I'm still trying to figure out what happened. On the TD drives, the tackling looked silly bad. But the overall performance did not end up resulting in a lot of points. Hard for me to figure out what we are.
I guess we're just a lot of bend dont break in terms of points? Statistically it looks like we also maybe have some limited possession per game effects, cause our per play stats are pretty bad; both yards per play and defensive FEI are in the 90s ranking.
Can you admit that tackling was poor today? ND went for it on several 4th downs and felt they had momentum against us. I do pin this game on the offense’s inability to score and the ST.
The point of the game is to score points. Our most sure tackler on the team was out with an injury. We are not a defense with a lot of depth. We held them to 24 points and they were actively trying to run up the score.
I was starting to wonder if ND had some kind of super secret Teflon-coated jerseys that are impossible to grasp. Or maybe they just rub each other down with baby oil in the locker room.
By nature being a place kicker on a major college football team is a stressful position. You sit around on the sidelines for the majority of the game and then many times you are called in to decide the outcome of the game. All kickers have pretty much the same form, leg strength, so what differentiates one kicker from the other? It’s their mental makeup. To have the ability to come in a stressful situation and routinely do your job without anxiety is what separates a great kicker from just another guy. I don’t know what a coach can do about that.
A coach cannot give them the mental makeup, but they sure can screw it up. Are we screwing up kickers? Gavin coming here as a really good kicker, getting worse while here to the point that he loses his job and leaves, and then goes back to hitting over 85% of his FG attempts with a 53 yard long seems to point to us doing something wrong.
I would like for someone to give me an example of how we could screw up a kicker? Yelling at a kicker when he misses? Threatening a kicker? Kicking a field goal is one play that a smart coach can’t draw it up differently. From the NFL to high school the field goal is performed the same way. If you remember Saban’s Alabama teams had wildly inconsistent place kickers. It was because even a great coach like Saban couldn’t coach up a place kicker.
It’s like a golf swing. Having someone who doesn’t know what they are doing go and tinker with something that is working can be a recipe for disaster. Something is happening where guys who can clearly kick are getting worse while here.
2x All American punter. Change up his mechanics cause you think that’s the only way to be successful.
Butker wasn’t that good while he was here. As soon as he left, he became automatic.
He may have spoken some sort of Irish vernacular that was unintelligible to the rest of the team. His stark looking of panic when he retrieved the fumbled snap and turned around to see the Irish defenders bearing down on him was enough to shat his pants.
As long as Shanahan is both the place kick holder and the punter, we should change the name of special teams to the troubles.
