Refs Horrible

[Skeptic]

Blaming the officials is the first defense of losers. It wasn't the refs. ND outplayed us today on both sides of the ball. It looked like we had stage fright early on, which was one of the concerns for the young players. Let's face it: that's a top 10 team, and right now we are not. No need to set our hair on fire and throw blame and excuses. Johnson articulated the problems and work will start tomorrow on fixing them. And right about now I do not think I would like to be Duke next Saturday.

 

[yerjacket]

Somebody found the blueprint?

Don't know if it is a blue print. But with how well it played out it is going to be tried again. I am sure there is a counter to it. I am not quite savvy enough to figure one out. Hopefully CPJ will take care of it.

Oh yeah. It is never as good or as bad as it seems. Hopefully it really is not as bad as this anyway.

Go Jackets

 

[Sheldon's]

Blaming the officials is the first defense of losers. It wasn't the refs. ND outplayed us today on both sides of the ball. It looked like we had stage fright early on, which was one of the concerns for the young players. Let's face it: that's a top 10 team, and right now we are not. No need to set our hair on fire and throw blame and excuses. Johnson articulated the problems and work will start tomorrow on fixing them. And right about now I do not think I would like to be Duke next Saturday.

I posted at halftime. The truth is the truth. They also badly missed a late hit out of bounds at the 10 of ND before the first missed Butker field goal attempt. It is what it is. Would have given us first and goal from the 5.

 

[thwgjacket]

I didn't really have a problem with the no calls on the pass interference. Let the guys play. The holding call was an absolute joke. The red that threw it didn't have an angle, he just saw a guy fall. I also had a problem with the no call on Marshall that should have defensive holding in the endzone. The Notre Dame defender clearly got beat and reached out and grabbed him so bad it spun him back around.

 

[crl85]

Also - they allowed nd to blast deafening rock music while our guys were trying to communicate at the line. We snapped it multiple times during the refrain of an ac/dc song.

 

[cmathis]

Somebody found the blueprint?

No. CPJ has been running this for decades. If there was a "blueprint" to stop it, it would have been discovered before now. We just played badly today.

 

[cmathis]

All this talk about the refs.... Guys we just played poorly today. We can look and see all these "missed calls" by the refs that hurt us, and yeah, they missed some. But I'm sure ND's fans were hating the refs during the game too (not so much anymore, because they won so it doesn't matter). Every team's fans are going to see missed calls against the other team, that's just the way it works. We can't blame this loss on the refs.

 

[JorgeJonas]

Every damn time. Every friggin' game is a referendum on the offense. If we struggle it's because it was figured out. Also, pointing out the deficiencies of the officiating isn't an excuse but explaining what happened comprehensively. We did enough to deserve to lose - by not blocking on the edge the whole game - but it's also reasonable to point out a terrible holding call and what sure looked like offensive pass interference on two plays.

 

[GTonTop88]

We missed a lot of blocks, would've like to have seen the outside BB option with MM getting both ABs on their defenders keying on JT and the pitch man. Would've had to have beaten their MLB but think we could've made a few decent gains with it.

 

[Declinometer]

Blaming the officials is the first defense of losers. It wasn't the refs. ND outplayed us today on both sides of the ball. It looked like we had stage fright early on, which was one of the concerns for the young players. Let's face it: that's a top 10 team, and right now we are not. No need to set our hair on fire and throw blame and excuses. Johnson articulated the problems and work will start tomorrow on fixing them. And right about now I do not think I would like to be Duke next Saturday.

Not blaming the refs but did you see a hold on Justin's TD run?

 

[Skeptic]

Not blaming the refs but did you see a hold on Justin's TD run?

No. I'll go back and look but if so he still scored, and the fact is, we got outplayed in the way any defense beats an offense: the better athletes. Without really being that learned in the Xs and Os, it seemed to me as a viewer that ND got into JT's head. Moreover, we just saw a textbook case how to smooze an opponent. Johnson was right but it didn't seem the players bought into that part. It happens. We just need to lick our wounds -- forget the final score;that was a butt-kicking --and move to the rest of the schedule as we did after Duke, UNC last season. Some of the problems probably can't be solved except with experience: WR and A back blocking, so it may be an up-and-down journey.

