Notre Dame Football
Instant Reaction: Notre Dame 52 - Miami (OH) 17
September 30, 2017
5,247
Drop 50, go to 4-1 in September, and have your backups finish the game for the third straight game.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Maybe not great either, but that is really picking nits. Notre Dame did what they were supposed to do against an inferior opponent. I think if it weren’t for Chuck Martin being a former assistant of Brian Kelly, they may have dropped 70.
They may have done that anyways if they had a healthy group of running backs or if they weren’t trying to work on pieces of the offense that need to be improved.
Another game with over 300 yards rushing. Another game with over 500 yards of total offense. Another game where the Irish defense forced turnovers and capitalized on them.
Another blowout win.
- Let’s talk about Josh Adams first. Hopefully the injury is nothing serious and he can be back for next week. It’s pretty clear that Notre Dame is a different team when he is on the field.
He has taken his game to another level. That first run was pretty much all him after Sam Mustipher didn’t get off the double team to scrape to the Mike linebacker. He made the Mike miss and then did the rest.
His second touchdown run was even more ridiculous. It was video gamish. 159 yards on only 8 carries and he was doing a ton of work on his own.
He good.
- At some point it is concerning about the health of the running backs, though. Luckily Notre Dame has a bye week coming up after traveling to North Carolina, but at this point they’ve had injuries to their top three backs and they are three deep.
It is nice to see Deon McIntosh get some carries. That last touchdown run was nice and it was great to see him make a defender miss at the second level. However, it’s pretty clear that at this time there is a drop off between him and the other backs. He’s not a tackle breaker like them and he needs to gain more experience to make better reads.
They don’t want to be in a position where they are relying on him to close out a game against a USC or another top opponent. Kelly and the staff are going to have to tread carefully next week so they are in the right spot heading into the bye without hurting their chances to control a very winnable game against the Tar Heels.
- Yup, it was not Brandon Wimbush’s finest performance. A lot of the throws he missed were to players who were open. It was definitely a step back from how he looked at Michigan State. I’m sure it’s too late to tell people not to freak out about it because that’s what people tend to do, but the positive in all of this is that he bounced back a couple of times during the game after being erratic with his accuracy.
That one drive that was all Equanimeous St. Brown was after he had a brutal stretch the previous series. Ditto for that perfect deep ball he threw to Miles Boykin for the touchdown or that beauty he threw up to Chase Claypool for the touchdown.
That 4th down bullet to Claypool on that same drive happened after some misses too.
So the good news is that he showed he can bounce back from mistakes. The bad news is that he lacks consistency with his decision making and his mechanics.
Are those correctable? I think the evidence is there that it is because he does it right after doing it wrong earlier in the drive. It’s just finding that consistency and that is clearly going to be a work in progress. It does look like he is in his own head some of the time.
- Let’s also not forget that he still made a couple of wow plays today that not many other athletes could pull off at his position. He deserves more credit for that than many people will give him after this game.
- It was really nice to see Boykin make a play and for Chris Finke to as well. What a heck of a catch and a heck of a throw by Ian Book.
He looked more comfortable today than he has in other games where he has come in even if you take away that great throw.
- The offensive line was dominant in just about every way. They were supposed to control the game and they did. The two sacks that were given up were probably on Wimbush although he returned the favor by bailing them out by escaping the rush a couple of times. And when you rush the ball for 8.5 yards per carry, you’re doing it right.
- What a great job by Greer Martini with his drop and then reacting to pick off that pass in the 1st quarter. For a second there I thought he was going to take it to the house. He might have been able to if he got one more block.
- I’m just going to guess that many people weren’t happy with how Nick Watkins played today, but it’s tough to say he played bad. He just went up against a guy who is 6’4” and almost 220 pounds that could have been called for offensive pass interference on just about every ball that he caught against him.
I knew Miami was going to go to James Garnder all game long and Notre Dame aware of it too. They could have given Watkins a bit more help in my opinion.
Gardner pretty much was the offense for Miami. And Watkins happened to be the guy who had to deal with him. Those were great plays by Gardner and a great job by Gus Ragland giving Gardner a chance to come down with the ball.
Watkins is going to be better for it going up against a player that size. Gardner is a legit NFL prospect and Watkins will have deal with other big targets as the season progresses. In a weird way, I almost think it’s a good experience for him to have to learn to play against someone like that who is that big and physical. (It’s definitely good that it happened in a game like this as well and not in close game.)
- I’m glad Jerry Tillery was rewarded with 1.5 sacks in this game since he has been playing really well all year and isn’t getting the attention that he probably deserves. Now, I think some others who don’t follow Notre Dame might start to appreciate what he’s doing.
I have to admit, I was very skeptical of him heading into this season. I wanted him to prove it on a consistent basis after only showing flashes here and there. Five games into the season and he’s been the best defensive lineman on the team.
- Khalid Kareem had his best game and really schooled Miami’s right tackle a few times. It was great to see him get his first career sack. I also thought Jonathan Bonner had his best game in terms of rushing the passer. He brought pressure in the face of Ragland numerous times.
- I know it was garbage time, but I really liked seeing Jonathan Jones make some plays at the end of the game. He did a great job covering that wheel route with the pass breakup and was knifing through to make tackles a few times versus the run.
- Overall, I think this was a game where Notre Dame wanted to win convincingly, come out relatively healthy, and play as many players as possible.
They accomplished that, with the injuries to the backs sounding like they are minor at this point in time.
It would have been great if Wimbush was on point all game and if the defense were making more plays behind the line of scrimmage, but they scored 52 and gave up less than 20 again. They did all that and can still get better.
