Notre Dame

Remember when Stanford was a better team than USC?

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=272790030

Hey, turnovers are part of the game.

Points are what matter, right?

Stanford > USC that year.

 

Notre Dame committed five turnovers because they wanted to.

 

Two years ago, Purdue was better than Ohio State:

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=292902509

 

Someone may have mentioned it before, but Notre Dame has now lost five of its last six games against the Big East. Yikes.

 

The onside kick at the end was a perfect metaphor. You cannot deliver a better onside kick than ND got, and the superstud is in perfect position to grab it. Only he watches a USF second-liner who felt like putting out some effort snatch it in midair. Game over.
There's a kid who should be F-bombed by the Luftwaffe.

 

Yes. On that day they were better.

This is a debatable point?

 

Are Notre Dame kids just soft? Is it that simple? Is that what it comes down to? Seriously. It might. Do they recruit soft kids? Or does the campus experience make them soft? Probably a little of both.

 

I don't disagree that USF was better yesterday. Didn't make mistakes. Notre Dame did. But in the bigger picture, I think Notre Dame is a better football team. I don't think South Florida is very good at all. Well, we'll see. I don't doubt that the self-destruction will be a season-long trend. It's been a decade-long trend.

 

One other thing on the stats, particularly yards and turnovers:

--USF led 7-0 before they ever touched the ball. Their first two drives they moved the ball pretty well -- not paydirt, but they got field goals to make it 13-0. At that point, with that lead and that weather and the other team playing a shaky QB, the entire goal is to make them come and get you and not give it away. That was the strategy from mid-first quarter until the end of the game, as it turned out, because ND never put any pressure on them.

--Three of the five turnovers were picks. At the risk of sounding like Bo Schembechler, what's the best way to avoid throwing interceptions? Don't throw the ball. But Notre Dame had to. The two second-half INTs in particular were in backs-against-the-wall situations.

Notre Dame may well play better without the turnovers. But USF plays an entirely different game, too, if it isn't 13-0 out of the gate.

 

Exactly. If Notre Dame did so many stupid things that it managed to lose to a team that it's demonstrably better than, what's going to happen when it plays teams that are better than it?

 

Depends, I think, on whether this Rees kid is the answer at quarterback. As I said before the game even started on the college football thread, Notre Dame has a chance to be pretty good if it can get adequate QB play. It did not yesterday, at least from its starter.

 

Didn't watch the game so I won't comment on the particulars of it.

But ... I wonder what the family of the late video manager was thinking when they cleared the stadium because of lightning in the area?

I know I would wonder why they could make the correct call in that case, but were unable to when their son was on a scissor-lift in gale-force winds, fearing for his life, at a freaking practice.