Instant Analysis: Thoughts Post-Game Against NIU

Northern Illinois was better than Notre Dame in all four phases of football today from coaching defense and special teams and especially offense 1614 upset win over the Irish I am timal with Tim prester from Irish Illustrated John Bryce with a football scoop and this instant analysis is brought to you by the RV housing Hall of Fame in Elkart Indiana and Tim Jer 62 yard attempt might as well have been from Elkart at the end of that one cuz that wasn't going in if it wasn't blocked no it wasn't and what they needed prior to that was for Riley Leonard to connect with Mitch Evans and allow him to run out of bounds and get a little bit more reasonable I'm not sure how far it was cuz in the opposite end zone at that time but uh man you know if we thought like we were thinking a loss to tchm would really hurt nordan's playoff chances this could this could sink it right here at 11 and one and there's so much water to to go under the bridge it's difficult to say that obviously but Nord Dame strength the schedule with Florida State taking a dive and Georgia Tech losing to Syracuse today this going to be really hard to recover from and and frankly we're we're talking about 10 straight victory that offense isn't going 111 right we're talking we're talking about 10 straight victories with a with an offense that uh they can't throw the ball downfield we I I asked Marcus Freeman about that on Monday and he he took offense to that um they can't throw the ball down field John it was a one very bad underthrow Riley leard said bad read bad ball bad feet and it was his fault badly underthrown ball that it put Northern Illinois at Midfield for what became the game-winning field goal yeah and it was um it was an an extremely underthrown ball it looked like Mitchell had a step on the guy if if Riley leads him instead of under throws it then um there was a chance for a big play Notre Dame saying that they absolutely wanted to take a shot in that situation um just really inconsistent with their identity on offense over the course of this game they ran Riley Leonard a lot in the first quarter I think you said seven times they had some other gas ing runs uh nothing um that sprung like last week at Texas A&M but they had more success running than they did throwing and yet they they just didn't establish anything remotely resembling an identity and I I just think that for all the equity that was gained last week at Texas A&M you more than lost and gave it away today fully legitimate concerns going to this game that the offense would struggle I figured they would get to a half start and then have a good 10-minute period where they couldn't it was most of the game they did not play well after the opening touchdown Drive nor had 10 more possessions and nine of them came up empty including two black field goals and if not for an amazing run by Jeremiah Love 10 of them might have come up empty the offensive line regressed today and you know you anticipate that happening after a performance like that not necessarily against this team because their best defensive lineman didn't play right so you thought there would be some inroads there but uh but the ell in the middle of that defensive line did a pretty darn good job and and uh they just couldn't sustain anything it was obvious right from the very beginning that uh the offense line was not going to be sharp today uh you hope that you know I kept saying just just get the lead before halftime you can go in with a little bit of confidence they couldn't do that but they did enough in the in the third quarter to to take the lead but there's just no consistency and and you know the defensive side of the football they just couldn't they couldn't stop the run when they had to including the fourth and short that allowed that last drive to continue in for their kicker to to kick the game winning Feld goal John Northern Illinois 43 snaps in the second half Notre Dame 21 that is not a way to win a game at home or on the road NIU coming in here and controlling scrimmage like that it was the biggest surprise of the game it was and Northern Illinois had a almost 10-minute Edge in time of possession and Notre Dame had 85 yards I believe on its uh opening possession that resulted in a touchdown and then Notre Dame might have only had I think 200 yards the entire rest of the day again really disjointed offensively could not get off the field on defense and Notre Dame continues to be absolutely abysmal offensively on third down I think now after two games the Irish are six for 25 on third down they try to be at 50% or better that's not even 25% that's a recipe to to lose a game you have no business losing I think I saw online this is Notre Dame's worst home loss uh as that size of a betting favorite since 1996 Northwest Northwestern yeah Northwestern went to the Rose Bowl Northern Illinois not going to the Rose bow but real quick segue Tim M leer had two field goals blocked today I mean the 62 y can get blocked because he has to drive it and it's a hail you you have to get low on it and hope the wind helps you out he had a 47 y blocked that proved crucial as well yeah he kicked it low I mean we were spoiled a little bit by Spencer Rider last year he could get elevation and really bang it uh Jeter feels like he has to hit more of a line drive when it comes from distance I didn't think he necessarily had to feel that way from 47 uh but you could see that he put a little bit extra emphasis on it and it was a little bit lower and and uh you know I mean I I don't know neither one of them had obviously had a chance the strangest thing I think for me was the whole game you're thinking well they're going to start getting off blocks and start shutting down this running game Howard cross mentioned the running back's going to play in the NFL I agree but it was I don't think it was all him breaking tackles what happened most of the time today is there was a push against n's defensive line Howard cross wasn't in quite often in the first half again there was a push against that offensive line and then they tackled poorly and had bad Gap integrity and that's just not something you would ever expect from El golden this season yeah I I'll be curious to know and maybe we'll get to ask Marcus about it on on Monday how many missed assignments Notre Dame had defensively I thought that they there were some real glaring bust and and they showed up sure on the big chunk plays that Northern Illinois had but they showed up a number of other times when it was six seven eight nine yards when you had Northern Illinois in second and eight and you've won first down and then Northern Illinois consistently U picked up yardage that either put the Huskies in a new set of sticks or it gave them a short chance to convert Tim we were we were talking during the first half like and I think they Nord Dame did not make some tackles they should have in the second half the first half it was more it's not that they're missing tackles they're not getting off blocks it's just uncharacteristic it it was a veteran offensive line we talked about that we knew that but I mean come on we're talking about nord's defensive line we're talking about nord's defense that we've been raving about and you know they've been spectacular up until today and I I want to mention this because I think it's important and I it's it's not a second guess but I would have I it was a question because our time with with the head coach is so brief but uh you know it's a qu he talked about being physical on Tuesday and Wednesday he doubled down on it again today and said that it wasn't a question they had to do it it is a question if your team does not have the energy to perform at a high level and from start to finish this team did not have the energy and the drive the motivation to play at a higher level that they're certainly capable of playing at John they talk about leadership a lot and there's 16 people that could have been captains and all the captains that they have Howard cross came in and spoke to us today and he said it was fitting he said he I've been up here after Marshall I was up here after Cincinnati he mentioned the Toledo game he reads Irish Illustrated apparently but this is a time when leadership has to show up because anybody can leave when you're two and0 and everybody loves you and and it starts at the top it absolutely has to start with Marcus Freeman he called today day a failure of the entire program um he's absolutely right in that regard but when he was asked um what he what he specifically will do to fix it he just will evaluate everything well I think people need to hear specifically how he intends to fix it because it is 10 games left in this season this was supposed to be a season of Great Expectations and now um if you were going to have to hit the reset button you didn't expect it to be week two Notre Dame has to reset Mally this instant analysis has been brought to you by the RV manufactured housing Hall of Fame for Tim prer illustrator John Bryce of football scoop I'm Tim Al please join us for Irish Illustrated overtime on our Facebook page and YouTube channels immediately following this [Music]