Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly will always take a win, but he knows his team needs to clean up the turnovers heading into a showdown with Stanford.
Video: Brian Kelly Happy With Win, Not With Turnovers
They have to play better than they did the last 2 weeks to have a chance
against Stanford.
This was a very uneven game. I did indeed like what I saw from the defense – this is the first game I’ve been able to watch all year – although I remain concerned that a quarterback with a quick release may find a weakness in the secondary. I hope that I am wrong. Van Gordimer seems to have his squad getting better every week, i.e, they don’t seem to make the same mistakes more than once or twice.
Everett Golson is a different player from the last time I saw him. What I liked most of all was his confidence and his game management. We all knew that he was an excellent athlete but we wondered about his grasp of the offence and his capacity to lead. That question has been answered.
My main concern remains with the lack of a running game. Bryant seems to want to dipsey-doodle his way down field for a big gain every time he gets the ball. If he focused his eyes on the first down marker a little more often the big runs will happen in time. It’s early but on Saturday he reminded me of George Atkinson III who – as we all remember – did not like to run north and south. The offensive line remains a concern as well but considering that it was revamped over the bye week they proved themselves well. I think we’ll see them get stronger as a unit over the next week or two.
Bring on Stanford. ND is a better team right now. Can they play like a better team? Let’s see.
Go Irish
Sadly, BK fed the misdirected attention when he chimed in during his after- game initial comment, redirecting the discussion back to our turnovers when answering, “What did you learn about your team tonight”?
What Coach Kelly should have learned is what we all learned, not that you can’t win with 5 turnovers, but that with Golson, his sure handed receivers (and welcome to Torii Hunter Jr.), and a stifling D’, you CAN WIN with 5 turnovers, and quite handily. Coach, be guilty of neither minimizing the maximum nor maximizing the minimum, as Dr. King once reminded us. It’s fine to strive for excellence, coach; it’s better, before criticizing, to highlight that ND history was made, and Everett Golson and his receivers accomplished it. 25 completions in a row= 25 accurate catchable passes in which none were dropped. Remember that we witnessed an ND passing offense doing what no other in ND history has ever done, plus 11- and most importantly, accomplish victory, again scoring at least 30 points four consecutive games to start a season, which throughout our celebrated history, ND hasn’t done for over 70 years.
That’s what I learned about our team.