Notre Dame vs. Northern Illinois Game Recap - College Football Week 2

Riley we made the joke in the preview that um Notre Dame has been susceptible to these early September lapses to been major programs Marshall most recently comes to mind but no no D even have to worry about that this wasn't going to be one of those given the way they performed against 6 A&M and the way Northern Illinois good good Mac team they might be a great Mac team after what they did in this game 16 to 14 victory for Northern Illinois over noted in this game we get to all the good things Northern Illinois did in a second but work covered Notre Dame throughout the season we got to look at this the Notre Dame scope of things and quite frankly like this is a Notre Dame failure I think as much as it is a Northern Illinois Victory because Notre Dame had no excuses really to lose this game it was the biggest point spread upset in college football the last three seasons um well into it some some concerning things come out of this game for the Irish what did you see in this game well first off I got to tap the chest and say that's on me I think I said the score was going to be 56 to7 in favor of the Irish I I apologize to all the Notre Dame fans fans out there I was wrong I I mean it comes down to Riley Leonard just playing really poorly it's he's not accurate on his throws that second interception he threw of the game was like had no shot of being complet completed was one of the worst picks I've seen in a while um even if he has got like sometimes it doesn't seem like the receivers are really getting open or helping him a ton but even when they are they just seem out of sync uh I don't know if they just need to get him going on the Move instead of like playing inside the pocket but the the offense is really really tough to watch unless it's love hurdling dudes basically or or occasionally like the F first I think it was the first drive of the game when Leonard had that little uh looked like a quarterback Power Play Almost where got the touchdown but aside from that it's it's just been a rough watch and the defense wasn't perfect um yeah you could nitpick and say like I thought the linebackers in particular could have played better I know they kept driving home the the broadcast crew crew drove home the point how Marcus Freeman rotates five different linebackers in maybe rotate a little bit less and just play your best backers but uh still when you hold a team to 16 points at home you should win there's not an excuse to do that like if you're if you're holding a team under at home and you you want to be a serious program yeah you need to win that game literally 100% of the time remember when we did the um A&M preview I asked you the question how many touchdown passes rley Leonard through four his last season Duke the answer remember three so far this season through two games he has just over 300 yards like 310 320 with no touchdowns and two picks so going back let's say at six games seven games or five six six games roughly to last season this season three touchdowns and five picks and a completion percentage that's like not great I think it's nine games because he played seven games last season three touchdowns and seven games n nine games yes nine games so three touchdowns and five picks nine games we gave him his flowers after the A&M Victory because I I think you needed a gutsy quarterback to win that game to make the gutsy plays you know the gamer and Ron Leonard is that he's not a great thrower of the football right now and Northern Illinois kind of bottled him up and contained him running and we saw what it did to Notre Dame's offense yeah I got a I got a question for you have you ever looked at Walter football's draft coverage yes I used to love Walter Football aside from the fact that that website is like littered with a million ads that almost crashes your computer every time you go on their site he I think the dude who runs it has pretty good Intel leading into the draft has nailed a couple picks maybe there's like draft heads out there who are going to say he's a bozo or something that's unknown to me feel free to correct me in the comments if I'm wrong a year ago at this time he had Riley Leonard as a projected first-rounder and either that's a terrible misevaluation on his part or a terrible eval by the Scouts he was talking to or maybe it's just been a steady decline and and this could prove why Notre Dame has refused to to join the ACC the past decade because this is two ACC quarterbacks in a row that they've they've scooped up who were studs in my poverty League who just get on the big stage and and like don't live up to expectations although I mean Sam Hartman looked like Joe Montana compared to comp to Riley Leonard but still I'm like dude what is going on with with with these quarterback transfers to bringing in because I think these guys are good like I I I can't completely sell my stock on Riley Leonard because of what I saw two years ago at Duke and even some of the moments he had last year but he's he's completely out of sync with everybody around him with the skill position guys like they can't get anything going it's I can't imagine being a Notre Dame fan and having to subject myself to that for three and a half hours when I mean I do that with Connor Harold and UNC but that's Connor Harrell you probably pay seven figures to get this quarterback at Notre Dame like yeah supposed to happen to y'all I think any well first off I think any pro first round draft talk with right Leonard is doing a lot of projecting right a lot of projecting but I also think it's fair to say guy who was that good throwing