Despite the huge win…What are your areas of concern?

[mirasuegui]

Personnel looks good
WRs were good

My gripe is w coordinators
O to vanilla
Lofton needs five targets a game

On D
I never want to see a three man rush again in my life
Why give a guy time
Get to QB and MAKE them unload it

Agree, 3 man rush, and dropping a DL into coverage.

 

[mirasuegui]

just beat a top 10 team at home and played pretty dominant too on both lines. beck looked good. im good. toney looks like a star. Bain looks like Bain again. I'll worry about problems later on.

Jimmy went in for the kill, Mario, is more, lets burn clock. Looks like we shut it down.

 

[Bipolarcane]

how I am gonna request leave to go
To the championship game. Number 6 in 2026 is comin. This is our year.

 

[Calinative]

Again yes he has influence in the overall game plan. The scheme. But that isn't the issue. Playing conservative with a young wr unit against a very aggressive defense isn't the issue. It's the exact play calling in that scheme. We ran the same 4 run plays all night and we ran them in the same exact scenarios over and over again. Feel free to run in those same scenarios. Just don't call the same exact run play to the same exact spot. VARIETY. that's all

I fully agree with this.

But I gotta say, EVEN IF we did kinda call those same run plays, I’d prefer we weren’t doing it as much with 2 TE and nobody out wide and doing the short motion of the wr and leading into B gap.

Like **** I get Mario/Mirabals point of just being like we have monsters on our Oline, but the way to stress a defense with that is just running Pistol out of 11 or 10( Lofton could be split out too), and FORCE the defense to either commit to loading the box or widening out. If we are going to be running so much dive and just behind Mauigoa, honestly that wouldn’t be nearly as big of a problem if we A) Ran some ******* Play Action which I think you need to have a back behind qb to really do effectively, and B) didn’t crowd all the defenses LBs and Safeties into the box. You wanna spam dive, we’ll make defense fear a pass and put it on our OLine to just beat their DLine and a Lb or 2 and with their safeties not pressed up…

Like idk if I’m crazy but it felt like last year by like mid point of season we began running pistol more and Martinez was feasting in it… I’m sorry but Play Action out of regular shotgun imo stinks… but like did we even run PA against ND? lol how can you be such a run heavy team and never run play action! That’s WILD

 

[mirasuegui]

Lyle got banged up, so I’m sure they’ll open up the run game more when he’s a full go

To be honest, more impress with Fletcher, and Brown, Lyle more physicality gifted, but I don't think he has the others vision,

 

[mirasuegui]

It looked to me like Carr stepped up into the pocket and looked was going to run and Toure bit on that, Carr stepped back and homie was uncovered.

As coaches always say, do your job.

 

[aelmiami]

The reality is a mobile QB gives every team fits. Those guys are always going to get some cheap yards and conversions. You need to win 1st and 2nd down and keep the opposing team in 3rd and long not 3rd and 4 or less.

True. I am just hoping it was a pants around the ankles situation and not a bigger flaw I guess. Obviously against a running QB, they’d prepare more for it. I don’t think anyone expected ND to lean on it the way they did. Especially inside the RZ.

 

[AtlAtty]

That would make sense, as it seemed like our gameplan was to make sure they didnt beat us with the run

It may also be why Fitzgerald was playing on the back end for the last drive

 

[AtlAtty]

It looked to me like Carr stepped up into the pocket and looked was going to run and Toure bit on that, Carr stepped back and homie was uncovered.

I agree but I ithnk it was the safety (or both) who bit. But they should have been thinking time and score. At that point of the game the 5-10 yard run hurts a lot less than the 60 yard pass.

 

[skyman]

Just nitpicky, Defense seemed very basic.. We seemed to let their qb sit back and get comfortable we never seemed to mix up blitzes and give them something to think about..

This will probably be like motion/no motion debate from mid '10s especially with richt basic offense, where people defended when the game was evolving. Defense has evolved. We look to be going elementary, just keep it basic and hope bain does everything on pass rush/pressure. Should work majority of times but we need playoff level against elite teams''

 

[NJshoreCane]

ND scored a TD each time they got in the red zone. Would prefer that our defense bow up when our opponent gets in the red zone.

