ND's play mix must favor the pass...

[Easton Pa ND Fan]

Using just stats from ND and Stanford against winning record teams:

ND - Offense
ND - Passing - 262 plays - 1800 yds - 6.87 yds/play - 15 TDs - 11.2 pts/game
ND - Rushing - 264 plays - 1309 yds - 4.96 yds/play - 07 TDs - 05.2 pts/game

SU - Defense
SU - Passing -------------------------------------------------------- 10.3 pts/game
SU - Rushing -------------------------------------------------------- 03.4 pts/game

Stanford has allowed less than 1.7 passing touchdowns and 0.6 rushing touch-
downs per game. Kelly's best play mix should favor passing. Why?

It is not "throttled" as much as the rushing statistic. A second reason that can-
not be discounted is the better opportunity to enter the red zone afforded by
extra passing yardage.

This is a high reward vs high risk strategy (15 vs 7 TDs). Either way, the
offense must produce...Tom

GoIrish!!

 

[Old Man Mike]

Always like your stuff.......

 

[D-BOE34]

I am with ya in that we need to pass. I think it needs to be a little beyond that though. I think we need to be efficient (duh) and throw the "Risky" routes more often. I think we will need to be on point with our 15-25 yard passes to win this one. I also think we will need to throw much more of them than usual. This is going to be a doozy of a game but it is possible to pull this one off.

Too bad ESPN will just say Stanford is bad vs saying ND is good. No F's given by ESPN if we win

 

[Buster Bluth]

Totally agree.

 

[anarin]

Don't say that too much. Alot of this board throws a fit when ND throws.

 

[GoIrish41]

they just have to be in a position where they don't HAVE TO throw. When Tommy is in a position where he has to make a play, his incidents of making a mistake goes up. Even if we favor the pass, there must be a healthy mix of run and pass. Make Stanford respect the run so that play action comes into play. Keep them off balance by mixing it up and don't get down and make Tommy have to be something that he isn't and ND will be just fine. More important is that the lines on both sides of the ball have to man up. They are going to have their biggest challenge of the year and they have to come in with a chip on their shoulders.

 

[stlnd01]

they just have to be in a position where they don't HAVE TO throw. When Tommy is in a position where he has to make a play, his incidents of making a mistake goes up. Even if we favor the pass, there must be a healthy mix of run and pass. Make Stanford respect the run so that play action comes into play.

Right. You saw this in the BYU game. Running opened up the play-action, which led to big pass plays early, which put us ahead. This will be harder against Stanford, but we've got to try to establish some running game. We don't have the horses to just chuck it all day.

 

[ulukinatme]

Right. You saw this in the BYU game. Running opened up the play-action, which led to big pass plays early, which put us ahead. This will be harder against Stanford, but we've got to try to establish some running game. We don't have the horses to just chuck it all day.

I was saying this at the beginning of the season. We should have worked in the off season to strengthen the run game more so we didn't have to rely on Tommy's arm so much, then when we did have to pass we could hit the Play Action. I thought thats what the coaching staff might do, but we ended up doing things like 5 wide sets and playing RB Roulette.

 

[NDohio]

Yep, I agree completely.

Also, I wish you would post more.