the ball two years ago when he threw for almost 3,000 yards 20 touchdowns six picks to having the moments he had last season it's fair to be like if if he keeps progressing he's going to be a really good good player right it's clear he hasn't progressed it's clear this is who he is right and that's a very good college quarterback but not a pro guy and he's a very good college quarterback because all the things he does that don't involve throwing the football and it's not to say that he's he's an awful corack because he's not he is he is certainly a above average to you know top 15% in the country kind of quarterback but this offense didn't look explosive at all there' been enough plays against A&M but the explosion against Northern Illinois was not there and on the flip side Northern Illinois showed some of that explosion had the 83 yard touchdown they had some big plays that got them in scoring position like you saw the ability to to do something and Notre Dame's defense I think did what they needed to do again you liit of nor Illinois to 16 points in this game you're you're okay to give up play or two here or there that's going to happen right that's gonna happen but when your offense can't counter that at all it's a problem it's a major problem there was one point in this game where I thought things might change and that was early in the second half and they already scored in their first drive to go take the 1413 lead in my mind watching that game you're saying okay like rough first half that was awful they got the 83 yard touchdown Northern Illinois did kind of Lucky then they got some field goals so like we're we're good things are settling in now especially after you force a punt on the next dra so you're getting the ball back after that point Notre Dame's offense three and out three and out interception misfield go in the game I I dude it was it was horrible man like I saw someone made this a Notre Dame fan made this point on Twitter uh that the the Riley Leonard pick notwithstanding with Notre Dame with a six minute excuse me with a one-point lead with six minutes to go they threw the ball in three straight passes on one of those three andout drives um didn't do any sort of milking the clock when Jeremiah Love's really been the only source of offense all game so it's it's different decisions like that it's it's the fact that you're that goes back too to something we've talked about with just Marcus Freeman's reputation in terms of like managing the game as a coach that isn't isn't quite where you'd like for it to be yeah and even that decision to kick the field goal I don't I mean there's a good chance the clock runs out if you try to get one more playoff with 5 seconds left even if you have the timeout I I I don't know where I stand on that maybe Notre Dame fans feel passionate because I feel like it would be really tough to to gain some positive yards get down get a timeout or get out of bounds I guess you probably have to you have to throw some into the sidelines make the catch get out of bounds immediately um but even just looking back at the blocked field goal to end the first half it's like your your special teams don't really seem like they're in sync either and putting that in your kicker's hands for a 62 yard or pretty easy to question as well um yeah man it's it's it's Bleak and I I'll say this I think Notre Dame has to stick with him and with with lard that is uh because again I was as I was prepping for this I was scrolling through the timeline looking for not D Notre Dame fans reactions people are calling for the backup QB Steven angelli and let me just tell you I've found out about Steven angelli probably 10 minutes ago he wears number 18 and uh that kind of tells you all you need to know and if you look at his head shot you will be out on this kid before you even see him take a snap so what's wrong with 18 18's a terrible quarterback number unless you're Payton Manning okay I mean don't you don't don't you think 18 is just like an unathletic like statue in the pocket type of number wasn't Marvin Harrison Jr 18 for Ohio yeah but he's a receiver it's different if you're a receiver versus a QB I don't want my QB wearing number I don't want my QB wearing a number higher than 15 you you have pton Manning and pton Manning's unathletic ass suck whenever you see number 18 behind Center that's that's what that is um I I think you bring Leonard in and he is kind of your ride or die right unless he gets hurt I don't think you go to anybody else because of what he brings with his legs and yes I I think you can question the lack of explosion in the passing game some of that's on the receivers as well they weren't as good as a group Collective group as they were against X A&M up next is road trip to Purdue then you get Miami Ohio at home and then then Louisville comes to town um things could get dicey here from not let's talk let's talk big picture um do they have to win out to make the playoff yes I think so with how weak their schedule is and they're not going to have like a chance at an automatic bid yeah they got to win out yeah join a conference you cowards um but this is the downside like the positives of Notre Dame is you get to make your own schedule it's pretty much set with your like I'm not breaking news to anybody here you get to do that and they were they were huge proponents of the current playoff format because basically guaranteed if they were good and made the playoff a home game for them a home playoff game for them every year which was sitting in front of this team particularly after you go on the road C they should win that game right just blew all that