ND Post Game Show
I realize this isn't the greatest thread, but I just couldn't help myself from asking everyone...did you watch the ND postgame show and their analysis of the week 2 matchup against the Meeeechigan Wolverines? They sounded a bit nervous about facing the UM DEFENSE. First time in a while I've heard an analyst talking about a Michigan DLine licking their chops going into a big game.
I guess more than anything this is a welcome back true Michigan defense thread. I'm so fired up from simply watching some pressure being put on the opposition.
I know it wasn't the cleanest defensive performance and the staff and personnel still have a lot of work to do, but we are on our way back as a defensive team and I just wanted to see if anyone else is jacked up about this..
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:04 PM ^
I haven't seen pressure on the QB in the past 3 years - so just that alone was a welcome sight.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:10 PM ^
Agreed, those drives from WMU were painful but watching us bring pressure, actually take the initative and getting inside their QBs head was a welcome welcome improvement
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:27 PM ^
.....this was one of the most apparent to me. For the first time in a few years, we were inside a QB's head. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the best QB in Kalamazoo search the field for his helmet.
September 4th, 2011 at 5:12 PM ^
Most enjoyable QB helmet issue since Brady Quinn surfaced with a clod of ND turf stuck in his faceguard courtesy of that awesome* 2006 Michigan D.
*Final two games notwithstanding
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:07 PM ^
What the analysts say, or the pundits, or other fans, or anyone else right now. I just want to kick back, close my eyes, and let the visions of Jordan Kovacs whooping the shit out of QBs dance in my head.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:21 PM ^
I see Carder down on the turf looking for his helmet. Repeatedly.
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:35 PM ^
That was the best thing I've seen in years, even better than Denard's runs. Kovacs was awesome.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:09 PM ^
3/4 of of one game against WMU. Of those 3 quarters they played good D for about half of the plays. It was a good sign of things to come, but let's be serious for a minute. We're still not all that good on D.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:10 PM ^
While we are all enjoying the win, let's keep a few things in perspective. 1st two drives Carder picked our secondary apart. After that, Mattison decided to hell with our weak secondary, let's send the house and hope Carder doesn't have time to find the secondary's weaknesses. Success.
Caveat: WMU is a MAC team with MAC level athletes. Carder and White are high level athletes, on par with whichever QB ND throws at us and White more or less has Floyd talent, but to expect the ND line to crumble as the WMU line did might be asking a bit too much.
I hope I'm wrong, but let's all remember that what the defense did was great, but against a MAC line.
Sidenote: Seeing Mattison do something GERG never tried/had the power to try/thought of was baptismally refreshing.
Go Blue!
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:19 PM ^
Well The Secondary Struggled with the zone looks from what I could tell and the 10 yard off man coverage. But when they were up in the WRs grills they played way better. I Think Mattison realised that fast. But I do agree. it will be harder to do the same to Notre Dame. It hurts having to play RVB in the middle and not at the 5 tech. If Only Wills Campbell would just get it...
September 4th, 2011 at 8:34 AM ^
Making progress on D but certainly not there yet. LOL (one of Irish's favorite phrases) about ND's loss HOWEVA (one of Brian's) it will be tough to contain #3 and #80 (ND players get the number treatment) next week. Good news is Michigan didn't play consistently and should improve week to week.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:21 PM ^
Jordan White is good, but in no way, shape or form does he have Floyd-level talent.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:27 PM ^
That was the first thing I was going to say after reading his post.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:51 PM ^
It doesn't take Floyd level talent to catch a ball with nobody within 3 yards of you. The problems we showed early were schematic on D, and not because their WR were better than our DBs.
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:05 PM ^
This. They're very improved tackling-wise, but they had trouble picking up receivers
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:24 PM ^
A lot of their completions were on pretty good coverage, just that they caught the perfect pass. There's a reason why they say this kid is NFL bound. Overall I was pretty happy with the defensive paly, though playing against the bruts of the ND line have me a little worried. I think if we can get heat on Reese though he'll fold. Just need to keep the middle covered and DONT LET ANYONE GET BEHIND THE ZONE.
