Boston College Duds and Studs

With five straight games decided by a touchdown and four come from behind victories, I think its safe to say that the student body is getting their money's worth for their tickets this year.

Running the ball 27 times against 39 passing attempts didn't do well to help us control the clock and put the game away, poor special teams coverage gave us bad field position, and our secondary digressed from their performance against USC, but we still won, and for now, that's good enough for me.

Sitting at 23rd in the polls, Notre Dame has arguably matched expectations (especially factoring in the loss of Floyd) to this point in the season with a 5-2 record, but there is much improving that needs to be done over the next two weeks to prepare for what is increasingly looking like a tough 3 games at #15 Pitt (7-1), UConn (4-3), and at Stanford (5-3).

Duds

Pass Defense: By this point in the season, our secondary has proven itself to be a major point of concern; we are ranked 117th nationally against the pass, and 3 freshman quarterbacks have had career days on us. This has inevitably led to some anti Corwin / anti Tenuta posts from the ND faithful. It was encouraging to see our front seven apply some pressure at the end of the game, and moving Harrison Smith to more of a nickle/backer roll helped some, but this needs to be improved for us to beat Pitt.

Robert Hughes: Hughes only got four carries, but thats about 3 more than he should have got. If Hughes or Alldridge are on the field, it should be in a fullback / dual halfback roll opposite Allen because Armando has proven to be the best back when healthy.

Red Zone: Like in the Washington game and the end of the USC game, the Irish continued to struggle with red zone scoring on Saturday, scoring a touchdown only once in four attempts. Tate's speed is somewhat negated by the short field, and Parris and Kamara have been unable to make the plays in the endzone this year. The problem with throwing the ball in the short field, though, also falls on Clausen. Jimmy has a tendency to stare down receivers in the three step game and often throws to a well covered first read. The solution? I know it won't work 100% of the time, but it would be nice to see a non-gimmick, hard nose running game from inside the 20 (or 1!).

Ben Turk: Notre Dame found itself on the wrong end of the field position battle in part due to poor kick coverage. However, it is obvious that Turk needs to do some improving, registering an average of 32.7 yards on 6 kicks (for comparison, my high school teammate, who wasn't recruited anywhere, had a net of 34 yards senior year). BC's Ryan Quigley was able to help his team out with a 42 yard average on 5 kicks (keeping in mind that he is kicking to Golden Tate) and a long of 56.

Studs

Manti Te'o: My friends used to jokingly ask whether we would rather take a bullet to the chest or get hit by Ray Lewis, the moral of the story being that there are good linebackers, and then there are linebackers that you are kind of scared to play against. Notre Dame hasn't had one of the latter in awhile, so it would be nice if Manti can continue his rapid development and start really taking some heads off.

Golden Tate: I try to mix up the players in this weekly post, but I can't seem to keep Golden off of the list. Hauling in a career high 11 receptions for 128 and Notre Dame's only two touchdowns, #23 was the game's most valuable offensive player.

Kyle McCarthy: The secondary has been struggling this year, but it is not because of Kyle McCarthy. With five interceptions so far this season (three of them meaning the difference between wins and losses), McCarthy gets my vote for game MVP.