Rakes Report #201: You had better call your priest and hope the devil gets the rest before I do (Oh, and I will do) (The Clemson Review)
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~mandatory musical accompaniment~
1) When I tried to visualize a Notre Dame win over the course of last week, I always fell short. No matter how many trustworthy, smart people explained how the Irish could win or picked them in the game I lacked the imagination to see how they’d score enough, even as the line sat at a little over a field goal all week when I expected it to balloon at any moment. Would there be inclement weather? What about a flood of Clemson fans? There were so many things that could go wrong, but instead so many of them went right, and the Irish knocked off a Top 5 opponent at home in delightfully violent fashion, giving Marcus Freeman a signature win in the ninth game of his inaugural season.
This victory is wonderful in a vacuum no matter how you slice it: It’s a three-touchdown primetime win over an undefeated team in November in which the Irish just bullied their opponent into submission, scoring in all three phases of the game. It was such a dominant performance that a disingenuous huckster who’s had a lot of success in the playoff era called it one of the most disappointing days of his 14-year head coaching career. Clemson has lost games, but they don't get physically and spiritually dominated like this, not like what the Irish did over the course of 60 minutes. It’s a game that everyone who was there will remember always and one those that missed will regret not attending, the thought in the back of your head when you’re debating whether you want to make the trek to South Bend when there’s a little doubt in your heart.
But just as importantly, if not more so than that, it’s a proof of concept for Freeman to take around wherever he needs: This is what Notre Dame football can be with him at the helm. Sure, the passing game needs some work, but that’s nothing a couple good recruiting cycles and savvy work in the transfer portal can’t fix. What’s there already is physicality and belief and spirit and camaraderie and a crowd that’s behind all of it, literally bursting at the seams to storm the field and be one with this coach and this team and to believe. That’s the message you can take to any recruit, any player pondering a transfer, any donor, any administrator, any prospective assistant or staffer you’re interviewing, any media rights holder thinking of cutting a check to buy into this experience. It’s right there, a tangible thing, already done and in the record books forever. That’s the kind of win this is.
2) What makes Benjamin Morrison’s night particularly amazing is we were already talking about how well he was playing before he had an interception, and then — and then! — he had another one he returned 96 yards for a touchdown to truly seal things. I don’t know if “Ben Morrison Clemson” is something everyone will recognize 15 years later and know exactly what you mean like “Mo Crum UCLA,” but it has the potential. What a night. Mike Mickens was a really exciting hire at cornerbacks coach and while play had been solid it is so rewarding to see a freshman who was a blue-chipper but not elite of elite come in and already play like this. Plus fellow frosh Jaden Mickey, plus the dudes verbally committed to join the fray next season. Very exciting.
Morrison’s job was made easier by the consistent pressure on whomever was back there at quarterback for Clemson. On Morrison’s first pick, it was Justin Ademilola screaming in on Cade Klubnik, forcing the five-star freshman into a poor throw on his only attempt of the night. How often was the ball snapped only to find Howard Cross or Jayson Ademilola or Isaiah Foskey already motoring into the backfield? How great was TaRiq Bracy on corner blitzes? How sound were the linebackers and safeties (D.J. Brown played with his hair on fire) sniffing out and cutting off any of those long conversions that have plagued this team all season, and never letting any of the infinite number of short throws to the sideline that Clemson’s entire offense revolved around until the final minutes get loose? We’ve been concerned about the run defense all season but this is two stout performances in a row against two of the best tailbacks in the ACC. J.D. Bertrand, who’s been maligned at times, showed out Saturday night with 12 tackles, a sack and another tackle for loss. Clemson has an inexperienced offensive coaching staff and Al Golden absolutely cooked them for the entire night. Astounding.
3) For as good as Golden was on Saturday night, Tommy Rees was right there, boosted by Harry Hiestand and Deland McCullough. Coming into this game I kept thinking “If Drew Pyne can give us five good throws, we can steal this,” and while he didn’t hit that number — he only completed nine in the game for the second straight week — when you throw in his two second-quarter runs he made just enough plays. Obviously that game plan could not have worked if not for one of the best performances you will see from an offensive line and tailbacks that just kept coming and coming and always falling forward and always shrugging off the first attempt against a defense boasting some of the most talented players in the country.
In-season coaching is about accepting what you have and trying to maximize it, which is what this staff did. Do we wish things were a little more balanced and a little more dynamic through the air? Of course, but that ended up being quite a bit of fun to watch. The highlights included the toughness of Audric Estime and Logan Diggs on the way to dual 100-yard games, the creative use of Michael Mayer, getting Chris Tyree to the edge to help goose the passing game as he also helped as a blocker, Jayden Thomas' absurd catch and the cumulative blocking of Mayer, Thomas and Mitchell Evans. You just cannot say enough about this offensive line, this was as good as a performance against a good team as a Hiestand line has ever had.
While the offense was creaky to start, it was quite solid over the game’s final six drives. Consider:
11 plays for 78 yards to score the game’s first offensive touchdown before halftime.
On the first drive of the second half, they didn’t score, but they started on their own five, moved it 52 yards in seven plays without a turnover to engage the Sot Protocol and flip the field was good.
On the next drive, moved it 34 yards on seven plays and let Sot pin them back again, which led to…
Three plays for 14 yards and a score after the first interception.
11 plays for 75 yards and the final Mayer touchdown.
Kneel outs.
Overall, Game on Paper had Notre Dame down at a 52% offensive success rate, which would rank in the 88th percentile of performances. (Conversely, Clemson was at 37%, good for 28th percentile.) They turned the ball over zero times and allowed just four tackles for loss the entire night. Clean as a sheet save for the flurry of batted passing attempts early.