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:37 PM ^
You could sack Rees on every play and he will be as calm as he was on the first one. Wierdest thing I have ever seen.
September 4th, 2011 at 8:39 AM ^
- What do the powers that be at ND think of Brian Kelly's sideline behavior?
- What do you think of the boos coming down as hard as the rain just before half time?
September 4th, 2011 at 1:41 AM ^
Not true.
GERG blitzed frequently in 2009, and we were burned often on those plays. Off the top of my head, from 2009, I'll note the ND screen that went for a ~65yd touchdown (but was called back to "only" the MIch ~25 after a review that ruled the ND back to have barely stepped out of bounds), the first Iowa Moeaki (sp?) TE touchdown up the middle on a delay, and the last tOSU walk-in touchdown on a middle screen.
There's more to effective blitzing than just fans calling for it.
September 4th, 2011 at 1:59 PM ^
Mattison blitzed more in 3/4 of a game than Gerg did in two full seasons.
September 4th, 2011 at 8:04 AM ^
I was trying to describe how I felt last night thinking about having a DC make the right adjustments. I now realize that it was a baptismally refreshing experience.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:11 PM ^
The thing I noticed more was their reference to the LSU-Oregon game as "The Suspension Bowl"
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:11 PM ^
Being at the ND game, I can tell you my observations which NBC probably will not go in depth on.
1. They are slow at the offensive tackle position. They consistently were getting beat and USF put pressure on the QBs. They may not have gotten sacks, but it was effective.
2. ND will probably live and die with a Reese-Floyd combo (Floyd is their really only true receiver) this year. They abandon the run quickly, more so than other teams, this actually could make it easier to Michigan since they might not have to guess what is being run.
3. ND's secondary is soft in the middle of the field. A lot of zone without the speed to catch up. I expect if Drob and the offense can get time and a little space, they could gain a lot of yards by throwing it in the middle.
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:10 PM ^
NBC touched on none of this, it seems. Watching the highlights as I am on the other screen (love the dual monitors), I would agree.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:11 PM ^
I thought the defense was making some good tackles and hits, and the two big scoring plays. They need to lock up that coverage.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:14 PM ^
i felt like early on there was no pressure. It got a little better as the game went on and they sent the blitz. I would like to see pressure from the d line.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:18 PM ^
Yeah, I thought they may point out White's big day and project that Floyd would have his way with our secondary. But they didn't. Our D line got their attention.
If we can get Rees rattled, we could have a big day on D. If not, Floyd will run wild. He's their whole team at tnis point.
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:54 PM ^
Most of Rees' bad throws/picks looked pretty pathetic, even when he wasn't under a lot of pressure. If we can rattle him and have our DB's not give their recceiver a 45-yard cushion, we can hold them in check.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:23 PM ^
Without trying to sound like a downer, ND had more than 500 yards of offense, while they held South Florida to only 250 yards of offense. ND turned the ball over 5 times yet lost by only 3. It will be a good game next week.
September 4th, 2011 at 8:59 AM ^
Rees without a doubt is a gamer who has the ability to move the ball. South Florida did have a lot of nice field position for most of the first half so I think their offensive numbers are a little misleading. ND has a decent D, but their obvious problem is dealing with speed (sound familiar?).
I think they will be motivated and I look forward to a competitive game, although I have a feeling there might be a lot of turnovers.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:54 PM ^
So basically if the ND offense wasn't fucking up, they were good? Well the times our D last year didn't give up 15 yard pass plays, they were decent as well. I just hate this logic.
I know what you're trying to say, but their turnovers may be just as much as their offense as their 500 yards were. Kind of like our offense was last year as well looking back on it.
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:54 PM ^
Most turnovers are a matter of luck yet impact the game in a huge way. ND wasn't as bad as the score was today, and we are not as good. Lets not ignore the facts too much.
