nice article.

"but one can sense that this season is not meant for the faint of heart."

says it all right there.

The only possible explanation for disallowing Floyd's TD is the mysterious "continuation" rule, but I have to wonder…how long does a guy have to maintain possession after a score for that to matter? I mean, a receiver can make a catch in the back of the end zone, get one foot down before he steps out, and then pitch the ball to an official for a good TD…but Floyd can't make an outstanding catch, get TWO feet safely in bounds before being tackled out of bounds and on the ground before the ball is wrestled free from him, and be awarded the touchdown?

"The current 2-1 record does not reflect the best of times nor the worst of times, but one can sense that this season is not meant for the faint of heart." Amen to that!

I had 10 questions after this game:
1. How many passes will Golden Tate drop this year? He's averaging at least one per game.
2. Will our kickoffs ever reach the endzone?
3. How many consecutive linebacker blitzes can we run without putting appreciable pressure on the opposing QB?
4. Why is John Tenuta still directing the defense? It is woefully inept.
5. Can we continue to count on gifts like Cousins's overthrow of Capers in the endzone?
6. Why wasn't an ND defender within 10 yards of Capers?
7. Does any running back besides Armando Allen understand how to recognize and defeat (block) a blitz?
8. When will we recognize and maintain a rhythm in the running game and use it to manage the clock? (Kudos, by the way, to Armando Allen. His hard work in the offseason obviously paid great dividends. I agree he is the most improved player on the team).
9. How many times will we attempt to defeat ourselves with frequent and stupid penalties?
10. When did we agree to use high school referees at ND games? For the USC game, perhaps we can recruit officials from the South Bend Society for the Blind. This would be a significant improvement over the zebras from the Pac-10.

Patrick Mikes
ND '79

still to early to start chanting??

BRIAN KELLY….BRIAN KELLY..BRIAN KELLY… ..BRIAN KELLY…..BRIAN KELLY….BRIAN KELLY…..BRIAN KELLY..BRIAN KELLY….BRIAN KELLY….BRIAN KELLY….BRIAN KELLY…..BRIAN KELLY…..BRIAN KELLY….BRIAN KELLY…..BRIAN KELLY…

especially since his buyout is minimal to none because cinci did not uphold his contract stipulations of improving their athletic facilities.

I'm tired of being MEDIOCRE….

GO IRISH!

Scranton Dave, you're right on point about the defense and the Pig 10 "refs." They should be fired. Shane, I hope you get the job.

When it comes to replays and ND touchdowns, you can count on a bad call. Remember Stanford 2007? It's pathetic that officials feel like they have to impact the outcome of a game at ND's expense. I don't know if they'll televise the Purdue game in Denver, but I expect a repeat of crappy calls/non-calls by another Pig 10 crew. Unfortunately, Pac 10 officiating isn't much better, and they'll be calling the Washington, USC and Stanford games. Not sure about Washington State (neutral site). It would be nice to see a well-called game for once, just to see how the Irish would perform. Is that asking too much? Every time the Irish make a great play, I'm watching for the laundry.

Can't do much about the Irish penalties that are legit, but if I were CW, I'd be incorporating some Lou Holtz-style discipline on the culprits.

The defense is horrible, and it's defense that wins championships. If the Irish have some of the best pass defenders in the game right now, then how is it that opponents are slicing and dicing them with their passing attack? Tenuta's all hype and his blitzing calls have become predictable.

Hang in there, folks, we're in for another season that'll result in mass consumption of amber sodas to put out those flames!

Strap in, and GO IRISH! BEAT BOILERS!

DenverIrishJoe

Irish Rifle- The Big 10 is not going to discipline the officials at all. They were just following instructions to help the Big 10 teams and go against ND. The Big 10s rep has taken such a hit in the last few years cause they cant beat anybody, that they will do anything they can to try to help their teams. Also, they are against us cause we didnt join their crappy conference. Penn St being in the top 5 with a schedule of home games vs Akron, Syracuse and Temple is a joke.

What exactly has Brian Kelly done that makes him the perfect candidate for the ND job. Last I checked we have a head coach and we should get behind him and the team and see what happens.
Brian Kelly has done nothing of significance at Cincy, and if they win the Big East I still won't be impressed.
Didn't Ty have a few good years at Stanford. Remind me how well that worked out for ND.

As long as we're dredging up the ghosts of bad referee calls, how about the call nullifying a touchdown at home vs. BC in 2002. That was the game that started Ty's downfall. I don't remember the receiver, but the touchdown was called out-of-bounds in the pre-replay days when everyone sitting there clearly saw that it was IN. The Irish went in the tank immediately after that game. Losing 5 of 8 fumbles didn't help either!