 

[daBuzz]

Not blaming the refs but did you see a hold on Justin's TD run?

I didn't personally see a hold either but when the defensive lineman gets past you and you continue to ride him to the ground from behind, you're going to see that called as a hold more often than not.

We were simply beaten yesterday by a bigger, more physical team. No excuses to be made.
With that said, both of the long passes were push offs by their WR. Even the ND commentators on TV jokingly said as much. And yes, I thought a late hit should have been called on the out-of-bounds play on 2nd down (or was it 3rd).

In the end though, I don't know that it would have mattered. They just took it to us. Period.

 

[Buzzmaster]

ND had our number yesterday. I think a lot of the hype went to our heads. We thought we were better than we are. We have a lot of work to do this week to get ready for Duke. At least it wasn't a conference game. I think we will be just fine with a few additional adjustments on blocking on the outside and corners. JT had a bad day passing. That doesn't happen often. We are very young as skilled players get use to the speed of the game at a higher level. I still think we will win the ACC this year. We may still be a year away from being contenders for a naty. We are heading in the right direction.

 

[Skeptic]

Don't know if it is a blue print. But with how well it played out it is going to be tried again. I am sure there is a counter to it. I am not quite savvy enough to figure one out. Hopefully CPJ will take care of it.

Oh yeah. It is never as good or as bad as it seems. Hopefully it really is not as bad as this anyway.

Go Jackets

I don't think that properly executed the option can be solved. I do think the way to beat it is to use superior athletes with speed to defeat perimeter blocks and defend deep. If there is another team on our schedule with that kind of physical ability, I don't see it. Like Johnson said, you still gotta block.

 

[GTech63]

To be an effective an effective running game you have to complete passes. That was taken away yesterday. Still don't understand why we did not run more counters and try a reverse or two.

We have to over come missed calls. It will be the same a t Duke next week. We can still win the coastal and need to start next week. Need to learn from our mistakes, from game film and do to the Dukies what ND did to us

 

[GTech63]

I don't think that properly executed the option can be solved. I do think the way to beat it is to use superior athletes with speed to defeat perimeter blocks and defend deep. If there is another team on our schedule with that kind of physical ability, I don't see it. Like Johnson said, you still gotta block.

And complete some passes to keep them honest.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Don't know if this showed up on TV or not, but I was at the game, and an example of the refs' incompetence was in the 4th quarter (I think), and the refs reset the play clock (PLAY CLOCK) to 40 seconds. Fortunately Tech had the ball, and it was a meaningless play (extra point perhaps), but 40 seconds???

 

[JorgeJonas]

Can we also just point out that the guy who took the cheap shot on Justin should have been ejected? 15 yards for that was insufficient.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

All this talk about the refs.... Guys we just played poorly today. We can look and see all these "missed calls" by the refs that hurt us, and yeah, they missed some. But I'm sure ND's fans were hating the refs during the game too (not so much anymore, because they won so it doesn't matter). Every team's fans are going to see missed calls against the other team, that's just the way it works. We can't blame this loss on the refs.

This. The guy next to me was all over the refs the whole game.

 

[takethepoints]

I thought the D did ok today. We were in their backfield better then 50% of the time and usually held them to short/medium gains. The difference was three big plays. These things happen. I didn't see the mismatch of talent everyone is buzzing about here, however. And, yes, the holding call on Joe was absurd.

Same on O. I said in another thread that playing ND up there so early in the season scared me and I was right. We won 11 games last year, but we didn't really start to jell on O until the game with UNC. The O always needs 4 - 5 weeks to fully jell. We aren't there yet. If we had played ND in the 8th week instead of the 3rd, I think we would have won.

On to Puke.