That was quite an interesting game. Serious ups, serious downs, and in the end a game that the "real" media is calling a "rout." The Irish took care of business over the weekend, besting Western Michigan 44-20. Despite walking off at half with a 27-17 lead, the Irish didn't look great, and Brian Kelly was not happy. His comments to the on-field reporter as he walked to the locker room were something about how he was wondering if any of his players were going to decide to stop making mistakes and actually play good football. Well, he must have helped them come to that decision during the break, because ND put up a 17-3 second half mark to carry them to the victory.
As pointed out by the blog "Rakes of Mallow," the Irish were great for the first 20 seconds of each of the first two quarters. Other than that, it wasn't so hot. A perfect example was the Michael Floyd TD catch/run on the first play from scrimmage. Despite having a tender hammy, Floyd snagged the ball and sprinted home to complete the 80 yard TD reception. All he needed was to be a little injured, I guess, to have his coming out party. After that, there was nothing pretty about ND' play, and WMU tied it up on a short TD run. Tied after the first quarter, I guess I can see why Coach Kelly was so mad. We came out gang busters in the second, though, as Floyd caught a 32 yard pass on a little trick play 19 seconds in. It was a halfback pass from John Goodman that fooled the Mustang defense to the house for six. ND continued the strong vibe with another drive resulting in a TD, as Crist kept the ball for a heart pounding 9 yard run, but Ruffer's PAT was miserably blocked. Eifert would get another 35+ yard TD catch in the quarter, and as I said, we walked off with a 27-17 lead. However, as Coach Kelly correctly pointed out, the defense wasn't very good, the running game (with the minor injury to Armando Allen) was non-existent, and the play of Dayne Crist was less than top notch.
In the second half, though, the defense improved, the running game took off, and Dayne Crist and company provided the throat stomping we've all been looking for. Cierre Wood provided the running attack, busting for a 39 yard TD run to start the second half off, and he would finish with a pretty impressive day of work. Robert Hughes was even back out there, helping the second string QBs to look better than their last times out, and was cutting around on the field like a young Darius Walker in memory of his brother. Floyd pulled down another TD catch, and Ruffer nailed another FG, but it was possibly the defense that responded to Coach Kelly the most coming out of the halftime break. The defenders blanked WMU until a field goal with about 5 minutes to go in the game, limiting their options and yards gained. WMU only nabbed 102 total yards in the second half, as our physical play wore them down, and we cruised to victory.
The game finished with Notre Dame holding WMU to 2 for 14 on third downs, just 1.4 yards per rush (and just 37 yards rushing overall), and we nabbed 4 turnovers (we also got 4 sacks for 23 yards lost). On the downside, we were penalized like crazy. 9 times for 80 yards, while only 2 flags got tossed on the Mustangs. We also allowed 3 sacks, went just 5 of 13 on third downs, and only won the possession battle by 1:10. However, we were able to rack up nearly 450 yards of offense, a 10 yard per reception mark, and only turned the ball over once.
DC Comics finished 18 of 28 (talk about a miniscule amount of attempts!) for 255, 3 TDs, and an INT. Michael Floyd was his main man, as the stud with the tender hammy caught 3 TDs and received for 157 yards. With Rudolph out, Eifer picked up the slack with 72 on 4 catches and a TD. The passing game didn't need to be relied on that much, at least in the second half, as Cierre Wood asserted his dominance with 94 yards on 11 carries, and Robert Hughes came out of nowhere to get 63 on 8 in garbage time. Defensively, it was Gray and Fleming getting picks and Neal and Johnson falling on fumbles, as we gained a serious edge in the turnover battle. Te'o led the way with 10 tackles, but Johnson added 2 sacks to his fumble recovery to make for a great day.
So, with Rudolph out, and all of us praying for Michael Floyd's health, is this going to be a bigger year for #3 than we initially imagined? Let's put his season-thus-far into perspective, and make some bold predictions.
Floyd already has 44 catches this year, tying his Sophomore season mark, and just 4 catches shy of his Freshman mark (and career high). On those 44 snags, he's amassed 624 yards and an average 14.2 Y/R, along with 6 TDs. Last year, on 44 grabs, he finished with 795 yards and an 18.1 average, along with 9 TDs. And in his freshman year, he caught his 48 balls for 719, an average of 15, and 7 TDs. So, he's 5 catches, 171 yards, and 3 TDs away from his best season since coming to Notre Dame. I'm guessing that he'll easily surpass each mark by the time we beat Tulsa, and hopefully he can drag that average north of 15 as well (80 yard TD plays help).
So, just how good was Floyd's performance on Saturday (and yes, I do realize it was Western Michigan)? Actually, it was the second best performance of his entire career. His 157 yards and 3 TDs from this weekend was only beaten out by his Sopohmore season opener against Nevada back in 2009 when he posted 3 TDs on 189 yards (an average of 47.3 Y/R thanks to doing it all on just 4 catches). So, I guess because of the small amount of catches in that Nevada game, one could argue that this weekend's game was his best. I'm open to hearing the argument, but I probably don't agree with it. Have fun setting career highs over the next two weeks, buddy.
Notre Dame is now 4-3 with the win, and sit only 5 consecutive wins away from validating my "homer-ish" 9-3 preseason prediction. Next week is the big game against Navy. Coming off of a 28-21 win over SMU, Navy are 4-2 this season, and they always worry me. They may be even more scary after beating Wake Forest 28-27 on late drive just 2 weeks ago, and we all know that Ricky Dobbs is a slippery stud. It would kind of be a big deal to get this win, because a win against Navy would kind of lock up a probable 6-3 record heading into that huge showdown with Utah at home on November 13. Remember, though, we lost to Navy 23-21 last season after Jimmy Clausen failed to come through with another late game winning drive. Clausen even got sacked in the end zone with 60 seconds left, if I remember correctly. I'll remind Notre Dame to watch out for Ricky Dobbs' typical option pass to a big, white, wide open tight end for a TD.
In my preseason preview post, I said this about the Navy game, "I have no choice but to pick the Irish here, and this will be the season defining game for both Brian Kelly and Dayne Crist."
Now, if that prediction from way back in January doesn't get you pumped up for this upcoming ND game, I don't know what will.
Onward to victory!
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
1 comments:
Pumped
Post a Comment