September 4th, 2011 at 12:06 AM ^
That turnovers are "luck"? Throwing shitty passes isn't bad luck, it's just bad.
September 4th, 2011 at 12:32 AM ^
the yards ND gained and allowed, which were very decent bro.
September 4th, 2011 at 3:01 AM ^
Amazing that the same reasons everyone picks apart as bullshit about our offense last year are completely fine when talking about other team. Your post is exactly what people said about our offense last year. If it wasn't good logic for us, why would it be acceptable for ND?
September 4th, 2011 at 4:47 AM ^
Rees nailed his receiver on the head, and it bounced and was picked. Kind of like the Navarre to braylons foot play against usc
September 4th, 2011 at 8:59 AM ^
That was on the receiver. Crist on the other hand is utterly incompetent when it comes to game day. Rees will start and he has pretty good vision on the field, whereas Crist locks in and will not go through his progressions. Should be an interesting game especially with ND is given the chance to run the ball.
September 4th, 2011 at 2:43 PM ^
I'll step in and say I basically agree with this post--some losses are flukey. Notre Dame was improving last season as the year went and our defense still looked vulnerable. Next week won't be easy. Our defense will need to tighten up and our passing game needs to improve (I know Denard was 9-13 but a couple were very difficult catches and only one pass, as I recall, was longer than 10 yards)
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:24 PM ^
Yes, the defense put a little pressure on the O later in the game, but it was fairly weak at the begining. I would like to see some pressure from the defensive line. It seemed as if the only pressure came late and that was with the blitz.
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:02 PM ^
I kept telling myself that maybe Mattison just didn't want to show too much on film for the Irish.
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:57 PM ^
I do think Mattison deliberately played the vanilla in the first half; without looking at Brian's upcoming UFR I can't confirm it but from my section it was pretty interesting that he seemed to only start the stunting, delayed blitzes and safety blitzes after the half.
It is interesting to note that once Mattison figured he could make some hay blitzing/stunting the right side of the Western line he made sure to persist in that. This seemed very new after last year.
September 4th, 2011 at 8:29 AM ^
It looked that way to me too. Michigan had a classic MAC gameplan, but couldn't get effective pressure.
At some point in the 2nd quarter, it looked like ( I had end zone seats) Michigan started running a ton of zone blitz and Western had no answer for it. I'm pretty sure Mattison didn't want to show that this week.
September 4th, 2011 at 9:43 AM ^
I wouldn't be too concerned. It's not like ND can't look at a ton of tape from a Mattison led defense. There's also a bunch of different ways to blitz.
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:58 PM ^
To show that much, but with such a pass oriented offense, his hand was forced in order to get some pressure to disrupt their rhythm.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:29 PM ^
Can someone please make a .gif of Brian Kelly absolutely losing it after that interception that hit off the WRs helmet?
It was 100% pure Columbian awesome!
September 4th, 2011 at 12:20 AM ^
Brian Kelly looks like a little piglet! Just pure bacon grease steaming on his raging forehead, classic!
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:31 PM ^
Baby steps. Baby steps.
After all, there is a very real possibility that if Woolfolk doesn't play, we could be on the other end of a Braylonfest, only it would be Floydfest. That dude is more than capable of singlehandedly winning games.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:43 PM ^
I think a lot of us remember seeing Floyd play as a freshman against us and hoping he'd turn pro early. Too bad he stuck around....
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:56 PM ^
and suspend Floyd's boozing hiney.
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:06 PM ^
Floyd should be double-teamed all game. Until some of their other receivers prove they can pick up the slack, why not? I don't know if ND will be this bad next week, but I no longer see this game as the autoloss for which I have had it pegged the last six months.
USF beat ND's four and five stars with a bunch of two and three stars and an occasional transfer. That bodes extremely well for Michigan's chances. OTOH, ND's performance today could just be a gross aberration.
I know I feel a lot better about next week than I have for a long time.