I don’t know about you, but it’s simply another game where it made me feel better about where the program is currently and where it can go this season.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Maybe not great either, but that is really picking nits. Notre Dame did what they were supposed to do against an inferior opponent. I think if it weren’t for Chuck Martin being a former assistant of Brian Kelly, they may have dropped 70.
They may have done that anyways if they had a healthy group of running backs or if they weren’t trying to work on pieces of the offense that need to be improved.
Another game with over 300 yards rushing. Another game with over 500 yards of total offense. Another game where the Irish defense forced turnovers and capitalized on them.
Another blowout win.
- Let’s talk about Josh Adams first. Hopefully the injury is nothing serious and he can be back for next week. It’s pretty clear that Notre Dame is a different team when he is on the field.
He has taken his game to another level. That first run was pretty much all him after Sam Mustipher didn’t get off the double team to scrape to the Mike linebacker. He made the Mike miss and then did the rest.
His second touchdown run was even more ridiculous. It was video gamish. 159 yards on only 8 carries and he was doing a ton of work on his own.
He good.
- At some point it is concerning about the health of the running backs, though. Luckily Notre Dame has a bye week coming up after traveling to North Carolina, but at this point they’ve had injuries to their top three backs and they are three deep.
It is nice to see Deon McIntosh get some carries. That last touchdown run was nice and it was great to see him make a defender miss at the second level. However, it’s pretty clear that at this time there is a drop off between him and the other backs. He’s not a tackle breaker like them and he needs to gain more experience to make better reads.
They don’t want to be in a position where they are relying on him to close out a game against a USC or another top opponent. Kelly and the staff are going to have to tread carefully next week so they are in the right spot heading into the bye without hurting their chances to control a very winnable game against the Tar Heels.
- Yup, it was not Brandon Wimbush’s finest performance. A lot of the throws he missed were to players who were open. It was definitely a step back from how he looked at Michigan State. I’m sure it’s too late to tell people not to freak out about it because that’s what people tend to do, but the positive in all of this is that he bounced back a couple of times during the game after being erratic with his accuracy.
That one drive that was all Equanimeous St. Brown was after he had a brutal stretch the previous series. Ditto for that perfect deep ball he threw to Miles Boykin for the touchdown or that beauty he threw up to Chase Claypool for the touchdown.
That 4th down bullet to Claypool on that same drive happened after some misses too.
So the good news is that he showed he can bounce back from mistakes. The bad news is that he lacks consistency with his decision making and his mechanics.
Are those correctable? I think the evidence is there that it is because he does it right after doing it wrong earlier in the drive. It’s just finding that consistency and that is clearly going to be a work in progress. It does look like he is in his own head some of the time.
- Let’s also not forget that he still made a couple of wow plays today that not many other athletes could pull off at his position. He deserves more credit for that than many people will give him after this game.
- It was really nice to see Boykin make a play and for Chris Finke to as well. What a heck of a catch and a heck of a throw by Ian Book.
He looked more comfortable today than he has in other games where he has come in even if you take away that great throw.
- The offensive line was dominant in just about every way. They were supposed to control the game and they did. The two sacks that were given up were probably on Wimbush although he returned the favor by bailing them out by escaping the rush a couple of times. And when you rush the ball for 8.5 yards per carry, you’re doing it right.
- What a great job by Greer Martini with his drop and then reacting to pick off that pass in the 1st quarter. For a second there I thought he was going to take it to the house. He might have been able to if he got one more block.
- I’m just going to guess that many people weren’t happy with how Nick Watkins played today, but it’s tough to say he played bad. He just went up against a guy who is 6’4” and almost 220 pounds that could have been called for offensive pass interference on just about every ball that he caught against him.
I knew Miami was going to go to James Garnder all game long and Notre Dame aware of it too. They could have given Watkins a bit more help in my opinion.
Gardner pretty much was the offense for Miami. And Watkins happened to be the guy who had to deal with him. Those were great plays by Gardner and a great job by Gus Ragland giving Gardner a chance to come down with the ball.
Watkins is going to be better for it going up against a player that size. Gardner is a legit NFL prospect and Watkins will have deal with other big targets as the season progresses. In a weird way, I almost think it’s a good experience for him to have to learn to play against someone like that who is that big and physical. (It’s definitely good that it happened in a game like this as well and not in close game.)
- I’m glad Jerry Tillery was rewarded with 1.5 sacks in this game since he has been playing really well all year and isn’t getting the attention that he probably deserves. Now, I think some others who don’t follow Notre Dame might start to appreciate what he’s doing.
I have to admit, I was very skeptical of him heading into this season. I wanted him to prove it on a consistent basis after only showing flashes here and there. Five games into the season and he’s been the best defensive lineman on the team.
- Khalid Kareem had his best game and really schooled Miami’s right tackle a few times. It was great to see him get his first career sack. I also thought Jonathan Bonner had his best game in terms of rushing the passer. He brought pressure in the face of Ragland numerous times.
- I know it was garbage time, but I really liked seeing Jonathan Jones make some plays at the end of the game. He did a great job covering that wheel route with the pass breakup and was knifing through to make tackles a few times versus the run.
- Overall, I think this was a game where Notre Dame wanted to win convincingly, come out relatively healthy, and play as many players as possible.
They accomplished that, with the injuries to the backs sounding like they are minor at this point in time.
It would have been great if Wimbush was on point all game and if the defense were making more plays behind the line of scrimmage, but they scored 52 and gave up less than 20 again. They did all that and can still get better.
I don’t know about you, but it’s simply another game where it made me feel better about where the program is currently and where it can go this season.
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