Goodwill with this loss blew it all right you kind of have to win out maybe you can lose at USC depending what happens elsewhere in the country and how good USC ends up being maybe you can lose to Louisville if Louisville wins the ACC which is a very real possibility but like that Florida State game not as good as you were as it looked Georgia Tech not as good as it looked after Georgia Tech beat Florida State like you're looking at kind of a two game kind of buffer here Purdue up next is tough and you got to go on the road and you got to go on the road we we'll we'll preview that we'll preview that here on the Super Media YouTube channel later this week so make sure you like And subscribe but the Northern Illinois side of things Riley um they've been explosive this season defense set up thought they had a good game plan coming into this game I mean it's somewhat overacting be like oh they're the favorite in the mech now because they've proven they can beat Notre Dame but there there also wasn't didn't didn't feel fluky this win it did not feel there's some element of luck to it and things breaking their way but it didn't feel fluky at all I thought what what did you think yeah it you know we talked about all the ills of Riley Leonard in the way that Sam Hartman didn't live up to the hype last year maybe they were looking in the wrong places in the portal maybe they should have been tampering with Ethan Hampton and get like you probably could have got him for 200k to come be the quarterback of Notre d uh probably even less than that I mean again you look at his stat line three for just under two 200 yards most of that was on one play uh to and andio Brown who finished with 126 yards kind of thought like he he made timely plays at the right time had timely completions when Northern Illinois needed a play um I thought they were physical with them on defense the the defensive backs held their own against Notre Dame's receivers it didn't seem like it it wasn't like an overwhelming amount of pressure on Hampton I would say against a really good front seven as well um yeah Notre Dame they didn't Notre Dame didn't get a single sack this game to put in to put that in perspective but yeah I I was pretty impressed with him it's tough tough to knock him too much and uh credit John fanter for this stat he sent it in a group chat that we were in where said uh Mac teams against top five opponents are 0 and 50 since 1978 so very very unlikely win here to say the least I mean they were saying it's the the Bigg upset in school history for Northern Illinois um that even puts it into greater perspective just how rare this is yeah M teams were 050 against AP top five teams since 1978 before today shout out John Fanta not a name I think many expected to hear on this recap dialed in um but Northern Illinois man shout out Jordan Lynch shout out Garrett wolf like this is a a program that has been one of the better ma programs and and and has a win to stamp moving forward for Notre Dame you we're going to get into Purdue preview again later this week as I mentioned but going from this game what do you need to see improve for another Dame aside from you know a viable passing attack I'm like where where else do you even go I guess get Jeremiah Love More carries he finish with 11 on the day like I would be feeding him 20 plus um I don't really know if that I'd be curious to see how many carries that audre cime had per game last year because it didn't feel like he was quite that bcal level but I mean Notre Dame fans might correct me I could be Mis misremembering but I I think that's kind of the key you play through him you let him set the tone um run a little more play action after that once you get him going we'll see see if that changes anything um and like I was saying I like to see Leonard get on the move a little bit throw on the run a little bit as opposed to just staying in the pocket defense again F that that yeah that long touchdown was an uncharacteristically bad play by Benjamin Morrison everything else pretty good linebackers Miss some tackles here and there need to get a little more settled at that position but yeah it I would say almost entirely comes down to the offense with getting Leonard more in sync with his receivers and featuring Jeremiah Love More yeah lean really lean into your identity if you not your name I think you've kind of established that perhaps they thought they could work on some things in this game um as many teams do when when they play group of five teams or FCS teams Northern Illinois was not playing around in this game the end result is biggest upset in college football this season biggest upset from a betting perspective in the last three years shout out to our partners at my bookie um for that as well football season is here money is out there to be had in the form of winning bets and our friends at my bookie want to make it easy for you to do just that yeah and coming into football season you're going to have games all weekend happening everywhere and Gregory where is the only place that sleepers media places all bets I can tell you right now since last February February 1 to be exact my bookie is the only place that I have placed a sports bet I love my bookie they make it easy they get you quick payouts they have awesome promo offers in fact card they've got one right now that football fans everywhere and listeners of this show are going to want to take advantage of yeah using promo code sleepers that's promo code sleepers you can take advantage of a 50% instant deposit bonus right now that's 50% instant deposit bonus up to 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