Poor Boubacar Cissoko. Wow--talk about out matched. I find it interesting that I have only empathy and love for Boo-Boo, while Morgan Trent still evokes only vitriol. Maybe it's because the W(S)LA has brainwashed me like Patty Hearst???? Nah. Mainly it's because Trent was obviously wrong wrong wrong, while poor Boo-Boo was just beat beat beat. And major props to the kid for NOT quitting and NOT backing down. He may be my new favorite player just because.
What I saw from the stands was a defense with lots of heart and fight and fantastic conditioning. The detnews found the silver lining too. The other thing I saw was the confidence in them shown by their coach who punted the ball back to ND late in the 4th. I was all for that move even though many weren't.
But I also saw that the deep support is absent and the linebacker play atrocious.
Here are the numbers courtesy of mgoblue.com
No surprise, but this was a heavyweight fight with the two teams going toe to toe. M scores 14 in the first, but then gives up 17 in the second. Gets 7 in the 3rd (while allowing ND only like 24 yards of offense?) and then allows another 14 points in the 4th. Mano a Mano all game long.
Check this out: (ND on the left, M on the right)
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS........... 490 430wow.....490 yards given up to the opponent yet we still win????
Total offense plays......... 72 71
Average Gain Per Play....... 6.8 6.1
I'll let someone else discuss the watershed/awesome coaching moments that got us over the top, and I'm still basking in the sweet joy of victory, but um....well, we gotta talk about the elephant in the room.
Run Defense: ND rushed for a net 154 yards, averaging 5.1 yards per carry. Ick!? Only Stevie Brown and Brandon Graham got TFLs but even then, they only backed them up for 8 yards.
but the real damage came on the....
Pass Defense: 336 net yards thru the air, with Jimmeh going 25-42-0 with 3 TDs. Average yards per attempt? EIGHT. Average yards per completion? THIRTEEN. And you wonder why Fat Charlie was throwing late into the game??? Why wouldn't you? You were getting first downs with almost every toss. Jimmeh was sacked only twice for a total of 9 negative yards. (oh, but how about a BIG shout out to our O line...Tate was not dumped once in the back field for a sack)
While Floyd and Tate killed, a few other receivers racked up catches as well...
Receiving No. Yds TD Long
-----------------------------------
TATE 9 115 2 27
FLOYD 7 131 1 37
RUDOLPH 3 38 0 24
ALLEN 2 24 0 19
EVANS 2 15 0 8
GRAY, J. 1 7 0 7
KAMARA 1 6 0 6
Totals... 25 336 3 37
GACK!!!
So what to do??? Luckily we don't face Golden Tate and Michael Floyd again. Golden Tate is listed at 5' 11", 195 pounds and Michael Floyd is like 12 feet tall and all muscle (6'3", 220#). Poor Boo-Boo (5'9", 177#) was looking up to him head and shoulders all day long. Coach doesn't have many other options in the secondary.
The linebacker core is comprised of mainly freshmen and sophomores with Stevie Brown (!?) as the only senior LB....
Basically I think that the defense is at least a year or two behind the offense and that Mr. Robinson needs to take the trolley to the Land of Make-believe for solutions....
Good thing we can score at will!!??
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4 comments:
The defense will get better as they play together. That said you still can't hide the gaping holes. Secondary depth is atrocious and the LBer play is awful. Stevie Brown is actually turning into a competent LBer and OBi Ezeh is worse than we feared going into the season. On almost all of the big runs in the first half all you could see on TV was the gaping hole open up, Obi right there to close it down, Obi standing there indecisive, and finally Obi running backwards trying to catch the RB. He was targeted on many pass plays as well.
While I was surprised at how easily Notre Dame moved on us all game, I don't think we will see an offense like that again. As much as I don't like Jimmy, he was pretty darn good on saturday. The WRs were much better than our corners. Their line was big and experienced plus Armando Allen was gashing us.
How we actually won that game, I have no idea.
Of the remaining schedule, only Penn State has shown they have an offense that can compare to Notre Dame. When we see the Bucks in November, I expect them to have their kinks worked out, but who knows?
This is not to say we will only lose 2 games, but I expect our defense to continue to play with heart while facing better matchups.
Lets hope that Cissoko became a better player by playing against those guys last week, and that he'll be ready to pound Eastern and Indiana before heading to EL. If our weaknesses (+Obi) are still on film after the next two games, expect Sparty to go right at them.
Thanks T9 for finding the hug shot - best icing ever.
T9 & Andy,
great posts today. all of the new stuff is an interesting read.
the D did struggle at times but there were a number of bright spots.
first, i thought our half time adjustments were very good, and the third quarter stats supported that. also, the 4th quarter was good defensively. Cissoko had the drive stopping pick in his hands on ND's 1st TD drive, and the second TD was set up by the O's turnover. over all, Gerg's adjustments went very well.
second, depth & experience were a known problem going into the season. we were going to have growing pains early. if we avoid major injuries, we should see improvement over time.
finally, this is the best PAIR of receivers we're likely to see. Warren held up his end (as you'd expect a 3 yr starting jr to do). Cissoko probably won't have to man up on anyone as good as Tate or Floyd the rest of the season.
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