Michigan Game Weekend Posts

Here are the reaction posts from over the weekend from our Twitter and Facebook accounts.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - Michigan.

Good - The WIN. Opening game against a ranked rival.

The Bad - The running game. Needs improvement.

The Ugly - Special Teams. Every thing but field goals.

Stars of the Game - Michigan

3rd Star: Brandon Wimbush 12-22 passing for 170 yards and a touchdown, 19 rushes for 77 yards.


2nd Star: Te'von Coney 10 tackles (6 solo), .5 Tackle for a loss, 1 fumble recovery (8 yards) an 2 quarterback hurries.


1st Star: Khalid Kareem 9 tackles (7 solo), 2.5 tackles for a loss (2 sacks/24 yards), 1 quarterback hurry. 


Honorable Mention: Jafar Armstrong 43 yards rushing with two touchdowns and 2 receptions for 11 yards receiving.

Michigan Grades

Offense: 24 points against a anticipated good Michigan defense is respectable.B.

Passing game was good, as expected Wimbush was better with the long ball. B 

The running game was fair at best C. 

The offensive line needs to block the outside rush better an from the total number of not QB rushing yards something has to improve for the running game C. I don't remember any false start flags.

The receivers did their jobs well caught some impressive passes an let some they should have caught get away B.

Play calling was pretty solid B.

Defense: They only gave up one touchdown and reminded me of the 2012 bend don't break Irish A-.

Defensive Line payed pretty well, long term depth may be the question. B+

Linebackers did well with pressure but pass coverage could be a future concern B-

Defensive backs made some good plays but got burned a few times. B

Defensive schemes we called well be the coaches A-.

Special Teams need work, a lot at this point D+

Kickoff, forget the TD return, the first kick went out of bounds F.

Kick Return, no fumbles is the best we can say C

Field Goals, He did what he is supposed to, once C+.

I know the individual grades don't equal the overall grades but they work in the spirit of the thing. 

Good is not good enough

9 - 3.  Pretty good record, especially after going 4-8 the year before, right?  A lot of people would say looking at the big picture the Irish are heading in the right direction.  While I would disagree.  Let's look at the big picture.   Here is Kelly's record in South Bend; 8-5, 8-5, 12-1, 9-4, 8-5, 10-3, 4-8 & 9-3.  That's a 8.5 - 4.25 overall "big picture" record.  I'm sure many programs would be content maybe even happy to have that kind of winning percentage but this is Notre Dame.

In the Brian Kelly era we have more signature losses than signature wins, that's a problem.  In Bowl games the Irish are 3 - 3 under Kelly and to no surprise not one of those wins were in a major bowl.

Kelly is a good coach I can't argue that however for Notre Dame fans good should not be good enough.   We can't stay on top of the rankings, we can't beat a top 10, hell we can't beat a top 25 team with any consistency.  I hate to say we can't afford to keep Brian Kelly as for one I do like him and two I don't have a solution for a replacement. 

Kelly has probably done enough to save his job at this point, even if the Irish loss their Bowl game.  The question now is what will the future bring.  In the short term next season needs to be better than 2017, simply put either a 10 win season and or multiple wins over top tier teams, anything else it keeps the status quo.

Closing the book on NC State.

Here are some posts from Talking Irish Facebook and Twitter

Stars of the Game - NC State

Julian Love

3rd) Durham Smythe - 3 receptions, one for a touchdown and one toes in catch to set up a touchdown.

2nd) Julian Love - 69 yards interception return for a touchdown, 3 pass breakups & 2 tackles

1st) Josh Adams - 202 rushing yards, 7.5 yards per carry & a touchdown

Te'Von Coney

By the Numbers - NC State Game

318 - Net rushing yards for the Irish

202 - Rushing yards by Josh Adams

3 - Touchdowns by Brandon Wimbush (2 passing & 1 rushing)

6 - Quarterback hurries by the Irish defense

7 - Pass break ups by the Notre Dame defense

5 - Tackles for a loss

9 - Tackles for Te'Von Coney

Josh Adams

25 - First downs for the Irish offense

NC State: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good: Josh Adams, he is the energizer bunny, he keeps going and going.

The Bad: "Some" of the offensive play calls, at times they seem to make no sense

The Ugly:  The frustration of still having a few line issues (2 sacks)

North Carolina, it's a wrap

Here is the weekly social media posts from Talking Irish's Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Stars of the Game - North Carolina

3rd) Josh Adams - 118 yards rushing, 9.1 yards per carry and a touchdown.

2nd) The Irish Defense - 11 quarterback hurries, 7 pass break ups, 2 sacks, 5 tackle for a loss, 2 fumble recoveries and an interception.

1st) Deon McIntsoh - 124 yards rushing, 10.3 yards per carry with 2 touchdowns .

