This week the Golden Hurricane of Tulsa come to town. Its with heavy hearts that the Irish are playing with this weekend because of the recent tragedy that took the life of Declan Sullivan. With the numerous distractions of this week and the recent game against Navy, its hard to tell what Irish team will be on the field this Saturday. The Irish have been Jekyll and Hyde all season and I feel that Saturday can go either way. Do the Irish come out, motivated to honor Declan in the sport that he loved and beat Tulsa? Or do they continue their downward spiral playing a potent spread style offense that the Irish have had trouble stopping all season. Lets hope the Irish honor Declan with a victory this weekend.
Tulsa enters the game this weekend at 4-3 on the season. They have victories this year against Bowling Green, Central Arkansas, Memphis and Tulane. They lost to East Carolina by 2 points, Oklahoma State in a stomping and SMU by a field goal. Tulsa is led by their quarterback G. J. Kinne, a dual threat QB that originally played at Texas. He never saw action but transferred to Tulsa. He was good enough for Mack Brown to offer him a schollie which means he is good enough to beat ND. Kinne is completing just under 60% of his passes for 1,855 yards and 15 TD’s, 6 INT’s. He has been sacked 9 times this year. Kinne really has similar numbers to Dayne this year. He isn’t the most accurate passer and has made some mistakes, but he can also tuck the ball and run the spread when needed. Tulsa really does have a complete and prolific offense. They are 28th in the country in passing and 12th in rushing. They average 38 points a game and will look to get the Irish into a shootout. Their rushing attack is lead by sophomore running back Alex Singleton. Singleton and the rest of his crew are averaging 5.4 yards per carry and that’s down right scary.
The Irish defensively will need to get pressure on the quarterback. Tulsa has a similar offense as Michigan, and that worries me. Kinne will look to throw more than he will run, but he can definitely beat you with his feet. Without Ian Williams holding the defensive line this week, its going to be tough getting pressure on the QB with just the defensive line. Does Diaco send linebackers more on blitzes or does he just hope that the line can get to Kinne. I think we will see a more blitz oriented defense in obvious passing downs to try and get to the QB. If Kinne has time to sit in the pocket and distribute the ball, the Irish could be in for a long day. Kinne and Co. will look to get the rushing game established to setup the pass and unless the defense that played huge against Pitt, BC and Western show up, the Irish could be in for a shootout.
Offensively for the Irish its the same old story, capitalize on every drive. We all know the offensive injuries to the skill players so its essential to capitalize when they have the opportunity. Floyd should be a go against the nations worst passing defense. The Irish lacked a huge playmaker last week at the WR position although TJ Jones showed some flashes. With Floyd and Jones both having hamstring issues this week, its imperative that other receivers continue to step up and make strides. Lets hope Eifert continues to evolve and Goodman and Toma can become a threat. The rushing game should continue to utilize the pistol that seemed to work well last week. Swings and hitches will still be a staple of this offense, but look for Kelly to throw the ball deep downfield. If they can establish a deep threat early, similar to what happened in the Western Michigan game, it opens up the middle of the field for the TE and the slot to have a big day.
Although I think this game will be a shootout and come down to whichever teams capitalize on drives and has the least turnovers, I think the Irish can get it done. The defense has seen this type of offense before. No more excuses for Diaco and his defense, its time to step up. If the Irish limit the turnovers and get stellar play from their special teams, Irish win 37-31.
