Tag: Miami

What a beat down. Notre Dame finally, finally showed up on offense and Everett Golson finally, finally showed why he should be the ND Quarterback. He directed a very balanced attack against what appeared to be an up and coming, high scoring Miami team and what a pleasure it was to see.

Golson was 17 0f 22 for 186 passing yards distributing the ball to just about every receiver who played and best of all NO interceptions. We also finally got a real look at the offense Kelly wants to run and by run I mean Golson. No doubt he brings another dimension to this offense as he was able to escape sacks by nimbly sprinting out of bad situations.

And, boy did the running game take off. Riddick was his usual productive self but Wood and Atkinson stole the show. Wood went 18 carries for 118 yards and 2 TD’s, only to be outshone by Atkinson who went 10 carries 123 yards with a beautiful 55 yard TD run. Atkinson, blazing speed and seems to run upright–he reminds me of Eric Dickerson of SMU & NFL fame.

Notre Dame had 587 total yards and even Cam McDaniel got in on the fun with 55 yards and the game’s final touchdown.

The defense was in it’s usual shutdown mode helped out by numerous pass drops by Miami’s Phillip Dorsett who dropped 2 beautiful passes that should have been early TD’s. What surprised me the most was the ND defense inability to get pressure on the Miami QB Stephen Morris who had a lot of time and had a number of pinpoint passes dropped. I think Miami will do just fine with the rest of their schedule based on this QB.

As usual Manti Te’o was all over the place, laying punishing hits all over the field but the best hit I saw was Ben Councell OLB laying into a guy on the sideline.

Notre Dame had a 13 to 3 lead at the half and relentlessly crushed Miami in the 2nd half just running the ball and eating the clock. The last drive of the game was McDaniel running behind subs on the OL for the final score. I think ND had 34 first downs to Miami’s 13–total domination.

AP Poll move Notre Dame up to #7 which I think is just about right for now.

So Notre Dame is 5-0 but can’t rest on it’s laurels with Stanford coming up this Saturday. Stanford won an OT shoot out over Arizona. But they look beatable as opposed to the last few years.

Big Game and ESPN Game Day will be at ND this coming weekend.

Final note Charlie got crushed by Kansas State.

Here is a highlight video of the game:

Another night game in a big venue–home of the Chicago Bears. Notre Dame coming off a bye week and when that happens they usually come out not just flat but real flat. I think they do the same this Saturday Night. On the other hand Miami coming off 2 big wins over Georgia Tech and North Carolina State will be all jazzed by the big venue and the opportunity to knock off Notre Dame–advantage Miami.

Unless Kelly has been purposely holding the reigns on this offense Notre Dame is in big trouble. He is committed to Golson no matter what and I do think their is muttering by the players that want to win this year, not deal with training wheels on a rookie QB. I believe they think Rees gives them the best chance to win this year.

Let’s take a closer look at Miami. Their Head Coach Al Golden is a rising superstar. He’s been at Miami 3 years, I think, same as Kelly yet he is able to run a fast tempo no huddle offense and Kelly can’t. Yet this is the type of offense that got Kelly the ND job. With the no huddle, fast pace Golden will be able to negate the ND defensive substitutions.

Miami’s OC is Jedd Fisch (also QB coach) who spent 9 yrs. in the Pro’s and his offense is putting up big numbers and points. He knows that he can’t run directly against ND’s front seven so he will try to go over the top with lots of roll-out pass plays and he has the QB to succeed. Outside of the Kansas State game (currently ranked #7) these guys can score a lot.

Miami’s DC is Mark D’Onofrio linebacker from Penn State and a 2nd. round draft pick for the Packers. Coaching stints with Golden at Virginia and Temple. Both Golden & D’onofrio at Penn State when PSU had very good defenses–so they know how to set a defense. I look for them to stack the box just like Purdue and bring constant pressure only with quicker players.

Sure this team has been gashed but they now believe, with their offense putting up big numbers they can simply outscore opponents. They laid 42 points on Georgia Tech (436 passing) and 44 points on North Carolina State 440 passing and 224 running. Take a look at this incredible play against NCS with 19 seconds left.

So unless the Notre Dame offense can control the clock and more importantly score a lot of points I don’t think the ND defense can save them. This Miami team is the fastest group that the Irish will play this year together with the best passer and they are super fast–so a few lapses by the ND defense could prove fatal.

Forget Navy, so I can’t pick a team that could not score at least 21 points in their last 3 games. I look for Miami to wear down the ND defense and run away with it in the 4th. quarter. Miami upsets the Irish.

Miami 34 Notre Dame 17

Starting the countdown to Saturday Night here is what we know about Miami:

Head Coach—- Al Golden-has a good pedigree. Played for Penn State as a Tight End & for the New England Patriots. Spent a year at Penn State as linebacker coach. Spent 5 years at Virginia as the DC followed by 5 years at Temple in Phila. as the Head Coach.

His record at Temple 26 W’s vs. 33 L’s and a Bowl Game loss which is nothing short of a miracle. He was pursued by many schools and landed in Miami. In 2011 he was 6-6. For 2012 he is 4-1. This guy can coach period.

2012 Stats:

• W vs. Boston College 41-32
• L vs. Kansas State 52-13 (KSU currently ranked # 7)
• W vs. Bethune Cookman 38-10
• W vs. North Carolina State 44-37 shootout

So outside of KSU they can put up the points. Their QB Morris can run and pass and he is accurate. He can throw bombs on the money and he has fast receivers.

The question is–can the ND defense stuff the run and get to Morris? Morris is like Denard Robinson except he is an accurate passer and very good on the long pass. I expect Miami to score more than 14 points in this game and if it turns into a shootout ND will lose. If Miami can jump out with a couple of quick scores it might be all over for ND.

The ND offense must put a lot of points up to help the defense for sooner or later the defense is going to get burned. This is a big big game for ND to continue the momentum as they come to the hardest part of the schedule. But we also have a big problem in that we have no offense or offensive identity and can barely get to 21 points. Miami is just going to load the box and double Eifert and dare Golson to pass.

Coach Kelly has the QB situation ass backward–he should start Rees and let Golson play the Tebow role. This kid is just not ready. If Golson knew he wasn’t going to start he could at least sleep the night before and not get himself all knotted up waiting for a night game. Just ease him in situationally.

Kelly just has to do something with the offense soon and make no mistake about it–the players want Rees, you can tell by their body language when he comes in. If he has no plan to run Golson what good is he in this offense.