Notre Dame will not be a cake walk . . .

slugboy

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DC Bee said:
I disagree and think Boomer's comment above really is the most appropriate response this comment, Slugie. I suggest reading it.
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I did read his comment.
1. Texas may be light on talent, but they're still a tougher warm up than an FCS team, or Tulane, and Notre Dame handled them easily. You should accidentally have talent at Texas, btw.
2. VT brings tons of pressure against us, and they're one of the more effective defenses against us. And who says Notre Dame wants to play defense against us the same way they played against Texas?

I think Danny Daniel has a good take on the game.
 

Skeptic

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Boomergump said:
Never thought ND would be a cake walk.

What we can't do in this situation is look at the final score only and the name of the team they played against and draw sweeping conclusions. That game yesterday was its own form of a perfect storm. First of all, TEX is atrocious on offense. When you are that bad on a single side of the ball, things can get out of hand on the scoreboard. No good defense will be good when they are out there all day and I'm not sure TEX is a good defense to start with. Second of all, the TEX offense allowed the ND defense to play the way they are comfortable. They brought pressure and flew all over the place. That will get you killed against us. If you want to be "aggressive minded" against us on defense, about the most you can do is blitz and A gap with a LB. That is the beauty of what we do. We take most D's totally out of what they like to do.

Look, we could get beat in South Bend. It wouldn't surprise me, but I guarantee you that our game will have a totally different flavor than the one you watched last night. We are pretty good at what we do. Let's see how Notre Dunce handles things when they have a much harder time getting off the field on defense, and there is tons of pressure every time they get the ball because they may not see it again for a while.

I am excited for the challenge. I have always expected it to be a challenge. Nothing has changed in my eyes.
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One of the guys on the board who can be counted on to add perspective for the rest of us.
 
redmule

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I watched several games yesterday and saw some defenses dominate the other team. I told my wife that no matter how good they look against a traditional offense, our offense might just crush them. There's little to no translation. Unless we brainfart, I think we will put up lots of yds and points on almost any defense we play right now. The question is whether our defense will give up more points than our offense can score.
 
AE 87

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As a loser at ESPN says, it's always risky to read in too much in a 1st week game. You just don't really know yet about the quality of opposition.

What we do know is that ND didn't come out and do things to beat itself. They easily scored more than 3.1 ppd vs a pwr5 opp. Duke, by contrast, scored ~2.5 ppd against Tulane. ND also contained a pwr5 opp to less than 0.3 ppd.

While you can't infer from this one game that ND must be a playoff team, you certainly can't say these stats are meaningless either, imo. ND scored TDs on 2 of their 1st 3 drives, I'm not sure how one concludes that was the Tx D getting tired because bad Tx O, though the collapse in the 2nd half may have been.

ND seems to me to be legitimately strong on both lines. This will make them a tough out against anybody. Their next opp, UVA, showed very little against UCLA. I won't be surprised by similar results.

Regardless, our game in two weeks will be big for both of us, and we'll enter with strikingly different prep in terms of competition.
 
redmule

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If we can play with ND, Clemson, and FSU then we shouldn't be intimidated by anything the dwags can throw at us at year end.
 
OldJacketFan

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I'm going to say this. This Tech team can play and win against anybody on the schedule. I've already posted this elsewhere but it bears repeating here.

ND looked good and fast against a very bad Texas team that is coming off a 5-7 season that included 5 blowout losses in their 7 losses. Texas started 3 true freshmen on D, has a one dimensional O with a statue for a QB. I didn't expect this team to be much of a test for ND and it showed. Texas is a "name" but that is bad, bad football team, I would put them in the same category, maybe not as talented, as UVA.
 
Boomergump

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ND did exactly what any very good team should do against a team like UT. I expect ND to be very good. I hope I didn't muddy the waters with my first comment. They looked solid to me in every phase. They have depth and they have athletic talent. I just happen to think we are good too. I hesitate to slap any kind of label on them, however, like top 10 or something. They may be, but I have no idea what the entire CFB landscape looks like, at this point in time, in order to make that comment responsibly. One thing is for sure, we won't just be able to "show up" and win. This is going to take the best we have to offer. Playing on the road is tough. Playing at ND is probably one of the tougher road environments to be in.

