Good lord shine down on this guy. He thinks he is knute for god sakes. Look at sec football, even as an irish fan we can agree big linemen and fast skill players will cover your weaknesses. ND is in their 3rd year of building this team and we can all agree the talent in south bend is there. Purdue has the same model as everyone else in the big 10 and we have close games year in and year out with big 10 teams. Like it or not purdue recruits big 10 class players, talent was shown, but the better team won. At the end of the day win and move on. 10 more to go. Go irish!

You can’t tell. Not yet anyway. Let me give an interesting example, manipulating stats to make my points.

Average scores: ND vs Opponents (divided into ranked and unranked) in 1988 and 93, ND CONTENDER years.

1988
vs Ranked: ND 28, opp 20
vs Unranked: ND 35, opp 10

1993
vs ranked: ND 30, opp 27
vs unranked: ND 38, opp 13

2012 (after 2 games)
vs ranked: N/A
vs unranked: ND 35, opp 14

CON 2012: If you are con 2012 ND, you can say, “We should have beat Purdue 35-14, and 20-17 is an indication we are not in fact a ND CONTENDER.”

PRO 2012: If you are pro 2012 ND, you can say, “Well, our average is on. We are allowed 1 20-17 vs an unranked.” There is hope.

WHAT YOU CANNOT SAY:
1. There is no hope that 2012 ND is a contender.
2. 2012 ND is a certain contender.

INTERESTINGLY
The defense appears to be closer to contender numbers above than the offense. Could the offense, around a frosh QB, throughout the course of a season develop into a contender…

MY OPINION
Maybe.

Hard to imagine ‘bama or SC letting Purdue hang around that long. But with a young QB, there’s reason to hope. Certainly time will tell–in a couple weeks with a couple ranked Big 10 teams, we will know better what kind of team we have.

Purdue has shown others how to defend Golson, Namely, load up the box against the run and force him to throw into tight man-to-man coverage. Now were some mitigating factors on Saturday.

Purdue got pressure in his face, pretty much all day. It is hard to step into throws with defenders coming straight at you. When Kelly, moved the pocket in the second half, Golson did drive the Irish a better.

The receivers didn’t provide much separation from defenders which required Golson to fit his throws into tighter spaces. Easy to say, hard to do for new qb.

The Irish rarely had good starting field position, which makes qb’s more reluctant to let the ball fly.

That said, in watching the tape, Golson held the ball too long on a number of occasions, resulting in 2 of his sacks and lots of pressure. With experience he will identify mis-matches sooner and let the ball fly. In contrast, Rees pretty much decided where the ball was going before the snap and let the ball fly pretty quickly. He trusted his receivers to make a play in single coverage. While it can lead to higher incompletions (I think he as 3 for 8 on the final drive), it reduces the likelihood of pressure getting to you (there was none on that drive) and puts pressure on the secondary because they know the ball is going to fly even in tight coverage.

Golson is clearly the better qb. He has better physical skills and more upside than Rees. That said, Rees experience showed in the final drive. He sees the field better and makes quicker decision with the ball.
Sure wish we could put Rees experience in Golson’s body!

Amen! I support BK but with all of the supposed talent why are they unable to produce this wide open spread offense that we saw in BK’s Cincy teams and we see every Saturday from many other schools….Oregon, Ok State, etc……its the same old conservative plays week after week with no apparent imagination on the offensive side of the ball. How is it that other schools kids can come in at Freshman and produce right away…..look at USC, Michigan, Nebraska…..all those kids played at a very high level their first year. I guess we simply don’t get that top tier talent…..I sure hope Gunner turns out to be the real deal as a five star guy and some day soon gets his chance…..

Agree again completely with two previous posts. What game are people watching? I hate to say something like this….vowed I would never do it….however, when I was at ND Purdue NEVER pushed us around like they did Saturday. To have a decent but clearly second tier Big Ten team push us around like that was disheartening to say the least. When ND was competitive on a National level it did not ever fear running the ball even if all 11 players were at the line of scrimmage. Did anyone notice that perfect pass thrown by Turnover Tommy I believe to Toma that was thrown as the receiver was making his cut with the ball arriving perfectly! I was hopeful Golston would show much better than he has. He either throws it up and expects Eifert to catch it or pretty much waits (too long) before releasing ball. I am sure he is scared to death of throwing a pic….BK has these kids scared and it is tough to play your best when you are afraid that any mistake might put you on the bench. I wish I could say we were back but until we push around all of the second tier competition we will not be able to compete with the Alabama’s or USC’s. Wish it were not true but it is! GO IRISH!

Mediocrity is why I refuse to support the university. Notre Dame has set its bar too low in all areas, ever since Malloy became president. Jenkins is not an improvement – and I have made it clear to him that my support depends of the University seeking excellence, not mediocrity.