Winning cures everything? Well, kind of.
Hey, I actually get to write this after a win – it’s been a while. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish played a somewhat wacky game on Saturday afternoon/night. This game felt
like it had everything – a weather delay, beer in the stadium, helicopters, a kickoff return, and giving up 30 points to a measly Purdue Boilermakers team.
As always, reactions get tempered a bit when a win is happening, but we still see emotions fly, especially in a game that took close to 5 hours to complete fully.
Overreactions to ND vs. Purdue
So, the elephant in the room we can address. Now I’m calling myself out here because I was actually at the 2011 USF game and was also in the stands on Saturday. This was really nothing like the Usher 800 game at all, so there is the overreaction. First of all, the Irish were winning and did win against an inferior opponent. Two, there was only one delay, and really we got to hang in the concourse without getting rained on. Oh, maybe getting a beer helped here. But, it is just always going to hilarious that we all have this running joke/fear of rain delays because of Usher 800 in 2011.
I’m only calling this out because Christian Gray had an awful beginning of the game, but then he got an INT later in the game. Maybe everyone thinking it was more of a microcosm of the defensive play at large. Gray has SOME awareness, but his drop off from last season (or I guess his sustained inconsistency) should be studied more.
This is definitely a take. Yeah, Chris Ash is definitely on the hot seat, but I really don’t see (yet) Freeman being on the hot seat himself/5 losses happening. Maybe it will this season and I’m just still trying to find any positives. The schedule is in ND’s favor, so maybe 3 more losses do happen. I could see 1-2 more occurring, but I guess we’ll just have to see how the defense can handle the other games. Clearly, we’re looking at an awesome offense, but shootouts every week are going to make me very uncomfy.