Biggest testament to the Irish defense (and embarrassment for the Clemson offense): Pyne had just 85 yards on the day and still finished with a higher yards per attempt than DJ Uiagalelei. By 0.1, sure, but that still counts.
4) We’ve praised a lot of coaches before mentioning the name of Brian Mason, whose punt block unit (visualization of your goals is so important) came through in the biggest way yet with Jordan Botelho and Prince Kollie combining for an early score this team so desperately needed to be playing from in front. Blake Grupe missed another one, not good. Jon Sot’s Ray Guy campaign needs to be going full bore now, the guy is incredible.
5) I can't remember the last time an officiating analyst dismissed two consecutive pass interference flags like Terry McAulay did when the ACC referees decided they wanted to make it a 21-7 game. Thankfully, Morrison stepped in and justice was served, but two straight weeks of nonsense.
It turns out if you want a good crowd for a football game you just need to play a big-name opponent and then do something really really cool in the early going (like, say, blocking a punt for a touchdown) that gets them bought in and buzzing for the rest of the game. Rocket science, this is not. Only one game left on NBC this season.
Unless North Carolina suffers a complete collapse, they will play Clemson for the ACC title which means after Saturday's performance the Irish cinched up a conference title. Not bad for an independent.
Brief stats talk: SP+ offers a number called postgame win expectancy, which is if you take away the sequencing and just look at the final numbers from a game, how often would a team that played like that win. (It’s a good way to sniff out victories that turned on bad bounces and flukes, in theory.) If it feels like the Irish have been playing well lately, postgame win expectancy backs that up. That number was at 3.6% against Ohio State and 21.9% against Marshall. Since then, it was 82.8% against Cal, 96.2% against North Carolina, 89.8% against BYU, 76.9% against Stanford despite the loss (sigh), 98.9% against UNLV, 99.1% against Syracuse and a pristine, perfect, unimpeachable 100.0% against the Clemson Tigers.
This is going to be the only remote bummer paragraph of this so skip if you like: Because the Irish did it so well for so long, the idea of Winnings Games You're Supposed To kind of ended up being partially dismissed or handwaved as boring and perfunctory, but to make the big games mean the most you have to take care of your business prior to them. If Notre Dame had beaten Marshall and Stanford then Saturday night would have been a battle for playoff positioning against a team ranked far higher in the polls than they were in F+ instead of playing spoiler like a Pitt or Purdue that gets a nice win but still ends up with a crooked number of losses. But to end a glum paragraph on a rosier note, the important things that separates the Irish from those teams is high-level success lately and historically as well as the recruiting classes lined up, which means this great win can be a springboard and not a random one-off. This is something sturdy off of which to build long-term, but it would be nice if it also meant more specifically for the highest goals this season.
6) Winning Is Hard/Schadenfreude Round-Up: Well, the No. 4 team in the playoff rankings was losing 28-0 on the road before a couple vanity touchdowns late to make things look a little more respectable. Notable, I think. Tennessee did not have it against Georgia. Alabama lost in overtime at LSU, losing a second regular season game for only the second time in the playoff era. Tallahassee in 2014 remains the only time a pick play has ever been called offensive pass interference in the history of college football.
Ohio State had all kinds of trouble against Northwestern but the quest for 0-for-the-United-States continues. Michigan trailed at the half against Rutgers but then was fine. USC struggled with Cal. Illinos was rolling along but stubbed their toe in a major way against Sparty, who got to play spoiler after being spoiled by Purdue last year. Purdue got smacked by Iowa. Oklahoma State lost again, this time to Kansas. Syracuse lost again, this time to Pitt. Wake Forest lost again, this time to NC State. We have joked at Dave Doeren’s expense but he kept the wheels on for the Wolfpack this year when they easily could have gone bouncing off the berm.
Miami lost to Florida State 45-3, have completely given up on the season, and probably won’t make a bowl. Texas A&M was more game but still lost at home to Florida for their first five-game losing streak since Jimmy Carter was in office and might not make a bowl. Boise was building some momentum but lost at home to a BYU team that appeared to be kaput. Oklahoma lost again — this time at home to Baylor — if you want to compare and contrast first year coaches. Hey, Marshall didn’t lose this week! That’s good. (Stanford did, by a lot, to Wazzu.) Missouri lost a chance at beating Kentucky due to a brutal roughing the punter call that was accurate by the letter of the rule but seems to violate the spirit of it.
7) That was such a wonderful win and we should all savor it because it's why we follow this team through so much, to get to come together in celebration of moments like that. To make Dabo's life miserable and spur a mini existential crisis for the Tigers? Couldn't ask for more - a dream. Now it's time to keep playing at that level, close out these next two weeks and bring some stakes to Los Angeles for the finale. Not just winning, but dominating, when you're already out of the biggest races and so many teams across the country have let go of the rope is noble work and why I think fondly back on the closing streak of 2019, when coming off the washout in Ann Arbor and the scare against the Hokies they kept it together to destroy their final five opponents.
If you wanted to set off as many red flags as possible, Team That's Already Dropped A Couple Games As A Multi-Touchdown Favorite Is Coming Off A Monster Win And Will Be Feted On Campus All Week Before Playing A Noon Kickoff Against Navy In A Presumably Sterile NFL Stadium would do the trick. The Midshipmen stink, but the next step for Freeman is to handle success as a favorite. Notre Dame should just be able to lean on its run game and have their talented defensive line make enough plays to get out with a win but hey, I don’t have to tell you how a Navy game can go sideways.
The Freeman Era is off to a fine start, giving enough results on which you can justifiably dream on further. That’s a big check-plus for season one, but we can still aspire to something a little higher in the short-term even with the earlier hiccups. No reason to lose now. Keep going. Keep winning.
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