I would have thought they taught ND grads how to write in sentences.
IU vs ND
- Thread starter YOTHN
- Start date
I declare this the Indiana Bowl and if we win our bowl winning drought is over.
"Other than that, how did you like the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
Yikes. But probably right.
The ESPN Match Predictor gives ND a 70.4% chance to beat Indiana
"Well then. I guess there's only one thing left to do..."The ESPN Match Predictor gives ND a 70.4% chance to beat Indiana
"What's that?"
"Win the whole f-cking thing.*
132-7 combined score against the Boilers this year. ha ha ha
I took a look at the USC/ND stats and am back off the ledge somewhat.
I was watching that game at a bar with some other games going on, and was under the impression that ND was running at will, and USC was hanging in relying on the pass. However, the stats for the game don't indicate that. ND did have a ton of rush yards and averaged about 8 yds per carry, but USC had only slightly fewer rush yards and also avg about 8 yds/carry. And, overall, USC had about 100 more total yards than ND.
Obviously, we won't have the 70* weather. 20* and the home crowd are huge factors.
The two 100 yd int returns were impressive, as they demonstrate the type of big, fast athletes that ND throws at you. They have big play TBs and defenders, so they can turn games around pretty quickly.
The most important factor in the game may be whether IU can run the ball against ND. The stats say ND's run D is not as difficult as OSU's---averaging 1.5 more yards given up per carry than OSU.. The 2nd most important stat may be how effective IU's rush D will be. ND averages 6.3 yds/carry; IU's D gives up 2.5. If we could keep them to 4.0 and average 4.0 ourselves we have a shot. The 3rd stat to watch are sacks....need to keep them to 3 or less.
So, since you mentioned looking at stats after the game, let me give you some context.
ND was up with 6 minutes to go & went into a deep cover 3 defense.
USC threw the ball up & down the field to the red zone, then threw the 99 yard pick 6.
Then ND up 14 with 4 minutes to go went into a prevent defense, and USC once again threw the ball up & down the field & got in the red zone again. ND picked 6 them 100 yards, going up 21.
So USC racked up close to 150 passing yards on those two drives (skewing stats).
Then, up 21, with a minute to go, ND had in all its backups in a deep cover 4 prevent. USC ran draws, 3 times, for around 70 yards. That’s 23 per carry. That greatly skewed the stats. Then USC scored its final TD with 10 seconds to go in garbage time to make it a 14 point final.
One thing that people who cover ND have expressed is that all the injuries and cross country travel finally caught up with ND & they had tired legs against USC.
Losing 4 DBs throughout the year really took a toll on the secondary by forcing some starters to play a lot of snaps, and missing a few guys in the front 7 hindered the pass rush against USC.
Having 3 weeks off should remedy those two problems (tired legs & pass rush).
You make valid points in the first part of your post. You should have stopped there. Every football team in America can make the same case re injuries and "tired legs". ND certainly didn't travel cross country any more than the four west coast teams in the B1G. Rest helps everybody. I would guarantee that every team ND beat the last month of the season had a similar situation with at least one of their position groups.
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