Irish Musings
Season 2005 Issue #5
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
The headline from the Detroit paper read:
Wolverines Drop the Ball!!
Ah, The agony and the Ecstasy of it all!! Last Saturday was unique, special, wonderful and excruciatingly painful. The last 7:30 of the game was the longest HOUR of my life.
The Irish won and they beat Michigan and that is the most important thing. The outcome will go a long way to erasing the fear and disgrace from the past two years.
But the game is a big mystery. It was a total reversal of form— offense and defense. This game should have been a fairly high scoring game with at least 700 net yards, if not more. But Michigan’s defense played far better than anyone thought they could and so did the Irish defense. The mystery is that the Michigan offense is supposed to be as talented as Southern Cal’s.
One explanation was offered by Coach Carr when engaging in shameless apophasis, he declared he would not make any excuses and then shed many crocodile tears as he recounted all of the injuries to the poor little skunk bears!!
There is an old adage about the biggest improvement in a team coming from the first to the second game. It sure is true for the D, but what about the O? What does that say about Charlie Weis, the genius offensive coach??
Did Charlie turn the game over to the D after the first TD? It seemed that way. During the first drive, it seemed like we did nothing but throw from the spread formation with four and even five receivers and no backs on the field!! It turns out the mix was six and six!! And as the game progressed the mix was showed surprising balance. Overall, there were 44 running plays and 30 pass attempts, compared to 29 running plays by Michigan and 44 pass plays. Check out the following and see if you are not as surprised as I:
First Quarter
TD drive—6 runs and 6 passes
Second possession—2 runs and 3 passes
Third possession—2 and 3
Fourth possession—1 and 2
Second Quarter
First possession—3 and 2 including a sack!
Second TD drive—6 and 6 again!!
Third Quarter
First possession—1 and 2 including one sack
Second possession—7 and 3
Fourth Quarter
FG drive—3 and 0
Second possession—1 and 0 ending with fumble by Darius
Third possession—3 and 2
Fourth possession—3 and 0
Fifth possession—2 and 0
Sixth possession—3 and 0 ending the game
Notre Dame ran 30 plays in the second half, rushed on 23 of them and threw the grand total of seven passes in the second half! If we subtract the last three plays that were designed to run out the clock, that leaves a ratio of 20 to 7, surely not the balance Charlie is looking for!!!
Did Brady Quinn revert to last year’s form after that first series? Was he just having an off day?? The completion percentage is great on the surface, but that masks an atrocious yardage per attempt average of 4.67, which is well below the minimum of 6.0 that a good offense seeks to achieve.
Did Charlie pull in the horns when Rhema went down? After all he did not know at that point for sure that Matt Shelton was 100%. And one of his other receivers, Maurice Stovall, has still not pulled it all together. So, Charlie was looking at having maybe just one reliable go to man, other than the tight ends.
Did the new D co-ordinator at MooYoo outsmart Charlie after that first drive? Certainly, it seems as though he was outsmarted in the second half as the supposedly new, dynamic, unpredictable, pro-style ND offense garnered just 58 yards!!
Did the offensive Irish lose their intensity as the game progressed??
Or, did the Michigan defense just play as great a game as the Irish defense??
What does all of this say about the team and its fortunes for the rest of the year? What if Pitt is not really very good as it seems now?
And, what if Michigan is not nearly as good as the rankings showed? What does this say for the prospects of the Irish?
Here, they had the Wolverines on the ropes and could never muster the muscle to knock them out!! The Irish found a way to collect three points in the second half, but that was it! Had the Irish scored a TD, just one—that is all it would have taken. Then, the fans would have all relaxed. But no, the Irish had to do it the hard way. The Irish kept Michigan in the game by their inability to move the ball with even a modicum of consistency in the second half. Had the Irish just been able to burn some clock time, it would have been a different story.
The Irish were saved by the video replay twice. Surely, had there been no replay, Michigan would have been awarded a TD, but instead Chinedum Ndukwe came up with what will surely go down as one of the most famous loose ball pick ups in Irish history. It appears that none of the officials even saw him with the ball, although the announcers did!!
