The more I think about it, the more I feel this was a total choke job.
First, give total credit to Bama because they were prepared and entirely dominant from the opening kickoff.
But if you were to ask me what the best quality about Notre Dames team was this season I would've said the defense (obviously). Specifically, I would've said that Notre Dame was the best tackling team in the country. Game after game, with the exception of BYU, the team made great form tackle after great form tackle. They contained Denard, smashed Bell, corralled OKs receiving corps. There was a play in the Oklahoma game where Russel made a shoestring tackle on an under route that was surely going the distance. It was a thing of beauty.
The performance against Bama in the tackling department was abysmal. The offense put up 14, garbage or not that's about what I expected. Special teams was a wash. But to see the defense make such terrible effort in the area they are most confident in was a tremendous setback, IMO. Lots of work to be done yet.
Replies to: The more I think about it, the more I feel this was a total choke job.
I think it was the ND defense getting bored a new asshole.
I don't think we have to worry about Diaco leaving for a HC job.
Men vs Boys
but ya know what ..... look at highlights and box score from UM/Bama game in Dallas ... very similar.
I was worried after A&M toyed with Oklahoma on Friday night. There are few teams that can play with Bama and they are all in the SEC (unless you get real lucky)
Amen....
that was evident on the first drive, complete whiffs on the tackles. Maybe the thinking was you go low because of the power of Bama's running backs. But the one thing I noticed was our db's dropped their heads prior to contact. Dangerous but also ineffective if you can't see what you wanna hit. Baffling....
Not enough contact drills during the break?
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I don't know if it was a choke, but I agree it was far from ND's best performance
I don't get the men vs. boys comments. Look at the sizes of the guys on our OL and DL and compare to Bama. It is similar. They may have more depth. But depth isn't a factor in the first quarter.
Lacy is bigger than our RBs, that's about it.
Bama has been here before. Saban knew how to prepare for this moment. Conversely it was a learning experience for Kelly and ND.
But had this game been played a month earlier, I think the results would have been different.
Agreed.
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Re: The more I think about it, the more I feel this was a total choke job.
Its not a choke job when you get beat by a better team
Re: The more I think about it, the more I feel this was a total choke job.
Another disasterous bowl appearance like that (there have been far too many) and Kelly can hike back to Worcester and coach Assumption. The more you think about this game, you ask what the hell were Teo, Nix and Diaco doing the past 6 weeks???
Welp, if you look below, apparently not much in terms of physicality at practice....
And it showed in an embarrassing way.
I think that is right....
Bama being at another level explains why they looked so dominant. It doesn't explain the almost lack of any tackling and how timid we looked. Like the Christians being led into the Coliseum.
Belongs below in response to Lady Irish.
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Notre Dame was simply out of their league.
It was pretty simple. It was men playing with boys. If we stacked the line of scrimmage they passes the ball. If we stacked the passing game they ran it down our throats. Their defense dominated our offense. There talent was far superior to ours at every position. Accept it and move on to next year, we are starting to get some talented players and things can change in the future.
Tom
Thats what I saw too.
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Agree. However, ND did not play up to their potential.
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Agree - Bama is a deeper, more talented, more experienced and better coached team.
But I don't think ND put their best foot forward by a long shot.
Agreed
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I'll say it again, not practicing physically was a mistake on par with anything Bob Davie ever did.
And yes, I know that Kelly is light years beyond the coach that Davie ever was.
But we essentially had two days of hitting over the course of six weeks because of concern over our O.L. depth and the potential for injuries.
That was the wrong decision.
Yes, but that's hindsight. How do you know beforehand what the best strategy is?
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Just based on how ND came out against Miami after the bye week
and how Michigan was completely overwhelmed by Bama in the opener, I would have scrimmaged the team for four 12 minute running clock quarters 10 days before the game. It was over 6 weeks since we played a game - 10 minutes of scrimmage wasn't going to cut it against any top 15 team.
Bout the best explanation I have seen for what happened....
They looked like they hadn't hit since the SC game. I think we lose no matter what, but my jaw was almost on the floor at how bad and over matched we looked.
I had hoped Kelly was lying when he said they played 1v1 for 10 minutes total.
10 minutes of a single 90-min practice. For all his "next man in" talk, he prepared the team very poorly for this game and its a shame.
Do you think the huge amount of time off had any effect?
It doesn't seem like the defense would "forget how to tackle", but who knows what really happens to a finely tuned football machine with 5 weeks completely off.
Re: Do you think the huge amount of time off had any effect?
Didn't Alabama also have a long layoff? What is your point?
If you don't hit in practice, yes.
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ESPN gameday crew said in 12 regular season games they could only find two missed tackles by Te'o
...and he had four in the first half versus Alabama.
Re: ESPN gameday crew said in 12 regular season games they could only find two missed tackles by Te'o
One of those "missed tackles" was him reaching out to try to tackle Lacy who was already by him. I think their definition of "missed tackle" during the NC game was pretty loose.