Got to attend the game yesterday, the good of course is they eeked out a win, the bad is they eeked out the win. The defense looks improved, the pass rush wasn't bad, SDSU just negated it with all the quick passes. I don't know their team very well, but they threw the ball about 90% of the time if I had to guess, and it was a lot of 3 step drops and quick passes. The rush was there, but the ball was out often times before it could do much good. It did produce some hurried throws and a few passes being knocked down, but overall I'd say the rush was ineffective. We should have been jamming the receivers at the line to throw this off.
The offense was horrible, up until the 4th quarter. After SDSU's fumble, its like the damn light turned on. They went to hurry up offense and actually executed. They could have scored again in the final minute, but they took the safe route to the win, which was smart for once. I was just waiting for them to take a shot at the endzone, only to have it picked off and run back.
I didn't get a good look at SDSU's fumble as it was in the farther endzone, Sports Center didn't show it really either. Apparantly NBC showed both ND's and SDSU's fumbles several times, ND's could have been called down, and possibly SDSU's, so I call it even.
The offensive line looked better in pass protection, but this wasn't exactly a superior defense. No sacks, which is hard to believe. They were opening a few more holes when they ran the ball, but again, I didn't see any stud D-Tackles or Ends. Despite Michigan's learning curve so far this year, I expect they'll give more competition next week as they always play the Irish hard.
Special teams was good and bad, field goal team was absolutely horrible going 0/1 and a botched hold. Supposidly the hold on the botched kick was bad too, but I didn't see it. Poor preparation, the coaches have to fix this. The returns were good, a nice one got called back. Coverage on kickoffs and punts was acceptable, Anello was great for a walk on player.
Clausen looked okay, avoided some pressure, but hes still throwing the ball too hard at times. Some say if you hit a receiver in the numbers, he should catch the ball...on the other hand, some of our receivers still can't handle the heat, one interception bounced right off Kamara's pads and into SDSU's hands. Clausen could take a bit off these throws, it was just a 10 yard pass I think too. The other interception was more the receivers fault than Clausen's, as he never looked for the ball. If I had to criticize one big thing, Jimmy was looking to Tate quite a bit in this game. This could lead to problems later on, he needs to make his 2nd and 3rd reads, he had some guys like Floyd that got open often, but didn't get the ball.
As far as receiving, Grimes looked okay, Golden Tate was phenominal. Kamara got hurt early and didn't get in much after that. Floyd played great, especially as a freshman. He pulled in a TD fade in the corner of the endzone, and was open on more than one play. Golden Tate was the most improved among the receivers. Last year he was more of a running back trying to play receiver, yesterday he became a decent weapon capable of becomming a go to guy. The interesting thing is, aside from Floyd, we really didn't get much production out of any of our tall receivers. Grimes and Tate received the receptions I believe, Floyd had the 1 TD pass and Jimmy didn't look his way much aside from that. Kamara was injured early, but returned for a few series. I don't think I saw Paris much.
The running game was alright, a few decent long gains, hopefully they can do the same next week. If the line can't open holes against Michigan, they better hope the pass protection keeps up. I was surprised Aldridge didn't get any carries, or get in at all. Supposidly hes not hurt, this was going to be a "make or break" year for him as a feature back. Hughes and Allen have done alright, if they can hold onto the ball, I'd like to see what Aldridge can do when the O-line is opening running lanes.
This team still has some improvements to make, I still don't see a win coming next week, I'm hoping they at least keep it close. Hopefully a pass rush will help dirsupt the Michigan offense, I'm guessing the ND offense will have to rely heavily on the pass this week.
