Notre Dame Pos Game Show - Offensive Takeaways From Notre Dame's 52-0 Win Over Rice

0:00This is Belie, one network, every topic, everywhere. Well, let's talk about the Notre Dame offense here in the Irish Breakdown podcast. I think the big thing is, I want to hold off on talking about the run game till we've given some of our big picture thoughts, because I think that needs its own conversation. I think the big thing is I want to hold off on talking about the run game till we've given some of our big picture thoughts, because I think that needs its own conversation. conversation. But actually, yeah, let's let's let's let's let's hold off on the

1:02run game, O line conversation till the end so we can talk about some things first. But I thought big picture, you could tell last week it felt like Mike Dembrock really felt the need to come out and force the run game to kind of get it going. This week he made a very concerted effort to get the ball thrown. I do not think that he had a concerted effort to get Jaden Greathouse to ball. It's just what we talked about last week. That's where the read is going to take you. Yes. And early in the game, that's where the read took CJ Carr. They were more aggressive throwing the ball down field last week. Why? That because that's what the that's what rice was going to give you. You know, rice was not going to let Notre Dame run the ball. Shouldn't have mattered. They still should have run the ball better. We'll get to that later. But that left the opportunities, you know, down the field. Now he also didn't force the ball down the field. When they bailed, he took the hitch. He took, you know, they ran a slot fade. He took the hitch. You know, they ran a field

2:04slot, a boundary slot fade. That's when hit Greathouse. Then they ran a field slot fade on third down. And they bailed ran with the slot fade. He took the hitch. Let Jordan Faison go make a play. So it was it was very clear that they were they had a concerted effort to hate. Let's go after them in the past game because I think that's what the game plan needed based on how rice was defending them. So I don't think it was so much like Mike Denver. I was like, Hey, guys, we've got a really photo ball today. Make sure we throw the ball better. But it did feel like it was like, okay, let's really aggressively go at rice because rice is going to be playing down hill a lot more and take advantage of that. And I thought CJ was sharp. And I thought the the past game was well designed like the touchdown pass. For example, the I think it was their first touchdown of the game. They ran. Yeah, it was the first touchdown of the game. Ran a double post safety, you know, came down and and took Jordan. Well, they did a quick motion, which I was they did a little bit better job today. I thought using motion to get guys open at something I

3:07like, but they ran a quick motion. And then that kind of got, you know, got the safety's eyes. Okay, who am I looking at? And they both released vertically. So the safety took the inside guy. That was Jaden great house. And then Faeson beat his guy over the top. Thought CJ was a, you know, just kind of floated it a little bit more than I would have wanted to just a little bit more zip on it. But it was a great read. Jordan Faeson goes up goes up for the ball. Love to see that and makes a play on the football. You know, they went a little zip motion on third down later in the game. Had ran like a kind of a little pick now vertical pick. And then Faeson came underneath it. CJ throws a quick. You know, I really liked what we saw from them today. Scheme wise in the run in the past game. I thought they did some some really good things. I still would like to see them do a little bit more of just the sort of the this stuff over the middle. But like, oh, one of my favorite concepts was that was great houses first long catch. So they had Jack Larson in the game and they were in a three by one alignment. And Jaden great houses number two and Jack Larson

4:07was in a wing and they they ran great house on an over route. So that like like we saw violent Graham catch last week. And then Jack Larson released wide and he actually they actually did a post snap switch. So Jaden became three and Jack ran up the seam and it froze the safety. He wasn't sure who to take that let great house get over the top and CJ found him. So there's a lot more of that stuff today, which I liked from the offensive game plan and you could just tell like they felt they had some things they could do with some layers down the field. That wasn't there last week with how with how soft Wisconsin was playing. And so I like to see that stuff. And then also there's still a lot of just get that your guys the ball in space and let them go do something. And we certainly saw that. Now like I love throwing a screen near the goal light to Jordan phase on and great block by Jaden great else on that by the way. Yes. But I just I just thought it was a really good game plan. There were some longer developing stuff. There's some quick hitters to just rice's defense could never quite get a read on Notre Dame's throwing game. That's for sure. Big picture from these real simple when the starting offense was in they

