Second viewing thoughts and grade report: Notre Dame

This wasn’t an overall “A” performance, but watching it back I felt better about our offense. In fact everything looked pretty good on the second viewing.

Offense: B-

Crane’s passing numbers look terrible. But it wasn’t as bad as 9 for 22 appears. By my count he only had five really bad throws. Two of those could have been INTs that would have changed the game. They weren’t though, so we can just say Crane got a bit lucky. Only two true drops. What I did appreciate about Crane’s day – especially when we were ahead – he made pretty good decisions on tucking and running. If he is going to make bad decisions, I’d rather have it happen during a run than a pass. As for his designed runs, I felt he was overly cautious on the QB option runs. They were there for most of the night. Overall, Crane was ok. He needs to play better though if we are to make something of this stretch run.

The offensive line played really well. As a group they dominated in both aspects of the game. Castonzo: flawless. His assignments never even got close to the action. Ramsey had another excellent game. We had a lot of good holes and openings on their side of the ball. Tennant had the snaps under control. He also did an excellent job blocking. The only gripe with Tennant was the stupid personal foul he got for shoving. My whipping boys Claiborne and Lapham were much, much better. My only problem with their play was the false start penalties that hurt drives.

Comparing Harris and Haden is inevitable given their stature, age, and recruiting hype. It is really not fair since at the end of the day they are both freshmen with promising futures. At this point Harris is ahead in his development. He’s shown great vision, cutback ability and balance in prior games. Last night he showed surprising strength. Multiple times he fought through the first contact and added a few yards. He also did a good job in blitz pick up. Haden wasn’t as explosive and got tripped up a few times. McCluskey wasn’t as involved as past weeks. He also got hurt late in the game. Word is his season is over.

Although he only caught two passes, this might have been Ryan Purvis’ best game of the year. Both catches were sure-handed and in heavy traffic. He also did a good job blocking. His fellow Tight End Lars Anderson did not catch a ball but blocked well. Robinson’s TD catch was a great route and great concentration. However, he dropped the long fly pattern that would have really given us a boost. Gunnell played well although his blocking on Crane’s runs was a bit suspect. Jarvis only had one catch.

Although we didn’t put up many points, I wasn’t unhappy with the game Logan called. We stuck with the run which played to our strengths (the line). We didn’t put Crane in bad situations. We tested them a few times downfield. My only complaint was going so conservative in the red zone. We tried to pound it in and only really threw into the endzone three times. With our inability to kick a field goal, we might as well treat it as four down territory and use the fades to Momah more.

Defense: A

The defensive line deservedly received most of the attention on the broadcast. Raji was a monster. He was moving past his blockers at will and even started shoving them into ND’s playmakers. Brace didn’t get the pub but he played very well too. Giles and Ramella made some plays and did a good job with contain. However, they both had stupid penalties. Of the second teamers, Scafe stood out. Like Brace and Raji, Scafe did a great job blasting off the line. Rossi played well. Ramsey and Newman also played well in limited minutes.

The linebackers played very well. No missed tackles and great pass coverage. Francois is doing a good job as Toal’s replacement. Herzy was very good. McLaughlin also had a strong game. One thing Blackledege pointed out (which is why he is one of the best Color guys) is McLaughlin’s strong fundamentals. For example McLaughlin engaged and bumped Rudolph before the first INT. It was Thompson’s failure to bump Spiller last week in a similar play that led to a big TD play. The second team guys didn’t get many snaps.

The secondary played much better than I ever expected. Fletcher was excellent considering who he was going up against. He was disciplined and showed a great tackling. Plus his final pick sealed the day. Rollins had his best game in weeks and also did a good job in all aspects of corner play. Gause got challenged a few times and wisely decided to commit pass interference when he was burned. Johnson got playing time but wasn’t really challenged. He did make good tackle though. Wes Davis also had one of his better games. He was good in run support, forced a fumble and helped stop the few long completions that ND had. Anderson was excellent. In addition to his two picks he also broke up a few other plays and was in position all night. He’s really come into his own this year. Akins was also very good. He was used to attack Clausen. He also batted a ball and chased Clausen out of bounds a few times.

Spaz called a very good game. Clausen never knew what was coming. In fact, we didn’t even blitz much in the second half as ND abandoned the run and Clausen had trouble with seven (or more) in coverage. Another sign that we scouted them well: the batted balls (six at least). Guys were ready and timing Clausen perfectly. Spaz or someone picked on Clausen’s low release on the tape and obviously made it a point of emphasis.

Special teams: B-

Steve Aponavicius was bad. A change needs to be made. Not much else to say.

On Smith’s one kick return he was a little slow starting and didn’t do much with it. The blocking appeared better.

Gunnell has been very good as a punt returner. He makes good decisions on fair catches and he had another nice runback last night.

Our punt blocking is Beamer-esque. It’s well designed and uses the right guys. I don’t know why the other special team units have so much trouble.

The kick coverage was better although still not great. Quigley got off good kicks. The tackling was better but I would still like to see a little more speed on the unit.

Loved Flutie’s rugby kick. It was effective and I think he got robbed on one of his spots.

Overall: B+

The best thing about the game is that is stopped the bleeding. A three game slide would have been a real mental hole and would have made the Jags bandwagon very lonely. As I mentioned, the confusion of Clausen, the ability to run the ball and the punt block all showed that the staff was ready for this game. They helped outcoach the "genius" on the other sidelines. Jags job is also to push the emotional buttons. For what it is worth, the guys seemed confident despite the two losses. Beating Notre Dame never gets old, however, this season will be remembered by how we play in the next three weeks. Let's hope we end with a bang.