Welcome to the Irish Blogger Gathering on Subway Domer. This week, I had the chance to ask Keith Arnold from Inside The Irish a few things with one of them being tied somewhat to the title of this post. 

Be Sure to check out Strong & True for Your Pharoah's answers & take a looksy over at Her Loyal Sons to complete the experience. 

Let's move this along...

We Notre Dame fans are a tough bunch to please. On the heels of the first 4-0 start in South Bend since 2002, Irish fans are expressing growing angst over the production of the offense, led by redshirt freshman QB, Everett Golson. It’s an understandable concern. After four games, Notre Dame ranks 95th (out of 124 teams) in total offense, 76th in scoring offense, 84th in rushing offense and 85th in passing offense. Take out some of the gaudier numbers put up against Navy, and those already dreadful rankings turn downright ugly. Clearly it’s time to go into full-blown panic mode, right? Not necessarily.

In every promising Notre Dame season, comparisons are inevitably made to the ’88 national champions, and this season has been no exception. While most of those comparisons are of the favorable variety, I’ve yet to see anyone bring up the offensive difficulties the Irish had during that championship run, or how closely they resemble 2012.

Tale of the Tape

First things first in drawing up an analysis of this variety: strength of schedule comparison. Obviously, if the level of competition the two teams are facing isn’t at least similar, the argument goes out the window. Luckily for us, the first four games of both the 1988 and 2012 seasons look pretty comparable.

Here’s how the two seasons line up:

Right out of the gate, 2012 gains an advantage by featuring two teams ranked at the time of the game. The 1988 Michigan State team was ranked #15 to start the year, but dropped their first game, 27-13 to Southern Cal, and fell out of the rankings the week they met the Irish.

In addition, the combined previous season records of the teams ’88 Notre Dame played was 25-19-2 (.565), whereas this year’s ND squad faced a slate which went 36-18 (.667). Now, of course, the way a team finished one season is no guarantee of how they’ll perform the next (case in point: 2006 and 2007 ND squads), but it’s at least generally something of a guide as to the way the program was trending at the time. With that in mind, the 2012 schedule is again more formidable.

Statistics

So how do the two teams square up statistically? As it turns out, through the first three games, they’re nearly identical. The average score through the first three games of 1988: 30-9; this year, it’s 30-10 (and both seasons featured identical 20-3 wins at Michigan State). Now, the fourth game is what really separates the two as Notre Dame crushed Stanford in ’88, 42-14, and this year they snuck by Michigan, 13-6, which causes the ’88 squad to pull ahead, 33-10 versus 26-9. Even still, a touchdown’s difference is not that outrageous considering the 1988 team was being led by a QB in Tony Rice who had taken the majority of snaps for an 8-4 bowl team the previous season, and this year’s team has Everett Golson getting his first snaps of live game action at the collegiate level.

Overall, including the Fiesta Bowl, the 1988 Notre Dame team would average a hair under 33 ppg. The team’s offensive production that year: 388 ypg (258 rushing ypg, 130 passing ypg.). Currently, the Irish are averaging 351 ypg (140 rushing ypg, 211 ypg), so not that far off. The interesting thing is that the Irish offense didn’t get that much more productive as the year went on. Their highest output from a points perspective was the 54 they scored against Rice in Game #9, but the second and third highest point totals came in Weeks 3 (52) and 4 (42), against Purdue and Stanford, respectively. One could argue that the level of competition increased over the course of the year, and to a point, that’s true (though Michigan did end up a 9-2-1 Rose Bowl team). What that line of argument ignores, however, is how inconsistent the offense was throughout 1988. Yes, they beat a tough slate, but they also floundered against a Navy team which would go 3-8 (22 points) in Game #8 and at home against a Penn State team which ended 5-6 (21 points) in Game #10. So, if ND was this erratic on offense, how did they win a national championship? Very simple: relentless defense.

The Defense Never Rests

Much as has been the case this year, the 1988 team’s defense was the most important key to success. For the year, they allowed just 13 ppg, limiting four teams to single digit scores. They also held opponents to under 300 total yards per game (280), with paltry amounts allowed both in the air (168 ypg) and on the ground (112 ypg). Thus far, the Irish defense has been similarly impressive. In their first four games, they are allowing 9 ppg and 292 ypg (113 rushing ypg and 179 passing ypg). If the defense can maintain numbers which are anything near these, it will allow plenty of time for this offense to develop over the year.