The good-
They couldn't run it in....the old-fashion way, anyway.
They relied on a broken/scramble play, play-action to RB in the flat, and a QB draw.

The bad-
A TD is a TD.
ND scored a TD each time they got in the red zone.
I expected a mistake or two from Carr in the RZ.

 

[NJshoreCane]

Getting into the stadium was ridiculous. Took over an hr to get into the blue lot from on 27th. Wtf is going on here.

Respond to the survey that was sent out today.
Let them know.
Parking is not enforced.

Lot's are 80% full, then closed off.
I love you die-hard tailgaters. You make the pre-game vibe what it is, but try to be a little more considerate to those who arrive "only" 3 1/2 hours before the game by being a little more efficient in your planning/set-up...please.

 

[252cane]

Lyle got banged up, so I’m sure they’ll open up the run game more when he’s a full go

When Lyle was in there where did they run him? Right between the tackles

 

[LMCane]

And you can't say Mario game flow decisions lol…Those aren't going anywhere.

There was so much to like with Toney, C.Brown/Fletcher, a dominant defensive line ,etc...but here are a few things that caught my eye that weren't quite up to snuff yet. And please don't say I'm being a negative, it's just a topic for discussion, and it was a knock out performance as far as game 1s go…Those can at times be very, very sloppy, and we looked mostly great.

1. Safety play…I think it's still a question. Better than Jaden Harris no doubt, but that isn't the bar. Poyser has time to improve no doubt, but I thought the writers crowned him a little early this offseason after some success at CUSA, and I'm still concerned now. He didn't have a great night, and while I think Thomas can definitely give us snaps in the box he is what he is, and really fell asleep on the first Irish TD. I'm hoping Day, Pruitt, or Fitz can keep the heat on Poyser or get some snaps, because imo Poyser was mediocre (again it was game #1, I'm still optimistic with him)

2. LB (especially Toure) in coverage. I like a lot about our LB crew. But I really think we need Pruitt (0 snaps?) on the field in obvious passing situations. Let's just say that breakdown which basically blew the lead and could have blown the game for us…Wasn't the first time Toure looked lost in coverage to me. If he is on the field 3rd and long or against a heavy passing team, he needs to be blitzing or put Pruitt (0 snaps) in the game. That being said, Toure is very physical against he run and definitely had his moments in that aspect.

3. Kicking game…Obviously. One of those makes was ugly and the kid has not had a good career with FGs. Great to see him win the game though no doubt. On the plus side Joyce continues to develop and looked good.

4. Depth at nickle…K.Scott was one of the best players on both teams on the field last night and the best in our back 7. It's a little strange to me that Isaiah Taylor and a walk-on were behind him on the depth chart. Hope this is just CMC being vague or rewarding some good practice habits. Was hoping Brantley (0 snaps, is clearly #5 at CB) or Day, Ewald, etc…Could provide some depth here should Scott go down with injury. Just nitpicking I guess…And who knows maybe Taylor won the backup fair and square and is capable.

5. Not to jump on wagon or sound cliche…But the stupid *** penalties and timeouts. A delay of game out of halftime??? While I watched our QB and RB do a secret handshaking before they lined up?

I think everything else is nitpicking, and I really believe Trader will give the WRs a jolt. We aren't one of the nation's best WR group at the moment, but I think the stuff above is bigger concerns. Bell got beat a couple times and doesn't look dominant just yet, etc…TE wasn't involved much, but I think will be as the weeks progress. Lofton did catch a big pass when called upon and blocked all night. But we are pretty **** good area and a dangerous team, those are just some items that caught my eye.

really the ONLY actual concern should be the broken coverage which was ANOTHER MENTAL ERROR

at least Mario has it down to one collapse per game rather than the THREE per game last year

did Notre Dame ever have a completely busted coverage? answer is no.

