:: Notre Dame Football: Irish Game Day ::
Another Look: Irish Nipped by Wolverines in Wild Thriller (Update 1)
Leprechaun Express: Notre Dame Football Intel Update - Sept. 13, 2010
Resource Links - News Links - Intro - Opening Six-Game Stretch: Strong Opponents Every Week - Frustration and Raised Expectations - Sleeping Dog Knows When He's Kicked - Can Notre Dame Win With Back-Up Quarterbacks? Yes - A Tale of Two Halfs: Notre Dame Winning Early, Winning Late, Could of Won in the End - Second Half Resurgence - Notre Dame Out-Gains Michigan, Makes Strides - Crist/Without Crist - Night and Day Drive Results
Combining for 1,067 yards of offense and four lead changes, Notre Dame and Michigan went wire-to-wire in one of the wildest contests in a series dating back to an 1887 pick-up game.
Time will tell whether this second game of the season, for two programs on the upswing, will turn out to have impacted the national championship.
Despite leading early, leading late, and driving close again within the last half-minute, Notre Dame came up short, 28-24.
Notre Dame appears to be making strong forward-strides; has begun unleashing its deep-threat passing attack; could have won with its starting quarterback out for a half, and should have; probably can win with a back-up quarterback, with more grooming and consistency; and ironically has raised expectations for fans through the roof even while simultaneously building frustration with game-result.
Junior starting quarterback Dayne Crist played only the first drive of the game and the entire second half. Crist apparently was injured during that opening drive but still drove for the score before coaches realized he was hurt.
Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly naturally observed that any loss is a disappointment, even while playing hard.
Opening Six-Game Stretch - Strong Opponents Every Week
Notre Dame finds itself in the midst of a six-game opening stretch with a tough opponent every week that has taken Notre Dame to the wire, and even beaten Notre Dame at least once in recent years.
In any given week, it could be possible that Notre Dame is a pretty good team, plays pretty well, and plasy hard, yet comes up just short. String the weeks together, and Notre Dame could do all those good things and still range between 5-1 and 1-5.
On the other hand, the gut reactions of many Notre Dame fans might be to realize that Notre Dame is making strides, and looking strong, and that expectations should be rising.
Frustration and Raised Expectations
Along those lines, it's difficult to decide what might be more frustrating.
On the one hand, Notre Dame gave up some 500 yards of offense to a dual threat quarterback.
On the other hand, they still could have won. And they should have.
It's difficult to decide what might be more frustrating.
On the one hand, even against a likely 2010 national title contender, Notre Dame might have won easily if starting quarterback Crist had not left for nearly the entire first half with a freakish injury.
On the other hand, even with Crist out for nearly a half, Notre Dame still could have won. And they should have.
Make no mistake about it, it's not just the case that Notre Dame might, one day, win with a combination of Dayne Crist and Nate Montana. They would have done that Saturday, with a 20-yard field goal at the end of the first half, setting up a 44-yarder at the end of the game.
Sleeping Dog Knows When He's Kicked
Mark Twain once said, a sleeping dog knows whether somebody tripped over him or whether they kicked him.
It's a matter of gut instinct.
Gut instincts might be kicking in for Notre Dame fans.
Regardless of stats or trends, they perhaps look at the team's performance against Michigan, and see an unexpected intensity with bursts of greatness.
At times it's reminscent of the 1970's or early 1990's.
This is a Notre Dame team making requisite strides from one week to the next, showing notable up-ticks in hitting, crispness, fluid hard-running, focus, and growing all-day-tough intensity.
But the win eluded the team.
And when the defense had their biggest opportunity to make a championship statement, they failed to crank things up enough in the crunch.
But Irish fans are left wanting and wondering, when will the Irish turn the corner, and turn the corner decisively? And stay there?
Will they continue making these big strides each week?
And, wait a minute, we still could have won against Michigan, even with all that happened. And we should have.
Can Notre Dame Win With Back-Up Quarterbacks?
Game Result Hinges on Not Taking Points at End of Half
One big upside is the quarterback situation, or at least its potential. In addition to having a starter who should develop into the best drop-back passer in college football, in Crist, the back-ups show promise.
