My thought on the PSU game.

[johnnd05]

For anyone still interested in thinking about last week's game, Michael Rothstein has a great tape-breakdown post here. Very good stuff.

 

[johnnd05]

Speaking of breaking down tape, here's a really excellent play-by-play breakdown of our offense from Saturday, from Irish Eyes via BGS. I'll just past the overview here; click to the full article for the rest (a very worthwhile read):

OVERVIEW​

I read after the game how the Coach Weis needs to “open things up” and to “take the handcuffs off”. I would like to see some changes to the play calling and schemes, but I don’t believe that Coach Weis was overly conservative in his play calling against Penn State. If you go through this review you’ll see a great number of play calls where the design was to get the ball deep. Either the quarterback didn’t make the throw to the open receiver, the line was unable to protect the quarterback, and they had a 42 yard pass completion nullified by a holding penalty.

Once again as I went through the film I saw several opportunities in the pass game and run game wasted by a lack of execution. For the most part they are mistakes that I will be able to grit my teeth, bear, and know they are part of the growing pains of a young football team. There are other mistakes, however, that are inexcusable and I believe I made that clear during the review. As the players begin to execute what is called we will see a much more effective and productive offensive football team.

The one area that was mentioned that I do agree with is the Irish inability to throw the football over the middle of the field. Almost everything they throw and are designing right now is outside. With the shorter receivers in the game I’m surprised the Irish aren’t running more crossing routes, middle of the field “high-low” packages, and an occasional inside receiver screen. Perhaps this isn’t part of Coach Weis’ offense, although I seriously doubt it. I remember this being a part of what he did with the Patriots and remember some of this stuff being ran in 2005.

There is one area where I believe Coach Weis needs to adapt in my opinion. In the NFL it’s all about your scheme. No matter how good your players are you can’t really isolate players a great deal and allow them to go one-on-one. You can’t screen with your receivers in the NFL like you can in college. I understand that with Coach’s schemes the idea is to take what the defense gives and they don’t often run plays designed to look for one player. It’s all about the system and the read. But at times, especially times like these, he needs to do more things to isolate his receivers. He did it with Armando Allen but it has to go further. I would like to see more of what I mentioned earlier and see Coach Weis do more to ensure that guys like John Carlson, Duval Kamara, and Golden Tate are touching the football.

QUARTERBACK

I was very encouraged by what I saw of Jimmy Clausen on Saturday. Did he miss some reads? Of course. Did he hold on the football a couple of times? Absolutely. But there was much to like about his performance on Saturday. The most important thing was his poise. Outside of LSU there isn’t a tougher, noisier, or hostile crowd than the one he dealt with on Saturday against Penn State. Despite the struggles of the offense you never saw him get rattled. He continued to battle and hung in there. Many people (that’s you Tom Luginbill) questioned how he would respond to getting hit. I believe Jimmy Clausen answered those questions loud and clear against Penn State. He got hit often and kept firing away. He’ll need to continue to grow as a player. He needs to learn what open means at this level. But he showed great ability and poise against Penn State. One area he needs to develop is to not always be so fine. Guys like Jimmy, who are so accurate, who don’t make a lot of mistakes, often times don’t take certain shots that they should. Despite that Jimmy Clausen is special. The Irish have a future star.

RUNNING BACK

The pass protection improved since the Georgia Tech game. There still are too many missed reads going on with the tailbacks. Asaph Schwapp still is missing too many blocks from the fullback position. I would still like to see the two young guys (Aldridge and Allen) get more touches. I believe they are the horses, along with Robert Hughes, to really get this running game going.

WIDE RECEIVER

I am concerned by the technique used by David Grimes. He isn’t good enough or fast enough to have such poor technique at the line of scrimmage. The younger guys show better technique off the line than does David. He wastes too much time and movement getting himself into running position. Coach Ianello says he emphasizes this every day. Well he needs to make sure his junior leader of this unit plays like Ianello preaches. Robby Parris and George West aren’t as bad but still leave much to be desired. This unit is solid but isn’t talented enough to play with poor technique. Every step counts and this group isn’t maximizing their abilities with their technique. They need to do a better job of getting open. Right now Duval Kamara gets off the ball and downfield better than any other wide receiver. I’d like to see Kamara, Parris, and Tate in the game more in the base offenses.

TIGHT END

The tight ends improved in their blocking since the Georgia Tech game. There were a couple of misses but for the most part this unit did quite well in the run game. John Carlson has gotten open more than any other receiver on this team but they have been unable to get him the football. The Irish must do a better job here. Whether it be protection breakdowns or the quarterback unable to pull the trigger, they aren’t getting their best player the ball enough. I believe Coach Weis needs to do a bit more to get John involved early in the game.

