ND player that concerns me: Armando Allen
While all of us are well aware of Michael Floyd and Kyle Rudolph and the threat they will pose Saturday, and rightly so, my concern defensively is if the pass works, watch out for Armando Allen. I watched most of the ND game, and I was very impressed with him. IME, ND's skill players are better than any we will face this year, Crist aside. And the fact that Kelley loves the quick passing game will challenge our d-line to get pressure. This should be very interesting defensively.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:27 PM ^
How about people who annoy you?
September 9th, 2010 at 1:32 PM ^
-Who? Who?
People that imitate owls.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:37 PM ^
You just immatated an owl.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:40 PM ^
...The annoyment of himself.
September 9th, 2010 at 2:26 PM ^
i forgot about that episode, but just remembering it when it happened brought a actual laugh out loud.
September 9th, 2010 at 5:42 PM ^
I was referring to that episode, which is amazing.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:30 PM ^
They all worry me at this point... I'm assuming most of them are on suicide watch anticipating the beating they'll take on Saturday.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:34 PM ^
Block...As usual you prove to be one of the most entertaining aspects of this board.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:31 PM ^
He has a penchant for stepping out of bounds at inopportune times.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:38 PM ^
I think his left foot may have stepped out of bounce a little..... at some point..... right th....... or is that a shadow.....well... huh. Alright, no way they overturn this."
September 9th, 2010 at 1:31 PM ^
We need to remain disciplined and keep the "bend but don't break" philosophy against the Irish that we showed during the UCONN game. If Floyd is in a one on one situation, we will be in trouble. By doubling him, it opens up Allen and Cierre Wood. Its a double-edged sword but pressuring Crist is our best way to attack ND defensively, IMO.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:33 PM ^
I wouldn't be surprised to see Allen get to about 100 yards on the day to be honest. As long as our D can hold em to FG's a few times and force 1 or 2 turnovers on the day I think M comes out on top. (In other words...Our O will cover for our D)
September 9th, 2010 at 1:34 PM ^
It's no doubt that Armando Allen is Notre Dames most used threat. We got some good practice against a very solid running back in Jordan Toddman. One thing is sure, we have got to make sure when we get a hand on him that we bring him down. Allen becomes dangerous once he gets through that first level. He is very agile for a good size guy, and his punt return last week showed that. After watching the ND v Purdue game it was clear that the punt return was very poor coverage on Purdues part, but was still a great play by Allen. Most teams tend to stop the run and make the QB beat them. However with the state of our secondary I think it's a better gameplan to stop Floyd, and Rudolph and force Allen to beat us. Our run defense appears much better then the pass, either way I like our Maize and Blue 31-21
September 9th, 2010 at 1:34 PM ^
Armando once?
But, yeah, the dude is a beast and ain't gonna be arm tackled.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:39 PM ^
Sadly, I know the song you're talking about, but Armando will be hearing bells too after Mouton, Roh and Martin are done with him
September 9th, 2010 at 1:53 PM ^
Armando
September 9th, 2010 at 2:20 PM ^
Yup. Dancing Queen.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:45 PM ^
Our ability to stop Allen is undoubtedly the key to our success defensively. If we can contain him it will allow our LBs to drop back a bit and hopefully neutralize Rudolph. I am not sure we can fully stop Floyd. I think Mouton, Roh and co. step up. Michigan 35-21.
Side note: Something that's been nagging me in anticipation for this game.....I don't see how ND has gotten better all of a sudden to where we shouldn't be able to score all over them. We moved the ball at will last year and that was pushed by the pass. I don't know, thinking out loud.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:48 PM ^
Who wins the battle in the trenches will win the game. Face it, both teams have very dangerous skill players. UM has Denard, any RB, Odoms and so on while ND has Allen, Floyd and others. But that won't make much of a difference if the teams' o-lines don't open up holes and protect the QB.
I think it's going to come down to ND's o-line vs. our front 6. Our o-line should be able to handle ND's defense well enough to put up a decent amount of points. But if our defense doesn't keep the pressure up then this game is going to be really interesting.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:49 PM ^
Armando i think is our biggest threat as well. He looked good last week and we NEED to stop him.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:55 PM ^
one thing i didn't understand what ND did last week is that they ran several read option plays.
Crist is not a running threat, so why Purdue fell for this is beyond me. I understand that he could pull it back and throw, but that play will take sooooooooooo long to develop.
Another thing is that their Oline Tackles were slow. Roh can get some pressure this game
September 9th, 2010 at 2:13 PM ^
involved the guards pulling to one side or the other. At leat that is something you can gameplan for. He'll probably get a couple of decent runs on us. But as long as we can contain him pretty well, ND shouldn't be nearly as much of a threat in the passing game.
September 9th, 2010 at 2:19 PM ^
(I think it was RoM, anyway) Cierre Woods looked pretty good against Purdue. Allen, obvsly, but anyone have any thoughts on Woods? Did he get much time, and is he a different type runner from Allen?
Also, does "rakes of mallow" make anyone else picture garden rakes composed entirely of marshmallows?
September 9th, 2010 at 2:19 PM ^
some quality minutes. Roh and Black as speed rushers should get to Crist quite a bit.
September 9th, 2010 at 2:48 PM ^
I hope Allen has a better mugshot this year. I hated that stupid sideways smirk he had in last year's.
September 9th, 2010 at 5:33 PM ^
odd I didn't know ND had a running game
September 9th, 2010 at 7:34 PM ^
He was tough on us last year. We're better in the trenches overall even with no more BG. I hope that and the loss of three of their O-lineman makes enough of a difference.