Playing a little more than a half, Crist went 13 of 25 for 277 yards, 2 touchdowns of 53 and 95 yards, and an interception.
With some grooming, Notre Dame can probably win with Nate Montana at quarterback, a junior double-transfer (away and back).
More interestingly, against Michigan, Notre Dame was in a position to win with Montana in for nearly a half, just from him driving the team into field-goal range.
Notre Dame elected not to take the points with an easy field-goal after Montana drove the Irish to the Michigan three at the end of the first half. Those three points would have meant the Irish later could have attempted a game-winner from 44 yards out at the end of the game.
It was the right decision at the time, since Notre Dame had no idea yet if Crist could come back, and how often the hot-and-cold back-up might be able to drive them so close. Down by two touchdowns, they went for the bigger score with the opportunity so close.
Notre Dame did have it confirmed the hard way that, as expected, their inexperienced back-up quarterbacks indeed were in need of more grooming.
Early-enrolling freshman Tommy Rees, the first back-up, went 0 of 2 with 0 yards and an interception.
Montana went 8 of 17 for 104 yards, with 1 interception, but showed sparks of greatness, including hitting early-enrolling freshman wide-out T.J. Jones with a 37-yard pass to put Notre Dame at the Michigan 3 just before the end of the first-half.
Kelly has since spoken of greater focus on being prepared with packages geared towards what the back-ups are most capable of doing in a given week.
A Tale of Two Halfs: Notre Dame Winning Early, Winning Late, Could of Won in the End
Notre Dame took the opening possession 71 yards in 13 plays, with junior Notre Dame quarterback Dayne Crist barreling in from 1 yard out to put the Irish up 7-0 at the 11:19 mark.
It would not be revealed until later that Crist had been injured in the midst of that drive, something akin to a light concussion but making him feel ill and affecting his vision. Crist continued driving, and looking sharp, playing with an injury the coaches did not learn of until he was on the sideline after the score.
What followed was a surreal first half in Notre Dame played both back-up quarterbacks, early-enrolling Freshman Tommy Rees and junior Nate Montana.
Rees threw an interception on his first pass attempt, and an incompletion on his second in Notre Dame's next drive.
The following drive, Montana went in, running a bit hold and cold like he did in the Blue-Gold Game.
With Crist out, Michigan went up 21-7 by half-time. Although Notre Dame probably could have made it 21-10 had they taken a 20-yard field-goal at the end of the half.
After the Rees interception gave Michigan the ball on the Notre Dame 31, Michigan scored quickly in two plays to tie it 7-7.
Michigan had a 65-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter, mostly passes with some runs mixed in, to make it 14-7.
The Irish defense also gave up the second-biggest play of the game in the second quarter, an 87-yard touchdown run by Michigan dual-threat quarterback Denard Robinson, that put Michigan up 21-7.
While some commentators have attempted to analyze the minutia of the play, to highlight the Michigan quarterback's abilities, in real-time it looked as if Notre Dame was out of position, with a big gap down-field. A few Notre Dame players trying to shift back, slightly down-field, failed to shed well-placed blocks that sealed them away from the open air.
Some Notre Dame defense backs further down-field were actually over at the sidelines, where they apparently had been shadowing Michigan receivers, and did not appear to even see the ball-carrier's progress until it was a bit too late.
One got sealed towards the sideline when the receiver became a blocker. Another down-field defender took out after the ball-carrier, but, because of his positioning following the receiver, did so from a near stand-still, while he was trying to pursue a runner already flying in high gear at that point.
The situation was a bit reminiscent of the Notre Dame-Nebraska game that went into overtime, where the Nebraska quarterback was a lightning-quick runner who torched Notre Dame for a huge run early, only for Notre Dame to clamp down, to some extent, the rest of the game.
Taking away the one longest run, Michigan would average around 5 yards per carry the rest of the day. The Irish defense limited the Michigan running backs to a bit more than 2 yards per carry, and did indeed shut down the Michigan quarterback on a number of plays.
So the big play essentially gave Michigan one score, and added to their statistics, while dialing into an overall mix where Michigan was prolific enough to score on only one-fourth of their drives but still put out a win.