5:13had seven drives. They scored six touchdowns and they only had one punt. And that's because of a 15 year penalty. I just got a behind the sticks and they just never really recovered on that one draw. They were past midfield when that happened. Yeah. 100%. So you know, that's sufficient like that. That's like the definition of efficiency. That's a bunch of touchdowns on the board. You know, there's some stuff that we're obviously going to talk about moving forward on, you know, specifically, but at the end of the day they put the ball in the end zone six times on seven drives. That's a good day at work if you're the offense. So very happy with the way the offense, you know, executed as a whole. Okay. All the things that Brian just said are all things we were looking for and they're starting to get there. They're starting to do some more of those things, which I really, really like. They're becoming less than oh, they're becoming less predictable a little bit with some of the things that they're doing. So I like that as well. And my goodness, just everybody needs to just sit back and enjoy when CJ Carthos of football because it's just beautiful. It's pretty. I mean,

6:14it's just pretty. The talent level is elite and watching him have complete and full control of the offense is also something that is fun to watch. I mean, he's in complete control of that offense. Sean as a passer, doesn't the ball remind you so much of Jimmy when it comes out of his hand? Like just the way it looks, just constant spirals, just, you know, accurate, you know, just, just he can put the ball where he wants to put the ball. Yeah. Yeah. And he Jimmy was different. I think they're different type Jimmy looked like he was max. Oh, sure. I'm talking about the way the ball looks coming out. Yeah. I'm just talking about Jimmy was more to me. I love CJ because he's just like a pure point guard in a basketball sense on the football field. He really is. This pure distributor of the football and Jimmy was

7:16just like a gun slinger to a certain point by he felt like he can make every throw. And of course, the do's he had on the outside. He gave me more than he's receivers and tight ends with row two. They were okay. Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. But no, um, 357 receiving yards a day by the wire receivers. Yeah. For me, that's it. That's it. That is, you know, evidence of what was felt when you got the opportunity to watch practices, the evidence they came what was said by coaching and from people around the program from the spring and the fall. Marcus Freeman saying we have seven to eight guys that we at the wire receiver position, we have to find a way for them to get on the field and play. You know, I said this, you know, just really looking at last week.

8:17A lot of times, man, as a play caller, as an offense, um, I used the word constipated. I was like the way the game started, you know, offensive play calling and offense is about a flow. And in your mind, you're going to get to certain things. Like you have certain things to get to deep shots, to get to these past concepts. But when things, we have penalties that back you up, and now you have to go to something else and then you have other things and then you have a team that's really condensing the game and slowing it down. It doesn't allow you to get to that, then the second half you saw a few things. I think from the start, as Brian pointed out, they came out and they felt like they could get to certain things and really distribute the football and get Jaden ball, get Jordan ball, get Miley and involve. Mike Gilbert, it was great to see him, catch that touchdown. Just get a lot of these guys involved and then like the quickness,

9:18the quickness. I don't know 40 times, but like just be the quickness of Elijah Burr. Oh my God. Yeah. Right. Devin Fitzgerald making people. Yeah, say Fitzgerald was the slip man. I know. Matt Jeffrey. Matt Jeffrey. Absolutely. That was time catch. Had to defender all over him. He could throw by Noah Grubbs as well. That right there going and moving in, it starts to give you something, right? Because I'm sure we'll talk about the run game, but that right there is something as long as the run game comes along and becomes what we expect from Notre Dame, which I expect them to get things right, moving forward. Sure. But to know that that type of passing game, right? Well, you can have 357 receiving yards for what? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine receivers. That's crazy.

