Notre Dame Preview

After 22 years, the Miami Hurricanes will be playing Notre Dame in the regular season tonight at Soldier Field in Chicago. Gametime is 7:30 on NBC.

Notre Dame's Defense is very good. They are 3rd in the country in Scoring Defense, 9th in Pass Efficiency Defense, 15th in Total Defense, 19th vs the Pass, and 29th vs the Run. There are few matchups to watch in this game tonight.

Duke and Mike James vs the Notre Dame front 7, especially LB Manti Te'o. I'm going to look for at least 4-5 yards on 1st downs. Their Defense in those situations is 20th in the country, allowing 16.75 per game. ND's 3rd Down Defense is horrible. They are 72nd in the country in that department, allowing opponents to convert almost 40% of the time (39.66% to be exact), compared to ours, which is 94th with opponents converting almost 45% of the time (44.93% to be exact).

Ball protection is going to be vital in this ball game tonight because ND is 3rd in the country in turnover margin (2.25 per game or a +9). Under no circumstances can we turn the ball over because that's going to be asking for trouble. Also, protecting Stephen Morris is going to be critical because the ND Defense is 9th in the nation in Sacks averaging 3.5 per game. A matchup that I'm going to be watching in this game is LT Malcolm Bunche vs RDE of Notre Dame Stephon Tuitt. Tuitt is T-2nd in the nation in sacks per game with 1.5. Bunche needs to neutralize Tuitt and protect Morris' blind side. The matchup I want to also watch here is WR Rashawn Scott vs ND CB Bennett Jackson. I wouldn't be surprised if he's switches to go up against Dorsett. A matchup I like is Dorsett vs their other CB Russell who's very suspect. I think that's a matchup we can exploit all night.

The key to this game will be the Notre Dame Offense vs the CANE Defense. Can the CANE D step up and have a solid game for 4 quarters. We have to stop Riddick and Atkinson III. Also, another matchup to watch in this game tonight is the ND TE Eifert vs the CANE LBs (Corneilus/Paul, EJ, and Denzel). We have to not make Eifert a factor in this game because if he is, it's going to be a long night because that will open up the running game even more.

In the end, it'll be close, it'll come down to a couple of plays and who makes them.  I think in the end, we'll make just enough plays to win this game and leave Chi-town with a big time signature W on the road.

My prediction: CANES 31 Notre Dame 27

Report Card and Game Balls vs NC State

What can you say about yesterday? In the 1st quarter, we were clicking on all cylinders, however, late in the quarter, when we had a chance to put the Wolfpack away, we didn't do that, and for the rest of the game, we made more interesting than necessary. At the end of the day, though, we got the win, which is the most important. We're 4-1 (3-0 in the ACC), and getting ready for a trip to Chicago on Saturday Night vs Notre Dame on NBC. 

The Report Card for yesterday's game:

Offense: B-: The down side is that we only had 85 yards rushing yesterday on 32 carries as a team. Against a great team, numbers like that won't win many games. The up side, we had 651 yards of Total Offense (566 of those were in the air from Stephen Morris, who set a ACC record to boot in this game). Only one penalty on the O (False Start on Jeremy). We didn't finish drives strong in the middle of the game. We had 3 three and outs, and some 4 and outs. We did get the GW from Stephen on the 3rd and 11 play to Phillip. Need more consistency here and finish drives strong. We didn't take advantage of the short fields the D gave us, and to be a great team, we need to take advantage of those situations. 

Defense: C-: I liked the fact that we forced 6 turnovers (4 fumbles and 2 picks). What I didn't like was the fact that we allowed 664 yards of total offense (224 of those rushing, including 120 from Creecy alone on 19 carries). They need to stiffen up more in that area. I liked that we did sack Glennon twice, but didn't like the fact that we allowed him to go for 440 yards passing and 4 TDs. This area needs to get better and be consistent for 4 quarters. They did step up when it was needed though. 

Special Teams: C-: Three missed FGs by Jake, left 9 points on the field there, that could have cost us big time, against a great team, that'll come back to bite us. However, Dalton Botts had another solid game in the Punting area for us. Two huge punts inside the 5. They started their drives from an average of their own 20, while we started ours from an average of our own 32. On kickoffs, we were beginning drives from our own 25. The kicking game almost cost us a win yesterday. This area, especially with Jake, needs to shake this tough performance off because we're going to need him in big spots later in the year. 

Now to Game Balls. This week, I'm giving out 5 game balls:

1. Stephen Morris: 26-49, 566 yards (ACC record), 5 TDs, 1 INT. Simply phenomenal on that GW TD play. 
2. Phillip Dorsett: 7 receptions, 191 yards 2 TDs (including GW) 226 all-purpose yards.
3. Rashawn Scott: 6 receptions, 180 yards 2 TDs
4. Eddie Johnson: 7 tackles (1 TFL), 1 sack, 2 Forced Fumbles, 1 pass broken up
5. Dalton Botts: 2 big punts pinning NC State inside the 5, 0 TBs, 4 punts inside the 20

In closing, there were many mistakes made yesterday and points were left on the field. If we're going to take that next step, we have to take advantage of short fields we're given and we have to finish drives strong with TDs, not FGs. The question is which CANES team comes to Chicago on Saturday Night? The one that was dominant in the 1st quarter? or the one that was going through the motions for most of the game? If the latter shows up, it will be ugly in Chicago. If the former shows up, we win handily.