SB Nation User Blog: lordsummer

Meanwhile, on the ice...

lordsummer — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 04:34:50 -0000

Meanwhile, on the ice...

After shutting out UNO for the entire weekend, ND has advanced to the CCHA finals by beating N Michigan 2-1 in the semifinals at Joe Louis Arena in Day-twah. For those of you scoring at home, that's one goal against for Jordan Pearce through the first three games of the playoffs. Every day, and twice on Sundays, please.

Are the Panthers as vulnerable as I think they are?

lordsummer — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:55:22 -0000

After Pittsburgh's defensive meltdown last week, I decided to glance at their schedule and try to decide who they really are: a good team screwed up by Dave Wannstedt's defensive playcalling, or a not so good team screwed up by...well, you get the drill. Let's look:

L - Bowling Green, 27-17. Bowling Green is not a terrible MAC team, and I don't think this loss is really that inexplicable. They only got destroyed by Minnesota, who is better than advertised by quite a bit this year, and held Boise State to 20 points.

W - Buffalo, 27-16. Buffalo is a better MAC team. So far Pitt is .500 in MAC East play. I thought only Big Ten schools had schedules like this.

W - Iowa, 21-20. Speaking of Big Ten schools, Pitt squeaks this one out over a very middle-of-the-road one.

W - Syracuse, 34-24. I find this one interesting. Syracuse led through three quarters, but then Pitt woke up and reeled off three straight scores to pull away. FWIW, the only other teams Syracuse has hung 20 on are Akron and Northeastern.

W - South Florida, 26-21. Note that the final score is due to a failed 2 pt conversion attempt. This is the win Pitt hangs their hat on; the Bulls were ranked #10 that week. And the only reasons I can see for that are carryover from the season before and beating an overrated Kansas team. I mean, South Florida is a solid team, hard to say how solid, but not #10 caliber.

W - Navy, 42-21. Maybe this is the win Pitt hangs their hat on? Navy's got a nice little team again this year, beat Wake Forest, losing to Ball State is no crime...losing to Duke isn't as bad as in years past... Anyway, Pitt obviously can deal with the option; bully for them. And then...

L - Rutgers, 54-34. Now, this is obviously something of a hard-luck Rutgers team, a throwback to yesteryear, but still, Schiano isn't a bad coach. I'm pulling for them to dash off four straight and go to another bowl, but we'll see.

So let's see...their big wins are against Navy and South Florida, and let's throw in Iowa. The Bulls are running for 170 a game, 4.2 a carry; Iowa is going 190 yards per game each way--so maybe the theme is Pitt can stop the run enough to outduel rushing teams? But that's not the game we'll be bringing. Obviously Rutgers aired it out, and we have more talent than Rutgers this year. Bowling Green...hey, check it out, 100 yards a game rushing and 220 in the air, peas in a pod with Rutgers. So let's just say I'm more hopeful than I was about an Irish victory on Saturday. Here's to Jimmy with five touchdowns to four different receivers and a burst of confidence heading into Boston College...

Notre Dame wins bye week...opponents, not so much

lordsummer — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:11:01 -0000

I was looking through the scores on ESPN.com yesterday and I noticed some good opportunities for gallows humor. Look at our schedule and see how our opponents did:

San Diego State: Continues to suck. Epic loss to New Mexico (70-7!!). Tell me there's no way for ND to end up in the same bowl game as the Lobos.

Michigan (sucks!): Penn State unleashes a decade's worth of anger upon their tormentors.

Michigan State: Takes their first opportunity in God knows how long to make some noise in a big Big Ten game and completely blows it. Bye-bye ranking. Sparty is on schedule for their second half collapse. C'mon, Dantonio, keep them together enough to at least beat Michigan.

Purdue: For some reason I thought they had a bye this week. They seem to have thought so too. Blowout by Northwestern. PU, IU, and WU now firmly in the Big Ten basement.

Stanford: Coughs one up to the UCLA team we barely beat last year to keep 2007 ND squad from setting the consecutive losses to start season record for all future time.

North Carolina: Falls to hapless Virginia. Bye-bye ranking.

Yes, friends, ALL of our previous opponents not only lost last Saturday, but they looked bad doing it, either getting blown out or losing to an inferior team (I guess you could quibble with Stanford-UCLA; that really probably was a toss-up).

Washington: Thumped by Oregon State. <yawn> I'm sure they were just caught looking ahead.

Pittsburgh: Thumped Navy 42-21. Glad we get them at home.

BC: Forces of evil upset Virginia Tech, earn first ranking of the season. Gag.

Navy: Thumped by Pittsburgh, see above.

Syracuse: Annihiliated by South Florida. <yawn>

USC: Beats Washington State even worse than New Mexico beat SDSU. I expect Pete Carroll chartered a flight home for the first team right after halftime.

So overall, three of our opponents won over the weekend, all three in such fashion as to convince the casual observer that they'll most likely beat us too.

I'm seeing 7-5 and a trip to the Sun Bowl, although 9-3 is still within reach if we could somehow play as well as we did against North Carolina minus the turnovers.