10:24Only 33 attempts. Only 33 times. And I'm going to be honest with you. I love it because all of the quarterbacks came in and looked like they locked me. Yeah. No one being missed on the slot theta couple of times, but he could have the one on my land didn't finish that route real well. That's fair. The one in the end zone. He should be missed on one, but I'd get. Yeah, that's fair. But the only thing Noah didn't do was finish drives with touchdown. Yeah. But just very impressed with the way he came out and with the offense, knew where to go with the football. And then like I said, you got the receivers all of them. I want to look at the film, see if there's a difference with the urgency they played a little bit. A little bit. A little bit being their life. Yeah, I thought a little bit. I thought there was more of that in this game. I felt I think it like a quarterback shot. I think I thought CJ was real sharp, but his reads man. I thought he was real sharp. I thought Noah's real sharp. I mean that that he was getting a ball out quick. They were kind of giving

11:24him his first read. There's a couple of times like pre snap. Like, okay, let's see if he recognized a single high. He did due to slot fade missed, but he read it. Well, got to ball out quickly. I didn't love the play call to on that fork down to have him roll to his left. I didn't I didn't like that. You know, it's like if you can't roll, then didn't just let it roll it on a drop. I didn't go into the play call. I think he checked into that when he saw the pressure. If you go back and maybe I'll look at it. If you go back and watch it, they started creeping into the box. He does this. Walks up to the line, says some stuff. And then I think I'm under for each checking it on his own or they're checking it to him in the in the I think they were too far into the under 15. Yeah, it's an under 15. Then it was a bad check, but he doesn't need to be thrown to his left. Yeah, I know that's fair. But I thought he looked fine, but I thought CJ, the thing we've seen about CJ so far this year is he's doing a really good job so far of like you said, Sean, being that point guard, get the ball where it is, where it where it needs to go. Right. And that's

12:27checks that's throwing the ball. It's disturbing the ball. I thought he was very sharp today, very accurate today. Like the slot fade to Jane great house. So Jane actually got got ridden out side a little bit because it was a slot fade into the boundary, which is a very tough route. But CJ actually threw the ball in more. If he throws it on a back shoulder, Jaden's going out of bounds. The DB is going to ride him right out of bounds. CJ threw the ball inside. Jaden had to fight back to the ball on that and then and made a play just like things like that. The the the the the the the the the the micah Gilbert play. So like great recognition. They ran slot fade. They were playing off. And so he sees it. So he's you know kind of buys this time, gets outside and he's telling Micah Gilbert where to go and then throws the ball up high. Let's Micah go get it. The only real estate that I saw from CJ today was on that long distance. So second and 25. They ran slot fade. And I thought he should have thrown a drone better to junior. He was open in the flats and he could have caught it and maybe gained nine 10 yards.

13:29And now you're in third and 15 as opposed to third and 24. I know it was first and 25. I think and that was only really like misread mistake that I saw from CJ today. The only other complaint I'd have is I still think there's a couple times he was kind of aiming the ball a little bit today. Still and not really snapping it off. I still want to see him snap it off a little bit more. But but overall I thought CJ was sharp. I thought Noah looked very calm and comfortable. In Vince if he did make that check that's a bad check. I love the fact that he saw it and checked it. You know like he felt confident to do that if and fact he did. And he thought you know like look if he did it great. Yes if he did it great if not it's a bad play call but and look at it that they're allowing him to check. Sure like that. I can just as a former quarterback you're not always checking because you're lost. That's fair. Did you see Teddy Gerard ignoring Marcus Freeman yelling at him to slow it? That was I loved it. Teddy. Teddy. Teddy's like trying to go

14:34off the wheel. I was like Teddy's like coach I'm trying to score my hand. He's like you can hear me out. He's going to point in his thing. Teddy's like I don't see you. I love you. That's great. I love it. I also have people in here coach I can't hear you. Yeah. But you know the thing about Teddy and Noah that I like today is they looked calm. Yes they looked calm. They didn't look like Noah didn't have that look. Oh my god. He was like drop back thing drop back accurate and when he missed he missed long. Yeah. You know getting a ball out quick. I mean the part of the reason the receivers were able to catch and run is because Noah's getting a ball out quick and hitting them where you know that you can't you can't drive on them. And so you know I thought that was something that I that I really like to see today guys was just the job that Gina Godouli is done to prepare two true freshmen to come into a game like this and against 49 and nothing and all that but like they look calm. They look very calm and that was that was a psych to see from the quarterbacks fellows and I and I thought my big takeaway from the receivers

