I finally got a chance to watch a recording of the game to post my full thoughts on the game.

• James Aldridge looked to have a nice burst against Navy, but went down on arm tackles on  a few occasions where he had a chance for big gains.  On the first play of the game, for instance, Aldridge exploded through the hole only get brought down by an arm tackle from a from a Navy defensive back.  By the end of his junior year, he should be able to run right through that tackle.
• Armando Allen is starting to look very good on screen plays.  Notre Dame ran the screen very effective at times on Saturday with Eric Olsen and Dan Wenger leading the way most of the time.
• Jimmy Clausen’s 3 first half turnovers gives him 11 turnovers since half time of the UNC game.  That’s 11 turnovers in 3.5 games.  Don’t know what happened to Jimmy at halftime of UNC, but he hasn’t been the same quarterback since then and Weis’s decision to run, run, run against one of the worst pass defenses in Division 1A football doesn’t show a whole lot of confidence in his passing game.
• The one exception came on a second down in the fourth quarter when James Aldridge had 3 OL in front of him to set up a screen only to have a Navy defender split all 3 and blow the screen up.
• Robert Hughes ran as strong as he has all season.  He looked like the running back we saw at the end of 2007 for the first time this year.  He finished with 64 yards on 13 carries.  Not amazing numbers, but pretty solid.  Hughes also scored his 3rd touchdown of the season and I have no seen all of Hughes’s touchdowns in person this year so expect a couple Hughes TDs next week.
• While Hughes ran pretty well, we looked lost on the onside kick return team - so did the rest of the onside kick return team though.  Have they practice recovering onside kicks at all this year?
• Robert Blanton’s tackle on the first play of the game was one of the better tackles I have seen a corner make for Notre Dame since the days of Shane Walton earned consensus All American status.  Blanton still needs to become more consistent in this area, but he is showing a lot of promise.
• David Bruton has all of the measurables, but is going to need to show some better hands be a first day draft pick.  Bruton dropped two sure interceptions in the first quarter.
• I don’t mind that the decision to use the wildcat formation since we have the personnel for it to be effective.  I do, however, think it wasn’t wise to show the formation at the end of the first quarter without enough time to get the play off and then the decision to stick with it at the start of the second quarter.  It gave Navy time to prepare a suitable defense for it.
• Speaking of the wildcat formation, despite tipping our hand by showing it at the end of the first quarter, there was the potential for a HUGE gain if Golden Tate takes the ball and turns it outside.  The outside edge was sealed and there was a ton of wide open space with the corner giving a huge cushion.
• There were, however, a few play calls which were rather questionable.  The first was the QB sneak on 3rd and 4 at the ND 13 yard line.  The other was the fade to Tate at the end of the second quarter.  With a 6′5″ wide receiver in Duval Kamara, why not call the fade to him and let him go up and get it.  Tate’s been great at coming down with the ball, but at 5′11″ the fade isn’t his forte.
• The first drive in the second half featured excellent play calling.  It was Charlie Weis play calling circa 2005.  Short flare passes and effective runs.  It had Navy on its heels and the blocking allowed for all of the plays to be effective.
• Speaking of blocking, the offensive line had a good push all day long and the wide receivers did some of their best blocking of the season.  When it came to pass blocking though, there were a few instances where Navy beat Irish OL with simple pass rush moves.  The OL still reacts more often than it attacks in pass protection.
• The Notre Dame defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage most of the game with Justin Brown, Ian Williams, and Pat Kuntz all turning in great games.  Williams especially played well and had his best game of the season.
• Remember when Golden Tate talked about the Irish letting up in games?  Well after Robbie Parris batted the first Navy onside kick forward out of bounds, he was shown laughing on the sidelines about the penalty.  The penalty ended up be pretty costly as Navy recovered the the rekick and their comeback was on.  It might seem trivial, but it shows a lack of focus by the players.  They thought the game was over when it clearly wasn’t.
• Speaking of a lack of focus at the end of the game, the roughing the kicker penalty on David Bruton after Navy’s first fourth quarter touchdown ended up giving the Middies great field position when they recovered a second onside kick.
• Third down defense was excellent.  After Notre Dame’s first touchdown of the second half, Navy faced a 3rd and 3 that Ian Williams blew up.  For the game, Navy converted just 1 of 13 third downs.
• How about the game Toryan Smith turned in filling in for Brian Smith?  Smith recorded 10 tackles and returned a blocked punt for a touchdown.  I could, however, have done without the excessive celebration.
• How did Raeshon McNeil let a Navy WR behind him in the final two minutes?  Wish I knew.

