Notre Dame Fans To Team: Just Win (Big), Baby
· Yahoo Sports
Welcome back to One Foot Down Reacts, where we ask the most connected Notre Dame football fans to weigh in on a weekly question of our choosing.
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This week, the biggest question after an 11-point win over a North Carolina team and a beleaguered Stanford on deck was: What does the team most need to show us this week to inspire confidence we’re on the title track?
Nearly half of you said you just wanted a big win most of all. In creating the survey, I purposefully picked 39+ because Miami has already beaten Stanford this year, 45-6.
“There’s no ‘all of the above’ category in this week’s questionnaire. So I’m just going to say it down here. What would I like to see, Saturday?” asked commenter GoldRushND. “All of that. That would make me feel a whole lot better.”
While survey answers are limited to 4, Berlin Irish doesn’t care about constraints. The commenter chose Option “E”: No injuries.
“Yes, worse teams have beaten better teams in the history of football and Stanford has a history of upsetting their rivals, but Stanford’s exhausted, injury-plagued starting lineup is probably not as good as Notre Dame’s practice squad at most positions or as a unit,” the comment said. “This game can’t really show us anything. … But definitely not C, because I don’t want Williams to muddle things up and look like he could re-establish himself in a role as RB2.”
The second-most popular choice was improved play from the linebackers and safeties in pass coverage. In the initial post, I singled out Adon Shuler, Drayk Bowen and Jaylen Sneed, although all who play those positions are applicable.
“If I was scouting ND I’d dismiss the special teams issues for the most part (weather, etc.) I know damn well they can run the ball and the O Line is improving. I have to address it. Period. I don’t care about margin of victory,” said commenter Foste3. “But I’m drooling over the poor linebacker and safety play and I’m getting our Tight Ends ready to have a big day. This MUST get addressed.”
Moon Tower, another commenter, seemed to agree.
“I’d like to see our secondary button things down more. From what I can gleam from articles on the net, Stanford has several passes over 30 yards and quite a few over 50. I can well imagine that it was against inferior defenses other than ours but I would love to see a nice tight secondary shut things down. Next, I’d love to see our running backs pop for more yards. I am truly leaning towards Walton being our number 1 back. I think he brings more to the table than Williams. It’s not that I don’t like Williams but he just seems to run right up the backs of our offensive line for 1-2 yards a carry. His longer runs are so far and few between. And lastly, agreeing with Foste, I would want to see more out of our tight ends.”
While Brendan, Joshua and I all picked Notre Dame to cover this week’s 39 1/2 point spread on this week’s podcast, what do you think? FanDuel, the sponsor of this post, is ready for your bet on this game or any other college football matchup by following this link: https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/navigation/ncaaf.