There’s so much more good to be found here after recapping Notre Dame’s 23-12 victory over Purdue yesterday. While it’s clear that the Irish are still very much a work in progress, the key elements of a successful football team were there in spades at Notre Dame Stadium yesterday.
Not wanting to fill up the good ledger too much, I’ll cheat and give you my bullet-pointed version of some runner-up finishers in the positive position.
* Bennett Jackson, kick-off covering dynamo.
* David Ruffer, clutch kicker.
* Gary Gray, tackling machine.
* Braxston Cave, shotgun snapper.
* Armando Allen & Cierre Wood, two-headed monster.
* Clean play, no offensive or defensive penalties.
Now that I’ve cleared out the clutter, here’s a quick rundown of the good, the bad, and the ugly from the Purdue victory.
THE GOOD
Bob Diaco’s defense. Four sacks, two interceptions, and legitimate pressure on the quarterback was a thing of beauty for Irish fans. While the ship has sailed, it’s a pleasant reminder that you don’t have to blitz every play to get to the quarterback. Utilizing a pretty effective front-three in Ethan Johnson, Kapron Lewis-Moore and Ian Williams, the Irish were able to chase after Robert Marve all day, even with Darius Fleming, the Irish’s best pass rusher, battling cramps on the sidelines for most of the game.
If you’re looking for the difference between this defense and the unit from last year, Purdue head coach Danny Hope has your answer.
“They blitzed almost every down last year and I thought that created some huge holes that we were able to take advantage of,” Hope said after the game. “They didn’t blitz as much, and so the holes were smaller. They had good personnel. I thought at times we blocked them and manufactured some offense, but the biggest difference was the amount of blitzes they used to use.”
Giving up 10 points to a team with Purdue’s offensive weapons is a great way to start your season, but it wasn’t all lollipops and rainbows for the defense, a group that will have plenty to discuss when breaking down film, particularly in the tackling department. But Purdue was an ideal opponent to start your season against, a spread team with a mobile quarterback, almost a perfect scouting tool for a Michigan offense that’ll bring an even more explosive running quarterback into South Bend next Saturday.
THE BAD
The Irish struggled in the red zone, missing a few key opportunities to score touchdowns and instead settled for field goals. Chalk that up to some potential first game jitters for Dayne Crist and an uncharacteristic fumble by Michael Floyd. Still, when the Irish go back and look at the tape, they’ll realize they left a lot of points on the board with missed throws to Michael Floyd and Kyle Rudolph. To his credit, Crist knows it.
“I’ll take responsibility for that,” Crist said. “That’s on me. We have got to continue to get better and I can only speak for myself and those things will be corrected.”
Last year, the Irish struggled converting touchdowns in the red zone as well, finishing a mediocre 65th in the country by only converting 56 percent of appearances into touchdowns, a pretty puzzling number when you consider the offensive weapons the Irish had. Contrast that with Cincinnati’s 2009 offense, which was a sterling 7th in the country, converting over 72 percent of trips into six points. The Irish will improve as Crist get’s comfortable, but expect the red zone to be a point of emphasis this week.
THE UGLY
While I didn’t see it, the College GameDay preview piece on ESPN created quite a stir amongst readers. After watching it, I’m pretty surprised this got the green-light to be aired. Written by ESPN senior writer Wright Thompson, you’d think that Notre Dame was closing down the football program, instead of being the team that played in two BCS bowls the past five years.
If you want to feel like you’ve been stuck in Shawshank prison with Red and Andy for the past 20 years and they just took all the books out of the library, give it a watch.
Other than that, I’m struggling to find anything too ugly about an opening day victory for Notre Dame. The best I’ve come up with was the outfit choice by Brian Kelly and the coaching staff. They looked like bottles of Dijon mustard out there. While the golden helmets of the Fighting Irish are one of college football’s classic looks, the “golden” fleece is far from it. Stick with the blue or white, guys.