to think that we should beat LSU by 50+ points), and perhaps this team is actually top-15 level? That would be nice.
Though, if we’re going glass half empty, it’s not clear this MSU team doesn’t actually stink. They were expected to be bad and haven’t played anybody other than us. Their QB is… not particularly good.
Biggest positive for going forward is that Wimbush looked much improved. *Maybe* some of us were a little harsh last week. Other nice point is that Deon McIntosh looks like a genuine option to spell some carries in the event of another RB injury. That’s good. And maybe Chase Claypool cemented himself as the #2 (or at least the 3rd guy once Stepherson gets back), notwithstanding some not-great plays with the ball in his hand.
Only real negative I can think of is special teams play. If that’s it, that’s pretty darned good!
I was at a wedding so I missed a lot of the game, but the bride and groom were amazing and let me watch the game (whenever I felt like ducking away) in the groom’s suite.
I wish I’d seen every play!
My biggest concern is that we don’t know how good MSU is. Most predictions were that they would have another tough year. My second biggest concern is that we don’t have a clear number 2 at the WR position, though Claypool had a good night and I’m almost ready to hop on the Alize Mack train (made a great short yardage catch for a first down last night if I recall correctly).
That said. I still feel great that we dominated a team that knows how to focus on the run. We showed enough multi-dimensionality to move the ball effectively against them, and that was what I wanted to see. USC looks mortal (though they’ll get some guys back from injury by the time they play us). Exciting times! Let’s keep dominating and avoid one score games!
Apologies if this was discussed on Slack last night, but any thoughts on why MSU went for 2 when they were down 22 with 3 minutes left in the game?
Just trying to get some real time practice in for a 2pt conversion?
General consensus was (this is putting it nicely) Dantonio was being a sore loser.
Basically. All of us were just screaming that he should take his loss like a man and just kneel it out
It did seem like a strange call. However, I have no problem with the fact that it gave our D some extra practice defending 2pt tries.
Great game! My only gripe is the DBs not playing the ball on some plays. MSU qb under threw a few balls where if the DB turned his head, the ball was there for the taking. Especially MSU’s first TD. Could’ve been an easy pick.
In general, I’m very pleased and much satiated after the frustration I was feeling after last week. We looked VERY good in all phases of the game and even the micro phases within the major areas(offense and defense) we looked competent. Passing was MUCH improved and definitely puts my mind at ease. It was mentioned in the Slack, but if we had just had SOME of that from Winbush against GA, we would have beaten them. I think we should at least contend in every game if we play like that.
I dont buy this “U$C looks vulnerable” crap. Rivalry games are ALWAYS going to make teams look much better on the dog side and inferior on the catbird side. Rivalries level the playing field even more than weather does. They’re still going to be very very tough and we should be worried about them in a few weeks. Thankfully, we have a few more games to really get everything clicking and then the off week to prep for them. Hopefully we only see one more loss on the season, at a maximum. I’d say we crack the top-20 again this week.
I agree with you. This game looked better in every phase. It was reassuring to see Wimbush making his throws and have a pretty good QBR for the first time. However, there were definitely some areas for improvement. There were a couple places where defense couldn’t get off the field, as well as some times where the offense couldn’t string together a drive. There were some errors that a better team would have taken advantage of against us. Thinking USC is going to be anything other than the most challenging game of the season is kind of ridiculous. I agree that rivalry games are great equalizers. Honestly that might work more to our favor than SC’s. I expect an easy game next week and see no reason why we shouldn’t be 5-1 and top top 15 going in to SC. Exciting prospect!
I’m not as worried about the “didnt get off the field” stuff because of the game situation. That 8 minute drive that we couldnt get off the field was when they HAD to have a touchdown and they were really in trouble with the clock. They chewed up soooooooo much of that clock and really only got a pittance in return for doing it with a FG. I think the BBDB defense was designed specifically to let them do that and hurt themselves.
Actually they didn’t get anything or if that drive – went for it on 4th and we stopped them. 8 minutes to get nothing. We were obviously giving them the five yard completions, and they were dumb enough to take them. And they got nothing for it anyway.