Conclusion

Though the numbers on both sides of the ball are very similar, I am not suggesting Notre Dame will be hoisting a national championship trophy at the end of the 2012 season as they did at the end of 1988. What I am saying is that even one of the best teams in the history of the program had its share of offensive struggles during the course of the year, and that this team is not that far off from the production levels of that group. Notre Dame’s offense will get better this year. We will probably not see an increasingly upward trend week after week, but you’ll start to see explosive moments and games from the group. This means one week they’ll score 40+ and the next they’ll be back to the mid-20’s. That’s to be expected from a group being led by a talented, but inexperienced QB. My advice to Irish fans is be patient, keep perspective and, if the team is winning, don’t stress yourself out too much.

Welcome to TWITTERMANIA!!! This is the place to find the very best tweets about Notre Dame football, college football, and a whole bunch of stuff in between. 

This is a contest, but there are no prizes to be had. I mean, how do you hand over a fat bottle of brewed glory to someone? You don't, as it just appearsppears from somewhere where that type of stuff is made. You can find the rankings here, or at the top of the page in the "TWITTERMANIA" tab. 

This week: All the rules are thrown out of the window like a molatov cocktail destined for the ass of Sebastion the Ibis. All of the scoring updates are well... updated. Getting this out of the way a bit early this week as it has been like the entire staff (Your Pharoah included) has been on strike. We are ready to roll son!

On to the tweets:

Welcome to Bagpipe Monday on Subway Domer. Yes- it's still Monday, and I don't give a shit what time it is. Your Emperor has been somewhat absent this past week, due to multiple bullshit gushing out from the pipes of real life. 

It's not all bad. I will be traveling to North Carolina this week, which is cool- but that may make hardcore posting difficult, although I expect the usual gameweek lineup to be up and running with little change. 

As for the Fighting Irish, I find it a little it a little strange that this team is 13 point favorites (ballpark) against what may appear to be a decent Miami squad. The Canes are 4-1, and despite that horrific and comically awesome beatdown that they took from Kansas State, they just might be the best team we have played thus far. 

BREAK OUT THE LONG BOWS AND MACHETES BOYS! 

Subway Domer Ballot - Week 5

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
2	Oregon Ducks	--
3	LSU Tigers	--
4	Kansas St. Wildcats	--
5	West Virginia Mountaineers	3
6	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	--
7	Florida St. Seminoles	--
8	South Carolina Gamecocks	1
9	Georgia Bulldogs	1
10	Texas Longhorns	1
11	Ohio St. Buckeyes	4
12	Florida Gators	2
13	Oklahoma Sooners	--
14	Oregon St. Beavers	--
15	Stanford Cardinal	-10
16	USC Trojans	-4
17	TCU Horned Frogs	-1
18	Clemson Tigers	-1
19	Louisville Cardinals	-1
20	Nebraska Cornhuskers	--
21	Rutgers Scarlet Knights	3
22	Washington Huskies	--
23	Northwestern Wildcats	--
24	Cincinnati Bearcats	--
25	Baylor Bears	-2
Dropouts: Michigan St. Spartans, Oklahoma St. Cowboys, Mississippi St. Bulldogs, Iowa St. Cyclones

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

Well, how about those Cardinal, AMIRITE? Nice call putting them in the top ten last week, Steve.

But on the plus side, I have been high on West Virginia all season having them in the top ten each week and now ascending to number five. The Geno Smith onslaught against Baylor was unreal.

Things look to get shaken up soon as we get deeper into conference play. The log-jam of SEC teams should sort itself out as well as some closely ranked Big 12 and Pac 12 teams. I have my eye on Georgia v South Carolina and K-State v WV in particular. 

As for the Michigan game from the week prior, I can only echo Subway Domer's many apologies for lack of content. The Michigan Hangover was indeed huge and I felt like the after-effects all last week even though the only booze I drank that day was the whiskey Steve Herring put in my coffee. But the kids LOVED their very first ND game and Mrs. Steve and I loved bringing them. So I leave you with a picture of the Steve in Iowa clan. The kids' expressions capture the sheer joy all of us felt that night. Let's go Irish! Beat Hurricanes!

Well, Irish fans, it’s been an interesting September. With one-third of the season already in the books, our beloved Notre Dame has managed to achieve their best record through four games since 2002. It’s been a remarkable couple of weeks filled with triumph, tragedy and plenty of tense moments. As we prepare to head into a much-needed and perfectly-timed bye week, here are a few thoughts and notes on the first four games:

Many factors went into both the lack of material published this week and just how late some of it is being published. 

Oh, well. It's the bye week and Notre Dame is sitting at 4-0. I'm happy and that is all that really matters... right? 

Right.

So, I put together a very short, very general, and and very blunt podcast. It's not the best sell, but it is what it is.