Questions for Irish
1) What is your opinion of Brian Kelly calling the flea flicker (picker) and going for a TD instead of FG at the end of the half?
2) What are the chances that either Rudolph (Mr. Speedy) or Floyd go pro after this year?
3) Do the ND quarterbacks think that Tacopants is on their team now?
September 12th, 2010 at 9:27 AM ^
4) How ma ass taste?
September 12th, 2010 at 10:41 AM ^
5) Where is your God now?
6) Did you think the beam of sunlight (in combination with the rainbow) would help you?
September 12th, 2010 at 10:45 AM ^
it would have been a double rainbow
/OMGWHATDOESITMEAN
September 12th, 2010 at 12:47 PM ^
Ha. In the fourth quarter, the ND fan behind me at the game when the sun started peeking through was like "God is shining on Notre Dame now, what do you think of that?" I simply responded with "Denard."
September 12th, 2010 at 2:12 PM ^
7. Do you realize all our touchdown Jesus wear dreads at Michigan now?
September 12th, 2010 at 4:03 PM ^
September 12th, 2010 at 9:29 AM ^
How fast did the excitement leave you when UM, led by Soph Phenom Denard Robinson, marched 70+ yards to go up 28-24? Did it feel like a dagger in your gut twisting slowly or was it quick and painless? :)
September 12th, 2010 at 9:34 AM ^
While I don't feel the need to pour salt on the wound so blatantly, I will say it was nice to actually feel like we were going to win after the 95 yd. ND touchdown. Even in our hey day of the mid 90s, I was always a cynical (i.e., average) Michigan football fan. Yesterday, right after the long ND TD, I said to everybody I was with that we were going to win. Such a great feeling to have that kind of confidence in our offense. Thank you Denard, O-line, Tay, Roundtree, etc.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:39 AM ^
that I felt that confident given our inabilty to move the ball in the 2nd half.
September 12th, 2010 at 10:43 AM ^
was "it feels like we're down 7" when we were up by 4
September 12th, 2010 at 10:20 AM ^
I had the exact same reaction. I only had two concerns at the start of the drive: that the coaches would play safe for a field goal and overtime or we would score too fast and leave too much time on the clock. I can't remember feeling that "we have them right where we want them" way before, losing in the final minutes.
September 12th, 2010 at 10:19 PM ^
when we did score on our final drive, I still wasn't comfortable until Crist's final pass went into the Tuba section.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:33 AM ^
Hey, remember when ND scored on that 95 yard pass to Rudolph? and the sun came out and the rainbow appeared over ND stadium? and you assumed god was on your side?
you were wrong.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:37 AM ^
....allowed Denard to run out of the stadium and snag the pot of gold from the end of that rainbow and carry it across the goal line.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:37 AM ^
versus the field goal was in character for Kelly. The young QB just didn't give the Iris. If he get's 7 he's a genius. Going to be some good matchups between 2 very good teams in the future.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:52 AM ^
Unless a coach has a super awesome trick play ready for that situation, why not take the 3 points and go into the locker room on a high note? It's not worth the risk of getting 0.
Also, ND needed 3 scores, and a FG makes it a 2 score game.
September 12th, 2010 at 10:35 AM ^
With a veteran starter at quarterback and the Irish receivers, I think they've got a decent shot at scoring a touchdown there. It's still a gamble, but it's a huge payout if they make it.
When the starter is out and the third-string quarterback is playing, though, it's definitely a mistake. I don't think it would have been a much better idea with Crist playing. Crist did throw the ball out of the end zone on the hail mary at the end of the game, after all.
September 12th, 2010 at 2:57 PM ^
Also, ND needed 3 scores, and a FG makes it a 2 score game.
September 15th, 2010 at 12:42 AM ^
At the time, I thought Kelly should have kicked the FG also. But after thinking about it some more, I am not so sure. At the time, Kelly didn't know whether he was going to get Crist back or not. Obviously, if you know Crist is coming back into the game, you take the points and go into halftime with the score a little closer. But if you think you're going to have Nate Montana for the rest of the day, this might be one of the only chances you'll have to get into the end zone--and being down 14 already, field goals aren't going to be enough. So I think it was a respectable decision by Kelly, even if I still think kicking the sure 3 was the better call.
