I haven’t been sulking. I haven’t been sitting around and rewatching “the play” over and over again with a a bottle of gin and a heavy sack of heroin. I haven’t buried myself in a mountain of fast food wrappers. Nope- this delayed response is just another bye week tradition.
So. forgive me as I slowly climb out of this hole.
THE PLAY
There really is no point in arguing about the pass interference call. For me, no one is going to convince me that the call was 100% legit. You can’t say that it was “the right call” and had to be called when one of the defenders took their helmet off on the field right after the play and no flag was thrown for that. You’re not going to convince me that the rules must be enforced no matter when, while I rewatch the game and see Sheldon Day get held, molested, and imprisoned via judo.
It’s just unfortunate. It’s unfortunate that after such a tremendous game, we will remember it mostly for this one play. A play, that according to Brian Kelly, rewarded Florida State for blowing the coverage.
FOLSTON’S FREEDOM
One of the best surprises of the game was the performance of Tarean Folston. After 7 games, Notre Dame has their running back. This isn’t new. I think a lot of people saw this coming for Folston and the Irish. Folston carried the ball 21 times for 120 yards. McDaniel and Bryant each had one carry for a couple of yards a piece.
This is not the “running back by committee” that we talked about. Instead, this is what Brian Kelly was talking about when he says he wants to feed the hot hand. Folston looked tremendous. Stats aside, the way he ran the ball was inspirational. The vision, the power, the speed, the determination- it was all on display Saturday night in a big game on the road. Moving forward, Folston should be the man the rest of the season, and with the Navy game coming up in a week, it seems things have come full circle for Folston and the Irish running attack.
GOLSON WATCH
After the past few week of seeing, hearing, and talking about the many turnovers at the hands of Everett Golson, it’s a nice treat that we aren’t discussing that again after the game against the Seminoles. For the record, Golson had two interceptions against Florida State. One was after his arm got hit while throwing and the other was the last play for the ND offense and that wasn’t even a real interception. Ramsey wasn’t in bounds (I could be wrong though- I never watched the replay of that).
What is important, is that in a big game, Everett Golson came to play and played big himself. Golson threw for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns and had ZERO fumbles as he ran the ball 11 times. If Notre Dame would have won with what would have been Golson’s 4th TD pass, he would most likely be in the top 3 for the Heisman right now. As it is, I’m just extremely excited that Everett played so well, and I look forward to some stat crushing games coming up.
MOVING FORWARD
It’s the bye week and I’m in no rush. (And I literally almost deleted this entire post by accident just now with my fat thumbs). I was hasty in declaring right after the loss that ND would not have a shot at the CFB playoff. I was surprised to see that many, many people around the country in the media wrote what I was feeling. Notre Dame outplayed FSU and after watching that game, they would still place the Irish either inside their “top 4” or just outside of it. With 5 games left and two of those against top 20 teams on the road (obviously in prime time) the Irish will have a chance to move up the ladder. We will discuss this later.
Until then, just know that Notre Dame has changed the narrative that has dominated them for years.