All in all, while the Notre Dame defense at first seemed to clamp down a bit at first after Crist left, they did givve up 21 points in the first half, but then only gave up 7 in the second half.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame's back-up quarterbacks were trying to move the Irish, with Montana starting to do it.
What set Montana apart both in the Blue-Gold Game and against Michigan was that, while inconsistent, on his upswings he was able to deliver.
Montana actually led Notre Dame on six drives, starting with a drive of a little more than 10 yards, then staging a series of drives of around 20 yards, before leading the Irish on a 77-yard drive to the Michigan 3. That was the drive where Notre Dame got from the 40 to the 3 on a 37-yard pass play, had only one play left, and elected to throw for an attempted touchdown rather than take the three points from a field-goal.
While it it is not necessarily advisable to read a lot into facial expressions on a sideline, there were potentially some interesting signs during the Montana portion of the game and after. One was that a very competitive-looking Kelly, quite animated, seemed to act as if he believed Montana could actually do the job, and was pushing Montana to push through to success. Another was that a very competitive-looking Montana looked as if he, too, expected he should be able to pull off successes. And Montana looked like he wished he were still in there, pushing forward, even after Crist was able to return.
Second Half Resurgence
Notre Dame outscored Michigan 17-7 in the second half after Crist returned to the QB spot.
In the third quarter, Michigan delivered a short punt to give the Irish the ball near mid-field. Crist drove Notre Dame 53 yards in two plays. Notre Dame scored on a 53-yard touchdown Crist touchdown pass to T.J. Jones that made it 21-14.
Also in the third quarter, Notre Dame drove 66 yards on 8 plays, including a 29-yard run by senior running back Armando Allen and a 10-yard run by junior running back Jonas Gray, as well as some crisp passes from Crist to junior wide-out Michael Floyd. Driving to the Michigan 7, Notre Dame settled for a 24-yard David Ruffer field goal, making it 21-17.
Ruffer, of course, was the academic transfer from William and Mary who started out playing football for his dormitory team in Notre Dame's full-pads instramural football program. Like another great Notre Dame kicker, George Gipp, Ruffer reportedly never played high school football.
Recall that, had Notre Dame previously taken those presumably sure points at the end of the first half, the score after Ruffer's third quarter field goal would have been 21-20 rather than 21-17.
In the fourth quarter, with Notre Dame backed up to its own five yard-line Crist and college football's best tight end would craft the second-longest passing touchdown in Notre Dame history.
Dropping back into the pocket, Crist stood calmly in his own end zone like he was on his own front porch on a summer evening, while 6-7 265-pound junior tight end Kyle Rudolph streaked down-field and got behind the entire Michigan secondary.
With the mammoth Rudolph flying towards mid-field, Crist stepped up a few yards and rifled a low-to-medium-arcing spiral that can only be described as a perfect strike, traveling about 50 yards through the air and hitting Rudolph in mid-stride at mid-field.
With only a few yards advantage when he snagged the pass, Rudolph then outran the closest Michigan defensive back the remaining half-of-a-football field to the end zone.
Once Rudolph reached the end zone, he appeared to spontaneously let out a kind of triumphant primal scream, as he and Crist put Notre Dame up 24-21 with 3:41 to go.
Recall that, had Notre Dame taken the sure points at the end of the first half, the score would have been 27-21, and both sides would have known Michigan needed a touchdown.
In any event, with less than four minutes remaining Michigan would then drive 72 yards in 12 plays, or 6 yards per play, to retake the lead 28-24 with only 27 seconds left.
There essentially were no big plays on Michigan's scoring drive, which featured a sprinkling of runs, some for no gain, and 5 of 6 passing by Michigan, mostly for short-to-medium length passes.
Again, the late score made it 28-24 Michigan, with Notre Dame needing a touchdown. Recall how, had Notre Dame taken the sure points at the end of the first half, the score would have been 28-27, with Notre Dame only needing a field goal.
Notre Dame was by no means done. The Irish got the ball on their 26 and drove to the Michigan 27, in less than 27 seconds.
With six seconds to go at the Michigan 27, had Notre Dame been within a point, their final play would have been to attempt a 44-yard field goal that would have been very makeable for Ruffer. Had the game ended that way, and the kick been good, it would have been another dramatic Notre Dame win for the history books.
