Notre Dame Defeats Michigan, Salvation Saturday For Fighting Irish

A year after being destroyed in Ann Arbor by the Wolverines with a 38-0 count, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame wanted to answer all the questions they were faced with and began doing so very quickly on Saturday. 

There are many things for the Irish to take away from this weekends performance, most importantly the fact they defeated the Wolverines 35-17.

Many have said if Michigan had not turned the ball over so frequently on Saturday that the Irish may would have had their work cut out for them and that the stats proved it. 

Fact: Michigan did turn the ball over six times to Notre Dame's two turnovers. 

Fact: Notre Dame turned the first two Michigan fumbles into touchdowns very early in the game, allowing the Irish to have some room to work and manage the game.

Overall the Irish walked out of Notre Dame Stadium 2-0 Saturday, already two-thirds of the way to last years win total. Although the Irish looked very strong at times, there are plenty of things that can be improved upon.

The biggest key in the game outside of Michigan turnovers was the fact the Irish were able to capitalize off of them. A year ago, no matter what kind of field position Notre Dame was blessed with, they seemed to find a way to not get in the endzone. 

Saturday this was not the case and everyone with anything to do with the offense deserves a pat on the back, even the offensive line which took a step in the right direction this weekend.

A week after I was unsatisfied with the play calling of the offense, it answered my questions.  It was obvious that the safeties of Michigan were weak, the whole secondary was weak, in fact.  The nice part about this was the third scoring drive of the game, where the Irish got the Wolverine secondary to fail in covering the playaction deep ball not only once, but twice.

You may remember that before Golden Tate was hit in stride by a perfectly thrown Jimmy Clausen deep ball, Michael Floyd had a step on his man on a very similar play which was only stopped because of a pass interferance call.  It seems like a video game to go ahead and run a very similar play on the very next down, but against the Michigan secondary it came up roses. 

The whole mentality of using something until it stopped working was great to see on Saturday.

The offensive line was not great, but has not allowed a sack in the first two weeks of 2008.  Say what you want about San Diego State, but Michigan has a very talented front seven that was unable to get to Clausen, only one year after being thrown to the ground for an entire afternoon in Ann Arbor. 

For what they were up against, the O-Line was a strong point for the Irish, despite only being able to generate an average of 3.3 yards per carry while running the ball.

Jimmy Clausen looked strong for the Irish as signs are starting to be shown to why he was such a highly regarded recruit. 

Not only was he right on the money on multiple deep balls, but he also knew how to evade the sack and when to throw the ball away on Saturday.  These are both things he has had much trouble with in the past and it was nice to see improvement in these areas from him.

The running game for the Irish only averaged 3.3 yards a carry as stated above, but it was not what the Irish were counting on to win this game. 

Credit the Irish coaching staff for knowing that if Clausen had time to throw, the offense would find success.  It was obvious from the first offensive snap of the game that Notre Dame was not going to even try to pound the ball down Michigan's throat, simply because they did not have to.

The passing game included Duval Kamara coming back and scoring a TD after his poor performance a week ago, but it was led once again by Sophomore playmaker Golden Tate. 

Watching this kid develop is a treat, especially thinking where he was a year ago, only being able to run fly routes for better or worse.  Sure he did have a long fly route this weekend but he also showed the ability to run the slant pattern and the capability to break a tackle—something Notre Dame wideouts don't always have.

Once again, Robert Hughes looked strong, running behind the line which has also improved for 79 yards to lead the Irish on the ground while scoring twice. 

The most important part of the running game to me was not only capitalizing on opportunities inside the 10 yard line, but not fumbling the ball when the rain's came.  We saw how Michigan handled the downpour, but to Notre Dame's credit they did not lose a fumble all afternoon.

Overall I give the offense a B+.  We were unable to pound the ball to kill clock as much as I would have liked in the second half but a very good performance on all fronts against a talented Michigan front seven.

The defense is where the obvious question marks were on Saturday afternoon.  John Tenuta and Corwin Brown found it to be important to blitz the outside against Michigan, but Rich Rodriguez had this scheme figured out. 

How often did Michigan throw dump off passes to exact location the blitz was coming from?  Far too many and any good team will torch Notre Dame that way.

The inablity to stop the run is something that scares me.  We have seen the struggles Michigan has had offensively this year and we noticed on Saturday how Notre Dame was unable to slow down the Michigan running game. 

Granted, the Irish did not see the running side of the spread offense San Diego State offered last week, but there were serious problems, Saturday.

There were times that the Irish had the Wolverines figured out and were seemingly on their way to three and outs.  How many times did we see Sam McGuffie shake tacklers and pick up first downs when he should have been stopped for a minimal gain at best? 

On Saturday, the front seven of Notre Dame were counting far too much for their defensive backs to step up and make plays against the run, something that should not have to be done.

Other than that the defense looked strong.  Blitzing on third down was a problem as I stated where Michigan continued to throw to where the blitz was coming from, especially on second and third and long situations.  This allowed an open zone in which Michigan exploited all day.  We can only hope this is adjusted before next weeks trip to East Lansing.

The pass defense was strong despite playing out of position at times with the blitzing.  A pair of interceptions and a lot of good coverage was seen. 

The only real problems with the play of the pass defense was the fact that on a corner and fly routes, I saw David Bruton burned too many times, not having a chance to even turn his head to the ball. 

I am guessing part of this comes from stepping up and trying to show blitz, but against a team with big time playmakers on the outside, it will burn the Irish defense.

Turnovers were forced and the defense kept Michigan at least two scores behind the entire game after the Irish took a 14-0 lead, but the inability to stop the run scares me. 

I give the defense a "C+" for Saturday afternoon.

Finally, the special teams of these two teams were night and day.  I know the wind was blowing but Michigan's return men flat out sucked on Saturday. 

Did anyone notice how the Irish didn't struggle to field kicks that came to them in the air? 

Credit the Irish for this.  Also credit Mike Anello once again for his play on special teams, getting down field and recovering a fumble Saturday. 

Sure we are yet to see a long return but Saturday was a flat out solid performance outside of one kickoff that went out of bounds. 

Give the Special Teams of Notre Dame an "A-" in this aspect of the game.

Overall Team Grade: B+

Game Balls Go To:

Offense: Golden Tate (again, this kid is a timebomb waiting to just explode)

Defense: David Bruton (although he had trouble getting back into coverage in time, he did force a pair of turnovers)

Special Teams: Mike Anello (This may be by default before long, his fumble recovery came up huge)