Anyway, props to the Buckeyes. You guys played a nearly flawless game (excluding two blocked FG's and a couple of turnovers). And your team is quite a bit better than I had thought, especially on the offensive side of the ball, and Troy Smith, in particular. That's not arrogance on my part -- my wife doesn't like football, doesn't get it on any level, and doesn't understand why I'm into it. She expects me to use weekends to catch up on housework and yardwork. The compromise we've sort of arrived at is that I get to watch ND in relative peace and quiet, but the rest of the weekend is fair game. So anything beyond ND is gravy for me. As a result, I've seen tOSU only three times this year, and only fragments of each game -- against Texas, against Penn State and against Michigan.
On to the game analysis:
- As I said, props to the Buckeyes, who were much better on the offensive side of the ball than I had anticipated.
- If there was a turning point, it was our inability to cash in on a fumble recovered at the tOSU 15 and the score 7-7 at the time. Running Walker three times in a row was inadvisable, but once we had done that, play action would have made more sense to me on the 4th down play.
- Ironically, in light of the above, Walker was underutilized by the coaching staff during the game. Weis typically stays with the hot hand until the other defense shuts it down, and Walker was averaging 6 yards per carry against that defense. Using Walker better would have eventually set up the passing game, would have taken tOSU's LB's out of their blitzing rhythm, and would have kept their defense on the field longer.
- Defensively, we played well enough to win on 1st and 2nd downs. Third down, however, was another matter entirely. tOSU converted far, far too many third downs, particularly in long yardage situations, for us to have a fair chance to win the game. On third-and-long, to compensate for the rather obvious speed disadvantage we had to Holmes and Ginn, we either should have brought the pressure to Smith or gone to a nickel package and zone coverage. We did neither, and got beaten badly as a result on third down.
- Since it's been mentioned elsewhere, Gonzalez' catch was a fumble. He took two steps with the ball before it came out. Bad calls on the field are one thing, and they tend to average themselves out over the course of a season. Bad calls from the replay booth are another thing altogether. That's the first time I can remember that a crew got the call right on the field and then were overturned in the booth. Having said that, that did not cost us the game.
- Every good Notre Dame team gets great special teams play at times, and this year's team was no exception. Against tOSU, the great special teams play came from an unlikely source (two blocked FG's). Here's hoping that continues next season.
- Burnt Cheeseburger was, in a word, obnoxious. All that was missing from dude was a tOSU cheerleader's uniform. Of course, given that he's an unapologetic Big 10 homer, I suppose that was to be expected. I know ABC had to stick him somewhere, but I really wish they had put him in the Sugar Bowl or Orange Bowl rather than in my team's game. And speaking of his fixation on the relationship between AJ Hawk and Brady Quinn's sister, maybe he'd be happier working for People magazine. I know I'd be happier if he did.
- Much as I've criticized ND's in-game coaching here, I should give credit where credit is due. The most important thing here is that ND did not roll over and die after the first half. Anyone who has not followed ND football closely for the past several years probably doesn't realize that or appreciate fully what it means. If either of ND's previous two coaches had taken that team into halftime under those circumstances, I'd bet my next paycheck against yours that the final score would have been 52-7 or thereabouts. Imho, that's the single most important change, far and away, that's occurred in the program under Weis. The outcome of this game was in doubt until Pittman (who had been kept in check pretty much until that time) broke off a long run with about 1 1/2 minutes left. If nothing else, ND under Weis has served notice that it is never really out of any game, both with this game and the Michigan State game.
