Duds:O-Line: If the Navy game wasn't enough evidence to get rid of Latina, the 1.5 YPC and 6 sacks allowed against the Falcons should do the job. This unit seems to consistently underperformed regardless of who we are playing. The one bright spot that I can find solace in is that we will be returning a lot of experience next year, but the situation doesn't look much different than when fans looked forward to the return of the porous secondary before the 2006 season after they had looked porous in the 2005 season. I think the only way to get this unit clicking is by vamping up the practice intensity and forcing them to get more full speed experience.
4th quarter kicking: A somewhat legitimate chance at a comeback was ruined when ND allowed Air Force to run the ball back 52 yards (the drive ended in a field goal) and later kicked the ball out of bounds. It doesn't matter if you're playing AF or UF, giving the leading team free field position at the end of the game greatly diminishes the chance of a comeback.
Defense: After opening the game by allowing a 14 play, 56 yard drive, the defense seemed to collect itself on the sidelines, causing 2 three-and-outs and a forced fumble on the next three drives, but after this good start, the Irish only forced the Falcons to punt twice (in nine drives) more in the ball game. Especially in the fourth quarter, the defense failed to get a stop when it mattered most. I'm tempted to start calling to see special teams walk-on Mike Anello in the secondary after failing to stop a service academy passing attack (63% completions for a 7.5 average) for the second week in a row.
Coaching: I know that I defended Charlie and the Weis guys in the previous post, but you have to scratch your head at the lack of in game adjustments against Air Force. A well written Sporting News student blog breaks down why ND would be foolish to fire Weis this year, and the gang at IR throws in some additional thoughts here. Both writers feel that Weis should be given the same opportunity as Willingham: to rebound from a bad year. If Charlie still can't find a place in the W column after his recruits have been in the program for 2 or 3 years, however, don't be surprised if ND starts shopping the coach market to find someone who is better at developing talent and making adjustments during games.Studs:
Eric Maust: The Irish backup punter had another solid week replacing Price, kicking 5 times for an average of 43 yards with 2 kicks inside the 20. With a special teams weapon like Maust, one has to wonder why the Irish neglect to ever play the field position game.
Junior Jabbie: Albeit in somewhat of a mop-up situation when Air Force was playing a conservative defense, Jabbie did have four nice catches for 51 yards, an effort that might justify a few more touches against Duke.
WRs: It is with great hesitation that I group Grimes and Carlson in here, and I only do so because they redeemed their early mistakes (multiple dropped passes and a ridiculous fumble, respectively) by hauling in a difficult touchdown reception (Carlson) and coming up with two big fourth down catches (Grimes) later in the game. Duval missed some action apparently because of academic issues (just like in NCAA 08 when you have to suspend someone for a game), but Parris came up with another strong performance and Allen added somewhat of a receiving threat out of the backfield.
On the quarterback situation: Clausen's performance fell somewhere between the two; not quite duddly, but not studly. For whatever reason, I feel that Sharpley is better right now, but its hard to argue Charlie handing over the reigns to his prize recruit in order to get him ready for next year. However, Irish fans need to hope that Clausen can learn to throw a deep ball better than an interhall quarterback and step up in the pocket instead of taking 12 yard sacks or the Dayne Crist era might come sooner than expected.
That's it for this week's edition of Duds and Studs. Hopefully we can catch Duke looking ahead to UNC and muster a home win this season. Go Irish.
3 comments:
I usually agree with your Duds and Studs (read em every week), but to not call Clausen a stud is just off. Yes, he held on to the ball too long on a couple of plays. Yes, he threw one egregious pass that should have been picked. But consider what the kid is working with: one of the most underperforming O lines in ND history, receivers dropping balls left and right and a backfield (TT) that can't pick up a corner blitz. I'll take 250 yards, 3 TDs and no picks any day of the week. Seems like you have an affinity for Sharpley (which is fine), but give the kid a break. He's a freshman and this was the first real sign of progress.
Maybe my grudge against Clausen is because of his hype coming into the season, or maybe its because a teams success or failure is generally linked to the quarterback more than any other position. Actually now that I think about it, I'm the most frustrated with Jimmy because, despite the talent he shows, Weis hasn't found a way to use him to the best of his ability yet.
That's understandable...I too grow tired of hitch passes every 3rd passing play. It's a Catch22 to some degree...trying to give Clausen some intermediate-to-deep routes opens up our porous OLine and he gets planted. I guess my point was that he made some pretty big strides on Saturday and was one of the lone bright spots against AF. We'll see what happens against Duke and Stanford. Just reminded me of a couple of years ago and my father always saying Brady would be an average QB after his soph year and I thought he had huge potential...sure enough, CWub comes around and BQ blows up. I think we could see the same thing with Clausen once the OLine shores up. Clausen to Kamara will be huge in the future...
Anyway, keep up the good work. You've got a loyal reader over here, just thought I'd share some of my thoughts.
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