Rudolph's long touchdown: A blessing in Disguise?
I was just thinking about this. Rudolph scored with 3:41 left on the clock. If he hadn't scored but instead got tackled at lets say they're 35(still a good gain) or even dropped it they would have had a lot of time to drive down the field. I'm not sure if our defense could have stopped them but lets assume they couldn't. They then would have scored giving us much less time. IF they took 2 more minutes to complete their drive, we would have only had a minute and a half to score. This is all assuming that they could drive on us, but i am led to believe that between Floyd and rudolph they would somehow come up with some amazing catches and a solid drive. So as much as it pains me to say it, I almost believe that getting scored on so fast was good for us, since we got so much time to make our drive. And with our run oriented offense, we need a decent amount of time so that we don't have to primarily pass.
September 12th, 2010 at 7:39 PM ^
I thought you were going to say:
"It was a blessing in disguise because now Cam Gordon knows not to backpedal 40 yards downfield while one of the best tight ends in the country sprints past him"
Because that's what I would have said.
September 12th, 2010 at 8:02 PM ^
Ha well that too. I hope he did learn, but that blessing didn't help us win that game at that time.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:11 PM ^
I have a suspicion Cam Gordon's UFR score is going to make Mike Williams weep with joy.
September 13th, 2010 at 12:21 AM ^
You can't even chalk that up to a freshman mistake. That was something a freshman in high school does! I couldn't Believe that when I saw that on replay.
September 12th, 2010 at 7:41 PM ^
I certainly posted that during the live chat as well.
If its going to come down to the last play, I'd always prefer for the ball to be in our hands down than in theirs. Too many years of LC defenses blowing late leads for me to be comfortable relying on our defenses when we have had guys like Braylon, Mario, Forcier, Robinson, Henne, Hart, etc on the offensive side of things.
September 12th, 2010 at 7:42 PM ^
It was also 3rd and 10.. so if we hold them and convert a few first downs we win the game regardless
September 12th, 2010 at 7:51 PM ^
I believe that play was on a 1st and 14, wasn't it? Anyway, I had similar thoughts to the OP when Rudolph scored. When we failed to score on our second to last possession, I was scared to death that Notre Dame would march down and score, leaving us with a minute or less to respond. Instead, Denard did exactly that to the Irish.
September 12th, 2010 at 8:23 PM ^
Im pretty sure it was 3rd down.. I remember saying to my buddy that if we can just stop them here we get the ball back. I recorded the game, but didn't rewatch it all the way through. If anyone knows id appreciate some input if it was 3rd down or not.
September 12th, 2010 at 8:49 PM ^
Nope, double checked. There was a holding call (half the distance) on first down. On 1st and 14, 95 yards to Rudolph.
September 12th, 2010 at 7:42 PM ^
Don't feel bad believing that - it's true. I texted my brother and told him we're better off letting ND score quickly if we aren't going to stop them. Obviously letting them score was not intentional, but it was definitely better to get scored on quickly IF we weren't going to stop them.
September 12th, 2010 at 7:55 PM ^
I love that ND scored because it led to one of the most memorable, come-from-behind touchdown series in Michigan history.
September 12th, 2010 at 8:07 PM ^
In hindsight it was a blessing because in that situation, if ND is GOING to score no matter what, you want it to happen as quickly as possible (Which id did). On the other hand, if he drops that pass or if Cam Gordon stays with him and breaks it up, ND is facing 3rd and 10 on its own 5 yard line. I love memorable games as much as the next guy, but given the choice I'd take a safety on holding or a sake near or in the endzone while he's trying to find someone open for the 1st every time.
September 12th, 2010 at 8:16 PM ^
It would have been 2nd and 14 if that was an incomplete. So they had 2 more downs to get 14 yards and i have a feeling they would have gotten it. Put rudolph through the middle or floyd on the outside and I have a feeling they would have come up with the first down. But you never really know...
September 12th, 2010 at 8:24 PM ^
What I loved about the game is that there was a 95 yard touchdown for Notre Dame that set a school record. In a week people won't even be able to remember it because it was totally overshadowed by an incredible offensive performance by the University of Michigan and their leader, Denard Robinson.
September 12th, 2010 at 8:34 PM ^
Obviously, yielding no points is preferable to yielding seven, but I agree, a 36 second TD drive was way better for us than had they ground out 95 yards and scored a TD with 1 second left
September 12th, 2010 at 8:43 PM ^
When the pass went long, I was thinking, "God No do not let this be a completion".
After he caught the ball, I was yelling, "Let him score!"
Once Rudolph caught the ball, the best thing was to let him score the touchdown, so that we'd have as much time to work with as possible to take back the lead.
September 13th, 2010 at 9:31 AM ^
Of course, letting him score sounds like a good idea after Denard Robinson leads the TD drive. But as a coach, you would never want them to score.
You never know what will happen. Take the touchdown which was called black on a clip. That one play, done over, led to an injury of Crist and probably won Michigan the game. What if Rudolph falls and then Crist gets injured again on the next pass? I know these are a bunch of "ifs" but look at all the crazy stuff that happened Saturday.
502 yards of offense by one guy, five quarterbacks see the field, coaches skipping field goals for td passes with a third stringer, an 87 yard run, a 95 yard pass, massive amounts of face sweat. Just crazy.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:20 PM ^
The negative of the play was that other coaches are going to try exploit our weakness against the deep ball.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:28 PM ^
True. But hopefully Cam learns to turn and run with rudolph(or the receiver). If he does this he can break up the pass or at least tackle him immediately.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:29 PM ^
Yeah, because it was a big secret that we have a shaky secondary before that play.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:35 PM ^
Watching from the stands, CG looked like he was trying to play the ball like he was a WR rather than a DB. If that's the case, it's (theoretically) correctable, meaning he should do better with more reps and getting more of a DB mentality.
But if he gets picked on before then...
September 12th, 2010 at 10:36 PM ^
he also made up 4 yards over 60 on Rudolph (smiley), but had his hips rotated to play the ball to start (frowny). I think that is a teachable moment. On the bobble pass vs. UConn, if he makes a play on the receiver it's a PBU.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:37 PM ^
Like they weren't going to do that anyway? I don't think Cam Gordon told anyone anything about our young secondary that they didn't already know.
September 12th, 2010 at 10:07 PM ^
I was thinking that immediately when it happened. They scored too quickly and gave us a chance to have the last real drive of the game. My nightmare scenario was exactly what we ended up doing to them.
September 12th, 2010 at 11:22 PM ^
behind Cam with an open field in front of him (shades of Iowa 2009).
I was much more pissed off when CC hit the receiver out of bounds (Shades od Crable in 2006) and got the 15-yd penalty that allowed ND to have a shot at the endzone.
Either way it all ended up glorious, but our D has a long way to go. We need to find a way to put some pressure on opposing QBs without sacrificing our secondary.
September 13th, 2010 at 9:37 AM ^
Our guys are so inexperienced in the secondary that I think in a lot of ways they needed these mistakes to happen. Against UConn we made mistakes but we weren't really punished enough, I was afraid people were going to think our defense (and secondary especially) was a lot better than it was. With two games against smaller conference teams coming up, we were playing against some major talent on Saturday and our guys are definitely going to have some growing pains (Gordon's mistakes, Cullen Christian personal foul next to last play of the game).
So, the fact that we made catastrophic mistakes and still won? Thank you Denard, but also, I think this'll go a long way for the development of guys like Gordon (I hope).
And also, now that we've seen Denard in a high pressure situation with a limited time window lead the team down the field with his arm and his legs, we've got to be feeling good this year if we're in a game in the 4th quarter.