So here is your Sunday Hangover. Fresh off of a Saturday of binge drinking and watching an Irish team that coughed it up as many times as a wasted freshman girl, you may not be ready for the truth. No, not that you were hitting on your wife's sister all day- the facts of the game as seen by The Subway Domer.
Behold...
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Golden Be Thy Tate. As if Golden Tate hasn't become an Irish cult icon by now, he has 
appeared to turn the corner and became a true WR today. Tate had 6 receptions for 93 yards (15.5 yd. avg.) and a 38 yard TD catch. Tate still ran his patented fly route (the TD), but he also had nice grabs on outs and some really good catches on a few slants. He is ND's main deep threat and will keep the defensive backs honest with his newly found route running.
Kamara? I'm not sure what happened to Duval today. He had only one reception for 28 yards and, to be brutally honest, was responsible for both of Jimmy's interceptions. The first was a pass that hit him square in the numbers and bounced right into the hands of an Aztec defender. The second, was a fad route to the front corner of the endzone that Duval played so poorly, that he made himself the defender while the ball was halfway there. Kamara is an excellent WR and he should take this game and use it as a tool to motivate himself. Let's just call it rust.
Jimmy- "Pressure situations, I'm ready to go." Let it never be said that Clausen lacks 
confidence in himself. He has it in oodles, and it showed in crunch time. Overall Clausen was 21-34-2-3 ( 61.7% and 3 TD's). He looked good doing it as well. His passes were thrown with great accuracy and had the zip that he lacked last year. When Jimmy was flushed out of the pocket he made good decisions for the most part. (The spinning throw that should have been intentional grounding to avoid a sack comes to mind as a bad decision, but ended up as a good one). I already spoke about his two INT's in the Kamara clip. Despite trailing for most of the game, Clausen played with fire and led the team to two TD drives almost entirely made up of his right arm.
Kyle McCarthy is no Tom Zbikowski. It will never be said by a sane person that McCarthy has the same physical tools that former Notre Dame safety Tommy Z possessed. However, he looked better all around than TZ did all of last year. The difference? McCarthy is able to play a more traditional role as a safety than Zibby because of an improved defensive scheme and more playmakers on the defense as a whole. As as a result, McCarthy had a monster day as a tackler. He had 14 total stops with 10 of those being solo tackles. He was close to making a few pass break ups but was just a step too late.
FLOYD! FLOYD! FLOYD! Jimmy Clausen aside, Michael Floyd has been the most highly anticipated freshman in recent memory. He didn't disappoint the faithful when he hauled in a pass for 22 yards and a TD. It was his only catch of the day. Fans are already shouting at the dome to start Floyd. A lot of fans said that he was wide open on several occasions, deep. Well, whatever. How many true freshman at ND can say that they scored a TD? How many?
Talk to me Splerge! Sergio Brown played his ass off on Saturday. He was all over the field as a
nickelback and with special teams. He was in coverage, supporting the run, blitzing the QB, batting down passes and making his presence known on special teams. His official stat line had 6 tackles and 1 sack. He also had 2 pass breakups and put the QB on his ass another time. Call me crazy, but I am sure that was Brown that blocked the punt as well. He was a nice surprise on a day full of bad surprises.
Mike Anello for Dictator. With Mike's determination and fearless ambition to jump into battle, he would have no problem in becoming a ruthless leader of a small poor country. He is the FIRST man down on punts and kickoffs. Anello, I predict, will make an absolutely HUGE play this year that will help the team in a tight game. He can throw that "walk-on" title in the trash. He fucking rocks! I heard he outlasted Rudy in a Chinese water torture contest.
That was John Ryan? After a 2007 season that had many Irish fans wondering what Ryan was doing on the field, he really didn't impress anyone again. He did have 2 nice pass breakups and looked like a decent pass rusher... kind of. One play stands out to me as the kind of play to expect from Ryan. On a third down and the shadow of the goaline looming for the Aztecs, SDSU used a shuffle pass to a RB to make a big gain and a first down. Ryan was stood up and made no effort to do anything as the RB ran by him after he was easily sealed by a blocker. I believe the phrase, " avoids physical play" comes to mind.
The Blitzkrieg? Notre Dame played very well on defense for the most part, but where were the spices? Where were the chips? The Irish defense accounted for a grand total of 1 sack and 4 QB knockdowns. They did have 8 pass breakups. The biggest problem was, I think, that SDSU just did a really good job of picking up the 5th and 6th rusher. The blitzes just never seemed to really get home. Wrong hole or wrong side. Maybe this is just due to the new system being used on a different offense for the first time, or maybe SDSU just did a good job of picking it up and having their QB get rid of the ball quickly.
Pound this. Coach Weis wanted to really pound the ball this year. I'm not sure if that is going 
to happen. The offensive line was supposed to dominate this SDSU front 7 with size and strength, but they looked overmatched yet again. The running backs never got into a groove as well. Hughes put the ball on the grass and Allen still hasn't been able to use his "breakaway speed" to "break" a big one. The ground game was stagnant as 2007 with 105 yards. We got pounded.
Overall? I don't know. I'm tired. A win is a win I guess. I gave a decree to everyone I talked to before the game that if ND didn't win this thing by a score of 36-6 or 42-0 or something similar, that we would be in big fucking trouble this year. I'm concerned with a lot of things, but I have been telling myself to just chill the fuck out. It is a scientific fact that a team improves the most between game 1 and game 2. Well, scientists are often wrong so we will wait and see against Michigan. Until then I suggest that you all chill the fuck out as well. The message boards are INSANE right now and unless you want to put a bullet in your head, I'd stay away. We may be in for a long haul, but it is... our haul.
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