Ah, the agony and the ecstasy of it all!!!
As the review officials’ decision was announced we all thought: “Game over, right?
No, game not over! The Irish had more ways coming to make us sweat bullets. The heretofore really must make it much.
The 2005 version of the Rick Minter Irish Defense emerged with a vengeance that we have not seen since early in 2002. The players flew to the ball, tackled with ferocity and efficiency and most importantly broke up 12, yes 12, passes!! The last time the Irish broke up a bunch of passes was against Charlie Ward’s Seminole Team of the Century, when they broke up eight. The 12 Henne passes they broke up is clearly due to COACHING. Minter and Bill Lewis are putting their stamp on this defense. We can see why Charlie plucked Bill from the Dolphins D. In case you have not heard, Charlie explained that the Dolphins pass defense always gave him fits.
Nonetheless, there were two fourth quarter breakdowns. Keep in mind that the pass defense blew two crucial fourth down plays in the fourth quarter, one going for a TD and the other setting up the Chinedum Miracle!!! In both cases we had defensive backs who were beaten one on one. We can count on seeing less of this weakness next week, at least if the Irish plan on winning. Drew Stanton is a quarterback of considerable more skill and maturity than Henne, and if the Irish do not rush him as they did Henne, he will pick the backfield apart. He has a strong quick. He is big and he can run!!
What are we going to see on Saturday?
Notre Dame is going to establish an effective running game. Look for the Elephant backfield again, seldom seen against Michigan. Charlie will have Asaph Shwapp blocking for Powers-Neal, hopefully spelling Darius, who was called on too many times last week. His productivity goes way down when everyone knows he is going to carry the ball. Charlie will also let Shwapp run the ball some.
• You are going to see the four and five receiver spread offense with no running backs that was nearly perfect in the first drive against Michigan.
• You are going to see a defense that will make you proud, as
Crum, Abiamiri, Wooden, Ndukwe and Cory Mays continue to improve.
• Watch for the deep threat. Michigan State will go after the corners if they have any brains and John L Smith has plenty. I would not be surprised to see them go deep on the first play. Expect them to go deep repeatedly.
• Brady will have had a one week tutorial on evading the corner and safety blitz. Each time he was sacked the corner or safety was naked on the wing. He should have known these corners were not escorting his wide outs down the field. He only figured that out in the fourth quarter when he deft evaded two blitzing maniacs, stepped up and to his right and threw a bullet reception in a near jump pass mode. This was as neat a play as he has ever made.
• For Brady to keep his jersey clean throughout the game,
Charlie has to help by giving him a back to pick up the blitz—not on every play, but at least on a higher percentage of the plays. When in the spread on the first drive, there was no play action, since it is a passing formation. When running the spread, the surprise is when the team runs the ball. When Brady was under center, Charlie called a lot of play fakes, with Darius disappearing from the play as he piled into the line, leaving Brady exposed to the blitzing d back. So, this
week, expect more straight passing plays when Brady is under center. Also, expect to see more of the spread.
• Rhema McKnight is definitely out of the game, so expect to see more of Matt Twenty-six Yards Per Catch Shelton. He is healthy and should see plenty of action.
• Keep your eyes on Bob Morton. Number 76 may start at center or at guard. If at center, then Dan Santucci starts at guard. This is the most likely scenario. If he starts at guard, then John Sullivan starts at center. Morton has made more key blocks than any of the six guys who play inside the ends, and for this reason he seems to be more effective at guard. As the season progresses we will have to develop some depth, with Scott Raridon and Brian Mattes seeing some
playing time.
Notre Dame has suffered at the hands of the Spartans in recent years, yet since 1964 the Irish have dominated the series. The Irish are poised to take charge of this series again, and hopefully they will on Saturday. On paper the Irish have more talent, at least going by the rankings of the players when they were in high school. And the Irish have a better coaching staff, although it may take awhile for the full impact of the staff to take place. The odds makers have the Irish as seven point favorites. Clearly, they think Charlie is worth about ten
points!!!
Although, this game should be an offensive display, there is a history of the Irish struggling to score against these guys. Even in 1989 the Irish had all they could do to escape with a victory at home.