As I’m sure some of you may have noticed, Subway Domer did not produce an Anti-Preview last week. I had thoughts of putting one together in memory of Declan Sullivan, but I changed my mind as there was nothing of the two that would equate. Last week was a week without true understanding about what had just happened to those associated with the University. My continued condolences go out to the Sullivan family, and all of those that knew Declan and called him a friend. I wasn’t sure how I was going to write something- so I just kept silent.
Moving forward, I basically took three things out of the game that I want to discuss/share/bitch about/ praise… whatever you want to call it. Sure, there is A LOT of things we could discuss, and I had fully planned on doing so, but really… what’s the point. Do you really want to know what I think about playing Kona Schwenke? Do you? Do you really need to have the smallest details played out after the week and game that Notre Dame has just had? I didn’t think so.
So, here are the three things that I do want to discuss from this 28-27 loss to Tulsa. If you absolutley want my opinion on anything else, and judging from the scarce amount of comments on posts that we get here, I highly doubt that you do- but you can always comment and ask.
Dayne Crist is done for the season. I’m sure you all have that memo on file. It’s one of those injured players that you kind of go, “Oh, shit” to when they get hurt. It is the starting quarterback for Crists sake. Crist was the one guy we ALL singled out as the one player on this team that HAD to stay healthy all season for Notre Dame to do anything.
Many fans changed their opinion of Crist after the Navy game, and thought he should be benched in favor of one of the freshman on Notre Dame’s roster- most likely, Tommy Rees. Now, they get their morbid wish after Crist fucked up his “good” knee.
Tommy Rees came in and played a decent game- that could have been a great game if he would have not made just two of the mistakes that he did make. Rees threw the ball 54 times and completed 33 of them (61%) with 4 of those completions ending in touchdowns (2 to Floyd & 2 to Wood).However, the 3 interceptions were costly, especially when one of those goes for a touchdown the other way. You should take all of these numbers very, very lightly; Tulsa has the worst pass defense in all of Division 1-A.
Besides moving a freshman into the most visible starting position on one of the most visible teams in the country, Crists injury did something else as well. It showed us how truly fragile and hurt this team has got over 9 games. Crist, Rudolph, Allen, and Williams are all out for the season. All of them were starters at their position. Theo Riddick, another starter, has been out for the past few weeks, and he could be out a few more. Carlo Calabrese, another starter, was out for the Tulsa game, and I haven’t heard yet what his status is moving forward. Floyd was out against Navy. Slaughter was out for a few weeks… fuck this list is long. If you wanted to generalize one of the main reasons that Notre Dame is 4-5 right now, you could safely argue that injuries have just killed this team. There are others that are banged up, but still playing, and it is probably just a matter of time before we see another starter go down.
The defense isn’t nearly as bad as we were making them out to be after the Navy game. Seriously. I know Tulsa isn’t a big name, but they have one of the most explosive offenses statistically in the country. No, they are no Oregon, but they do have speed and run a lot of “speed” plays that you would think would give Notre Dame all sorts of trouble.
The defense did not lose this game for Notre Dame- despite allowing the field goal by Tulsa to put the Golden Hurricanes up a point late in the game. No. That was only 3 points out of 13 that the defense allowed that day- and it should have been enough.Tulsa scored on a blocked PAT that they took back to the house for 2 points, that INT return for a TD, and they returned a punt for 6 against what was the #1 rated punt coverage unit in the country.
No 100 yard rushers. No 100 yard receivers. No 200 yard passers. The defense responded after a game that made them look like one of the worst defenses in college football. I’m not saying that this is a really good defense, but I will say that we were too quick to lay the pipe on them. It is an ongoing project that figures to get tested even harder in the next 3 games.
If something bad is going to happen, Notre Dame is the likely recipient. It is just usually the case. This time, the “bad” was self-inflicted. As we all saw, Tommy Rees threw an interception in the endzone with under a minute to go in the game.
I understand Kelly’s playcall… it’s his reasoning that confuses me.
On 2nd down, you can certainly take a shot in the endzone and then try to kick the FG on 3rd down, in case something happens on the snap, you could technically have another chance to kick on 4th down.
The problem is, is that for it to work, the ball thrown into the endzone has to be in a spot where only the WR can catch the ball. The ball was underthrown… hello INT. Secondly, this is a freshman QB that had to come off the bench to play. I wouldn’t want to put the game in his hands when; Thirdly, we have a FG kicker that has made his last 18 FG’s in a row. This “lost” FG would have been around a 36 yarder… well within his range, and it might have been closer if the Irish ran the ball two plays in a row to set it up.
Brian Kelly fucked that one up- badly. However, it isn’t enough to start calling for his job. Who in the hell would we get to replace him? Exactly. I will give him the breathing room that he is not giving me, and allow time and coaching to either prove me right or wrong.
Besides… Kelly can’t help the fact that BAD SHIT HAPPENS TO THIS FOOTBALL TEAM IN GAMES. It may be thir own fault at times, but the process is scary.
