Apr 15, 2009

The Tradition Does Not Continue In 2009

I was trolling the message boards, and ran across a video that was just recently posted on Youtube. It's a montage tribute to the 2008 Fighting Irish defense. The video is well made, and as you can tell- I posted it in this post. A couple of things you should know before you watch this:

  • A couple of things were unintentionally funny. At the 8:12 mark the screen flashes the word dominate. It then shows a sack against Syracuse.
  • It wraps up with some highlights from the U$C game and then closes with the phrase, "The Tradition Continues." Yes, the tradition of Notre Dame getting our ass kicked by Carroll is continued.

Just thought you should know those things right away. Here's the video:

A couple of thoughts while I have your attention about the Notre Dame Defense:

  • The reality is- the 2008 defense was light years ahead of what the program has fielded in the entire Charlie Weis regime.
  • People still say our pass defense is our Achilles heel. These are ignorant fools that base things off of results from two and even three years ago. The 2008 defense ended with a #22 Pass Efficiency Defense.
  • The real root of the problem was the rush defense. It was fucking awful. It ranked #45- giving up over 134 yards a game.
  • The 2009 defense has a very good chance at not only improving on its already good pass defense, but also improving against the run.
  • The defense is making another shift- the 3rd in 3 years. But, it has improved. If ND would have had some type of offense in 2007, there would have been a better result for the defense. Then it improved drastically in 2008. The jump from decent to very good is coming very soon.
  • Get your fucking hard hats ready.

3 comments:

tednict said...

Subway, you will probably get your share of negative responses from those who are convinced nothing great can come from a Weis coached Irish team, but I disagree with that. I believe you are on target.

Anonymous said...

Get your hard hats ready? Wooo-hoo a number 22 ranked pass defense. Hopefully the run defense can break the top 25! How do you beat teams with top ten offenses with a middle of the pack defense? Scheme? Don't forget the number of times we lost in the forth quarter last year (UNC,Pitt, Syracuse and almost NAvy). Strength and conditioning, attitude and pride. The MSU game will tell the tale.

Jonathan Kitchens said...

I have been following your blog for awhile now and I have to say you are right on most of the time. This time is no different.
People talk about #22 pass defense as being far below what is necessary for championships. They haven't done their homework. Florida's pass D was ranked 20th last season and they did pretty well against OK. Notre Dame also was ranked HIGHER than FLA in stopping teams on 3rd down.
ND's biggest issue was depth and the inconsistency of the offense. They were kept on the field way to much and didn't have the depth to sub many guys. But, as you say, grab your Hard-Hats, this season is the beginning of something great. In 2010 this current Defense will still be intact and will be upgraded yet again.