Rakes Report #219: Take if you can, give if you must, ain't nobody but yourself to trust (The Central Michigan Review)
I'll tell you where the real road lies: Between your ears, behind your eyes. That is the path to paradise - likewise, the road to ruin.
~optional musical accompaniment~
1) Let’s be lazy and begin this with the same words Marcus Freeman used to start his postgame press conference: “I tried to tell the team these wins are hard to come by and we are so greedy and selfish and we want it to be perfect and that's just who we are as coaches.” Very difficult to be perfect in a game with an oblong ball and this many moving parts, and Notre Dame was far from that on Saturday despite the large spread and good feelings following three comfortable victories. Even though it was within a score at the half and a little sketchy at times after the break, I would never say things were legitimately stressful. However, I would have loved to avoid running Audric Estime that many times against a MAC team while leaving Sam Hartman out there to have his leg worked over by a Central Michigan defense doing their best Ric Flair impersonation but the job got done and it seems like everyone escaped in relatively good health. Business now picks up.
2) Not the most sterling effort from the defense, which alternated between wiping out the Chippewas (forced a half dozen three-and-outs, including on three of the first four drives as well as the final three to salt things away) and looking like they’d never played football before. A lot of that could be attributed to brain drain, as I’m not sure how many snaps there have been the last couple years with neither J.D. Bertrand nor D.J. Brown on the field directing traffic. (Thankfully, it seems like both will be back on Saturday.) Then throw in the fact Al Golden spent the week preparing for a run-first, -second, -and-third starting quarterback only to get a more traditional replacement.
On the plus side, Thomas Harper and Javonte Jean-Baptiste continued to make the transfer portal work from the staff look smart, while Jason Onye and Donovan Hinish did a nice job in the middle in their limited reserve snaps. On the downside, there were again too many penalties, no forced turnovers (although the horrific fumble luck continues), low tackles for loss numbers and some really sloppy tackling. The overall numbers ended up fine-ish (especially love holding a team to 3-of-13 on third down), but they’ll need to be much sharper going forward.
3) You can’t say enough about what Audric Estime is doing. He’s always been physical and efficient but now he’s adding in the explosive runs with increasing frequency along with the Chippewa hurdling. With the way the carries were distributed in the first two games there was talk of a four- or five-headed tailback monster but the recent allotment underscores who is top of the food chain by a wide margin. If the offensive line can continue to gel and Sam Hartman can keep the safeties honest a lot of linebackers are going to have very miserable times attempting to bring down a rolling back vault with a head of steam in space.
We’ve discussed this already but Estime’s former backfield mate Chris Tyree has made such a smooth transition to receiver, looking the part on the designed deep routes but also becoming a capable outlet for his quarterback in scramble situations. Speaking of backfield mates and smoothness, Jadarian Price had one of the niftiest runs of the game. Hopefully getting one of the easier 75-yard scores you’ll see collected builds on last week’s nice performance for Tobias Merriweather, who really looks the part out there and has been a game blocker since Dublin. Rico Flores finally got loose (and almost had another one on a pretty ball by Steve Angeli at the end) and Holden Staes had another slick grab for a score (and an unfortunate hold that wiped out another long Estime run). This was also a nice bounceback game for Jayden Thomas after being shut out in Raleigh, but the opposition is going to play a lot more like the Wolfpack than the Chippewas this weekend.
It rules that Notre Dame's quarterback averaged nearly 13 yards per attempt and more than 20 yards per completion with three scores and no picks and it's something we can just sort of mention offhand down here. Unless his receivers get more separation than expected in the coming weeks, he’s going to have to roll the dice a bit more, but that deep ball is capable of giving plenty of chances.
(Potential issue: Mitchell Evans missed the game due to concussion protocol following a practice. While his reception numbers weren’t splashy, he’s played nearly every snap for the offense and is huge in the running game. If he can’t go against the Buckeyes, that’s an issue, as the Irish are already down a couple players at the position.)
4) Individually each of the decisions is defensible but we’re in a situation where Notre Dame has attempted four 50+ yard field goals in the last two games. Maybe need to tweak this process a bit? Even if Spencer Shrader puts a charge into all of them. The officiating was atrocious, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like the blown call on the Estime run that was clearly short, called a first down on the field, missed by replay initially but then overturned on a second review? Apparently double jeopardy doesn’t apply here? Very embarrassing. I would not say the NBC booth is getting better and I wonder if anyone says something to their broadcast partner about the color commentator victim-blaming the quarterback who took a cheap shot.