15:39Trevor was the one I have two big complaints from the receivers one play with more urgency. That's still a little bit of an issue. I don't know if they're better today but two please for the love of all things holy fight for the football and I thought today they did a great job of fighting for the football. Mike a Gilbert did a good job on it. Jane great house caught the ball well and some a couple tight spots Jordan Faeson did a great job going up for that ball. If he lets it come to him that ball is getting broken up and even on the play the third 24 were where myling Graham got drilled he's got the ball in his hands and the DB punches through it. That was great defense by rights. Like that was one right thought CJ again aimed at a little bit too much to snap that sucker off and get it to him but I mean Mike has got it. He went up and got it and the DB I mean I don't care who you are it's going to be hard to stop a guy from punching a ball out there. It was a great play by the that's teach tape on the defense. So even on that play I mean I don't know that my the ball gets knocked out if by the ball to get knocked out by the hit the ball got knocked out by the

16:43other DB coming from behind and punching it out but I love that Michael myling win up for the ball knowing there's a defender defenders closing on him. I you know I thought he needed to close out that slot fade a little bit better. He's just got to be more physical. It is his play strength. He gets knocked off routes too much and that's something he's going to have to work on but guys I really liked what I saw from this group Matt Jeffrey with the after the catch Jaden great house with the great block on the tunnel screen on the the now screen to Jordan phase on and I thought CJ was pretty good with the RPOs today guys I there was several those quick throws were RPOs were they they brought so they were bringing their linebacker down and their safety down and he was just banging those hitch routes outside on some RPOs so I thought the whole operation in the past game today was was very sound and I thought the receivers played hard I you know I coach Brown it looks like coach Brown maybe challenge them a little bit this week hopefully and they responded to it and I know rice it's still rice but you're either going to fight for the ball

17:46or not the competition who you're playing doesn't determine whether you're going to fight for the football and I was very encouraged to see that from the wider receivers today very encouraged. Yeah I'm excited to go back and dive into the film of fighting for the football is a big complaint a lack of fighting for the football has been a big complaint of mine CJ cars over under and passing touchdowns on Fandals 2 and a half and he wouldn't have had two of them at the wider receivers didn't go and fight for the football he wouldn't have had that double post to Jordan phase on his kick off the game and he wouldn't have had that touchdown to Mike Gilbert I mean they were great balls but so was the pass he threw to Mike Gilbert in the blue goal game that he didn't go up for the ball you know the main like exactly exactly right trip yes. So that was very promising to see I mean about the quarterbacks last thing I'll say and then we can start talking about some of the other position groups is I was I was thrilled to see one they actually ran the offense when they pulled the starters that was something I was very happy to see because in years past it was Notre Dame has a lead against an inferior opponent throw up by seven eight touchdowns backup quarter

18:48backs come in midway through the third quarter and it's run run run punt run run run punt run run and complete point and I was happy to see that they were able to maintain control of the offense they kept running the traditional offense and I love seeing both of the quarterbacks be willing to check I really do I thought it was great they attempted 33 passes to Sean's to Sean's come in earlier CJ only had 20 of them that through 13 passes at the back of quarterbacks in less than two quarters because CJ threw a couple balls in the second third quarter as well yeah yeah it was it was very very promising to see let's talk about some of the other position groups here fellas let's talk the running back room and this was an interesting day from them I thought the rotation was gonna look a little bit different and that was just kind of my preconceived notion going into the game thought we were going to see a heavier dosage of key dream young today in the first half not after the starters got pulled that was a little bit interesting to see Nolan James is continuing turning a lot of heads he's been very impressive Sean I'll kick this over to you man running back room today we

19:53saw I think all five scholarship running back today in some capacity what's your takeaway from that group. John has Walton is gonna be pretty good yeah he's gonna be darn good I think I saw the second coming up to Dariah in price when he was running today like it's just his ability to cut accelerate I think the kid is gonna be really good I'll start with him and then I continue to be impressed with we knew and apparently Nolan James Jr is just sick he has a big bottom-back just legs massive and somebody see him he looks diminutive and stature on TV he's just able to run really strong and he's so shifty has that make you miss ability but you know I guess they were okay this they were okay but that's a conjunction with the offensive line in my opinion like run game