I was also at a wedding but totally missed the game, so I’m watching it right now. The Fox call of the MSU fumble into the endzone was hilarious. Fox commentators call it a touchdown despite the officials clearly signaling fumble for touchback. Then they start telestrating the touchdown play talking about how great a touchdown it is. Wonderful touchdown. They interrupt the replay for the officials to explain why they all signaled touchback instead of touchdown because the commentators never clued into that.
The common taters for this game were definitely bad. It’s the symptom of only hiring ex-players to do commentary for games. They’re very intelligent diagnosing plays and explaining Xs and Os, but they are like most fans, they dont REALLY know the game.
Was Gus Johnson bad? I was watching at the bar near my apartment so they didn’t have sound. I usually love Gus.
To me they just seemed off almost every other play. They were missing names, explaining rules incorrectly, etc.
I’d have to go back through the slack, but yes, there were about 2-3 instances of just complete stupid crap they said that made no sense or was just flat out wrong.
Edit: Oh, geeze, yeah I remember this one. They said that the non-call for late hit OOB on Wimbush in the 4Q when he ran OOB and got hit at the knees 2 yards after he got out was “just a real good play because, what are you supposed to do there?”
Brynden Wafflebrush thinks that Gus was just fine in the booth.
Your post made me think of a bunch of Mr. Potato heads sitting in the booth with microphones lol
I would like to give a shout out to EQ’s blocking on one of those TD runs, and really throughout the game.
Wimbush looked improved, he was throwing catchable balls, and had one or two accurate passes with some real zip. The pass I was most impressed with was a quick hitch, or some short route, where he fired it in right on the money. It was one of his more accurate passes, and did it with some mph. It went for like 6 yds, late in the game, so probably not something many people noticed.
I think people are overplaying a bit how improved he is. He has a lot of balls that were better than the past few weeks (honestly every ball was probably better than all but maybe 2-3 against BC), but still has a long way to go with his accuracy and hitting WRs in stride. At least he showed he can improve there.
I think something that probably helped a lot was play calling. The staff seemed to make some good adjustments to put him in a situation where he was comfortable with the throws, as opposed to having him drop back 40+ times. And whether it was play calling, or more experience, he looked A LOT more comfortable in the pocket.
Also, I think Denny Green said it right. “they are who we thought they were.” I have a feeling this MSU team is going to have a bad year. Still waiting for probably 5 more games before I decide what to actually think of this ND team.
MSU, Temple, and BC are all really bad teams. But, in defense of the Irish, they did what they were supposed to do in every one of those games: Squarely won. Not always the most beautiful way but the result has been good.
Now onto actually showing up for big games.
Agreed. We’ve beaten three not good to terrible teams. But, unlike previous seasons, we beat them soundly. We can. Only play the teams they put in front of us. We have what should be two more wins against two more not great teams before a huge challenge with USC. I’ll enjoy it for now and see what happens on 10/21
We have not only beaten them, we have beaten them soundly. That has been the one thing missing from the Kelly era. We play down to the competition, and not always up.
As for MSU, they are a real team. We were 4-8 last year and they were 3-9. We lost to them. We may be back faster, and we probably do have more talent than they have, but this is not Temple or even BC. D’Antonio knows how to coach as opposed to Addazio.
We need to blow out Miami (Oh) and then go on the road and take out UNC, in similar fashion to either BC or MSU. Methodical, boring and efficient.
Agree strongly about us blowing them out is actually good as opposed to beating them by a few. Good teams beat bad teams by a lot. Mediocre teams just beat bad teams. Everything suggests these are all very good signs and we may in fact be a good team. But it is ND. Who knows. I may even withhold judgement on this team until sometime around 2025.
Ok, I finally got to watch a recording of the game. What can I say? Fire Kelly??? Fire Swarcbrick?? I thought it was a great game. ND was better at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The defense forced turn overs. The offense scored when it got the opportunities. What more can you ask for?
I thought there was a lot of over reaction and hand wringing last week. I’m just glad I got me a good spot in Brendanland. The rest of you can come on in before all of the good spots are taken.
Speaking of greatly improved playcalling, did anyone see this one?
Hardly seems appropriate for a Catholic university.
😂