September 4, 2011
Winners are not those who avoid adversity. Winners are those who overcome adversity.
That’s what disappointed me the most about Saturday. ND cruises down the field, everything’s clicking, and then – not uncommon in a season opener – Jonas doesn’t protect the ball while stretching for the goal line. It was stunning but it happens. I don’t think there was one member of Domer Nation who didn’t think we couldn’t get the rock right back after the kickoff and march to the goal line again.
But something seemed to happen to us psychologically. Sure, USF was buoyed by that play but a few first downs and their heads would have been spinning again.
Starting from our second drive, Dayne threw behind receivers, dumb penalties were committed, and we just fell apart. It was a miracle the deficit wasn’t 28-0.
Errors will happen in week one – a major reason I wish we would schedule a cupcake as a tuneup – so that wasn’t overly shocking. But how we became unglued was alarming.
Case in point: Theo makes the absolutely unbelievable folly of fumbling on a fair catch. Terrible but it should anger him, right? Not to say he wasn’t fueled by it but the next thing we see on NBC is a close-up of him on the bench, face buried in his hands, sobbing. Are you kidding me? Why weren’t there any teammates around to say either, “Don’t worry, Rid, you’ll make up for it. We got your back.” OR “Hey, stop crying and get your head up, Domer, there’s a lot of football left.”?
I applaud Kelly for going back to him on the next offensive series in order to get his confidence back up. But between Crist’s bad throws and Riddick’s suddenly stone hands, drops ensued. It was inevitable that frustration would soon set in.
Also inevitable were the storms that drenched Michiana. Amazingly, it looked like they would work in ND’s favor in that it gave our lads time to regroup and refocused while taking some momentum away from Skip Holtz’s Bulls. By the way, it was weird enough seeing Jack Swarbrick in full-color and 3-D, but especially when he looked like he had just been in a brawl with Jamie the Bouncer from the ‘Backer.
Actually, Jamie would pummel him in two seconds flat and snap him in half like a rain-soaked South Bend twig. But I digress.
The extended breaks seemingly cemented Kelly’s decision to go one small jersey number forward and two gigantic steps forward at QB. #10 and his errant passes were out and #11 and his scrawny body and accurate throws were in. People complain about Tommy’s small frame but all he does is rack up yards (296) and TDs (2).
Kelly either saw amazing throws from Crist in practice or wanted to give the senior – who, remember, has a year of eligibility remaining after this one – the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully at Michigan it’s Rees at the throttle with perhaps some packages for Ghoulson included.
I first-guessed BK for not play-faking to the tight end on that first goal-line series (Logan Washburn, you’re my witness) and will really first-guess him if he goes back to Dayne. Otherwise I have no problem with the game he called, or even his Old Yeller style, as attested by ND’s 5 yards per carry, 104 yards rushing, and 508 yards overall.
We have the talent to win in the Big House. But it’s going to take a return to stressing the fundamentals. It’s going to take leaders stepping up in practice as they did late in this never-ending game. It’s going to take guys being willing to endure a hard week. It’s going to take the mindset that 0-2 is unacceptable.
STEP IT UP, IRISH!
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