20:59wasn't impressed I think it was like 3.9 yards per carry today coming off that Wisconsin game you thought you see improvement and then areas you thought they would be able to push that rice defensive front around and it just really weren't able to do it right so just looking back was it is it lack of creativity in the run game as it guys not really getting the hat on the hat and moving somebody back especially when they should be able to and you know I think CJ checked out of some things you know and saw some things in the passing game that they could take advantage of so does it make back to make back for the running backs today but for me with fans out I'm John as Walton is I'm gonna be honest by the time we get to October mid October

22:03it's gonna be hard to keep him off the field man I really like Kedren Young but I think it's going to be really hard to keep him off the field which wasn't the great thing which is a great thing but I think all in all disappointing with the push in the run game running backs are okay today you bright spots here and there but that's pretty much my big picture though about the running backs look the running backs have talent there's no doubt about it I think that they they clearly go five deep with the scholarship running backs that they have and those running backs are solid and you can't go really wrong with any of the five of them and we've got questions in the chat as to are we gonna see some you know the delineation of carries change and things like that I don't know the answer to that Nias is their guy and they're not shy about telling you that Nias is their guy and he's still gonna be RB1 you know if you know maybe some things continue maybe that doesn't change

23:10but at the same time I don't I can't place all the blame on the running backs it obviously goes elsewhere and Brian's gonna talk about that a little bit more in depth I'm gonna leave it to him go for a row we're talking running backs and so I'll I'm gonna I'm gonna stay the course baby there's talent in that room they can all receive the ball they can all run the ball I don't think there was a lot for them to be able to do at times today I some of the scheme I didn't really like I think they could have hit the edges a little bit more from a scheme standpoint than they did it it felt a little bit like banging your head against the wall kind of going up the middle when rice was loading the box but at the same time Notre Dame is way more talented than rice and they should have been able to push them off the ball and still been successful doing that so I'm like torn as far as that part is concerned but I don't think there's any need to be taking reps away from anybody right now it's game two Anias is the established starter I'm cool with that but I like the fact that they're getting

24:14guys more reps we're seeing what they can do when it matters in moments and things like that I agree with Trev in the fact that I thought Kedron Young was gonna get more carries earlier on in the game I really did I thought he was more the two than the three but he's appeared after these two games he appears to be the three at this point now that's not taking anything away from Nolan James I think he's got a lot of talent I think he really impressed against Wisconsin I think he's shifty I think he's got he's great I just thought we'd see more Kedron Young and we just have it yet I don't know that they figured out how to rotate more than two backs I don't know they figured it out yet thank you okay I want to make sure it wasn't just me thinking that okay it should be that hard okay that that's exactly where I'm at I they he clearly uses two and then oh it's time to put everybody else in so now I'll put Kedron Young and now I'll put the freshman like that needs to get fixed he needs to figure that out because there's too much talent in that stable

25:16to leave those guys on the bench I'll just I'll leave it at that and I will toss it to you sir I think you want to add before yeah yeah I do I the overall gameplay I thought was very interesting because I think we have very two different sample sizes between the Wisconsin game and the rice game it was very intentional I think by Mike Denbrock and the rest of the coaching staff that they were looking to establish a ground game and say hey we can still run the football even though Jeremiah loved Jadari and Prysorgon and Brian has a great run game breakdown and pass game breakdown on the boards at irisbreakdown.com please go check those out because it will answer a lot of questions and I'm sure a lot of us do still have but thought the creativity was better against Wisconsin it was very boring today as far as the run game is concerned they had no issue taking advantage of the athletic advantage that they had on the perimeter at the wide receiver position I would have loved to have seen that in the run game because the one play that we did see Jonas Walton bounce it outside at the end of the game nobody could keep up with him there's a great block on the perimeter

