I saw some good things last night we hadn't seen in some time.
1. Spreading around the ball to different receivers -- in the Stanford, ASU and Wash games we completed passes to 8,7 and 7 different receivers -- wth a heavy emphasis on JuJu. At ND 11 different players got a reception, and that was without two regulars (Whitney and Mitchell) out with injuries. And the receivers played well -- for the most part they caught what was thrown to them.
2. Receptions by the tight ends -- in the Stanford and Washington losses combined only 1 reception by a tight end. In the win at ASU it was 3; against ND, it was 4.
3. Making adjustments/Coming back. Down in the second quarter we came back, and kept it up into the 3rd quarter. When was the last time you saw our team come from 14 points down to take a lead? And this was against a strong ND team. Even the defense stiffened a bit in the 2nd half, taking ND to 3 and out in their first two series. We played with much more heart.
4. More inventive play calling when it mattered -- witness Jalen Greene's TD pass. Didn't see that from Sark. Creating opportunity for Adoree. Opening holes for RonJo and giving him the ball. And Justin Davis played well, creating yardage for himself.
5. Tackling in the open field. Sure, we missed some tackles (that RB of theirs, Prosise, is really good) -- but so did they. But we made a lot of saving tackles as well -- Hawkins, Su'a, Plattenburg, Cam Smith, Townsend. A great db play by Tell and heady ball strip by Adoree (he's done that before as you recall).
6. Our HC kept his cool. Still fiery, but never looked out of control.
So if we played so well why did we lose? Because of turnovers, drive-killing penalties and special teams miscues (blocked punt for td and missed field goal). I can't blame all of that on coaching, though some on this board would say otherwise. And again, Notre Dame played really well. Fuller burned one of the fastest and best DB's in the country; their DB's were great. And Kizer made some great throws; Robinson and Fuller made great receptions. And their DLine pressured Cody plenty.
Still, some hopeful signs for us, I think. You can correct schemes in 5 days but takes longer to instill discipline. Let's see if Clay can do that and hope that not every future opponent plays as well as did Notre Dame last night.
1. Spreading around the ball to different receivers -- in the Stanford, ASU and Wash games we completed passes to 8,7 and 7 different receivers -- wth a heavy emphasis on JuJu. At ND 11 different players got a reception, and that was without two regulars (Whitney and Mitchell) out with injuries. And the receivers played well -- for the most part they caught what was thrown to them.
2. Receptions by the tight ends -- in the Stanford and Washington losses combined only 1 reception by a tight end. In the win at ASU it was 3; against ND, it was 4.
3. Making adjustments/Coming back. Down in the second quarter we came back, and kept it up into the 3rd quarter. When was the last time you saw our team come from 14 points down to take a lead? And this was against a strong ND team. Even the defense stiffened a bit in the 2nd half, taking ND to 3 and out in their first two series. We played with much more heart.
4. More inventive play calling when it mattered -- witness Jalen Greene's TD pass. Didn't see that from Sark. Creating opportunity for Adoree. Opening holes for RonJo and giving him the ball. And Justin Davis played well, creating yardage for himself.
5. Tackling in the open field. Sure, we missed some tackles (that RB of theirs, Prosise, is really good) -- but so did they. But we made a lot of saving tackles as well -- Hawkins, Su'a, Plattenburg, Cam Smith, Townsend. A great db play by Tell and heady ball strip by Adoree (he's done that before as you recall).
6. Our HC kept his cool. Still fiery, but never looked out of control.
So if we played so well why did we lose? Because of turnovers, drive-killing penalties and special teams miscues (blocked punt for td and missed field goal). I can't blame all of that on coaching, though some on this board would say otherwise. And again, Notre Dame played really well. Fuller burned one of the fastest and best DB's in the country; their DB's were great. And Kizer made some great throws; Robinson and Fuller made great receptions. And their DLine pressured Cody plenty.
Still, some hopeful signs for us, I think. You can correct schemes in 5 days but takes longer to instill discipline. Let's see if Clay can do that and hope that not every future opponent plays as well as did Notre Dame last night.