By the Numbers - North Carolina

341 - Rushing yards for the Irish
10.3 - Yards per rush for Deon McIntosh
86 - Tarheels total yards rushing
8 - receivers who caught passes for the Irish
50 - Average yards per punt for Tyler Newsome
11 - Quarterback hurries for the Irish defense
7 - Pass breakups for Notre Dame's defense
3 - Quarterback hurries for Julian Okwara
7 - Tackles for Drue Tranquill
27 - Rushing first downs
3 - fourth down conversions out of 4 attempts
2 - Fumble recovers foe the Notre Dame defense

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - North Carolina

The Good. The Offensive Line. Great job with a special recognition to Quenton Nelson. Good job making holes and good protection for a quarterback making his first start.

The Bad. Red Zone opportunities. Compared to the rest of the season so far (scoring on all trips) scoring (1 Touchdown and 1 Field Goal) on 2 of the 4 chances is a letdown.

The Ugly. Injuries. Apparently nothing super serious or season ending and it looks like everyone will be ready to go in two weeks against USC. Good time for a bye.

Miami of Ohio Wrap Up

Hits from this past weekends Talking Irish Facebook and Twitter Posts

Stars of the Game - Miami of Ohio

3rd) Greer Martini - 5 tackles and an interception

2nd) Brandon Wimbush - 119 yards passing with 3 touchdowns and 36 yards rushing with 1 touchdown

1st) Josh Adams - 159 rushing yards (19.9 yards per carry), 2 touchdowns

By the Numbers - Miami of Ohio

28 - Points by Notre Dame in the first quarter
333 - Yards rushing by the Irish
8.5 - Yards per carry
2 - converted fourth downs out of 2 attempts for the offense.
159 - Rushing yards for Josh Adams
12 - Yards per rush for Tony Jones Jr.
3 - Touchdown passes for Brandon Wimbush
1 - Tackle by kicker Justin Yoon
3 - Sacks for the Irish defense
1 - First career interception for Greer Martini and first career forced fumble for Jerry Tillery

The Good, The Bad & the Ugly - Miami of Ohio

The Good - The 52 point the Irish were able to put up against Miami of Ohio. A ranked, top tier program such as Notre Dame should be putting up those kind of numbers against a team from the MAC, unfortunately the Irish have not always done that.

The Bad - Injuries. Josh Adams had an ankle injury and Tony Jones Jr. got shaken up, both are expected (along with Dexter Williams) back next week.

The Ugly - Missed field goal. In and of itself is not a huge issue but Yoon seems a bit off this season and that might hurt the Irish down the road.

Weekend Wrap Up – Social Media Hits

Here are some pieces from our Facebook and Twitter Accounts from the Boston College Game.

Stars of the game - Boston College

3rd Star: Brandon Wimbush; ran for 207 yards and 4 touchdowns

2nd Star: Te'von Coney; 13 tackles (5 solo & 8 assists)

3rd Star: Josh Adams; 229 yards, averaging 12.7 yards per rush.

By the Numbers - Boston College

515 - Net rushing yards for the Irish
10.1- Average Yards per Rush
2 - Interceptions by Shaun Crawford
50 - Notre Dame's third down conversion rate (9-18)
6 - Touchdowns in 6 trips to the red zone
21 Points from turnovers
7 - Rushing touchdown (4-Wimbush, 2-Williams, 1-Jones)
13 - Tackles for Te'von Coney to lead the Irish defense
1 - Sack by Jerry Tillery
5 - Tackles for a loss for the defense

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Boston College

The Good: The running game (one Kelly decided to run the ball). 515 net yards on the ground while averaging 10.1 per rush with 7 touchdowns.

The Bad: play calling (primarily first half). Early don pass calls that come up short putting us at 3 and long over and over.

The Ugly: The passing game. 11 completions on 27 attempts for 96 with an interception and NO touchdowns.

Weekend Social Media

If you missed the Talking Irish Facebook and Twitter Posts from the weekend here are some of the more notable pieces.

Goats of the Game - Georgia

3) SEC Officiating Crew.  In no way were to blame for the Irish loss, however they were just bad overall.  Bad officiating on both sides.

2) Brandon WImbush.  He kept the ball too many time instead of handing it off to the running backs and threw to many bad passes.

1) Brian Kelly.  More specifically the offensive play calling.

Notorious Numbers - Georgia Game

55:  Net rushing yards for the Irish

1.5:  Yards per rush

34:  Yards LOST rushing for Notre Dame

-1.0:  Notre Dame average punt return

3: Third down conversions out of 17 opportunities

1: Net yard on 16 rushes by QB Brandon Wimbush

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly - Georgia

The Good.  The Defense.  If you told me after last week's win over Temple that we were going to hold Georgia to 20 points I would have guaranteed a win for the Irish.  This year's defense seems to play "bend don't break", unfortunately they broke a couple of times on Saturday.   Overall it was the defense that kept Notre Dame in the game.

The Bad.  The Offense.   Half to the play calls and half to the execution.   Holes for the rushing game were apparently non-existent and we Wimbush could not connect with his receivers.   This was especially bad compared to their great performance against Temple.

The Ugly.  The end of Brian Kelly's post game press conference.  https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/9/10/16282846/brian-kelly-notre-dame-georgia-press-conference-2017