ND boards are in meltdown mode . . .

Submitted by ImSoBlue on

I like to mosey on over there and enjoy the carnage.

They seem to feel that the refs screwed them and Wies is a big sack of poo.

I was impressed with the ND offense, the seem young on defense. Their OL is better than I thought, but not a top 15 line by any means.

ImSoBlue

September 12th, 2009 at 8:05 PM ^

Where is the decided schematic advantage?

http://notredame.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=335&tid=125758582&mid=12575…

Our Coach is Terrible

http://notredame.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=335&tid=125757113&mid=12575…

My favorite: I'm absolutely sick to my stomach. Where do we go from here??

http://notredame.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=335&tid=125760639&mid=12576…

"Our program needed this game. We needed it badly. I just don't know where to go from here. It feels like what we built up after the Bowl game and after the Nevada game is all gone. This loss is devastating. We shoulda beat this team by 10 points.

1. I'm always the first guy to stick up for Weis, but I just can't do it this time. RUN THE DAMN BALL AND RUN THE CLOCK DOWN!!!! Michigan probably would have had to throw a hail mary or some kind of desperation play had we knocked another 40 seconds off that clock.

2. Our special teams just killed us. Missed FG, returned kick off.....just a joke. We got our a$$es kicked in the field positiion battle all day long.

3. We didn't hit Forcier hard all day long. He's been killing us------at some point somebody needed to hit him hard and put him down.

Where do we go from here???"

RDDGoblue

September 12th, 2009 at 7:59 PM ^

My ND alum sister in law left something on my facebook praising Tate and bitching about the refs. Seriously, what calls did the refs blow in our favor? The thing that Millen was bitching about on the final kickoff and time coming off? Was pretty obvious to me that the KR touched the ball. Other than that, I see nothing that they can really complain about.

Muttley

September 12th, 2009 at 8:34 PM ^

It was very, very close. The guy in the truck shoulda just focused on the one angle, freezing the frame at the critical moment.

Also, the guy in the truck chose to show way too much of the happenings on the sidelines (e.g., the kicker), cutting to the field late at the beginning of plays.

wile_e8

September 12th, 2009 at 8:02 PM ^

That's what makes this win so schaudenfreudey. Not only did we win, but we won while Weis made a bunch of questionable calls that will make ND fans regret everything they wrote in the summer of 2006.

Muttley

September 12th, 2009 at 8:41 PM ^

Tenuta's defense gave up 38.

((Internet.T.Guy ducks expecting lightning bolt as he defends Charlie))

What good does that talk do in week 2 of a season?

As others have stated, I wouldn't be surprised to see ND go 10-2. Weis lost a tough one, today. If his team looked impotent, that would be one thing. But I saw some firepower there, and I would let the season play out before jumping to conclusions.

Irish

September 12th, 2009 at 8:16 PM ^

Yeah there were a couple play calls that were very disappointing, it came down to execution today and UM executed well above ND.

I need to wait and rewatch the game before making a final judgement on everything but first impressions: sound in the stadium was insane (took away at least 3 TOs). Refs were infuriating, ND offense could not get out of their own way, UM pass rush brought heavy pressure (most impressed after the 1st half), Forcier was amazing, Denard was meh. UM made ND look like they had 4 blockers in on that return (and could be the play in my mind which made the difference in this game).

congrats to UM

petered0518

September 12th, 2009 at 8:28 PM ^

Very fair analyses.
ND definitely has reason to complain about the refs, but I think we do too.
Personally I think the two teams are very very evenly matched, but we were just a little bit more clutch when it mattered.

I applaud your level-head response.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts about weiss because it is hard for me to imagine ND still wanting him. Not because of this game necessarily but the body of work.

Irish

September 12th, 2009 at 8:34 PM ^

Rash decisions and opinions are never something someone should act on. I will listen to his post game press conference before coming to a decision myself. My main grievances were calling the QB draw in the first quarter, and then not running when Forcier threw the int. Otherwise I have no problems, bottom line came down to the players not executing on the field.

Irish

September 13th, 2009 at 12:28 AM ^

Part of it was the insane amount of noise in the stadium, I don't know if he had to repeat the calls in the huddle or what, but Clausen did change the play a couple times with success. Sometimes the ball just wasn't snapped in time after he motioned he was ready. It was a mix and came down to not executing.

SFBayAreaBlue

September 12th, 2009 at 8:34 PM ^

hard on the team. it was a very close game in all aspects. I do think your team got outcoached a little in the second half, and you were missing m. floyd on the final drives.

I thought the refs were pretty good, maybe missed a couple of holding calls against your O-line, but the penalty yardage was pretty close.

And I remember MSU beating us once when they ran out the clock by throwing the ball. A jump ball to floyd might have run out the clock.

Irish

September 12th, 2009 at 8:50 PM ^

The 2 penalties that I was the most angry about was the last "holding" penalty on Sam Young, where it was him actually driving an unbalanced Brandon Graham into the ground. He was knocked off balance by an awesome chip block by the TE on that side and then Young finished him off, the ref didn't see the chip block so called Young on a holding penalty. If the ref had been paying attention the completion to Kyle Rudolph for 70 or whatever yards would have put us within the UM 10 yard line.

