Comments on: No Fate But What We Make

By: Clarinet

Clarinet — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 13:05:51 +0000

This is my 70th season as a Notre Dame fan. And I’m hardly more of an expert than I was at seven. Nevertheless, I’ll be so bold as to contribute the notion that two to four of our victories last year would have been losses if opposition receivers had not dropped so many key passes. If that’s true, it’s really hard to know how good this year’s team is. My view of the Michigan game echoes that of those who think Gardner was superb and overcame what seemed to me a good defense with nearly unbelievable throws and escapes. Given both of my analyses, I conclude that our win-loss record is going to depend on which of these oversized and marvelously talented kids performs to the best of his ability each game, and how many of them wear our uniform or the other. More tritely: “with college kids, you never know from week to week.” The wisdom in that hackneyed remark is tiresome but relentless. As to Kelly’s performance–for me it’s never so important that we win as that we play with determination and grit so as to represent our alma mater honorably. There were games under the previous coaches when the team failed to achieve that goal, but I have never seen that since Brian Kelly took the reins.

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 21:11:01 +0000

Only an act of God saved Kelly from being in the hot seat this year. It was a miracle they beat Stanford, Pitt, Purdue, USC, and BYU. Michigan was only a win because of turnovers by their QB. If the kid from Miami could have held onto two passes ND would have been down by 14 and that is one big momentum changer. Look for this average team to win 6 or 7 at the most.

By: Baldknobber

Baldknobber — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 20:22:57 +0000

My takeaway from the game was that there were a lot of dropped passes that were catchable. True, Rees made his usual share of bad throws,but I don’t think it was all his fault that the passing game didn’t catch fire once the defense dared us to pass.

By: canuck75

canuck75 — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 20:06:42 +0000

In reply to Mugs (class of 1982).

Good man Muggs. I have said on a couple of blogs the exact same thing. Gardner was damn close to perfect. At least 3-4 of his completions were as he was being hit hard. And he broke our back with his first down run on 3rd and 8.( I can second guess as well as anyone-its harder to make 18 yds in 2 plays than 8 in one.bad decision.)
But yeah, lets give him his due, and Galeon.
I predict 10 wins as well, and not necessarily a loss to Stanford.

By: canuck75

canuck75 — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 17:07:42 +0000

Coffee, your friend made a good point. Most people on this board were in the 10-2,9-3 camps, with a few at 11-1 (I was in 11-1) So one of the most likely losses was to Michigan ( I predicted a solid victory)
So we are where most people thought we should be. Now, like you, I don’t accept it graciously at all, and am mad we lost. But the new wrinkle in the equation was that Gardner was way better than we thought. The coaches have to make a couple of changes and fine tunings and we will be fine. The running backs are sorting themselves out, Niklaus is morphing into Eiffert and Rudolph.
If Smith and Grace pick it up a bit faster we can still run the table.

By: Sam

Sam — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 22:39:54 +0000

I am a huge mich fan and got to go to the game as well. The Irish very well could have won but for a couple of breaks that didn’t go their way. I think the Irish still have a good team and the rest of the schedule doesn’t have another team as tough as um so I think y’all are gonna be ok at the end of the year. I will miss the rivalry, good luck nd and go blue

By: Mugs (class of 1982)

Mugs (class of 1982) — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 22:21:00 +0000

For anyone who knows anything about football, we lost to a very good Michigan team. Our players in the secondary, for the most part, were right on their assigned receivers, but Gardner’s passes were perfect – and I mean perfect. We will not run into a quarterback who will throw as accurately again this season. Tommy Rees was the victim of tremendous anticipation on the part of the Michigan defender (he left his assigned receiver wide open). Our defense is better than it showed and that will bear out over the rest of the season. Based on the outcomes of other games so far, I do not think that we should lose to anyone other than Stanford until we play a bowl game. I stated the other day that we will win 10 games (including a bowl game) and I am optimistic that will be the case. I am also not one to be overconfident about the Irish. A 9 or 10 win regular season is something to be extremely proud, given the schedule that we play. This is a very good Notre Dame team. Has everyone forgotten how abysmal we were only two years ago?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 21:37:15 +0000

In reply to Robert.

We could certainly beat OU, USC, and MSU this year. But the proposition that they could beat us is not really an “are you kidding me” proposition. Each of them has a defense that is good enough to keep the game close at a minimum, or even win the game for them by turnovers and defensive scores. I have been extremely impressed by MSU’s and USC’s defenses after watching all of their games thus far.

And notwithstanding their pedestrian offenses, I would rather have OU, USC and MSU’s offensive lines and skill position players than Temple’s, and Temple managed to put up 350 yards on our defense.

Also, keep in mind that we struggled on offense at times last year and managed to go 12-0. A team with a very good defense is always a risk. I believe that OU, USC, and MSU each create substantial risk for our team.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 21:19:28 +0000

If the Irish had a smothering defense from minute one in this game Michigan loses period. How in the heck… do you go from a smothering defense in 2012 and giving up 6 points to Michigan to this 9/11 WTC tower burning of 41 points. Its called team and coach preparation failure bottom line. Yes this is tough criticism but how can Bama lose to A&M rebound and keep rolling and when we get a shot on the chin in the championship game we decide to regress like a daycare defense needing our damn hand held while we get deconstructed by the great Poo Poo Blue lead by the Governor Chris Christie look a like Head Coach and the ND Traitor Greg Mattison. So now we all have to contend, yet again, with the waves of inevitable disrespect we get every bloody year from the Mark May’s and all the other haters. Damn it Irish….get some respect ND Defense and get your head on straight (holding people to 0 -10 points) that would help Tommy from having to dig us out every week and start smothering offenses with unconscious competence otherwise go back to romper room Please prove me and the millions of the Irish Legion wrong and fast. Believe me if you do win the rest of your games then I will personally Treat the defense to a free steak house dinner…..Remember NBD live it or don’t. Signed Irish Tough Love

By: Ryan in SD

Ryan in SD — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 21:14:36 +0000

In reply to Mike Coffey. Because you have to take what the defense gives you. You don't run into the teeth of an 8 man box with 1-on-1 on the edge. And every DC worth his salt is going to force TR to beat them. This is a tried and true formula to beat ND with TR at QB. And any team with a top 50 defense is going to beat our offense with that strategy.