Notre Dame Cruises Through Week 1

Notre Dame’s first game of the 2012 season could not have gone any better. In the 50-10 smackdown of Navy, the Fighting Irish looked like a team that was prepared to prove the haters wrong. The offense was in sync the entire game and the defense was suffocating. By the middle of the 2^nd quarter, the Irish were up 20-0 and were forcing Navy to pass the ball more. The Midshipmen were moving the ball well before halftime with a mix of passing and running. Then quarterback Trey Miller dropped back to pass and was sacked and fumbled the ball. The loose ball was scooped up and carried 77 yards into the endzone by Notre Dame defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt.  Navy was able to recover from that mistake and score a field goal before halftime to make the score 27-3. 
On the first drive after halftime, the Midshipmen again marched all the way down the field and in just three plays finally scored a touchdown. With the score 28-10, this was the first time that there was any kind of pressure on the Notre Dame offense to retaliate and get a score of their own. With a balanced attack of run and pass, Golson lead the offense down the field to score a touchdown and put the Irish firmly ahead with a 33-10 lead. The play calling during that drive was: run, screen pass, run, screen pass, run, reverse run, pass, run, run, screen pass, pass, run. That is the definition of a balanced offense. 7 running plays and 7 passes. Notre Dame never looked back and won the game 50-10.

Note: My predicted score was Notre Dame-34, Navy-10. Nailed Navy’s score and just a little off on Notre Dame’s.

3 Things I Liked

1. Running Game- Coming into the game, this was one of the question marks for the Irish. Starting running back Cierre Wood, who had 1,000 yards last season, was not able to play due to suspension. This left former wide receiver Theo Riddick to take his place and sophomore George Atkinson III to fill in as backup. The two looked like seasoned veterans. They tore up Navy’s defense for a combined 206 yards and four touchdowns on 28 carries. Both showed great speed and agility by finding the hole in the defense and bursting through for big yards. Riddick also showed he isn’t afraid to hit somebody as he shoulder charged a Navy defender and knocked him to the ground.

2. Front Seven- The defensive linemen and linebackers proved that they are one of the best units in America. They held Navy to only 149 rushing yards; Navy averaged over 300 yards last season. The group was also able to sack the quarterback 3 times and force 3 fumbles.

3. Offensive Line- This unit was expected to be solid this season and it appears that they are. They gave up only one sack when Golson was in the game. Besides that one sack they gave Golson a lot of time to look downfield and find the open receiver. They were also able to manhandle Navy’s defensive front and open up holes for the running backs to run through. Of the five starters, four are seniors and one is a junior. All five are 295+ pounds and taller than 6’ 3”. This may be best offensive line has had in a while.

3 Things I Didn’t Like

1. Pass Defense- The biggest unknown on the Notre Dame roster was this group of players. The cornerbacks and safeties was a relatively weak spot on the team last year. This year, there are two new starters at cornerback and no seniors. The current starters are freshman KeiVarae Russell and junior Bennett Jackson. Backing them up are sophomores Josh Atkinson and Jalen Brown. At safety are seniors Zeke Motta and Jamoris Slaughter, but neither are elite talents or even outstanding players. Navy was able to put up 192 passing yards and one touchdown with no interceptions. There were several times when a Navy receiver was wide open, but fortunately, the football was overthrown or underthrown. If this unit does not improve, Purdue and Michigan could tear them apart.

2. Field Goals- What was up with these guys? Did they not get enough rest in Ireland? Place kicker Nick Tausch missed the first PAT kick. Then the place holder fumbled the ball on a PAT in the 3^rd quarter. Kicking the PAT (point after touchdown) is one of the simplest tasks in football and there is no excuse for messing up twice. If this was a closer game, two points could have made a big difference.

3. CBS Coverage- Nothing against CBS, but I’m glad Notre Dame home games are always on NBC and their road games are usually on ABC. The announcers never really gave any insight on the players or teams. They just talked about what was happening, which I could have done myself.

Did the Journey Get Easier?

Five of Notre Dame’s opponents all looked very mediocre over Labor Day Weekend. Michigan State, Michigan, Stanford, Oklahoma, and Pittsburgh all had bad weekends that could spell out trouble for the rest of their season.

9/8- vs. Purdue (1-0). Beat Eastern Kentucky. Ooooh we’re all impressed.

9/15: at #11 Michigan State (1-0). Sparty barely defeated a good Boise State team. They have a great defense and running attack, but their new quarterback has some serious improvement to make.

9/22: #19 Michigan (1-0). They did what nobody else will. They traveled to Dallas and took on the Alabama Crimson Tide in an early regular season matchup. Although they should be applauded for that move, their performance left very little to appreciate. They lost 41-14, but it was worse than the score made it. The Wolverines have get Denard Robinson to improve his passing game.

10/6: vs. Miami (1-0). Barely beat Boston College.

10/13: vs. #25 Stanford (1-0). Barely beat San Jose State. Much like the NFL team Andrew Luck is on, the Indianapolis Colts, Stanford is nothing without their best quarterback.

10/20: vs. BYU (1-0). Defeated Washington State 30-6 and looked good on all sides of the ball.

10/27: at #5 Oklahoma (1-0). The Sooners did not like look like their usualy juggernaut self in their 24-7 win over UTEP. The defense played alright but the offense was not in sync.

11/3: vs. Pittsburgh (0-1). Lost to Youngstown State. The Youngstown State Penguins. Embarassing.

11/10: at Boston College (0-1). Lost to Miami 41-32.

11/17: vs. Wake Forest (1-0). Beat Liberty 20-17.

11/24: at #2 USC (1-0). Looked like one of the best teams in the country in their demolition of Hawaii.

Next Saturday is the “Battle for the Shillelagh” against the Purdue Boilermakers at 3:30 p.m. on NBC. I’ll have a preview of that game by Friday evening.