My thoughts are that the offense and special teams played pretty poorly, especially the offense, which had miscues and terrible timing all day. The OL also struggled, but that was to be expected (I was expecting the ND front 4 to be good, but was really surprised by how dominant they were playing in the back 7).
I do think that GT played about the worst they could have and ND played pretty well, and it was still a one score game in the end.
I do think that GT must be able to complete a decent percentage of passes in play action, and that a couple of early connections that were just misses would have changed the complexion of the game entirely.
Frankly, as much as I love him as a player and kid, JT had a poor game. He missed in the passing game and he missed some opportunities to cut it up for 3 or 4 yards by looking for big plays in the option game.
This game kind of reminds me of the old Nebraska games from the late 80s and mid 90s. Nebraska had a perfect offense ofr the types of players they could consistently recruit, but at times, pure physical dominance trumped scheme. In this game that was amplified by the number of self inflicted wounds (miscues in handoffs, poor pitch relationship, poor route running).
Most teams lose 3 to 5 games a season. Even the really good ones. This was a good ND team. Losing to them sucks, but it's hardly the end of the world in the scheme of things. GT has one of the toughest schedules in the country, so they will have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves again.
For those calling for changes and otherwise complaining, what is your solution or strategy for improvement if you got what you wanted?