CyberZahm

COACH KELLY: "Any loss is a disappointing loss. This is certainly a disappointment, not to be able to hold Michigan out of the end zone at the end. Hard fought game. Again, I think more than anything else, from my perspective, we challenged our football team at halftime to make sure that everybody knew the kind of football that we were going to play and create our own identity and personality. And that was pretty clear. We battled down 21 7. Come back and get the lead there. But, again, disappointing in the last drive that we weren't able to hold Michigan out." Our comments ...

...just got back from the FFF's McMansion in Leawood, watching ND v. Michigan. The FFF had the afternoon off, inasmuch as the Chefs debut the remodeled Arrowhead on Monday night.

Anyway, WTF was the Dumb FF thinking in the first half, with Ersatz Montana at QB, and the chance to get a freebie FG??????

What a dumb ass Dumb FF move!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

--pff

PS to Gabes-- Charlie sends you his love, sez he hopes you took SD in LMS this week.

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ND played hard all game, didn’t quit after a tough first half. Crist sparked them to start the third qtr, defense played tough, and the MU FG Gibbons helped the cause. The 95 yard TD to Rudolph was magic…. It was a shame that the defense didn’t have one last stop in them. While it would have been a miracle, and I hate blaming Crist for anything after his gutsy performance, but I HATED seeing him throw the last pass from the 27 into the stands. It is the last play of the game… you HAVE to keep that ball in play and give receiver a chance to make a play. Shades of the end of the first half, when Montana did exactly the same thing. I know that these are young kids… but there should be SOME level of game presence… if incomplete, half or game is over. If INT, meaningless… therefore, keep the ball in the field of play.

RE: that end of half play, what did you think of Kelly’s first tough call? At the time, before the incompletion, I thought he was nuts. You just had a big play that took you from nowhere into scoring position. Leaving the field without points after that pass play was an empty feeling. And you didn’t have Joe Montana at the helm… it was NATE Montana. Take the three.

How about Denard Robinson? 502 yards of total offense… most importantly, 5 of 5 in the critical series after the Rudolph TD. He won’t be an NFL QB, but he may re-write record books in college. His completion down to the ND 2 on third and 5… with the lame Gibbons shitting a brick on the sidelines… was a back breaker. And clutch.

Lots to feel good about… but in the end, we lost as a home favorite. Maybe we are just setting the bar a little low as we accept baby steps back to respectability. For me… It is a shame that the Crist-Rudolph 95 yard TD will be relegated to a footnote.

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Ter,

It might have been a different game if Crist played the whole game rather than just a little over a half. Michigan may not have won if their starting QB was hurt for almost half of the game. He's the real deal, BTW. If he keeps playing the whole season like he has the first two games, Michigan will be in the NC hunt, and he will be in the race for the Heisman Trophy. Crist is developing, but he still has a ways to go. He never gave any of our guys a chance to catch the last throw of the game. Who cares if it's picked at that point, but give your guys a chance. There is no chance when you throw it to the tuba player or the ushers. It's obvious that out back-up guys need some work, but I did like Montana more than the Reeses Pieces guy. He depressed me.

Still, the defense played very well. When's the last time we saw that? Te'o seemed to be all over the field, and I love the Mobsta guy. Is he a descendant of the N.Y. Calabrese family?

Well, I guess Andy is out of the Fox sweeps race. He predicted 0-12, and then 12-0 (he flip flops more than a catfish outta water). Those aren't happening! I still think 9-3 is possible. We'll see. MSU will be another tough test next week.

Gabes

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Al,

Just read your comments after sending a note with mine. I agree with most everything you've written. Might have been a different game if Crist had played the entire time. Clearly, our back-ups aren't ready for prime time yet. As for Kelly's call, he was probably unsure of Crist's availability in the second half at that point. He'd seen what the back ups could do (or better yet, couldn't do). He may have figured that could have been as close as we might get to a TD in the second half, so better go for it when you are at the three yard line. After all, Michigan already had 21 points at that time. I can see why he went for the tuddie.