As it was, down by four, Notre Dame threw for the end zone and did not get the touchdown. And talk began of the Michigan quarterback being a Heisman front-runner.
Notre Dame Out-Gains Michigan, Makes Strides
Notre Dame actually outgained Michigan by three yards on the day.
Despite losing starting junior quarterback Dayne Crist for most of the first half, Notre Dame still made great strides from the first week, including opening up a deep-threat passing game that could prove one of the best in college football. Two Irish touchdowns were on passes of 95 and 46 yards.
In the fourth quarter, amidst a near come-back win, Notre Dame had the biggest, most athletically-impressive play of the game, the 95-yard touch-down pass to seize a late 24-21 lead.
Notre Dame's 535 yard included 288 yards passing and 154 yards on the ground. The Irish threw 44 passes and ran 32 times.
As mentioned above, Crist was 13 of 25 for 277 yards, 2 touchdowns of 53 and 95 yards, and 1 interception. Montana was 8 of 17 for 104 yards, 0 touchdownds and 1 interception.
So Crist essentially was on pace to throw for around 500 yards on the day, had he played the entire game. It appears Crist threw for 36 yards in that opening drive, meaning he threw for 243 yards in the second half alone.
Notre Dame got its 154 yards rushing at 4.8 yards per carry.
Armando Allen was their leading rusher, with 89 yards on 15 carries, at nearly 6 yards per carry. Montana and Crist were the next most productive runners, with Montana gaining 23 yards on 4 carries, also near 6 yards per carry. Crist, with a sack included, had 4 carries for 30 yards gained, but with a net of 19 yards for 4.8 yards per carry.
While Jonas Gray had one key 10-yard run, Cierre Wood got shut down a but, with some lost yardage and a low rushing average on six carries.
As expected, tight end Kyle Rudolph led all Notre Dame receivers with 8 cathces for 164 yards, including the 95-yard touchdown.
Rudolph also is the #18 receiver nationally at this point, the #1 receiving tight end.
Early-enrolling freshman wide-out T.J. Jones has had a touchdown catch for two games in a row, with 3 catches for 73 yards and a 53-yard touchdown against Michigan.
Wide-out Michael Floyd, on the Biletnikoff Award watch-list, had a solid 5 catches for 66 yards.
Notre Dame once again had seven receivers with catches on the day, including Theo Riddick with 2 catches for 39 yards, and 1 catch a piece for tight-end Tyler Eifert and running backs Gray and Allen.
Crist/Without Crist - Night and Day Drive Results
Notre Dame had 7 drives with Crist out of the game, resulting in 5 punts, 2 interceptions, and the expiration of time at the end of the first half. (That last drive easily could have resulted in a field goal instead.)
When Crist was playing, Notre Dame had 9 drives, resulting in 3 touchdowns, 1 field goal, 3 punts, 1 interception, and the expiration of time at the end of the game. (That last drive might have ended with an attempted field goal, had it been a 1-point game with those sure points taken at the end of the first half.)
So when Crist was in, Notre Dame scored on 4 of 9 drives, 3 of the scores touchdowns, and could have scored on 5 of 9 drives, had a field-goal been an option on the final drive.
It is tempting to think that, had Crist played the entire game, he would have thrown for 500 yards, and Notre Dame might have had 6 touchdowns and 2 field goals, or 54 points. Of course, one of his scores was a 95-yard touchdown pass, and it is difficult to suggest that kind of play being doubled in a given game. But still.
Defense Looking Stronger, But Yields Yards and One Huge Play
The Irish defense, despite giving up 532 yards, was crisp, intense and hard-hitting, and actually did hold Michigan in check on a number of plays, and in the course of a number of drives.
Even with its out-of-nowhere, one-man-show, phenom quarterback in for the entire game, Michigan only scored on 4 of 16 drives. However the 4 scores were 4 touchdowns, and Michigan was in a position to at least attempt a field goal on two more drives. So Michigan had 16 drives resulting in 10 punts, 2 missed field-goals, and 4 touchdowns.
Michigan threw for a solid 244 yards on moderately decent 24 of 40 passing (60%), with 1 touchdown and no interceptions, averaging around 6 yards per attempt and 10 yards per completion.
