It was like the first day of the baseball season. The excitement surrounding Notre Dame's first game of the Brian Kelly (and Dayne Crist, for that matter) era was upon us. While none of us knew what to expect, we all expected greatness (as Notre Dame fans are known to do). What we got was a 23-12 win over Purdue that showed lots of promise as well as some room for improvement. All in all, it was a great Saturday in South Bend (and in my living room, watching the game and pounding Firestone with fellow Blogger, Beasy Bee).
While amassing a 16-21 record over the last three years, one thing stood out to Notre Dame fans. Our defense was terrible. Missed tackles, poor marking, and just an overall lack of "oomphfff" (spelling?) were the marks of our defense under Charlie Weis. If we were to be a success this year, that would have to change. That was a fact that Brian Kelly was well aware of. And, in his first test as our leader, he made it happen. The defense looked great for the majority of the time out there. We picked up four sacks and two interceptions as highlights to a day of fundamental tackling and spot of marking. Purdue, despite having some okay seires against us, didn't stand a chance against our now proud defenders. Not only was Robert Marve forced to roll out almost constantly thanks to a solid pass rush by the line, but the "behind the lineman players" like Te'o, Gray, Slaughter (despite tweaking his ankle), and Calabrese were also near perfect in stopping the Boilermaker running game. Take away that TD run from Marve on fourth and short, and this was a near perfect day for our defense.
While getting the job done, the offense probably showed the most room for improvement. Dayne Crist passed for 205 and a TD, Armando Allen had a crazy fun 22 yard TD run (I think that's when we both jumped up and high fived each other, and my baby, right?) and finished with 93 on 18, Cierre Wood looked very promising with 58 on 7 (almost seemingly all on one drive with back to back to back to back to back plays), Michael Floyd had 82 on 5, Kyle Rudolph looked good with 43 on 5, and true freshman TJ Jones scored a TD on one of his 3 catches for 41 yards (and celebrated a bit much for a true freshman making his first TD catch). However, for me and everyone else, two things stick out. The Michael Floyd fumble as he was about to score and the Armando Allen safety. Those two plays turned a pretty good offensive game into a kind of ugly performance that got the job done. I think a ton of love has to be thrown at the offensive line. They allowed Crist to be comfortable and to take his time, and had some big blocking work going on those runs (as did Floyd!). One area of improvement will be Crist's ability to look for more options in the passing game. While the shotgun spread should give him plenty of time to check his different options, it seemed he would have his eyes locked on one receiver from before the snap until the release of the ball. It was something that Clausen had a problem with early on as well, and I'm sure Crist will improve as time goes on. How about going for the big play next week, eh Dayne?
A nice note for NBC: the ratings for the opener were up a whopping 77% from last year's opener against Nevada. 2.3% of all homes in the US had their TVs tuned into the ND game, and that says a lot with Texas/Rice and UCLA/K-State going at the same time (not to mention iCarly over on Nick).
A rainy 9/11 at Notre Dame Stadium awaits. After handling UConn in the most attended NCAA game in history, 30-10, Denard Robinson and Michigan are headed to battle the Irish. The Wolverines QB was 19 for 22 for 186 yards with 1 TD passing AND ran 29 times for 197 yards and a TD. He's nicknamed "Shoelace" because he doesn't lace his cleats, which makes no sense, but he looks pretty amazing. Stopping Robinson will be the true test of this defense in the early parts of the season. Can Coach Kelly prepare the Irish for this completely different challenge than the one presented by Purdue last Saturday? On a helpful note, a premier receiver (Roy Roundtree) and a stellar safety (Carvin Johnson) are both looking doubtful to play for Michigan in the game. This will a) force Robinson to run more (which isn't good for us) and b) give Crist more of a chance to huck the ball down field (which should make Michael the Archangel happy). The main thing will be for the Irish to maintain their cool against Michigan, even if we fall behind early.
If you remember, in my Irish season preview back on January 4, 2010, I predicted that Notre Dame would win this game "by at least a TD." My reasoning was basically that our loss to UM last year due to the horrible mismanagement of Charlie Weis (remember- passing with the lead late, instead of running it to kill clock?), that there was no way we wouldn't get revenge in 2010. Hopefully Brian Kelly has the boys watching tape from last year's match to get them fired up. It'll be pretty nice to beat Michigan, win both our home games to start the year, and then get some national recognition for the turnaround at South Bend.
Let's go get us some Wolverine, boys. Onward to victory!
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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