To me, this game represents everything good about CFB. If we fancy ourselves a national contender, then this is the kind of game we have to go out and win. If we are lucky enough to win, then it still only represents one step of many along the way. It will not be and end to itself.

Lets take care of Tulane.
 
PBR549

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After watching only parts of the ND game yesterday I believe it will come down to how our D does against the run. If we put it in the hands of their QB we have a good chance of winning. Make the QB beat us with his arm or legs.
 
redmule

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I keep telling myself it's a different year. But when I close my eyes, I still see Days and Laskey behind that wonderful OL gashing uga, FSU, and MS State. I then ask myself, "Why Not This Year, Too?" Most of the OL is back, and while Devine is no Mason, he's brings a lot (literally) to the party. Skov is a hammer, and JT looks every bit as good. Is ND's DL better than what the boys chewed up and spat out late last year? I think not. At worst, I think it's last year's UNC game all over again. We score late but leave too much time on the clock. If ND is within a TD and has the ball last, we probably lose. But if I have to make a prediction, then it's a war the first half with something like a 14-10 score, CPJ makes the half time adjustments, and ND's offense spends most of the second half on the sideline. Because of the media attention, Burden becomes the front runner for the Rimington. The Stanford Coach spends all week explaining why he didn't give the ball to Skov more. Either White or Milton become early draft choices because of their multiple interceptions. ND secretly decides they will never join the ACC as long as Paul Johnson is running the TO at GT.
 
AlabamaBuzz

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PBR549 said:
After watching only parts of the ND game yesterday I believe it will come down to how our D does against the run. If we put it in the hands of their QB we have a good chance of winning. Make the QB beat us with his arm or legs.
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Well, I agree if we don't stop their run, we are in big trouble, but these stats are pretty impressive by Zaire.

Notre Dame Passing
C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT QBR
Malik Zaire 19/22 313 14.2 3 0 92.9

We must control the ball, give their O very few chances, finish our drives with TD's, and win the turnover battle.
 

GTech63

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Boomergump said:
ND did exactly what any very good team should do against a team like UT. I expect ND to be very good. I hope I didn't muddy the waters with my first comment. They looked solid to me in every phase. They have depth and they have athletic talent. I just happen to think we are good too. I hesitate to slap any kind of label on them, however, like top 10 or something. They may be, but I have no idea what the entire CFB landscape looks like, at this point in time, in order to make that comment responsibly. One thing is for sure, we won't just be able to "show up" and win. This is going to take the best we have to offer. Playing on the road is tough. Playing at ND is probably one of the tougher road environments to be in.

To me, this game represents everything good about CFB. If we fancy ourselves a national contender, then this is the kind of game we have to go out and win. If we are lucky enough to win, then it still only represents one step of many along the way. It will not be and end to itself.

Lets take care of Tulane.
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"If we are lucky enough to win,"??? We are GOOD ENOUGH to win! You make your own luck!

I thought C Strong looked absolutely lost as to what was going on Saturday. Texas was slow. But we cannot allow ND QB to have time to throw. Big challenge for Roof and scheme to pressure QB. Big challenge to our O to play like we did last year and control the clock.

BUT this week is Tulane not Notre Dame. I hope our team is thinking, how do we do to Tulane, what we did to Alcorn State. Not about ND. Isn't this the definition of a trap game? We should be able to beat TU as badly as we did AS however it will take a first half and into 3rd qtr. of first and second starters to do it. It could be long day if we are looking ahead.

First beat Tulane!!! Then we go with fire in the stingers to SB and the fish eaters. We need to be ready with poise to take on all that comes when playing in their house.
Go Jackets!! THWG!!!
 
McCamish Maniacs

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Zaire looked LEGIT. I was extremely impressed with him and think that will be the difference in the game. We need to shut him down
 
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