John -
My opinions are exhaustively present in other posts, but mainly the offense's problem boil down to the O-Line's complete ineptitude on virtually every playin the playbook.
Short version:
- O-line play kills offense in general - no holes to run through, no time to pass and no ability to execute the pressure-relieving staples like screens and draws adds up to a toxic mix....
- Lack of running game or passing game or ability to convert 3rd downs kills time of possession, forces too many 3rd and long situations (which are abject failures for most GOOD teams, and the kiss of death to bad or medicore units) and ultimately hangs the defense out to dry by not keeping them off the field enough. The snowball is rolling and picking up too much momentum to be stopped...
- Combine the above factors with hesitant and inexperienced play at the QB and RB positions, play your first 8 games (all in a row with no off week) and against 6 or 7 of the total 40 defenses in the country and you get what we have seen to date...dead last in the nation in everything that matters offensively.
Longer, more rambling version:
Whatever the symptom or symtpoms of the offensive malaise this year, the bottom line always diagnosis comes back to the same thing - the offense is rancid because the play of the offensive line.
I just rewatched Nevin's UCLA highlights and on a couple of good runs by Aldridge you can actually see blocking that opened up holes to run through. He then hit those holes hard and seemed to have better straight ahead speed than Darrius as well. Then the WR or TE would miss a downfield block and the play would get 8 yards instead of the 20-30 yards we grew accustomed to seeing in the past few years. Bad blocking at the point of attack means the runs never get out of the backfield; bad blocking downfield means that a 6-8 yard run stays at 6-8 instead of making it into the second and third levels on the defense and picking up 20-25-30 yards. No better proof of this exists than watching ND's OLBs get swallowed up at times and leaving gaping holes in their wake...
The biggest problem is not RB talent - Aldridge, Hughes and Allen all have the ability to do great things at ND...in fact I also just watched the Nevin 2005 season highlight video and the 2005 USC clip (I dunno, I guess I needed my 'good' Irish offense fix today or something) and I would LOVE to see what any of those 3 could do with as much open field as either Darrius or Reggie Bush had to work with at times. The RBs on the team have not been given very much opportunity to show what they could do because not one in a million backs is good enough to run behind this year's ND O-Line. Maybe, just maybe Barry Sanders or Galye Sayers could average 80 yards a game with these stiffs, but it would probably take 25-30 carries for them to do it, let alone a SO or pair of FR players....
The same thing applies to the pass blocking! There have been multiple occassions this season where ND had a successful screen play set up (an essential cog in the Weis offense in '05 and '06) only to see the play get blown up when the O-Linemen in front of the ball whiff, fall down or worse both... Same thing again applies on several short yardage plays (just about every play we have run on 3rd and 2 or less or 4th down and short) with Schwapp more often than not hitting nothing but the ground as his assignment is crushing the ball carrier for no gain or a loss. He has stumbled and fell, glanced off of his man or just flat out whiffed too many times. It makes a great play and likely conversion for a first down turn into a "what the hell was he (Weis) thinking?" call....
I know there have been a few instances where bad playcalling contributes - no one and nothing is beyond reproach at this point; and I and others have attempted to illustrate the relative inexperience of the RBs, the WRs and the QBs as well...but after seeing OSU score a TD on 3rd and 12 on a flanker screen where their 2 blockers annihilated the PSU defenders and allowed the ball carrier to walk in untouched, I can't imagine that Charlie calls a screen play in similar situations EXPECTING the O-Line to whiff or utterly fail to execute their assignments...does the fact that Tressel's two O-Linemen did what they are supposed to do (and did not fall down or whiff suddenly) make his play call (or his OC's) smarter than Weis? I guess you can hang the lack of successful technique on Weis and the staff (Latina, Haywood is the OC in name right?!?!?) and a failure to adequately drill the fundamentals in practice, but at several points over the course of this season there have been ideal playcalls sent in that were just executed badly.
I am convinced that if our O-Line was even at the level of competence of LAST year's group (which was hardly a force of nature) that this year's Irish would be hovering around 3-5 or 4-4 (maybe even as crazy as sitting at 5-3 at this point - PU, MSU and either BC or PSU games could have been far different beasts with an offense that simply did not hurt itself constantly or just hang the defense out to dry).
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So, if the idea is to find reasons for the putrid offensive production it starts and ends with the O-Line. Sullivan has failed to effectively lead the youngsters. Young has failed to progress and if anything appears to be worse this year than in his freshman season (likely because no one is able to cover his mistakes for him now and he still makes a bunch of youth-related errors every game). The Sophomore class recuits have not proven themselves ready to take the mantle yet - whether through a lack of conditioning and strength or game experience or all of the above is not totally clear.
it is very distressing that not one man on the O-Line has shown very much heart, or taken the play to the whistle every down (again, is this a direct by-product of practice structure? if it is, then we should have seen a noticeable improvement after they went to harder hitting in practice...oh wait, we DID, but then the practice regiment was lightened again and contact not as severe and USC happened...is that all coincidence? I cannot say for sure)....that is another situation that the O-Linemen should be collectively embarassed about. Its one thing to get beat, its quite another to get beat and to just accept it or not ever seem terribly bothered by it.
Watch to see how many times ND linemen engage, get beat and quit on the play and contrast that level of play to the game winning drive against UCLA last year. The play BEFORE "the catch", the throw to Grimes for a first down at the 45, watch as Quinn roles out and picks up a diving block from a hustling O-Lineman that saves him from a sack and allows him to even get the ball off...How many times this year did we witness Clausen trying to do the same thing (roll out to buy time) only to be greeted by angry mobs (usually 2 but sometimes more) defenders? It also bothers me a great deal to very rarely see any of the linemen come pick up Jimmy after allowing him to get creamed - almost like they don't want to draw attention to the fact they just about got him killed again...that is a possible sign that Clausen never had the buy in of the line for him as a leader. THAT is a situation that simply must be addressed. I did not really see too much of it with Sharpley either...the O-line does not seem to take a whole lot of pride in their performance, a totally unacceptable situation for any football team...
