Saturday, September 12, 2009

Fighting Irish Fall to Michigan (38-34)


I believe that picture says it all...Nothing makes me quite as sick as losing to Michigan...It's not just a Notre Dame thing...Or an Ohio thing...I believe the disdain I have for The University of Michigan is something I was born with...Today's loss makes me hate them more...But I have to give them some credit...

Freshman Quarterback, Tate Forcier played his a$$ off...And he showed great poise and awareness out on the field...His receivers did a nice job for him as well...

Now I must point some fingers at the Irish sidelines...There was some play calling that really sucked...My biggest problem...Late in the game, with the lead...It's time to eat the clock...So Charlie decides to throw another deep ball to Golden Tate, who was having some troubles today, catching the ball (2 passes that would have been Touchdowns)...WHY? There was no reason...The Irish were running the ball well all day...This call ended giving Michigan plenty of time and 2 timeouts for their game winning drive...

Next, Notre Dame didn't use tight end Kyle Rudolph enough...Michigan's defense didn't anyone who could have matched up well against him...Then there was the trouble of getting the plays called in a timely fashion...Timeouts burned because of that, and penalties...Oh the penalties...They always seem to bite you in the a$$...Although the unsportsmanlike call on Allen was BS...He isn't the first guy to run into the end zone and hold a finger over his mouth the shss the crowd...Weak call...Since we're talking about the refs...They sure missed a number of interference calls on Michigan...3 times a Michigan defender had Tate's arm locked up, or an arm around him...Way to suck zebras...And b the way...What the Hell happened to those 2 seconds that fell off the clock at the end of the game?

But I honestly hate to blame refs...The Irish defense, got beat...Flat out...More then once...The offense played well...With the exception of the penalties and dropped touchdown passes...The third quarter was sloppy...And again, I blame much of that on the coaching/play calling....

Some stats from today...Clausen 25 -42 with a 336 yards...3 touchdowns...Allen rushed for 139 yards, and a touchdown, on 21 carries...Michael Floyd had 7 receptions for 131 yards and 1 touchdown, before leaving the game with a leg injury...Golden Tate had 115 yards and 2 touchdowns with 9 receptions...

The Irish had 9 penalties for 75 yards...490 total yards...336 passing and 154 on the ground...They were 6-14 on 3rd down...1-1 on fourth...Time of Possession was 31:25...And like I said...the defense got beat more then once...Giving up 190 yards on the ground, and 240 through the air...Forcier had 70 of those rushing yards...

When the game ended, my first feeling was...'Fire Weis Now!' I'm passionate about this stuff...Maybe too much so...But the play calls late in the game made me crazy...The Irish offense wasn't having to much trouble doing what they wanted to do...Kill the clock!

In my opinion, the Irish have to win every game left on the schedule for Weis to keep his job...If that's gonna happen, the defense better get working a little harder, because a freshman QB from Michigan just owned you...Highlighted by 31 yard run on a fourth and 3...Where he faked Darius Fleming out of not only his shoes, but everything including his jock.

Back to work gentleman...Next up is Michigan State coming off a loss to Central Michigan...

Later, The Beeze.

2 comments:

Crazy Canton Cuts said...

only caught the last few plays of the game

one was a forced lollipop Claussen tossed up for grabs

that Michigan QB did well on the last drive, but the defense didn't put up much resistance either

The Beeze (aka: Tim McNeeley) said...

Forcier showed up big time...The Irish offense overpowered the Michigan D...That's why the deep ball late, when they needed to kill the clock, was so stupid.