That's an impressive record at Grand Valley State. We are talking about the head coach at ND position being available correct. I saw a quite a few 3 loss seasons against teams that ND would crush. So if we are fine with 3 loss seasons why not keep the current coach.
His predecessor left him with nothing the last two years and you can't dispute that fact. We had to start a hurt freshman QB, freshman RB that was coming off a serious high school injury, a line that was absolutely horrible and gave up the most sacks in history.
The football program was pretty much on the death penalty after Brady Quinn and Company left.
I am just as upset as some of the things that happen on Saturday's but this current group of players have chosen to play for Charlie Weis and it just seems foolish to me to call for his head after every game…win or lose.

UND needs to decide if it will let the program win championships or just provide entertainment for the Faithful. When will the Irish standup fror themselves and stop worrying what everyone else thinks?!

We ARE NOT the IVY nor the Standfords, etc…WE ARE THE IRISH!!! There needs to be a cleansing at the Administration building of those who are living in Fantasy-land! Get back to the basics and act like the leading Catholic university of the country. However, I am afraid we are on the road of becoming another Boston College, Georgetown. etc. Catholic in name only….

Yeah, right. Tenuta has nothing but a bunch of patsies with whom to work.

U of M and MSU offenses were hot knives, and ND defense was butter.

Are you suggesting we don't have defensive talent sufficient to play better than we did against those two teams? Sorry, but I don't buy it.

I want Weis to succeed as much as the next guy but it seems like every game against a top 35 team is decided in the last seconds. It would be nice if ND could have a game firmly in hand by the 4th qtr instead of letting opposing teams hang around.

I've never seen such spotty and inconsistent defense in all my years as an ND fan. It makes we want to circulate a "Bring back Kent Baer" petition. MSU isn't exactly posses a high octane, "lights out" offense yet they hung 459 yards and 30 points (nearly 37) on ND.

Sark at Washington is a Norm Chow Jr. and I'm afraid he'll probably run circles around Tenuta. I'm expecting ND to yield 700 yards to the Huskies.

This is year 5 of the Weis regime, ND has arguably one of the most talented offenses in college football and we can only eke out a 3 point victory over a slightly above average MSU team. There's one thing we can all count on, and that is a Weis coached ND team will always underachieve.

"10. When did we agree to use high school referees at ND games?"

As a high school referee, I take offense at that comment.

And as a person who has officiated high school and college football, I am inclined to defend officials. I wish I could do so in this case . . .

I'd like to see Notre Dame hire their own officials instead of using ones affiliated with a conference.

Maybe after all the howling that would cause nationwide, a conversation can occur as to the inherent conflict of interest of having refs paid by a conference and have regional refs paid by the NCAA instead.

"If anyone should be on the hot seat it should be Tenuta, his defense that sends 6 men every play without getting pressure and leaving the secondary hanging out to dry doesn't seem to be working and he hasn't shown signs of changing his ways…"

Bingo. And you probably heard them mention during the broadcast that Tenuta was practically bragging about having only used the base defense for something like 14 plays in the first two games.

If Tenuta had been a German General in WWII in charge of the original "Blitz," the British would known they were coming, and just opened fire every nightand brought down a lot of planes. Blitzes are supposed to catch the opposition off balance – leave them surprised and hopefully short handed. Forget about the element of surprise when teams know you will be blitzing most plays, and they have a week to prepare for it.

Two games into the season, we're being gashed by quick hitters to where linebackers used to be, and hot passes to where safeties used to be. And sadly, none of those linebackers or safeties are geting home. The reward has not been worth the risk (unless you're the opposition – they are satisfied with guessing right every three plays, because those plays are always big gains).

Ironically, the McCarthy interception came on a play where 4 rushed, and a linebacker came on a delayed blitz when he saw the back remaining in the backfield. That probably shocked Cousins so much he chucked it up for grabs. If Tenuta really wants to shock Purdue, he should rush three on every play, and fill the pasing lanes with players ready to pick off quick slant passes or hot-read fly patterns.

Someone mentioned improving Nd's tackling, but noone has mentioned Kyle McCarthy. I agree that ND needs to bring more pressure on the QB. Many of States completions were made on receivers who were extremely well-covered. That is, with the exception of the overthrown ball in the corner of the end-zone. Whew! Go Irish

As for Floyd's should-be TD; maybe it wasn't a great idea for CW to tell the world how much Big Ten refs suck after the UM game. Doesn't seemed to have gained any favor with them.