26:17I believe by Logan Saldata as well but I also bolded we didn't mention him in the rest of the game yeah yeah man but I thought it was a very different style of game playing today because I think today it was more so we're going to prove the talent that we have on the perimeter we're going to force the issue with the pass game which I'm that I know that sounds negative I do not think that's a negative at all because I think you had to put a sample size of both on the field but that's what that was my biggest piece that was absolutely my biggest piece with with the Notre Dame run game today I thought the running backs were fine I think they had limited opportunities and for reasons that I'm sure we're about to dive into but overall it's still a deep and talented room I don't think the offensive line did it and did them any favors to showcase their skill set and I thought the run game design did not do them any favors to showcase their skill set either so that's my two cents on the run game Brian before I dive into that I'm ashamed myself how did I not mention Jerome Betis Jr. forching a corner back on a deep ball

27:18oh beautiful all the receivers we talked about and we didn't talk about Jerome just cooking I love the fact that Jerome Betis Jr. is already in their rotation he was getting first half snaps that's that's my bad for not talking about Jerome I just felt like we talked about so many things I completely forgot to talk about Jerome who has looked really good and your defense 12 people caught a ball I know I know I got the way I mean he had didn't have the biggest play the game like the longest play the game I'm yeah 20 like a girl they said 27 you 30 so lock 56 56 yeah 56 so yeah I'm looking at it and I'm like hold on he had two catches for 61 yards but they said a long a 27 yeah was the 27 I got the thing was confusing but my bad on that guys I'm gonna kind of bring it all together because I think it's hard to really talk about the running backs with also talking about the offensive line and the run game is together so let me let me bring it together number one is I'm a big believer that for your run game to be successful you

28:18got to play to the strengths of your players and I don't think right now the run game is designed to play to the strengths of their players that being the offensive line and your your top back I thought Nolan James Jr. today looked very comfortable running the football mainly because I think he's more comfortable running the mid zone concept uh that is not in it a neus Williams bread and butter I talked about this this summer in a show I talked about this in the preseason magazine when you combine the size of your offensive line and the power of your offensive line with with a neus Williams play style you should be more of a downhill running team against a very undersized rice defense explain to me why you're running mid zone stretch and toss crack the entire game against the team whose biggest defensive line is 285 pounds who's also kind of crashing their linebackers down hard I did not understand just the the game plan and so yeah neist didn't play very well today he was rushing too much he's not a guy

29:26that's gonna to meet you up with a bunch of stretch and mid zone Nolan can do that I think even Kedron could do that Jonas and Javion can definitely do that but that's not a neus is bread and butter so don't start him and have him be your primary ball carrier if you're not going to call plays it fit his skill set now maybe that CJ checking into those things and you need to have a conversation with CJ which is like dude you know like this is kind of where we need to be when we've got 22 in the game you know we can't be running mid stretch the whole game I'm not blaming CJ I'm just saying I don't know what plays are called and what plays are checked into but you're the ones telling CJ what he can and can't check into I don't understand why you're not running any kind of duo like and they ran at a couple times but I don't understand why you're not running any they they have run toss crack couple times and that's been that was okay last week was okay this week I just I don't

30:26understand the game plan and you're running east west now I understand that when you got Jeremiah love and jeddarm price because that's right in their wheelhouse you don't have those guys and you're still running the offense like you have Jeremiah love and jeddarm price that's unfair to a neus Williams that's unfair to Nolan James Jr. that's unfair to your entire backfield and you're an offensive line that's 316 305 310 325 and 325 across the board and you're trying to run a finesse offensive line like a finesse game plan I don't really understand that I really don't and you're not playing to the strengths you you're offensive line and the offensive line didn't get in kind of push date well yeah because they're running mid zone like wide like lateral runs the whole time and number one and then number two they're not playing with they did not play with any physicality today if there was one unit that I could say didn't play with the same

31:28fire that the rest of the team played with it was the offensive line I don't think the scheme helped them at all but they also didn't come off to ball and I'm why was Anthony nap in the game in the fourth quarter did you have you seriously not developed a backup left guard and left tackle seriously like he don't he got rolled up on late in the game on one of those drives where that I'm like if Anthony nap gets hurt because you left him in the game on the second or third series with your backup quarterback I'm going to be real upset right now and he got rolled up on and got up a little bit slow for so he was okay but I don't I don't I'm just kind of tired of having the same conversations with Joe Rudolph coached offensive lines it's like either one of the other you're either really good at pass pro not get it running the ball or you're really good running the ball just can't pass pro and today I thought the pass pro was very good I thought they picked up blitz pretty well I thought I thought Gerby was oversetting a little bit on some of the stuff and and he seemed fine I think he just got his foot stepped on on the the short no one