OFFENSIVE LINE

There are certain mistakes that you can live with as a coach. I can live with the mistakes Dan Wenger and Michael Turkovich are making right now. They are making rookie mistakes, but they make them going hard. As they gain more experience you hope you’ll see those mistakes decrease. The mental mistakes, the poor technique being used by some, and the inconsistency of the tackles isn’t something coaches can live with. I don’t know if putting in one of the freshman (Dever or Romine) is the answer but something needs to be done. I don’t believe the Irish are using too many or too complex blocking schemes. I do believe, however, that the inconsistency up front is hurting this football team. This unit has to get better, and get better fast.

 

[The Polish Irishman]

I think it is hard to say the defense is vastly improved until we face a team that throws the ball downfield, where we have sucked in the past.

 

[johnnd05]

I think it is hard to say the defense is vastly improved until we face a team that throws the ball downfield, where we have sucked in the past.

Morrelli thew the ball down the field plenty in week one, and PSU has a wicked group of wideouts. Fact of the matter is, teams simply aren't going to go long against us very often unless (1) we keep the games closer and (2) our run defense improves. But if you can't recognize that our pass defense has looked a good deal better so far this season than it did last year, I don't know what games you've been watching.

Obviously it's possible for judgments of this sort to be proven wrong. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't make them - after all, that's what armchair analysis is all about!

 

[Sureal]

Morrelli thew the ball down the field plenty in week one, and PSU has a wicked group of wideouts. Fact of the matter is, teams simply aren't going to go long against us very often unless (1) we keep the games closer and (2) our run defense improves. But if you can't recognize that our pass defense has looked a good deal better so far this season than it did last year, I don't know what games you've been watching.

Obviously it's possible for judgments of this sort to be proven wrong. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't make them - after all, that's what armchair analysis is all about!

Thank you!!! I thought I was trippin' or something like no one else sees this. The reason why teams are getting big numbers on the ground is because we lack d-line depth. It doesn't help when the o can't stay on the field longer than 3 plays. But the secondary is playing better. I mean there is room for improvement and yes there will be mis reads but compared to last year ???

 

[johnnd05]

Thank you!!! I thought I was trippin' or something like no one else sees this. The reason why teams are getting big numbers on the ground is because we lack d-line depth. It doesn't help when the o can't stay on the field longer than 3 plays. But the secondary is playing better. I mean there is room for improvement and yes there will be mis reads but compared to last year ???

Just one point here: I think this element - the offensive struggles - has been overemphasized. In both games, our time of possession has been right near 50%. Of course the offense hasn't done a lot to help the defense, but our tiredness is due more to depth issues than time of possession, IMO.

 

[johnnd05]

BGS has a breakdown of the numbers from the PSU game, here. Some highlights:

• Opponent rushing average, by quarter: 1Q: 3.74 ypc; 2Q: 4.00 ypc; 3Q: 5.05 ypc; 4Q: 5.80 ypc. Ouch. Depth, anyone?
• 41% of all points scored against ND so far this season have occurred on drives of 36 yards or less.
• Against PSU, Armando Allen totaled over 100 yards of offense for the second straight week (13 rushing, 38 receiving, 67 kick return). While Clausen is getting most of the press as ND's impact freshman, it is his classmate Allen that is ND's leading rusher, receiver, and kick returner.
• With a career high 10 tackles against Penn State, Trevor Laws is now 50th in the nation in tackles and 2nd in the nation in tackles among defensive linemen. Laws is currently leading the Irish in tackles with 19.0.

 

[FUND]

i'll admit i was a bit concerned the first few minutes of this game... then that feeling faded fairly fast. you guys stayed with us in the first half but your D just couldn't keep up in the second. and did you notice us not throwing the ball at all in the 4th quarter? maybe it was paterno allowing scott to stretch his legs, maybe it was his way of not running up the score...but one thing is for sure, if he let morelli hit his wideouts in the 4th quarter the score would have been at last 2 TD's more.

i love how everyone is talking the shit out of clausen. get off his nuts for a second you fucking swingers.

and let's go meatchicken! as much as i despise MI, we've played ND and not MI yet, so let's go wolverines! gotta love a couple of over-rated, over commercialized, over hyped teams pillow fighting it out. there will be tons and tons of mistakes on both sides of the ball tomorrow, it will be close to the end with MI winning by one score.

remember kids, get all your nortre dame football from the NDFB leader : NDSPN: The Worldwide Leader In Undeserved Hype

that is all.

Let's go state!

 

[johnnd05]

that is all.

Thank GOODNESS.

What a shitwad ...