Gabes

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Nothing to be upset about yet. I thought last week was a solid effort by the offense, the defense and the special teams. I thought the defense was tough again today, and against a team and QB that could be VERY good this year. Hard to say with the offense because our starting QB missed half of the game, but even then, we did have a chance to pull off a big win on the last play. Still much work to be done, but I still like our chances with Kelly way more than the FFF. The only thing he knew anything about was offense and snacks. BK knows that there are three equally important parts of a good football team, and he can run on the field with his team. It's too bad he doesn't have that experienced QB to run his show (like the Fat Fucker did). That will eventually come, though. I still think BK is the best hire ND has made since Lou.

Gabes

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You obviously choose to ignore the point. Dumb FF shoulda kicked the gimme FG before half.

At first, I thought Crist as a China doll for boing out in the 1st half (Justin Morneau, anyone?) but the TD pass to Kyle Rudolph where he spent an eternity in the ND EZ was a thing of beauty.

This loss lays entirely at the Dumb FF's door. He shoulda said so after the game, on national TeeVee.

Ter

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Ignore what point?! Michigan looked awesome on offense in the first half. Their QB looked like a Heisman winner. Our starting QB was seeing Johnny GoodTimes Grass Fairies. BK was probably thinking, given Reeses Pieces and Little Montana, that our offense might never see the three yard line again in the game. At that point, I didn't think we'd see the three yard line again either. I'm not ignoring any point, Ter. Given what was known at that point of the game, we may have never seen the red zone again in the second half. Our back up QBs looked like high schoolers.

Gabes

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I thought we were toast when QB went down and MU scored those two quick TDs. Nice to see we made a game of it.

I thought we should have kicked a FG at end of first half .. mostly so we wouldn't feel that the long pass that preceded it was "wasted". But I was ok with going for it for reasons others have stated. Montana shoulda run it if no one was wide open in my opinion.

Final play .. wonder if the eye was bothering the kid .. poor depth perception would explain the air mail into band.

The MU QB was fun to watch. So was Mateo. We need to get the ball to Floyd more often.

Fox

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This is an interesting game to second guess, and for what ifs. The post game press conference was broadcast live on the radio. One reporter asked Brian Kelly what the problems were with the two backup QBs. His response - 'I didnt prepare them properly'. He gets it. Who knows what the FFF would have said. Also, the comments BK made about Crist's condiition in the first half confirms that he really did put the kids health ahead of winning the game.

The biggest disappointment was with the defense unable to make the stop on the last drive by Michigan. Robinson was unbelievable and has elevated himself to the top of the Heisman discussion. It will be interesting to see how he survives all the hits he will take each week. My guess is that Michigan will be just as clueless with their #2 as we were without Crist.

What were the announcers saying about H Smith? He played a poor game on D. All in all, while we have alot to work on, there were plenty of positives to reinforce going into Michigan State this week.

Good comments by all. the end of the half question can be debated either way and is very easy now to second guess. time to move on. Ist road game as the Irish coach. BK will have his team ready, I expect.

Go Bears. hans

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Hans has is right on all points. This was a game we could have- should have- won despite the best performance I’ve ever seen in person by Robinson. He’s the real deal, if he can stand up under this kind of pounding for 13 games. I’d put serious $$ against that, but Saturday he was a man.

Two other comments-

Don’t know if it is BK’s influence, but I thought the crowd was more into the game than any once I’ve been to since the ’05 Bush Push. Great to see, and has to give the team I boost. They played with guts and heart, and just ran out of time.

Props to Hans and Sheila for a great day on Friday. Jack, Gary Janko and I, along with our better halfs, joined them for golf and dinner at Edgewood Valley. Course was magnificent, dinner was great, and the company even better. Another great ND day.

On to East Lansing. I think BK needs to steal one. I predicted a 2-1 start, but the loss to MSU. Would hate to see a 1-2 start as I think Kelly is building something which could be special.

Go Irish!!

Sobo