Was at the game so didn't have the benefit of seeing plays on TV and replays but some thoughts from the game:
Seemed very obvious from the start that ND was going for quick hits to minimize pass rush. Kept thinking we might start sitting on them and jump them, Lee did once but couldn't hang on to it. I think we were too conservative in letting them hit those plays but until late in the game they were 1/10 on 3rd down.
Two big runs were the difference. York got juked out of his shoes on the first one. My son watched a replay on the way home and told me the DE went up the field creating the huge gap, seems like a discipline issue expecting a pass on 2nd and long. On the second run they pulled a couple OL and just washed the middle of the D. Again haven't watched a replay but seems like unsound fits.
In the 4th ND was obviously targeting the left sideline - it was obvious and I commented that they really needed to rotate a safety over and sure enough they hit a big "catch" - replay looked like he was bobbling the ball and shouldn't have been a catch. It just seemed so obvious that they kept going there and I'm not sure why we didn't adjust.
Overall just really disappointed in what was supposed to be an elite DL. I'm sure a lot of it had to do with ND gameplan but don't know why we couldn't counter and attack the short game to force turnovers. The defensive gameplan just seemed too conservative given how shitty our offense was and how much more talented we were supposed to be. We did start bringing the safeties down and blitzing to shut down the run game but don't feel like we blitzed the passing game much. Leonard didn't really look great and we just let him make easy throws.
I don't even know what to say about the offense, Weigman looked like shit, didn't look like himself at all. As bad as we were I don't know why we didn't chuck a few balls downfield and try to get PIs or something. It's like ND did exactly what we should have done and denied the easy throws. I may be wrong but it really seemed like we ran much better when Bussey was in because they always seemed to have a high safety on his side because they were actually worried about him beating them deep.
IMO ND didn't look all that great, we just fvcking sucked and our coaches were way too conservative.
Really hope something was just wrong with Conner or we're fvcked unless we make a change. Personally I've thought he looked really good every time I've seen him play before even in Jimbo’s shit offense so tonight really took me by surprise.
OL wasn't nearly as bad but everything else was so much worse than I anticipated. Hopefully ND is just really good but looks a lot closer to we suck and our supposed talent is overrated.
Coaching was unimpressive, never seemed to find advantages to attack or exploit the way ND did, they seemed to find something to go after until we stopped it and then they moved on to the next thing but we always seemed to be reacting instead of attacking and dictating.
TLDR; oh no, we suck again.
Seemed very obvious from the start that ND was going for quick hits to minimize pass rush. Kept thinking we might start sitting on them and jump them, Lee did once but couldn't hang on to it. I think we were too conservative in letting them hit those plays but until late in the game they were 1/10 on 3rd down.
Two big runs were the difference. York got juked out of his shoes on the first one. My son watched a replay on the way home and told me the DE went up the field creating the huge gap, seems like a discipline issue expecting a pass on 2nd and long. On the second run they pulled a couple OL and just washed the middle of the D. Again haven't watched a replay but seems like unsound fits.
In the 4th ND was obviously targeting the left sideline - it was obvious and I commented that they really needed to rotate a safety over and sure enough they hit a big "catch" - replay looked like he was bobbling the ball and shouldn't have been a catch. It just seemed so obvious that they kept going there and I'm not sure why we didn't adjust.
Overall just really disappointed in what was supposed to be an elite DL. I'm sure a lot of it had to do with ND gameplan but don't know why we couldn't counter and attack the short game to force turnovers. The defensive gameplan just seemed too conservative given how shitty our offense was and how much more talented we were supposed to be. We did start bringing the safeties down and blitzing to shut down the run game but don't feel like we blitzed the passing game much. Leonard didn't really look great and we just let him make easy throws.
I don't even know what to say about the offense, Weigman looked like shit, didn't look like himself at all. As bad as we were I don't know why we didn't chuck a few balls downfield and try to get PIs or something. It's like ND did exactly what we should have done and denied the easy throws. I may be wrong but it really seemed like we ran much better when Bussey was in because they always seemed to have a high safety on his side because they were actually worried about him beating them deep.
IMO ND didn't look all that great, we just fvcking sucked and our coaches were way too conservative.
Really hope something was just wrong with Conner or we're fvcked unless we make a change. Personally I've thought he looked really good every time I've seen him play before even in Jimbo’s shit offense so tonight really took me by surprise.
OL wasn't nearly as bad but everything else was so much worse than I anticipated. Hopefully ND is just really good but looks a lot closer to we suck and our supposed talent is overrated.
Coaching was unimpressive, never seemed to find advantages to attack or exploit the way ND did, they seemed to find something to go after until we stopped it and then they moved on to the next thing but we always seemed to be reacting instead of attacking and dictating.
TLDR; oh no, we suck again.