September 12th, 2010 at 10:09 AM ^
As LSU fans will attest that strategy can help you and hurt you.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:37 AM ^
I love that that Denard Heisman pose photo also includes Manti Te'o getting heisman stiff-armed.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:40 AM ^
time in a couple of years I think I had this calm come over me when they scored the long TD. This really looks like it is going to be a fun ride and everyone just needs to climb aboard and enjoy the ride!
September 12th, 2010 at 9:47 AM ^
If ND had their starting QB the whole game, it could easily have been a different story. Their D also held us to only one score in the entire second half.
It's not like we dominated and they were pathetic. Both teams are young and still learning new systems. But both teams look like they are back.
(But it was nice though to pop the bubble of that whole "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow" thing. The same sun shines on our ass too.)
September 12th, 2010 at 9:54 AM ^
Irish has a sense of humor - at least that is what his signature states.
September 12th, 2010 at 10:05 AM ^
September 12th, 2010 at 10:50 AM ^
UM took that QB out with their defense. He didn't get hurt in practice or in an accident on the way to the game. They earned having the backup coming in and the poor results that ensued.
September 12th, 2010 at 3:01 PM ^
But they didn't
And we won.
To hell with Notre Dame.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:48 AM ^
Hey, remember when ND scored on that 95 yard pass to Rudolph? and the sun came out and the rainbow appeared over ND stadium? and you assumed god was on your side?
you were wrong.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:57 AM ^
...to correct his observation that the sun was actually out for Michigan. Of course, he's only paid to talk up ND.
September 12th, 2010 at 1:20 PM ^
You got Denarded?
September 12th, 2010 at 2:05 PM ^
or Denard'd, I vote for the latter as in you boom denard'd
September 14th, 2010 at 11:26 PM ^
this would be great coming from john madden, BOOM, DENARD'D, damn chris collinsworth and i live in cincinnati.
September 12th, 2010 at 10:21 AM ^
I didn't have a problem with the play call but the ball shouldn't have been thrown, at least not to that side. With the TD call, I thought if was a good call. Without Crist in the offense I thought the game hinged on ND getting a TD there, thought the game was over when they missed it.
Pretty good if they stay healthy, Floyd's numbers have been down in the first two games with the new system and new starting QB. Both have yet to finish the year without getting injured for multiple games. And there still needs to be a draft next year before they can be taken anyway.
Not sure what the problem is with the deep passes. Rudolph's big TD shows the arm Crist has but the throws into the endzone, guess he just needs the receiver to run for an extra 10 secs before he releases the ball. I am sure its partly nerves and him trying not to make a mistake, but he seems to have trouble deciding how much air to put under the ball. He still played well, really well well if you take out the int. If he is in for 4 quarters the outcome would have been different, you guys dodged a bullet.
September 12th, 2010 at 10:29 AM ^
It seemed like Crist was going to be out for the game, and even if Kelly thought he would come back, he'd have good reason to think he wouldn't be as effective (with the vision difficulties). It was a gutsy call that didn't work out, but seeing how bad the ND offense was without Crist, I think it was probably the right call.
September 12th, 2010 at 10:30 AM ^
If he is in for 4 quarters the outcome would have been different, you guys dodged a bullet.
All I heard was "blah, blah, blah I'm an ND fan whose going to take two weeks to live this down and refuse to give Michigan any credit, blah, blah, blah"
September 12th, 2010 at 10:56 AM ^
This loss was a lot easier than last years, expected it to be a good game going into it and it was but not for all the right reasons. ND losing Crist for anytime this year was going to be a tough for the offense and every ND fan knew it, let alone in the 2nd game of the year for nearly half the game. ND's defense is what kept them in the game despite Robinson going off and that is saying something after last season, not to mention again his performance.
I will give Denard all the credit he deserves, but I pray UM finds yards from someone else on the team to help him out in the offense. 40 passes and 30 rushes a game is a stiff pace to continue for one player the rest of the year. I want to see him do the same thing to the rest of UM's schedule but he won't be able to do that if he falls apart like forcier did from all the hits he took last year.
September 12th, 2010 at 11:09 AM ^
The only game I root for ND, Good luck Irish, too bad it’s a trap game every year for ND.
September 12th, 2010 at 11:11 AM ^
yeah still wish ND was able to separate the big ten games more, I liked playing Purdue last out of the bigten schedule in previous years.
