You know you are going to give up big plays against DR. The key is limiting them to 30 yards and under. You <can't?> allow him to have multiple plays over 50 yards. Those are back-breakers.
Nother cup of coffee?
Don't compare anything to last year.
Don't compare different paths to the same objective (OMM handled that very well), different teams, or different days.
Who has the overall speed advantage?
Who has the better strategy?
Since this is a sixty minute game and at lease one team has sixty players ready, who has the most balanced attack?
If anyone thinks they have seen the best of ND's offensive attack, they should go back to grammar school.
I have seen a lot of people claim that ND's defensive front seven isn't that good. Why?
(People can convince themselves of almost anything.)
I would rather be playing Michigan this week and be done with Purdue and MSU. They are going to kill some people this year! And they are much better than the credit they get.
Defense: Notre Dame does something a little different on defense than what Purdue, MSU, Michigan, or Alabama does. They play a predominance of two gap defense. The down linemen play head up and are responsible to the gap to the right and left of themselves. They have used this scheme two thirds of the time and more in games.
In the MGoBlog breakdown of the Irish Defense, when he pointed out how much of a danger man Seacláid na hÉireann was, (Irish Chocolate), his vidio software broke down, so he could only show stills of a play Louis blew up at the nose. I think it was a conspiracy. If his video software had worked it would have shown Seacláid in a two gap, driving the MSU center off the ball. Had the truth of this come out, Michigan fans and players would be running away in mortal fear.
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Here is the defensive end. Two gap gives you the opportunity to disguise everything. It also allows you to defend a smooth seamless front. Those can be huge advantages.
The disadvantage is that it is tiring and physically incredibly demanding on the defensive front.
Last year that is the real reason we lost. Our players were exhausted.
What is the difference this year? Kappy is better. Nix is way better. Schwenke is as good as Nix. Springman; welcome to the neighborhood. Tuitt is off the frickin chart. Houndshell and Day are better than any relievers that we had last year. (Contrary to what I have seen in print, Lynch and Tuitt never saw action last year against Michigan.) So to the man, this year every position grades out significantly higher. Last year we had four defensive linemen. Hell, even Sean Cwynar was in a cast and had a bum foot. And as far as using AL, his coach said he would not play assignment correct. Day will. In the fourth quarter. There will be much
better legs.
We have eight ready defensive linemen for three spots this year. Plus we can move some CAT's around to make it look like nine or more. We can play them like hockey lines. No opponent can deal with that.
So not only will the legs be
better, they will be
fresher. And that is why ND's defense will have success against Michigan.
