I agree. That spread offense they run with the 2 attack men GLE and the middie 2 man pick and sweep game really spreads out the defense and plays to their athletes. Going to be interesting. A little zone to combat that Lax? Looking forward to this one. Danowski is just reloading yearly now.
I'm not sure if you have to change much of the defensive scheme, but I do think you need to discuss at length how and when you slide. Need to aggressively slide upfield to Jones and Class... need to be very slow to go from adjacents on the 2-man games from behind or on the wing. The majority of the offense will be run from there, IMO, in order to get Class and Jones free for step down shots. We have a much better chance of surviving low angle shots from their attack than a barrage of 12 yard looks from good angles.
Here are my keys to the game:
1. Win faceoffs. Duh. But basically, ND needs to do what it did at the end of the game last weekend... go with Finley + Epple on a wing. Finley went 50% against one of the better faceoff men in the country and should be able to do at least that against Duke.
2. Be prepared to run the offense through the midfield and Doyle when they throw a junk defense at Kavanagh. Do not force feed him.
3. Do not give up easy goals in transition to Haus. Make Duke play settled 6v6.
4. Press mismatches with Near, Collins, and Ossello against players that aren't supposed to be on defense. Duke's aggressive scheme falls apart when they get O-mids stuck playing defense where they are inept.
5. Make their attackmen beat you. They aren't good enough to score 10+ goals on their own, they need their midfield to pump in the production. Be slow to slide to attackmen all day and make sure the midfielders see no daylight.
