Notre Dame Beats Texas A&M - Josh Pate Rapid Reaction

Notre Dame went on the road just flat out beat Texas A&M 23-13 this is a good game this is one of the best games of the day so good I would give it three and a half chalai out of five on our on our game ranking and uh this was a gut check for Notre Dame this was the gut check Notre Dame couldn't quite get against Ohio State last year remember that game came down to the last play up in South Ben we were there for that one uh we were not there for this one and naturally anytime I pass up an opportunity to go to Kyle Field something spectacular happens in this case not for the home team you've heard of the padlock stat before the padlock stats what I give you and if you would have known that number Friday you would have known the outcome but we also have the rarely mentioned badlock stat and a badlock stat is the kind of stat that if you heard it Friday you would think you know who's going to win but you would be wrong we have a bad lock stat Notre Dame 23 to 133 wow small Underdog double digit winner that must mean they dominated right well what if I told you Friday that Notre Dame was going to go two of 14 on third and fourth down what if I told you Notre Dame was going to rack up 11 penalties for nearly 100 yards and then you add on top of that the offensive line inexperience and Notre Dame in big games and all the energy college game day in town what would you have thought you would have thought give me the Aggies lay the point Point bet the kids tuition on it and as a result your kids are Jo at best because Notre Dame finds a way to win anyway four rushes of 15 plus yards for Notre Dame two of them went for touchdowns 47 yards and 21 yards and conversely A&M had zero that's that's a padlock stat let's let's pop the paper on that Notre Dame four rushes of 15 plus A&M zero and Conor wigman 100 passing yards just just such an underachievement of a day uh for Texas A&M which means full credit to this entire coaching staff but specifically on the defensive side over there and then you you think about what was perceived to be the glaring mismatch in this one and we talked about it a lot on Tuesday and that was the six career combined starts on the offensive line for Notre Dame and yet I turned this game on when I got back to my hotel room last night and it was already the fourth quarter so I went back and rewatched the rest of it on the flight home this morning but I was I was watching the game live on the fourth quarter and I said is there something wrong is is the saturation and the tent off on the TV because it looks like the team with the gold helmets on is leaning on the team in the maroon I got this kid over here puking I got that kid sucking win this is the team who's who who plays in a city that might as well be in Canada and you guys have trained in in East Texas all summer and they're leaning on you make of that what you will but that's what we were seeing Notre Dame's offensive line gave up zero sacks yesterday there were some tackles for loss but zero sacks 5.8 yards per carry I don't know who needs to be given a raise up there I just know raises are due that was a Monumental achievement for this program and this team to go on the road in those circumstances having lost that left tackle for the season already having to replace both tackles and so you're down to essentially a three at left tackle and go in there against a a whole yach as my dad would say a whole yach of former five stars and you would not have known it you would not have known it that doesn't just happen that is good coaching I have told you before I'll tell you again I think Marcus Freeman has about as good a Duo of coordinators with Den Brock and golden as anyone has in the country and again not by accident Notre Dame look to have better pass catchers than Texas A&M it's a one game sample size but that's what it looked like Notre Dame had well no A&M wide receiver had a reception you know what it's not one reception Jesse no A&M wide receiver had over 31 yards receiving period Conor wigman was a big disappointment in this game I pull for him he's had a a checkered career got a great opportunity here I don't know if there is some kind of behind the scenes note about an injury or something that's non-disclosed feel free to let me know but if everything was on the up and up this was a bad bad game it leads me to believe he is not the best option does not give them the best chance to win now Mike Elco has forgotten more about offensive football than I know and he thinks that Connor wigman gives him the best chance to win or else he wouldn't have started yesterday I'm just telling you I think there's got to be better somewhere on that roster or we saw the absolute worst of worst from A&M out of 12 12 games this year we saw the 12th best game they'll play and it's all uphill from here one of those two things got to be true there I thought Texas A&M was a little bit closer to being a turnkey roster than apparently they are so I thought Elco if he could pull this one out that have a decent shot at playoff contention they're not there they're not that caliber team so wrong on Texas A&M JP pole will have to downgrade Texas A&M it's not the case with Mike Elko now I was Skyhigh on mik Mike Elko still am still L that there is definitely the further inside that program you get folks will tell you there's certainly a different vibe and energy um attentiveness there is a different approach than uh the predecessor had there it'll work out in time I just don't know that it's going to work out this season maybe to the degree that some folks had had in their mind for best case scenario but back to Notre Dame for a second I need to give out a big red caution flare let's just watch this whole Notre Dame thing together so Notre Dame came into the season and I had them rank I had them rated eighth in the JP poll and some people told me that they were overrated because some people wake up every morning of their lives just yelling Notre Dame's overrated and they don't even know what they're rated I had Notre Dame rated eth in the preseason now I probably won't move Notre Dame much because that's what you do when a team performs rough ly on par with what your expectation level was for them but that is not how rankings work in the ranking merit-based world you just win and you automatically get bumped up and so who knows where the AP is going to have Notre Dame come Monday or Tuesday whenever they release that thing but I will tell you for all the folks out there who yell about Notre Dame being overrated I want you to pay attention because I think what we're doing with Notre Dame makes perfect sense just a little preview of the JP poll Notre Dame is not really going to jump up much in the JP poll why cuz I think we had them properly rated see when you thought they were overrated I think they were properly rated now what you don't want to do is fall victim to committing the crime that you accuse folks like me of don't be bumping them up to five or four if they're the eighth best team in the country and they go win by 10 against Texas A&M that means they did what the eighth best team in the country should do so Notre Dame's going to get hyped here and Notre Dame that schedule you're looking at it right now Colin is showing you Notre Dame schle schedule they are going to win a whole lot you will not hear much from Notre Dame they'll play Northern Illinois Purdue Miami of Ohio Louisville's the next big game but I'm telling you they can't Overlook folks there is not an elite part of this Notre Dame team the sum has got to be more than the whole of the parts because they don't have Elite pieces on this team Riley Leonard's a really good quarterback they've got some really good but I think that coaching staff would tell you if they had truth serum injected in them we're not Elite in any area of this team collectively we think we can be a playoff team though that kind of team if it brings it every week can win every game they play cannot afford a C+ effort because that's the kind of team that has you know a lot thinner margin for error but they're going to get overrated I'm almost certain of it they're going to get overrated and I just want you to remember who started and held firm on Notre Dame I'm going to need you guys to defend me eventually know it's coming [Music]