The 2nd was the "taunting" penalty on Armondo Allen for doing what looked only to be a fist pump after scoring in the corner of the endzone. That penalty then set UM up with great field position on the kick off at the end of the game.

And then there is the TD run by Allen in the first half which was some how determined to be indisputable evidence that he was out of bounds. They must have had a camera angle that CBS didn't show because there was nothing close to indisputable in those replays.

Irish

September 12th, 2009 at 9:53 PM ^

I didn't see the side judge or the other ref running down behind Tate make any gesture of it being out of bounds on the replays, and they were literally a few feet from him during the run. UM called a timeout before the extra point to get the review booth extra time before it was called down to the field.

I mean 2 refs were right there on the run with better looks that any of the cameras, and then the 3 different camera replays did not show anything close to indisputable evidence. I don't know what the guy in the booth saw, but you put that player in any color jersey you want and I would say the same thing.

Blue_n_Aww

September 12th, 2009 at 10:26 PM ^

As far as taunting goes, I'm not so sure that it WAS a taunting penalty. They never showed the call on that one. I also recall a game last year where a player scored a TD and threw the ball in the air or something and got a penalty for that...

In any case, as far as the taunting goes, I'd tend to trust the referees to know and interpret the rules more than anyone else. I do agree that it didn't look like much on TV.

The other issues are, I think, valid. But both were close calls and certainly the kind of thing that the team should chalk up to "variance" rather than a ref having it out for you.

I do understand why fans might get frustrated though.

Irish

September 12th, 2009 at 11:15 PM ^

After listening to the post game press conference the taunting call was made because Allen made a "shooshing motion" with his hand. So ok fine, I would just ask the refs be consistent but with all the celebrating on UM's next TD it didn't feel that they were. But I was already pretty annoyed with them at the time so I probably wasn't in the best state of mind to be objective.

Irish

September 12th, 2009 at 11:43 PM ^

Yeah I know that, it just seemed as though the refs wanted to make sure there wasn't any un-sportsman like activities during the game. And that taunting would fall in that category but then the long celebration (on UM's next drive) was excessive, no pun intended, and not to mention Cissoko's cheap shot on Floyd as he sitting on the ground (right in front of the ref).

I don't think we are choir boys but man it seemed one sided. I probably won't feel that way after watching the game again but that was how it felt.

TIMMMAAY

September 13th, 2009 at 12:22 AM ^

I agree about the Cissoko push, but come on, man. I know that was probably a gut-wrenching loss to endure, but go back and re-watch the game. Watch for all the calls that came against Michigan throughout the game, it was called evenly.

Like Shock said above, beat the hell out of MSU next week. Look to the rest of the season.

Irish

September 13th, 2009 at 12:34 AM ^

Yeah I will, should be downloading the torrent as soon as I find it.

If the team does not bounce back after this, we could be in for an awful game, see BC in 08 after the 4OT loss to Pitt the week before. Saying that I think they will, there were many players in a position to make plays and they didn't and realize the impact of not executing, so they should be pretty self motivated.

Double Nickel BG

September 13th, 2009 at 12:28 AM ^

penalty was a bang bang call. It was actually Craig Roh that got chipd by the TE and then got driven to the ground by Young. It looked alot worse than it was, but I can see where the flag would be thrown (Young latched onto Rohs jersey and pushed/threw him down.)

The taunting penalty was the right call. After the fist pumps he put his hand up to his face making the "shhhh" motion and seemed to be jawing at fans in the stands. Dude just needs to celebrate with his teammates and not be dumb.

I can see where the officiating could be questioned, but if you rewatch the game, BG and Martin were getting held like Mofos most the game. There were alot of missed/questionable calls on both sides.

SFBayAreaBlue

September 13th, 2009 at 3:26 AM ^

I thought millen explained the new emphasis on that kind of holding call pretty well. The taunting penalty on allen I thought was a bit weak but he did put his finger up to his lips to shush the crowd. It didn't matter though because we didn't score on that drive and had to punt anyway.

If you can't see green between the foot and the sideline, he's out. but it was close. I think an overhead shot would have been best, but the shot from across the field made him look very out, the one on the sideline showed him just barely touching the line.

ThaLastProphet

September 13th, 2009 at 1:16 PM ^

I agree with you wholeheartedly except for your comments about the officials.

I actually thought that they did a pretty good job.

There was a lot of battling on both sides in the passing game. Michigan's corners were riding ND's receivers quite a bit but Floyd and Tate were pushing off just as much. The refs did a good job of keeping their flags in their pockets and letting them battle it out.

The only really bad calls they made were the extremely late pass interference call on DWar, the no call when a ND player bumped into Greg Matthews after he called for a fair catch and the taunting call on ND. The taunting call might have been a culmination of several different taunts, but if you're not going to call any other taunts then don't call that one, espcially since that one wasn't as bad as Tate staring at our defense holding the ball out while walking into the endzone.

They called it both ways and made bad calls against both teams which essentially canceled each other out. They got it right at the end of the game on the squib kick and on the review of ND's first touchdown.

This game was decided by the play on the field and it came down to two evenly matched teams and the team who made the last big play was going to win the game, and fortunately for Michigan, Tate to Matthews was the last big play of the game.