32:31James touchdown at the end of the game Gerby was dressed standing around walk around holding his helmet if he was hurt and couldn't play he wouldn't have his helmet in his hand anymore but and he was laughing and joking like he he did not have the facial expressions it's like let him more came out I think after the first quarter yeah it's like yeah hey did you tweak something okay okay you know maybe I just foot stepped on but like you know you know like he's like he's gonna play if he needs him yeah yeah yeah if he wants to rise they tape him up and send him back in that right 100 I just felt like you didn't play I'm fine running mid zone I'm fine with mid zone being one of your bread and butter plays I just don't love the fact it's your only bread and butter play right now and that that's what that's what bothers me I think schematically you're not putting your players in a position to be successful and then when your offensive line is not is not getting any kind of push at the point of attack that doesn't help either this is now two games row now I will say rice and Wisconsin have both played to stop the no-name run game I understand that but it's

33:36rice you should still be Sean how many times have we watched no-name play Navy when they were geared towards stopping the run and no-name still ran for 250 yards on Navy right I mean it's Navy you got an experience off it's right is it mentality or first of all you should have a mentality as an offensive line forget the coaches that's five guys across the offensive line you should go out there with the mountain mindset we're about to push you off the ball but you can't do that when everything you're doing is lateral lateral lateral right it's like it's why air raid teams aren't great getting movement on the line of scrims because so much of what they do is backwards backwards we're you know and and that's what's frustrating it's like it you you're you're turning a big offensive line into a bunch of finesse players and and and I said it all last year we talked last year people got mad at me oh they want to run they want to defend Joe Rudolph I said Jeremiah love with

34:37your darn price made that line look better than it was there's no excuse for this line not to be better right now fellas not look it's game two they can get better right I expect them to get better but they're not going to get better if you continue to play a style you know call plays and design a run game that doesn't play to their strengths you want to run mid zone great be a heavier mid zone team to the left you need to be doing more things to the right that are you know counter power duo you have to be able to do both things but a lot of teams will do the hey we're more athletic to the left we're more physical to the right or whatever the case may be but when you're just running stretch stretch mid zone mid zone all game you're not allowing them to be a physical football team and now that makes sense when you're when you're playing a team that maybe actually has a size advantage on you it made sense last week against a big physical you know defensive line that average three hundred twenty four pounds on the inside and we we talked about that's what the Broncos did against the Packers and Super Bowl 32 the Broncos average like 285 across the line

35:41and the Packers had Reggie White and and Gilbert Brown and Santana Dotson so they just ran outside zone all day and got him on skates but you did that against rice so like I'm a little concerned about that and they're going to have to figure some things outfellas in my opinion because I'm sorry running for 3.7 yards per carry against rice and only rushing for 118 yards is problematic it is absolutely problematic and if you only ran for 117 yards because you only ran about 18 19 20 times because you were just ripping them up or you kept having short fields I understand by like even on the touchdown drive from like the one and a half yard line you barely you needed like a surge second surge from Nolan James Jr. get you into the end zone I was very concerned with the performance of the offensive line today they're going they're going to have to get better now listen there's a lot of offensive lines of coach football that aren't running the ball real real will real real well right now so I don't want to make this seem like oh nadi is over they're going to have to get better but part of getting better is going to be designing a game plan that allows you

36:46to play more physical and allows you to have more of a physical mindset and that's something that they're just they're going to have to go back to the draw board a little bit here these next couple games and completely reevaluate what they're doing run game wise schematically then you can clean up some of the O line stuff I mean there's way too much catchin today way too much catchin today and in very little movement but you're also not able to guess I said get movement when you're when you're working laterally so this is this the run game today and then a neus is way too impatient on mid zone way too impatient and we talked about this last week he was that way in the first half it's going to say then he was a little better than the second half he would it in the second half he went back to being impatient today yeah yeah yeah I noticed that I was hoping that he would have learned from the second half and then you know moved on to you know today and guys I don't want to hear stuff oh they're they're not opening up to play but guys duo is not a secret play that you can't show someone like like seriously everybody runs duo man like seriously it's not

