Well, to counter your statement, Luke’s INTs and Russell’s INTs when needed were HUGE during the season. You could definitely see that Russell was not there during the Stanford game where I think he would have added a huge impact.

If the offense had turned any one of those trips to the RZ where they scored only 3 into 7, that would have made the difference. If you look at it, once they had taken control in the second quarter, it could (and should) have been 28-14 after Fuller’s 73-yd score. At that point, Stanford would have had to play catch up for the remainder of the game. Final score could very well have been (and, again, should have been) 49-35.

I would look at the equipment that the team is using. Nothing against UA but there seemed to be a lot less leg, knee & lower body injuries when Adidas was outfitting the team. Maybe the footwear is the cause of all the lower body injuries.

Brian van Gorder must go!

Mike, they couldn’t cover in the secondary at all. You don’t think they must their corner?

Now we agree. Injuries was not the problem… play calling in the red zone and a porous defense at crucial moments. They still would not have earned a playoff berth because the defense is not yet championship caliber. They could be with the talent, but their play hurt the team most of the season when it counted.

I still disagree that the decision to go for two was a bad decision. In that case, since they had been struggling, he was trying to keep them ahead. I will agree that I didn’t understand the play call. No imagination whatsoever.

Rewatch the video yourself.

1) There are only two guys not on the line of scrimmage, and when the ball is snapped, they immediately move forward. That’s not safety defense on a possible fake. This is on a fourth-and-very-long play, with the kicker about to attempt a 47 yard field goal into the wind when his career long is 50. Nobody on the ND team had the first idea they might fake, while I, watching on TV hundreds of miles away, was screaming “WATCH FOR A FAKE” in front of a bar full of people.

2) The MSU player was already two steps past Smith when he fell, and Smith wasn’t catching up to him even if he’d kept his feet because he was going for the punt block.

3) Smith and the guy next to him fell down when they were blocked. They didn’t miraculously trip over a blade of grass. They got blocked to the ground on the LOS.

It makes a difference because if you miss the 2-pointer early, it FORCES you to go for two later and doesn’t allow for the possibility the original two might not be necessary. Look at what happened against Clemson … turns out, if they’d just kicked the extra points, they’d have been fine. When there’s that much time left in the game, plenty of things can happen that may help you. Why reduce the number of those things?

Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5pQh12PzMs