Sometimes they get beat physically - think Clausen being sacked by the entire Michigan Defensive line... Other times they get beat mentally - think of all the ridiculous penalties and miscues that riddled the offense against PSU. Still other times it seems a combination of mental AND physical - think Sullivan firing shotgun snaps over the ehad of Allen AND Clausen on multiple occassions. Finally there is the distinct possibility that at least SOME of these 4-star and better recruits simply are not that good and lack technique necessary to compete with players of equal or better size and quickness....,maybe in HS they all got lazy because they could rely on a huge physical mismatch to compensate for their lack of technique.
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How good of a leader WAS Quinn for these Irish?
He certainly instilled a sense of belief in the team's chances from his junior year on....that aspect is clearly missing this year. Sharpley is the man now, but unless he is able to grab this team and drag them to the finish line with 4 victories, I can't see how he would beat out a healthy Clausen in the Spring (he could not do it last Spring). That leaves Clausen as the presumed man next fall...can he develop that "it" factor, that presence about him that elevates his teammates? A total unknown at this point....more grist for the mill...
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Its has been poor from the first snap of the season on, with very little interruption in the horror show. This complete lack of ability to run the ball, throw the ball or catch the ball leads to too many poorly executed plays and dead drives that are 3-and-outs, and it puts a defense back on the field constantly demoralized and progressively getting weaker as a game goes on. The exceptions to this trend have been: 2nd half against PU (where it briefly seemed that a comeback was possible), the first half of PSU (before becoming so fatigued that they were blown off the ball a good 6-7 yards on every run in the 4th quarter), and the UCLA game (where the defense simply kept generating turnovers in sufficient numbers to overcome a horribly inept offense yet again - there were 13 total points scored by the offense off of 7 turnovers, including 3 times giving the ball to the offense inside Bruin territory and twice inside the 10 - that game should have been at least a 35-6 or 42-6 win). If the only chance your offense gives you to get a win is a +6 turnover differential, then you are a a BAD offensive team...really bad.
One other side note and in defense of the O-Line vets like Sully and Young, watching Quinn in those 2005/2006 highlights he had AMAZING pocket presence and 'shiftiness' (moving just his shoulders to escape a pass rush) that NEITHER Evan nor Jimmy have shown to date. There are at least a dozen or more examples of Quinn side-stepping a rush to deliver a pass about 1-2 seconds after this year's QBs are already on the ground. That does not help the confidence of the O-Line at all. Quinn was masterful at keeping his eyes down the field and feeling the pass rush without having to see it, as a result he got the ball out of his hands so much faster than Evan or Jimmy that its almost depressing to watch - oh, who am I kidding, its totally depressing! Evan and Jimmy both suffer from the inexperience of playing QB at this level and therefore have a common flaw - they cannot recoginize the college open man as compared to the HS open man.
In HS ball, its obvious who the open WR or TE or RB is because there is usually a good 5-10 yards of open space around them! In D1 college, the DB is probably less than a step behind an open target. In the NFL, you have almost zero separation at times and it become a game of anticipation in addition to recognition. I saw Stafford of Georgia make an incredible throw against UF on Saturday, but what he did was really not much more than what Jimmy did with Golden at PSU or Evan did with him at PU...he gave the WR a chance to make a play on the ball. It has seemed to me that Sharpley has been more willing than Clausen to do this all season - and as a result he has put up more plays but also produced more head scratchers as well.
Whether ot not this is due to my own pet theory is debateable... Clausen has been injured and less than 100% all season and as a result is MORE hindered because in addition to having to adjust to recognizing the open man, he also has lingering doubts in his head about his physical ability to do what he sees - a truly deadly combination - hesitation piled on top of hesitation. This would explain how Jimmy could seem better in controlled practice situations than Evan. In practice at anything less than game speed this could very easily look to the coaches and observers as Jimmy being more accurate in his reads (avoiding more bad throws) while at the same time looking better because the D is hardly coming at him full go. In such situations, Sharpley almost certainly would look worse than Clausen...he is less accurate throwing (clearly seen in his gameplay to date) and he is less cautious with the throws he will attempt (also seen in game situations). The problem is that neither one (a gunslinging, inaccurate but brave Junior or an at-times timid and tender freshman) is a very good fit for success this year with virtually zero skill position experience around as well.
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It has been said on this and other forums all year...the end result (119th in the nation in too many categories to even think about) is the aftermath of the perfect storm....4 O-Line recruits ( 2 of which are so-so players on their best day to begin with) over the course of 3 YEARS 2003, 2004, 2005; sophomore and freshmen O-Linemen who are not ready to play physically at the D1 level (at least they don't appear to be to the naked eye), a near complete lask of leadership from the 5th year senior center, a total lack of execution of even the simplest of plays, and on and on....
To use an ackonwledged bad metaphor, ND's O-Line is the equivalent of the New Orleans Levies post-Katrina. The suffering and deaths and tragedies of that real human crisis could have been better controlled or contained with better levies than could have withstood the worst and held up until time allowed the worst to pass. In many ways, that is the ND O-Line...many of the things that plague this year's offense could have been lessened (maybe not totally removed, but made far less horrible) by buying time until the worst had passed. About 2 minutes into the GT game a very large lump grew in my throat that has yet to abate....this year's O-Line is like those post-Katrina levies - overrun.