September 13th, 2010 at 2:14 AM ^
I'm just trying to hijack this thread as high up the page as possible to warn other latecomers: don't bother reading further down; Irish has already responded in a very reasonable fashion to a few serious questions, despite a load of antagonistic (but friendly?) jabs. What follows is mostly just a bunch of similar posts from fellow MGoBoarders who can't be honest with themselves.
Irish - it's being reacted to strongly because it does sound something like an excuse, but anybody who watched the game and is actually trying to think would use the exact phrase "dodged a bullet" to describe Michigan's good luck yesterday. If, without injuring any college kids or breaking any laws, we could guarantee that every opponent was forced to play at least 2 possessions with a newborn fawn playing quarterback, fuck yeah we would want that to happen.
And yesterday's game did not play like "whoever scores last wins" all the way through. It started off something like that, but then there was a period when it seemed a lot like Michigan would win by 20 because ND's QBs just weren't going to be able to answer. And then the second half started and shit turned around real quick and M just barely righted the ship and started stopping Crist and Co.
Of course I won't say that Michigan would've lost if it weren't for Crist's injury, but I'm not a fucking joker so I'll admit that his absence certainly hurt ND and if I were a ND fan I'd absolutely think he could've made the difference.
So, fellow M fans - I just recommend that you don't kid yourselves and waste Irish's time and abuse his good nature by acting like Crist wouldn't have changed ND's expected value of total points scored (or like that's not an important value). That makes you sound like a liar and/or a sore winner - just take the win and maintain your integrity. Also, don't act like you're proud of Michigan's ability to injure quarterbacks. That just makes you sound like a dick.
September 12th, 2010 at 11:18 AM ^
I was listening to the game on the radio so maybe live it would have looked a lot different, but I got the feeling your QB situation was more Michigan 2008 than Michigan 2009, with Crist playing Threet and Montana as Sheridan.
Crist seems to have a lot of Threet in him -- the arm to make all the passes, and the ability to send 25 percent of those passes to outer space.
Go beat Michigan State. We'll be rootin' for ya.
September 12th, 2010 at 10:37 AM ^
...you ruined it with the bit about dodging a bullet. That said I appreciate you answering the questions in an otherwise level headed manner. What are your predictions for your next game against MSU?
September 12th, 2010 at 10:58 AM ^
I haven't seen their game from this week yet, their line's looked pretty weak in week 1 but it was just week 1
September 12th, 2010 at 10:42 AM ^
If he is in for 4 quarters the outcome would have been different, you guys dodged a bullet.
It's a good thing that Michigan has never been forced to play two true freshman QBs against an ND squad. Oh wait......
Also, since you are a fortune teller, what are this week's winning lotto numbers?
September 12th, 2010 at 11:09 AM ^
Do you not think that ND would have scored more points with Crist on the field?
With Crist as the QB: On 41 plays they had 379 yards of offense (over 9 yards a play), 3 TDs, 1 FG and an 1 int.
Without Crist: 172 yds on 36 plays (4 yards per play) no points and 2 ints.
ND lost because UM's defense was stout against the 2nd and 3rd string QBs, forcing 2 turnovers and keeping them off the scoreboard. Like I said, I thought the game was over at the end of the first half without Crist on the field. Those numbers make it pretty obvious.
September 12th, 2010 at 11:33 AM ^
But after things settled down to start the second half Crist threw an interception and led three drives where the ND offense stalled and they had to punt. He wasn't exactly unstoppable except when Michigan inexplicably allowed there to be wide open receivers.
Was ND's offense more efficient with Crist leading the team? Sure but, even though it makes you feel a little better, there is nothing that guarantees ND would have won that game if Crist plays every snap. You know.... butterfly flaps it's wings and all that........
September 12th, 2010 at 11:56 AM ^
I do think ND would have found at least 4 more points against UM's defense if Crist had been in the game for 2 more quarters. I think it is very obvious that the ND offense left a lot on the field without Crist at QB.
September 12th, 2010 at 12:05 PM ^
If everything else played out exactly the same (including Michigan missing two very makeable field goals) and Crist was in the whole game, sure, you probably get 4 more points. If that's your argument, I'll let you hang on to that.
However, when Michigan absolutely had to, they scored points. Crist in or out, nothing changes that.