The Back Corner Fade
Note: Mike Kane is a Notre Dame fan writing a weekly column from a fan’s perspective for IrishSportsDaily.com.
Just what the doctor ordered. A quick beat down of an inferior opponent, and for the second week in a row, not a whole heck of a lot to complain about when the dust settled. Sure, the first series on defense left a lot to be desired, but after the targeting-induced fumble, the Irish defense held court and blitzed their way into another game with out giving up a touchdown. In recent memory, I can’t remember Al Golden dialing up that many blitzes. I think he even sent the GA’s on a donut run on Sunday morning for the coaches and asked for “a dozen Bear Claws, 6 with sprinkles, 6 glazed, and A-gap-blitz the little punk behind the counter.”
The offense was also more than efficient, and I’m going to go out on a limb here when I say: Sam Hartman is kind of good. The 80-yard drive in the 2-minute drill was a thing of beauty and it looked like he was in real life Madden “easy” mode. Yes, that was against TSU, I get it, but when was the last time you saw an ND offense walk down the field like that when time was the enemy?
This week should be interesting in Raleigh as the Irish will face, potentially, the first real test of the season. We’ll get to that one in a bit, but first, what did we learn this week?
Did anyone hear that Coach Prime and his Colorado boys upset TCU? Love him or hate him, going on the road with basically a completely new roster and beating a ranked team is awfully impressive (even though TCU’s defense is truly awful.) Baby Prime threw for over 500 yards and they had four WR’s over a 100 yards. Pretty damn impressive. The CU-USC battle might have over 1200 yards of offense. That’ll be must- watch football. Am I sold on Coach Prime? Not yet, but his kids play awfully hard for him and that’s saying something.
The Fightin’ Fredo’s lost a heartbreaker to Northern Illinois in OT. The Curse of the Big Jurk is alive on The Hill.
I don’t know if we can safely say that FSU is back, or this was just another “BK Special” when the lights are at their brightest. The 2nd half was a complete beat down and will officially launch the Jordan Travis campaign for the Heisman trophy. Kudos to Travis. I think back to the game when ND throttled them when he was a freshman in South Bend thinking, “this is the best the mighty Seminoles can run out at QB.” The kid has stuck with it, has improved every year, and might be the best QB in college football. As for Brian Kelly….(enter jokes here)
As bad as it was for Huey Long Kelly, it might have been worse for another ISD Favorite, Dabo Swinney, as his Clemson boys went up to Duke and were flat out taken apart by the Blue Devils. If you look at the Clemson program they are now 3-4 in their last 7 going back to last season. They were taken apart in The Bend, lost at home to Carolina, got boat-raced against UT, and now a loss on the road to Duke. Personally, I enjoyed every minute of it. The flip side, many ND fans thought that roadie down to Duke was going to be a tough one even before Monday night. I think this game can go ahead and confirm those worries. It isn’t gonna be easy.
Moving on to this weekend, what kind of fun do we get to watch? Oof, not much at all. Dabo and Bri will get on the W side of things with nice wins against Charleston Southern and Grambling, so good for them. What else is there?
Interesting match-up in New Orleans as Ole Miss heads down to take on Tulane and Michael Pratt in a battle of ranked teams. Yeah, I know, “really Mike, you’re talking about this game?” Well, that really should give you an idea of how weak this weekend is in terms of great games. That being said, if you like offense, you’ve come to the right spot as both these teams can light up the scoreboard. Tulane isn’t going to sneak up on anyone this season like they did against USC last year, and the Lane Train will get a nice win in a shootout. Ole Miss 38-28.
The big one this week takes place in T-Town as Texas comes a-calling in a match-up between Top 10 programs. If you remember last season, Texas gave Bama all they wanted in Austin and it took a Herculean effort from Bryce Young to get the come-from-behind win for the Tide. Texas has Quinn Ewers in his second year at the controls to run the Horn offense after a shaky performance all around in a snoozer against Rice last weekend. Bama did Bama things last weekend beating an inferior opponent and Julian Milroe will be tested for the first time as a starter against a team with a pulse. Being as it’s at home, and Texas has Steve Sarkisian as their head coach is an advantage, I’m taking Bama. Tide pulls away in the second half, and the Gary Danielson man-crush on Milroe begins in earnest. Alabama 31-17.
ND takes to the road for the second time in three weeks (thankfully in the continental US and in the same time zone for that matter) as the boys head to Raleigh to take on NC State. Carter-Finley Stadium is always a tough place to play, and who could forget the last time the Irish went down there when Brian Kelly thought it would be a great idea to throw the ball 20+ times in a hurricane? Well, ND will throw the ball over 20 times in this one and I’m fairly confident will have more success this time around. They have Sam Hartman and no Cat 2 winds to worry about. Dave Doeren (Baby Nards as I like to call him) has done a nice job leading the Pack to a being a respectable 8-9 win program and will have his boys ready to go. Ever heard this one: “this is their Super Bowl” and it is.
Watching NC State last week against UConn wouldn’t scare the pants off any ND fan, but it was the first game of the season. I suspect that they’ll play better this week and probably saved a few wrinkles for the Irish. Funny, they Irish have had a very simple game plan against Navy and TSU. I would certainly expect Gerad Parker to have a few wrinkles for them as well. Like many games on the road in a tough environment, weathering the first 10 minutes of a game is crucial, and this one is no different. We should expect the Pack to come out guns blazing. Key to this on defense: keep Brennan Armstrong contained. If they can do that, I don’t believe they have the weapons on offense to stay on the field with much regularity. On offense, just keep doing what you’re doing boys, which is to say grind pepper on the line and give Sam time to do his thing.
ND will pull away in the second half with a whole lot of Big Audric doing damage. Sorry, Dave. Maybe next time.
Irish 34-17.
Offensive Pick to Click: Audric Estime. 120 yards 2 TD’s.
Defensive Beast of the Week: Ben Morrison. First pick of the year and 2 PBU’s.
Beat NC State!