How bad was Charlie's end-game strategy?

Charlie Weis' late game strategy = EPIC FUCKING FAIL.

The run. Like you said football "rules" says it was the incorrect thing to do but Allen was hurt too so I don't know. All in all it wasn't terrible and I might have to say that they were open and it was the right cAll

I think his decision to pass on 2nd and 10 was not a poor choice, but the pass on 3rd and 10 was. As Michigan fans we are very familiar with the awfulness that can ensue when trying to waste the clock, but that's usually been trying to kill the clock the enitre 4th quarter. With just over two minutes left and hovering around the 50 yard, forcing us to use our timeouts and then punting would've set us up with poor field position, not much time, and no choice but to pass the whole way. Poor choice on Weis' part and I think it may be the second/third to last straw - another loss like this and/or a mediocre season should force the ND AD's hand.

As soon as Michael Floyd left the game, I was no longer fearful of ND's deep passing attack. We put Warren on Tate, which is a matchup win for us, and that changed everything. Comparing their deep passing threat on that last drive to all previous drives where Floyd was in the game is useless. And Weiss STILL tried to take a big shot downfield when he could have really killed our chances at getting a TD (versus a FG) by running the ball on 2nd and 3rd down. If Floyd were still in the game, I could understand taking a shot on 2nd. But the situation being what it was, Weiss made an awful decision that, I think, cost his team a win or shot at OT. Another way to look at it is that Weiss's decisions were predetermined as per the destiny of Tate Forcier. The gods willed it that Tate would lead the game-winning drive. And the universe was happy.

I was disappointed with those plays when watching it live. Allen went out 2 plays before after rolling his ankle, Hughes was not going to get us the 10 yards we needed. So Weis went deep on the 2nd down play which did a great job of setting up the 3rd down pass (which had been very successful all game till this point) and the receivers and QB were out of sync. We make the pass the clock is under 2mins and it's over. Weis was going for the win, I can't fault him for that.

....from here on out. Let 'em go 9-3 and lose a BCS bowl, good enough to keep Weis in the driver's seat through the end of his contract. Glancing over at the ND boards, many are ready to run him out of town and think Urban Meyer is the heir apparent. Not that this would happen, but why even give them the chance?

I'm not even granting them the 2nd and 10. So they passed because that's what was working all day. Well for fuck's sake man....Armando Allen had 139 yards on 6.6 per carry. That was working pretty damn well too. Look at it this way: - If you pass and it works - you get first downs and maybe a score. - If you run and it works - you get first downs and you don't need the score. - If you run and it doesn't work - you burn up a little more time and all of our timeouts. - If you pass and it doesn't work: 38-34, bitches. Stupid stupid stupid stupid decisions. Weis's arrogance cost him. He's rightfully under the microscope in the eyes of a lot of Domers these days.

i don't fault weiss for calling a pass play. however, at that point in the game, a first down is all ND needs to ice the game. so why throw a 50 yd bomb??? it has they same impact as a 10 yd out route. but which is more likely to be completed? ask yourself. it seems to me that the arrogant weiss was trying to actually score another TD, so the game wouldn't appear as close as it was. and he failed miserably. thank you many times over charlie. GO BLUE!!!

Weis coaches and talks like he's got something to prove, but I think it's because he's never proven himself as a head coach. I think that he went for it on 2 and 10 because he's arrogant, but also because it wasn't a bad call. It's also not Weis' fault that the pass was short and he still almost caught it (although Warren almost caught it too). If he connects on that pass, game is probably over. Still, I'm so glad for us that it worked out that way. Don't forget, people would be second guessing RR's decision to go for it so many times in field goal range (especially inside the 20) if Tate had been sacked or thrown a pick in the last few drives. Most coaches go for the tie at home, so I'm impressed that RR was so ballsy to believe in the true freshman at a time when the easiest move would have been to center the ball on the field and take the kick (it's also what many people admired about Les Miles a few seasons ago when they won the NC).

I think it's less that Captain Butt Front called for passes than the kind of passes he called for. I think he wanted to prove his genius by having a "sportscenter" moment by hitting that last bomb. If you have to pass, do something with a higher probability of completion. I believe his ego got in the way. That is an extremely low percentage play (although if it's intercepted not so bad 40 yards down field) BTW they had been killing us with the run even when we had the line stacked. Even if we had stuffed the run your chances of winning by running three times are better. Just plan bad clock management. I don't think Jabba did a bad job but I do think he was out coached in the second half (especially coming out of the half). You could see that offensively they were dominating us at the line of scrimmage and we still won.

Are magnified by his cockiness early in his tenure.. to paraphrase his early hiring comments - no team will have a better tactial advantage than us... Go Blue. F the Irish..

I am happy about how well OUR coaches prepared our players called the game today. Hope Charlie gets a ten year extension. Notre Dame is a GREAT football program. He limits their opportunites for success as much as our staff maximizes our opportunities. We have a coaching advantage against most of our opponents for the first time in a long time

I thought the 3rd-down call was defensible. It was 3rd and 10 and they weren't likely to pick up the first on the ground (especially with Allen having left with an injury), so they called that sideline route that killed us all day. Cissoko gave a huge cushion and wasn't in position to break up a pass if it had been on target. The one big error there was having a true freshman WR run it. It looked like he didn't know where to break. The 2nd-down call was unquestionably bad, though. If you're going to throw the ball, why throw a 40-yard bomb, and against our best corner (Warren), no less? That was dumb. A low-percentage play in which the most likely outcome was no gain and a stoppage of the clock.

As a coach (and one very involved in the play calling on our offense at a 4A Texas HS) I have feelings both ways on the last few plays Charlie called. I would have called for the run on 2nd down to force the timeout to be called leaving M with one. Of course the outcome from that play is fantasy, but let's say it leaves us with 3rd and 4. At this point I have to have confidence in my offense to execute. I would make sure that my QB knew that his 1st read was the deep ball (for the win) but that it was a look and check situation (meaning you look for wide open, then check down) and I have a dig on the front side, with a void and post on the backside to give my QB checkdown options for the first down. The thing is (to our ultimate advantage) Clausen is the type of QB at this point in his career that is almost always going to try and hit the long ball when it is an option in the play call. This is a direct relationship with Weis's philosophy of going deep whenever possible. With their QB and WR's, this is a great philosophy to have, but a comeback or post or something along those lines is a better call there (and yes I know they ran a comeback route on 3rd down but running it to a kid that hasn't been in all day isn't smart). Glad it worked out in our favor and good to see us in the top 25 again. Go Blue!