UND.com posted the full video of the “Irish Eyes” Drill (the drill in which a defender lines up in front of a blocker and needs to shed the block and tackle a running back).  Here are my observations on the drill with my full notes of each play I could make out on the video after the jump.

• Sam Young didn’t look good at all here.  Justin Brown, Morrice Richardson, and Pat Kuntz all got the better of Young in this drill and I didn’t see him win any battles.
• Chris Stewart on the other hand flat out dominated from what I could see.  He flattened Toryan Smith on one play prompting the entire defense to go nuts.
• Speaking of Toryan Smith, his window of opportunity seems to be closing - he didn’t look good in this drill and with all of the young talent at linebacker in the freshman class, he is going to have an up hill battle for playing time.
• Eric Olsen looked pretty good at times.  He and Stewart appear to be our best run blockers thus far.
• Brian Smith looks like he has the strength to play inside linebacker.  He didn’t win every battle, but won more than he lost.
• Hafis Williams looks like he could be a player down the line.  He will need a lot of work on his technique as evidenced by Braxston Cave pancaking him, but he also looked great the next time out against Cave and just swallowed up the running back.
• Ethan Johnson looked quick, but got over powered at times.
• Kerry Neal was another guy who looked really good at times in this drill.
• Paul Duncan, who is battling Michael Turkovich for the LT spot, had his moments.
• Pat Kuntz got stood up a couple of times by Stewart and Olsen.
• Steve Filer and Joseph Fauria had a couple battles with each winning one.

Continue reading for a complete play by play of this drill

Theres a number of videos from yesterday’s media interviews up on YouTube and all of them are worth watching.

First up is an interview with new Linebackers Coach Jon Tentua.

Click here for more videos of Corwin Brown, Ian Williams, David Bruton, and Toryan Smith

Charlie Weis spoke of six plays that really changed the Boston College game during his Sunday press conference. If these plays go the other way, maybe the score is reversed, but that’s why they play the games. Anyway, here are the plays Weis identified as the game changers

1. 52 Yard Run by L.V. Whitworth - 1st Quarter
Shortly after Mo Crum left the game, BC busted off this 52 yard run right through the middle of the defense. Toryan Smith and Joe Brockington were the only two linebackers in the game for the Irish and for one of the few times this year, Trevor Laws was blown off the line of scrimmage. Laws got pushed back into Smith to open the hole and Whitworth was off.

“Our defense really didn’t give up one drive that didn’t start in plus territory with the exception of that one drive for score. And on that drive you had a 52-yard run in there that really was the main difference between getting off the field and giving up points.”

2. Bad snap from JJ Jansen which resulted in Geoff Price’s knee touching the ground on a punt in the second quarter.
Jansen’s snap was definitely low, but Price as a fifth year senior needs to know that he can’t pick up the ball with his knee on the ground. Even if the punt went into the end zone for a touchback (which we don’t know if it would have since the play was whistled dead) that is a 39 yard difference in field position.

3. Clausen’s second interception on the Notre Dame’s first offensive play of the 3rd quarter
Jimmy should probably never have made the throw because Carlson had blanket coverage on him.

4. Excessive Celebration on Brian Smith’s interception return for a touchdown after Notre Dame cut the deficit to six points
Notre Dame had a little pile up in the end zone with some players from the bench which resulted in an excessive celebration penalty. It’s tough to fault these kids for getting excited, but they have to know the rules better and avoid these penalties because they are field position killers.

“I don’t think the referees were too upset when the team that was on the field was partying. It’s when the other guys came on the field and got involved in it. And I don’t blame the officials for calling it. We need to do a better job of controlling ourselves, and you know, that one falls on me.“

5. Kickoff coverage on the ensuing kickoff
When I saw us lining up to kickoff from the 15 I knew we were in trouble since our kickoffs routinely only reach the 10 yard line, but the coverage unit still did a bad job of containing the return. Boston College started that drive at the ND 44 yard line and five plays later Ryan threw his second touchdown of the game

6. Holding on the 4th and 1 that would have been a touchdown
Turkovich got flagged for holding on a play that should have cut the deficit to 27-21 with just under six minutes left in the game. The crowd was rocking and the Irish would have been down six with all of the momentum in the world, but

“You can call it holding. You could not call it, too. But you could call it holding. He’s engaged with him the whole time. It wasn’t like the guy went by him and he grabbed him. He’s locked on to him at the line of scrimmage, and the guy’s going to his outside, and he’s still locked on to him. The guy’s coming around, and he’s still locked on to him. So the official can call holding on the play. I would prefer that he didn’t, but there is enough evidence on the tape where you can see him call holding.”