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Notre Dame passes first test
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What was billed as a possible trap game for the Irish was over early as Notre Dame easily defeated Nevada 35-0 at South Bend.
The Good
The passing game. Clausen goes 15 for 18 for 315 and four touchdowns. Can’t get much better than that.
The combination of Floyd and Tate proved lethal for a Nevada secondary trying to improve from last year’s worst squad in Division 1. Combined they caught 7 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns. Clausen day was made easy as these two took short passes and turned them into big plays.
The running game showed improvement over last year. Armando Allen led the Irish with 72 yards and Jonas Gray added another 50. Given that Notre Dame didn’t try to run up the score and ran safe runs up the middle for most of the second half, it was a solid performand.
The Defense. Blitz, Blitz, and Blitz again. ND pitch their first shut out since 2002. More importantly, they showed an aggressiveness that has been missing on that side of the ball for the last couple years. Jon Tenuta had an impressive debut as the head defensive coordinator holding a team that scored 30 or more 11 times last year.
The Bad
Only time will tell how good this Nevada team is and what kind of squad was shut down today. If the Wolf Pack’s Pistol offense starts firing again next week, looks like Notre Dame will be a force to be reckoned with all year. Given that this is only the third time in Nevada coach Chris Ault's 25 years as coach that he has been shut out, it looks good for the Blue and Gold this year.
You don’t want to criticize a 35-0 victory, but there is always room for improvement. The pass blocking was impressive, picking up where they left off last year. The run blocking showed improvement, but need work. The Irish backs were routinely hit near the line of scrimmage.
On defense the hits were hard. It seems that the Irish had a bend but don’t break philosophy until Nevada crossed the 50. It seemed as though they found a new level when the Wolf Pack would get into ND territory. Again, can’t criticize a shut out, but the defense didn’t consistently wrap up the runner, leading to miss tackles. Chalk it up to first game blues and look for steady improvement in Ann Arbor.
It seemed that Nevada had an early advantage on the ground and that the Irish Defensive Line seemed overwhelm. Nevada abandoned the run too early and in hindsight could have given Notre Dame had they stayed with it and try to eat up clock.
The Ugly
An injury to fullback James Aldridge was the only black spot of the game. It is too early to tell how serious the injury is or how long it will keep him out.
The only other Ugly was the surprising performance of Michigan, next weeks opponent. They were expected to win, but not so convincingly. It appears the Wolverines in the locker room have rallied around Coach Rodriguez and what appeared to be a moderate test in Ann Arbor will be harder than the Irish fans may have thought.
All in all, the rest of the opponents on the Irish schedule, criticize by many as too easy, went 8-2 (the Washington LSU game had not concluded by press time) and one of those losses was Navy, who gave Ohio State all they could handle. The other loss was Washington State who played Stanford, another ND opponent this year. Critics may have spoken too early about the soft schedule.
Kudos
To Charlie Weis. He handled the billboard incident with good humor and grace. On Saturday he could have given lessons to many head coaches with more experience. He had Nevada down, and could have won this game by at least three more touchdowns. He let off the gas, and Clausen finished with only 18 pass attempts. Too many coaches care more about rankings and highlights and forget that one of the things you are supposed to learn in football is good sportsmanship.
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