The Peacock feed messed up so many times (at one point I got an ad for Sephora in Spanish) and I want to apologize for the quality of GIFs in here because even the extended highlights posted to YouTube I pulled from looked like crap.
5) Winning Is Hard Round Up: No. 11 Tennessee went down to The Swamp and got routed by Graham Mertz, who was legitimately quite solid and even hit the Vince Young pump fake on a run. Georgia was down 14-3 at the half at home against South Carolina but shutout the Gamecocks 21-0 after the break. Florida State would have lost at Boston College as a four-touchdown favorite if not for the Eagles being one of the most penalized teams in the nation, such sloppy play. Colorado State blew a chance for a big win at Colorado via some conservative choices and so, so many penalties (what is it with teams recently coached by Steve Addazzio?). Michigan only led Bowling Green by eight at the half. Texas and Wyoming were tied late in the third quarter. The Tyler Buchner Experience did not last very long for Alabama, who played a real sicko game against South Florida, tied at 3 well into the second half before barely pulling away.
Speaking of gross games, the Backyard Brawl was a perfect abomination, as both teams tried to set the sport of football back three decades. Pat Narduzzi and an anemic passing attack succeeded in scoring the fewest points, falling to 1-2 on the season and doing his best to incite a riot among Panther fans by refusing to make a change at quarterback. Kansas State was a short road favorite at Mizzou and fell on the longest field goal in SEC history.
Vanderbilt lost at UNLV, with Del Alexander’s Running Rebel receivers outfoxing Clark Lea’s defense. Arkansas lost at home to BYU. Cincinnati lost to Chuck Martin’s Redhawks. Oklahoma State and Mike Gundy got blown out by Southern Alabama. Matt Campbell and Iowa State lost at Ohio. Arizona State was blown out at home by Fresno State in Drew Pyne’s Sun Devils debut. Stanford lost at home to Sacramento State. Cal trailed Idaho 17-0 at home but rallied for the win, and Wake Forest did the same from the same score against Old Dominion. Memphis barely scraped by Navy. The final score of Wisconsin/Georgia Southern was not reflective of the Badgers' play.
6) After an uninspiring first couple of games and a slow start against Western Kentucky, the Buckeyes flexed on Saturday, winning 63-10 and showing off their deep array of weapons. Ohio State is one of the most talented teams in the country, a depth chart littered with guys who would have been the prize of any recent Notre Dame class. Think of how nice it was to have a Michael Mayer or Kyle Hamilton then multiply that by a relatively large number.
A game I’ve had rattling around in my head when pondering the danger of this matchup is Ohio State’s visit to Happy Valley last season. Penn State took a 21-16 lead with 9:16 remaining and seven minutes of game time later the Buckeyes were up 20, with big plays from tailback TreVeyon Henderson (five star, #1 at his position in the composite) and defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau (No. 4 overall recruit in his class). If you overcompensate on Henderson you leave yourself susceptible to Emeka Egbuka (five star, No. 1 receiver in his class) and Marvin Harrison, Jr. (only No. 97 in the composite, but now a likely top five pick). All four of these young men are projected to be selected in the first round of April’s draft. And if you want to give the Notre Dame defense a bump for being in their second year under Al Golden, this is Year Two for Jim Knowles in Columbus as well.
But going back to last year’s opener, the Irish acquitted themselves well despite some serious flaws. The quarterback gap in that game was a chasm, but that’s been eliminated entirely. Notre Dame’s number one receiver from that game is now a defensive back, both lines struggled and two of the offense’s best half dozen-ish players were out with injury and yet still there was a second half lead. Ohio State had to replace a great deal of talent on the offensive line and while this is a step up in competition for the Irish from their highwater mark of NC State it’s an even bigger jump for the Buckeyes from what they’ve seen this season (Indiana, Youngstown State and the Hilltoppers) to Notre Dame. We’re going to learn quite a bit about both of these teams.
The Buckeyes’ visit begins a stretch of four opponents who are currently a combined 12-0 and all ranked in the top 34 of the SP+. Notre Dame has checked every box over the first third of the season but the road from now until the first bye is going to be a bear, starting with the massive opportunity on Saturday night. The eyes of the college football world will be on South Bend, with a chance to potentially flip some recruits and alter some narratives. But most importantly, it would be a major step toward the playoff for a team I would very much like to see participating in the final four.
Big night. Big game. Big chance for a statement. The Irish are absolutely capable of winning this but it’s going to take their best effort. Couldn’t be more excited to see them try.