 

[252cane]

I'm not going over the play by play to rebut you. It isn't worth my time. But State of the U reported it as 4 plays 15+ and 3 rushes 10+. Having been there, that seems about right.

Beyond that, the question was concern. That's it. Complaining? We won. I'm not complaining. But, I'm not pretending this was all rainbows and sunshine for 60 minutes either. That's a child's attitude.

if we are being honest, grown men discussing what we saw, those are my areas of concern. You have none. Congrats. You are the superfan. Have fun with that.

It’s the first game of course there needs to be improvements but you talking about giving up explosive plays like it was a bunch of yards lol. I’ll take 10 yard explosive plays over what we been giving up the last few years. So it’s progress and that’s what everybody wants

 

[hoops156]

Jimmy went in for the kill, Mario, is more, lets burn clock. Looks like we shut it down.

i agree that the end of the game was frustrating. we went into a shell but we played a top tier opponent and won. it shouldnt have been as close as it was but im happy for the W.

the defense has to fix the secondary busts, but the DL looked like what we expected it to look like last year. the OL did their thing. Beck looked comfortable and healthy. id play trader more than moore but thats about it.

 

[Handsome Squidbum]

Lack of a playmaker/scoring threat on offense.

I think we have playmakers on offense. You also have to look at what the defense was giving you. ND was not going to let anything get behind their defense. Beck was checking down successfully most of the game and playing smart football. He did force a few throws - one was a pick 6 ball that CJ Daniels saved with the catch of the year. Big time Playmakers make big time plays. If Daniels. doesn’t make that catch and I think we lose the game since Cristobal (through Dawson) reverted to his old ways.

My big concern is how Carr was able to run on the defense. Both UF and FSU have mobile QBs. I hope Heatherman can figure out how to stop the QB run.

 

[No_Fly_Zone]

It’s the first game of course there needs to be improvements but you talking about giving up explosive plays like it was a bunch of yards lol. I’ll take 10 yard explosive plays over what we been giving up the last few years. So it’s progress and that’s what everybody wants

I think you misread or misinterpreted what I wrote and it seems like we're talking about two slightly different things. Explosives? We gave up maybe 2-3 explosive plays the whole game (TE catch on the blown coverage, long run by Pryce, and that one Fields catch). That's probably better than most of our game last year (against worse teams).

But, I wrote "blown coverages and chunk plays". Notre Dame managed more chunk plays that we did.

 

[Echtcane]

3. I don't mind the run plays, but do they ALWAYS have to be run into a heavy box? Our condensed formations bring more defenders into the box. With this OL, if we ran the ball more out of 10/11 personnel we'd be borderline unstoppable. That's how ND was able to have some success running the ball in the second half. They spread us out and ran into a light box. With the condensed formations we invite more defenders...so even if we block it well, our RB's are still being hit @ roughly 3-5 yards. This puts more pressure on them to break multiple tackles in order to get chunk plays. With lighter boxes you have more opportunities for 1-on-1 tackling opportunities.

This is the best description of my main concern in the whole thread, and the point overshadows any of the others being listed.

It's shocking that experienced coaches in high level positions don't see something this obvious and recognize that it's 1) not working, and 2) that it's designed to be as least effective as possible in the first place. And if they do see it but choose to keep doing what they're doing, it's outraging. Not sure which possibility is more alarming.

The above and the refs hurt us far more than any other factors in the game. With creativity in run plays and a real threat of play action combined with neutral officiating, we crush Notre Dame.

 

[252cane]

I think you misread or misinterpreted what I wrote and it seems like we're talking about two slightly different things. Explosives? We gave up maybe 2-3 explosive plays the whole game (TE catch on the blown coverage, long run by Pryce, and that one Fields catch). That's probably better than most of our game last year (against worse teams).

But, I wrote "blown coverages and chunk plays". Notre Dame managed more chunk plays that we did.

Ah ok yea the way you wrote it I thought you was saying they gave up a bunch of explosives or maybe I just read it wrong. My bad on that