Wow…some of these comments are unbelievable. Then again, I can understand the disappointment. Based on the probability poll, it sounds like many of you worked yourself up to a frenzy believing that we were going to finish the regular season undefeated. I guess I would be devastated with this start as well if I set unrealistic expectations.

To remove Tenuta at this point would be foolish. Sorry Patrick, but he's had just 3 games to implement his system. If you followed Tenuta at his last stop, you'd understand the effectiveness of his coaching schemes. As I said before, we have no talent on D. Please name me one player among our front 7 that would start on any top-10 team. Exactly…you can't. Once again, there is an absence of talent.

For the people who criticize his blitzing "every down," there are plenty of teams that blitz more often than not. Florida State comes to mind, and Mickey Andrews is recognized as one of the top coordinators in college football history. It's about bringing players from different points on the field and Tenuta has done that. At some point, your players need to make plays. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened AT ALL since Weis took over since finesse became the hallmark of ND football. You guys make it sound like Tenuta took over this defensive powerhouse and ran it into the ground in 3 games. Please people.

Maybe if we ran the ball more and kept our defense off the field, our defense would be fresh and have more of a chance. I know that's a crazy thought, but I'd like to remind everyone that this isn't arena or fantasy football.

-Ray

Those of you critizing coach Tenuta for the blitz strategy this year lack an understanding of ND defensive personnel. Defensive line recruiting has whiffed on high caliber recruits for several years in row. We have excellent skill in the secondary though. Since we will not be able to apply pressure from just our undersized D linemen, the next best option is to blitz for pressure and leave secondary folks in more frequent single coverage. That said, the real enigma is why the blitz is not working more frequently? If you want to blame Tenuta for that, that is a legitimate gripe.

Good point about Sarc and Washington. They're a force to be reckoned with when they invade on 10/3, and I'm there to see it. We'll need a good showing against Purdue and most importantly, no more injuries going into Washington.

On another subject, can anyone tell me how the outdoor pep rallies have been? I was planning on watching the one before Washington, but I read in the Observer that there isn't much of a showing by the student body since the Irish Green is a long walk from the quads. I also read that only a few members of the football team showed up. Is there truth to this?

DenverIrishJoe

Vannie, you accomplish your goal with every post you write. The Weis haters love to read your rants, because you are one. While there were a few positives in your message, the underlying theme is always the same…dump Weis. We have played three games and in the last two had two touchdowns called back on questionable judgements. As others have pointed out, there were other calls against ND in the UM game and in our game last Saturday. Try giving credit to Weis when it is due.

Raymond,
The talent on defense is there. Ethan Johnson was a top target of USC, Kapron Lewis Moore was recruited by all Big 12 schools, Darius Fleming was a top 150 recruit and was Steve Filer, Darrin Walls was the Pete Carroll's top DB recruit in 2005, Gary Gray was coveted by all SEC schools, Ian Williams was a Univ. of Florida "B" list recruiting prospect, Kerry Neal could have signed with North Carolina or Virginia Tech, Pete Carroll salivated over Manti Teo. Need I go on?

I could go on. The defensive players on the roster aren't exactly recruiting castoffs as I've shown. We don't expect Tenuta to pitch a shutout every game but simply slowing down the opposing offense, some occasional big plays, and a sack or two isn't too much to ask with talent at hand.

Love that last anonymous post. Charlie isnt blameless for the last 2 years, but the bottom line is Charlie was dealt a bad hand by Ty's last recruiting (cough) efforts. The Defense should be better no doubt, and I'm not sure how much blame should go where, but there is 4 and 5 star talent on defense. Personally I would like to see Teo and Filer on the field more. As many mistakes as the irish made against Michigan, I completely agree that we beat them and are 3-0 right now if not for the Big 10 officials. however, that doesnt mean this team cant get better cause it can. I also agree that every player should take it upon himself to step up for Floyd. I remember back to the summer talking with friends that are ND fans and talking about all the depth we have and saying how guys like walker and Goodman would be playing at a lot of other schools. Well, here is their chance. No, no one player is going to replace Floyd, but with the improvement of the OLIne, Allen and Clausen, and with Tate, Rudolph and the other talented recievers, we should still have one of the best offenses in the nation. We can still have a great season, lets just take it 1 game at a time starting Saturday night. Go Irish!!

Yes my friend you are correct in that a Big 10 crew was on the field Officiating the game, however up in the press box the "Big East Replay Crew" (in their infinite wisdow)with unlimited time and umpteen views of the play overruled the call on the field thus removing 6 pts for the Irish

Yes.. i have seen the replay a dozen times and after the review.. the ref signals it a catch pulling his arms down. Not waving it off or the out of bounds signal. That type of confusion is unacceptable and should be delt with for any game-team.