Thoughts on the Notre Dame game

I hate to do that because we played a **** of a game, have a **** of a team and they deserve nothing but flowers. But national championship?

Look... go watch Ohio State play Notre Dame in last year's championship, then rewatch our game against them. There's still a gap between us and the top few teams. The gap has closed quite a lot, but we're several five stars away from actually competing for the whole thing.
 
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I hate to do that because we played a **** of a game, have a **** of a team and they deserve nothing but flowers. But national championship?

Look... go watch Ohio State play Notre Dame in last year's championship, then rewatch our game against them. There's still a gap between us and the top few teams. The gap has closed quite a lot, but we're several five stars away from actually competing for the whole thing.
What does last year have to so with this year? I watched Ohio State week 1. Looked meh.
 
Miami looked better and score couldn’t been much worse.

Let’s check back in on this thread after USF, Florida and FSU. If Miami is still undefeated after that, then we can start talking.

Also those last two road games in November are Miamis boogeyman. Long way to go but if the team stays healthy, they have a chance to be in Charlotte.
 
This. We played Russian roulette and pulled the trigger five times and lived . What’s amazing to me is analytics are such a big part of football now how did one think our best odds was taking the ball out of our 3 million Dollar qb’s hands with Toney going off to put it on the leg of a career kick off specialist that’s 4-11? But hey the result worked out. Maybe the football gods knew we were the better team that day and deserved the win and forgave Mario for his decision making.

Mario and Dawson did everything they could to lose that game. The positive is, the talent is good enough to still win. Miami has to coach better if they want to be in Charlotte at the end of the year.
 
I think it’s more about the receivers than Beck. What happens when one of Notre Dame’s veteran corners gets away with pulling one of our teenage WRs jerseys, tips the ball up and it gets picked? Or if they are just off on their timing with Beck due to lack of reps?

I’m not saying I agree. But I can understand the rationale in this particular game.
Or Malachi would get tackled while our OL is called for the holding...
 
This. We played Russian roulette and pulled the trigger five times and lived . What’s amazing to me is analytics are such a big part of football now how did one think our best odds was taking the ball out of our 3 million Dollar qb’s hands with Toney going off to put it on the leg of a career kick off specialist that’s 4-11? But hey the result worked out. Maybe the football gods knew we were the better team that day and deserved the win and forgave Mario for his decision making.
 
That Heisman-contending quarterback barely completed any passes down the field and was an insane CJ Daniels catch away from throwing for less than 200 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

When we gripe about conservative playcalling, we always pretend like the alternative was a wide-open 10-yard out route, when in reality, our receivers had trouble getting separation all game and Notre Dame's cornerbacks were better than our receivers.

I thought we were too conservative in some instances (after the interception is a good example) but we only moved the ball on the last possession because Notre Dame sat back in zone instead of challenging our receivers. So no part of me is confident that more passes would have been a better solution.
So we’re going to act like Marion didn’t have the DB beat when he was tackled to the ground. Beck missed a few throws too and it was wet. Those dbs were good, but we had opportunities for big plays.
 
What does last year have to so with this year? I watched Ohio State week 1. Looked meh.

You’re exactly right. I saw Jeremiah Smith dropping passes, a new inexperienced QB that never really looked comfortable or impressive, and nothing eye-popping in their running game.
 
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So we’re going to act like Marion didn’t have the DB beat when he was tackled to the ground. Beck missed a few throws too and it was wet. Those dbs were good, but we had opportunities for big plays.
Maybe and I can't say if there were guys open down field definitively, because I ain't All-22.

I think we were too conservative, but I also think that if the options are new quarterback and inexperienced wide receivers or excellent offensive line and three good running backs, I'd lean conservative too.

Now we probably could have at least mixed in SOME variation on the running plays. I get that outside the tackles can lead to negative yards, but we gotta give our offensive line a chance to have the advantage with misdirection or something!
 
Feel free to throw shade my way. I was ecstatic we got Blay. But I wasn't convinced Blay could be the same disrupter at a P4 level as he was at LT. I know he played well vs. a couple P4 teams (Arkansas and NC State I think). But vs. playoff teams like ND or Clemson? I wasn't a believer until I saw it Sunday night. Even after @DMoney said he was considered the best steal of the portal by other top P4 recruiting staff members.
Blay has also leveled up from last year. He’s bigger, stronger, and probably just as quick as last season.
 
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