forums

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

Advertisement
my concerns:

- LBs in pass coverage or containment of mobile QBs

- WR group. Granted, we faced top notch DBs, but need guys like JJ to step up. Merion and jones were invisible.

- kicking game

- need Lyle healthy.
 
90scane said:
I believe we give him the same game plan at UF. Force them to pass to win. Let our DBs play man
Click to expand...
I agree. But if anyone is discounting his running game they are not being realistic. Mobile QBs have been a pain to us. But. Do they have a back up plan. Idk but the kid is good.
 
skeeter said:
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.
Click to expand...
I think the Notre Dame secondary is solid. And we did a really good job moving the ball

Penalties sucked but I also think we got the shaft on a couple.of no calls

I feel like we wanted to make sure Love didnt beat us, and we did that. Our coverage wasnt poor, aside from Toures one bust. However I really like his physicality

Defensively I thought we looked much more physical as a whole than anything I saw last year.

We have some dogs on that side of the ball.

And Marry Brown is a dude. Loved how he handled his role in that game
 
I need to see Beck stand up against a more blitzing team.....ND was trying to mix it up and get pressure with their front, mostly.....
 
Advertisement
No_Fly_Zone said:
We gave up 4 passes over 15 yards and 3 runs over 10. Blown coverage on the explosive we all saw, and on the TD where we ultimately lost the receiver in the end zone.
Click to expand...
The end zone one isn’t a blown coverage. and you are reaching bad on the big play thing. It was 3 pass plays of 15 yards or more. It was literally 15, 26, and the blown coverage which was 65. So besides the blown coverage the longest pass play they gave up was 26 yards and you complaining?

Only 2 rushes over 10. That was 13 yards and 30. Held them below 100 and to 3.5 a carry. So again what are you talking about?
 
Poyser was someone that underperformed expectations for me. No other red flags for me personnel wise yet. Obviously as the season goes on and we have to go deeper into our bench we’ll see if that changes.

Biggest concern for me was the mental errors. 3 wasted timeouts, delay of game on the first play of 2nd half, botched snap on FG, catching punt inside the 5, Day getting the dumb helmet penalty.

Tackling would’ve been top of my list but we mostly cleaned that up after the bad start.
 
Might not be a popular take, but Mark Fletcher being our lead back. He is a good, not great, but good back within 4 yards of the LOS. Doesn't have break away speed, has poor vision, and no patience. Patience and vision are almost always staples of very good to great backs. I actually though Marty Brown played the best game and he has natural pass catching ability while fletcher fights it a bit.

Lack of any kind of diversity in the run game. Dead horse

Lack of any creative screen game. Those would have been easy ways to get lofton the ball more, but man we used to be the top screen team in the nation. Need more screens

Third Down efficiency. We'll never be as good as we were last year as we were historic in that regard, but 5-14 won't cut it either

WR separation. ND is a good secondary with some good CBs and the safeties were 2 high **** near all night. We do scheme up the intermediate game well

I actually thought the D played a pretty good game for the most part and while the bust was disappointing they did create 2 TOs and thought they were up to the challenge with the physicality and hitting aspect.

Would like to see Bain finish off his pressures more
Would like to see Toure take better angles, thought Popo played well in coverage
S was.....were they out there? Might be moving one of those corners to Safety althought i thought 7 filled the alley decently. Want Day to take somones time as he looks like a safety and has a burst


I want to watch the game on TV first but i thought ND dared us to play the game we just played. They knew they had to protect their QB and we did shut down their running game. The best run play they had was the QB draw. ND kept their safeties 2 high all night and didn't let much get by them deep. They did creep up a little at the end, but for the most part ND dared us to try and win the way we did. We were up to the task, kudos.
 
Advertisement
My only 2 actual legitimate concerns with this team are no surprise to anyone

1) Mario’s game and clock management. Has always been an issue and will likely always be an issue. The Delay of Game right after the half and the strange timeout usages are so infuriating.

2) The kicking game. I think the talent is there and hard to complain about a 47 yard game winner. Less worried about this than number 1.

If I had to come up with a 3rd “concern” i really don’t think I could do it. Some will say the run game but the same run game was dominant a year ago and is really going to wear on teams that arent built like ND up front. Annoying at times but it’s effective for what we want to do. Have a hard time seeing any ACC team survive 335 pounds across the OL bullying them all night and consistently tackling 225 pound wrecking balls along with it. Big runs will start to pop and 3rd and shorts will come easier. FSU, UF, VT, and Pitt are probably the only 4 teams left that have a chance physically in the trenches. And we probably just out talent VT at the end of the day.
 
AUcane said:
my concerns:

- LBs in pass coverage or containment of mobile QBs

- WR group. Granted, we faced top notch DBs, but need guys like JJ to step up. Merion and jones were invisible.

- kicking game

- need Lyle healthy.
Click to expand...
pretty much sums it all up for me. the first one being massive for our game in tally
 
Easy, lack of explosive plays. Its hard to methodically go up and down the field every game to score points
 
Greg McElroy said Miami is a title contender and can match up with anybody in the country. I agree and think we will improve as the season goes on. Especially since the offense didn’t have the spring to gel with Carson Beck.
 
Back
Top