Two Wrongs DO Make a Right

I'm undecided upon whether or not the Irish winning in spite of themselves is a good thing or a bad thing.

Two glaring problems with this offense were completely overcome this past weekend due to amazing play by Tate and Floyd.  I leave out Grimes because he isn't flashy and just goes out and plays the game.

So what are the problems?  Here's one:  Mike Haywood.

I don't want to turn this into a Haywood-bashing rant, but frankly I'm getting sick of sitting in the stands or watching TV and hoping Clausen audibles not because of the defense but because I don't want to see the same three plays again.  (apologies if this section gets cluttered)

Up the middle.  Fade to someone.  Anything to do with the word "screen".  I'm sick of it.

Why don't we run counters?  Traps?  I know we're trying to "pound the ball" and all that jazz, but seriously, keep the defense guessing.  If all we're doing is straight ahead, zone blocking, then the defense can live off of straight ahead rushes.

It looked like we were getting better in the second half of at least mixing up which direction we're running, and lo and behold, Allen exploded.

Why, on Purdue's 12 yard line, did we throw THREE straight corner fades in a row?  If I was coaching the Boilermakers I would have put two cornerbacks in the back corners of the end zone as soon as the Irish made it inside the twenty yard line.

If I see one more double screen where Jimmy fakes a screen to the left and then pretends he's a ballerina trying to escape sudden death as soon as he turns to the right, I'm going to punch whoever is sitting next to me at the time. 

One of these days Jimmy is going to get broken.  Badly.

Problem number two is Jimmy Clausen himself.

Before you get up in a tizzy, let me explain something: I like Jimmy.  I think he's going to be a great quarterback by his senior year.

He's leading the team.  He's calling great audibles.  He's got a cannon.  He's throwing the ball away.  He's cutting back on interceptions.  So what's the problem?

Exactly what I've been saying for a couple of weeks now: his eyes are as readable as a Haywood-called run play.

And I don't know whose fault this is, but why don't we utilize Kamara and Floyd's size more often?  And Rudolph?  Does Jimmy not have the ability to find holes in the middle of a defense?

Why are almost all of the big plays by the offense done on deep patterns and anything to do with a sideline?  Even that seam route where Clausen and Rudolph couldn't quite connect seemed inauspicious by both players. 

Anywho, back to my point.  Based on my experience as a defensive back in high school, I'm fairly confident in guessing what a defensive backfield is trying to do on any particular play.  I'm by no means perfect, but it has been well over 50% so far.  Based on that estimation, I can tell you exactly who Clausen will throw to. 

If he sees Tate with one-on-one coverage, or thinks that's what he sees, he's done.  No one else will even get a peek.

Now all that being said and vented, I'm loving this team.  I think that the fact that we were as successful as we were against Purdue shows you just how freakishly talented we are to be able to overcome a couple of offensive issues.

I also seriously wonder if Haywood's play-calling days are over.  I find it hard to believe that the play-calling dramatically improved on a whim.

Honestly I don't care if Charlie Jr. is calling the plays based on his 500 hours of NCAA 2009 experience.  Whatever was happening in the second half worked.  It worked really, really well.

We're not back.  Not at all.  But we just took the on-ramp to the freeway.  We're off the country roads and driving 90 mph towards success.