It appears that ND wants to make a habit of winning games at the end. Actually, besides Nevada, every game has come down to the closing minutes. This is surely not the season Weis was hoping for in terms of making it seem like his job is secure. With that said, the Irish stand at 4-1. Jimmy Clausen is legitimately being mentioned as a Heisman contender. The Irish are a team that remains mysterious, to me. They can score points on seemingly any opponent. However, they don’t seem to have the ability to stop any opponents outside of Nevada. Of course, there is a caveat to that as well, in that when the Irish needed to stop Washington yesterday, they did. The goal line stand in the 4th quarter was a thing of beauty, especially since the D had to do it twice. The goal line stand in the 3rd quarter was also huge and was a major deciding factor in the game. While the defense seems unable to stop teams on 3rd and long, I take some hope that the fact they could stop Washington on those goal line stands.
I am also amazed by the offense. Whenever it needs to come through at the end of a game, the offense stands up. That’s pretty amazing. Of course, I wish we weren’t in those end of game situations, but I take heart in the fact that the team is 3-1 when it comesdown to the end of the game, and that UM game could have turned out differently if the Irish had another 30 seconds on the clock. Clausen is the real deal, and as of now I fully expect him to be in NYC at the end of the season (barring injury).
What needs to happen now is for the Irish to move the ball on the USC Trojans. That is going to be very hard to do as the Trojans have a great defense (that held Jahvin Best of Cal to minimal yards in USC’s 30-3 win over the Bears yesterday). The Irish have two weeks to prepare for that defense. This is where Weis will let us know if he will be around next season. A win over the Trojans followed by a win the next week over BC, and the Irish can start thinking about New Year’s Day bowls. While the schedule is tougher than it appeared before the season, the Irish would likely be the favorite in almost all of their remaining games if they were to win their next two. They have to get the Trojans’ dominance off of their backs, and they have to show everyone that they really can beat BC. I’m looking forward to having one week off so that I can rest my heart and keep from going into cardiac arrest. I assume many of you will agree. But I’m also looking forward to what the Irish offense will do against the Trojans. My hope is that it is enough to overcome the Irish’s defensive deficiencies, and that the Irish can beat USC (much like UW did two weeks ago).
Filed under: Notre Dame |
Three Guys in a Basement 
Both sides do play well in clutch moments. But there were some ND offensive opportunities that only yielded field goals. Plus, Wash should not have scored 30 points. The two goal line stands show real heart and skill, but I would like to see the D come up big early in the drive.
Really, our D only accounted for 23 of those points, as Clausen’s lateral gave UW a touchdown. That’s not too bad considering how dangerous Locker is. The 5 field goals hurt though, as that’s 20 points that we left off the scoreboard.
I’d like to see our defenders wrap up on a tackle, instead of letting a RB get 60+ yards after contact, like we did with the freshman Chris Polk.
I think USC is a bit of a mystery too. The Cal win isn’t that impressive, as Cal was over-rated to start the season and shell of a team in the first half last night (I didn’t bother watching the second half). Except for perhaps a resurgent Oregon team, ND will be the best offense USC will play all year. I think it will be a good match-up.
Yeah, what concerns me most is those broken tackles. It seems that if Polk could have that many yards after a carry, then McKnight will dominate us.
23 points isn’t that bad. I’d like to keep a team in the teens or even the single digits, but when you score a lot, you end up giving up more points sometimes. It would be nice to do a little more to stop a team, though. Of course, it could have been 37 points, except for those goal line stands. That is what makes those stands impressive, but also do highlight the weaknesses of the defense.