On the ground Michigan had a whopping 288 yards on 41 carries, for around 7 yards per carry.
However, that included the one 87-yard run for a touchdown. What about the other 40 carries? Well, on those, Michigan had 201 yards rushing on 40 carries, around 5 yards per carry.
Now, the long run obviously did happen, and is part of the average. And the touchdown and its 7 points were part of the total, and tipped the balance (or rather, would be matched by Notre Dame's 95-yard passing touchdown). But the reality is, Notre Dame held Michigan to around 5 yards per carry 40 times, and also gave up a mind-boggling big run, largely through being out of position.
Big Plays - Game-Altering, or Less than Relevant?
One interesting point raised by the 2010 Notre Dame-Michigan game is, what impact do big plays really have in college football?
One recalls the big-play teams under Lou Holtz, especially all those return touchdowns. Rocket Ismail's two successive kick-off returns for touchdowns against Michigan accounted for 14 of Notre Dame's 24 points in a victory by a #1-ranked team over a #2-ranked team.
With extra touchdowns thrown in, here and there, it's a lot easier to look like you're dominating an opponent. And look at how the long plays add to statistics.
Big scoring plays are analogous to, and sometimes overlap with, big turnovers, in terms of tipping the balance. Coaches often are reputed to cite turnovers as a main tipping-the-balance factor in games.
But there's the key -- tipping the balance.
Taking away the big plays from the numbers reveal their real role is to help tip the balance, when combined with what are steady, solid performances otherwise.
Michigan got that 87-yard-touchdown run, but on the other 40 carries on the day, averaged around 5 yards per carry. And they averaged around 6 yards per passing attempt.
Michigan getting that 87-yard touchdown run meant that Michigan could average 5 yards per carry on all the other carries, and average 6 yeards per pass attempt, and still win by having that extra 7 points help tip the balance.
And it turned out they needed that long run to counterbalance Notre Dame's later 95-yard touchdown pass, that surpassed Michigan's long run and matched its impact on the score.
Disappointing Loss for Brian Kelly
Notre Dame Head Coach noted Notre Dame's effort, but that any loss is disappointment:
Any loss is a disappointing loss.
This is certainly a disappointment, not to be able to hold Michigan out of the end zone at the end.
Hard fought game.
Again, I think more than anything else, from my perspective, we challenged our football team at halftime to make sure that everybody knew the kind of football that we were going to play and create our own identity and personality.
And that was pretty clear. We battled down 21 7.
Come back and get the lead there.
But, again, disappointing in the last drive that we weren't able to hold Michigan out.
Next up, Michigan State
It's yet another first for Notre Dame when they head to East Lansing for what promises to be a raucous night game in primetime on ABC/ESPN2.
Already Notre Dame has had its first game of the Brian Kelly era, its season opener, there first two home games, their first win, and their first loss.
Next up is the first road game, the first night game, and the first game on ABC and its cable junior partner ESPN2.
That game also will close out, however, the Big Ten/11 portion of the schedule.
:: Notre Dame vs. Michigan Depth Charts [HTML] - Leprechaun Express
:: Irish Set To Host Wolverines: Kickoff is slated for 3:41 p.m. ET Saturday, live on NBC - UND.com
:: Notre Dame vs. Michigan Game Notes [PDF]
:: Notre Dame vs. Michigan Game Week- UND.com [athletics site]
:: Notre Dame vs. Michigan Game Day - ND.edu [university main site]
:: [VIDEO] Notre Dame pep rally, Michigan week\
:: [TRANSCRIPT] Brian Kelly Sept. 11 press conference
:: Notre Dame Football official site - UND.com
:: Notre Dame 2010 statistical summary - NCAA database
:: Michigan Football 2010 statistical summary - NCAA database
:: Michigan Football official site
:: Notre Dame Football 2010 Media Guide Table of Contents [PDF sections]
:: Notre Dame Football 2010 Media Guide Table of Contents [Flash]
News Links
:: Notre Dame football: Michael Floyd center of attention for Notre Dame, defenses - chicagotribune.com
:: ND's latest challenge: Containing Robinson :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
Keywords: Notre Dame Football, Michigan Football, Notre Dame Offense, Notre Dame Defense, College Football, Football, University of Notre Dame
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