Many called Notre Dame’s victory over then
higher-ranked Michigan State an upset. However, many Irish faithful knew that
Notre Dame would win and win big. The Fighting Irish defeated the Spartans 20-3
and looked like a potential BCS Bowl team. They silenced all the doubters about
whether they could stop Sparty’s Le’veon Bell or Everett Golson could win on
the road. Right from the get go, the Irish proved that they could not only win
this game but dominate it. After each team’s opening series resulted in punts,
Notre Dame was able to strike first. On second down and long, Golson was forced
out of the pocket but launched a bomb 40 yards down the field. The ball fell
directly into John Goodman’s chest for a touchdown. The Irish were able to
score a touchdown in the second quarter and had a 14-0 lead going into
halftime. With the score 14-3 at the end of the third, I remembered how the
Irish led the Purdue Boilermakers 17-7 at the end of the third quarter the
previous week. Yet, Notre Dame showed much poise on both sides of the ball by
not letting the Spartans move the ball and scored two field goals.
3
Things I Liked
1-
Defense: Was that Notre Dame or the Pittsburgh Steelers I was
watching Saturday night? I have never seen a more dominant showing from a Notre
Dame team than that. Holding a solid team like Michigan State to just a field
goal is great. Holding them to one series in the red zone is phenomenal. They
also limited the Spartans’ offense to 237 total yards and forced one
interception. The weakest section of this unit remains the secondary and
starting cornerback Jamoris Slaughter suffered a season-ending injury during the
game. If teams are going to beat Notre Dame it is going to with a strong
passing attack. But they’ll have to do it before the Irish sack their
quarterback.
2-
Golson’s improvement: The stats may not show it, but
quarterback Everett Golson is getting better and better each game. He is
changing plays at the line of scrimmage when the defense shows a look he
doesn’t like. He is making more accurate throws and taking more shots
downfield. He is also incredible at escaping the pocket and earning a few extra
seconds to make a clean pass down the field. There are two complaints I had
about Golson in this game. Both are pretty minor hang ups. The first is he hung
onto the ball a little too long on some plays. He needs to realize that it’s
okay to throw the ball out of bounds to avoid a bad throw into coverage. The
second is that there are too many designed roll outs for him. He is quick
enough to get out of the pocket but he is more accurate when he’s standing
still and not on the run.
3-
Wide Receivers: It’s hard to comprehend how Robby Toma
could lead the team in receptions and tight end Tyler Eifert would have no
catches, let alone hardly any passes thrown his way. Yet that’s what happened
and the Irish offense was still productive. T.J. Jones had four catches and his
59 yards led the team in that category. John Goodman reeled in the unit’s only
touchdown. Although their stats weren’t eye-popping, they aren’t dropping a lot
of passes or running bad routes.
3
Things I Didn’t Like
1-
Tyler Eifert: Eifert had zero catches against Michigan
State and I don’t even remember him being thrown the ball. It isn’t that big of
a concert since Notre Dame won, but in close games it’s going to be vital to
take advantage of Eifert’s huge size and ability.
2-
Offensive Line: These guys improved from last week but
there is still work that needs to be done. On several plays, Golson took the
snap and immediately had to scramble outside the pocket to avoid Sparty’s
blitzing linebackers. Golson was sacked once and hit six times and forced out
of the pocket on several occasions. Fortunately, the Michigan Wolverines
defensive line is nowhere near as talented as Purdue or Michigan States.
3-
Unaggressive play calling: I’m kind of scratching the bottom of
the barrel with this. After scoring two touchdowns in the first half, Notre
Dame was only able to notch two field goals in the second half. There was not a
lot of high risk, high reward plays that the Irish ran in the first half. In
the first half, there were 19 passes and 12 runs. As for the second half, it
was 13 passes and 15 runs. I understand when you have a big lead when you are
on the road with a young quarterback you want to protect the ball, but you also
don’t want to play so conservatively you let the opposing team sneak back into
the game which is exactly what happened with Purdue. The Michigan Wolverines
made a big comeback last season against Notre Dame in the 4th
quarter; Brian Kelly needs to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
A
Look at the Schedule
Notre Dame should be able to slow down
Denard Robinson and the Wolverines at home. They get a week to prepare for the
Miami Hurricanes and should win that game. Stanford just defeated USC and could
give Notre Dame its first loss. BYU lost a close game to Utah but remains dangerous.
The jury is still out on Oklahoma as they have yet to play a competitive team.
Pittsburgh, Boston College, and Wake Forest are all below average teams that
Notre Dame should take care of. The last game at USC will be tough, especially
since it will be Matt Barkley’s final game. I predicted the Irish would finish
9-3 and I’m sticking to that for now.
9/22- vs. #18 Michigan (2-1)
10/6- vs. Miami (2-1)
10/13- vs. #9 Stanford (3-0)
10/20- vs. BYU (2-1)
10/27- at #6 Oklahoma (3-0)
11/3- vs. Pittsburgh (1-2)
11/10- at Boston College (1-2)
11/17- vs. Wake Forest (1-2)
11/24- at #13 USC (2-1)
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