37:50like I'm saying hey you're gonna you're gonna be you know bringing out but you're waiting to show off buck sweep against BYU you can't run duo or counter or plays that you've run for years you're just gonna run mid zone 75 to 80 percent of the time so look there's no kind of justifying this you've got to improve in that area there's a lot going well for the Notre Dame offense right now but that was an area that's concerning because you can get away with that when you're playing rice but at some point time you're gonna your run games have to eat a lot better and they're averaging about 114 yards and under four yards to carry through the first two games I don't you were better than that last year against Miami and Texas A&M after two games so they're gonna have to they're gonna have to figure some things out but I think it's it's schematically it's point of emphasis like I thought they did a great job in the second half last week of saying hey we're gonna get more we're gonna be more physical we're gonna get more of a push and today they didn't but we've seen it we saw it in

38:51the second half of the game last week so I know this line's capable of it and and also they're still learning this line it is a line that's playing together for the first time as it's currently constructed so I don't want to over react and act like you know all is lost but the fact is is they got to get better they couldn't run the ball real well early last year either and they got better and better and better so but part of that's gonna be coach Denbrock you've got now got two games under your belt with this team with this lineup and and so now it requires you to make some adjustments uh with your run game and again I think these here's the nice thing all of this is fixable quickly fixable emphasize certain things and practice and and look you can make say hey look guys we're gonna we like mid zone we're gonna be a heavy mid zone team but right now we're we're so heavy in mid zone that we're not able to kind of run downhill when we need to run downhill maybe these next few weeks we can can do some more things with those looks to get our guys

39:52and more of that mindset to where now we have a way to you know we're doing a little bit of both and we can you know work on that maybe that's kind of what it's gonna require but the point is is they're gonna have to be more physical at the point of attack and they're gonna have to be more multiple it it is not that challenging to kind of have an idea of where no other aim is gonna go to football right now when they're running it if they're offset nine out of 10 times they're running mid zone away if they're in pistol okay you're not quite sure which way you're going but you kind of know you're gonna be running mid zone I mean and it makes it a lot harder to defend them and so that's something that you you're gonna need to see some improvement in my opinion but that that I wanted to bring that up last because it's important but there's a lot to be excited about from this football game oh yeah defensively and offensively a lot to be excited about you know love seeing Jonas Walton and I do think he drew young needs to get the ball a little bit more and I do think they need but but we also are going gloss over

40:55something that was problematic in this game either and that's why I want to do that last and that's why we partly why I went defense first because when you win 52 nothing guys and you have your first shutouts since 2022 and you you know you have a dominant performance you want to talk about the good stuff first but this is one area we're gonna need to you're gonna need to to grow up and grow somewhat into hurry you know I mean you really have until BYU to get this thing going but you know if you want to beat Michigan State the way you're capable of and Purdue and right you know Stanford and North Carolina teams like that yeah you you're gonna have to improve here but it's not like oh my gosh they're not gonna win the natty because of it it's like well if you don't get better sure but I expect this these this is a good coaching staff and smart coaching staff they're gonna dive into the film and now they've got the data points to look at it and say hey here's where we're having issues what things can we adjust do we need to maybe be running away from the tight end a little bit more like the fact that we're running mid zone to the tight end as much is that is that a tell on teams are kind of overloading us to that side which is why we're not getting a push now is that it do we need to be doing something different do we need to be running it away from

41:59that you know away from the tight end more do we need to maybe to key some different RPOs with it do we need to maybe counter it with a couple different runs so there's things to learn from and you don't know that those are issues until you've played a couple games and and and so now you have the data points to kind of break it down trev and say okay here's where we are what do we need to do to get better because I promise you Joe Rudolph and Mike Mike and Denbrock are not sitting in their office like yo that run game was buddy you know they're not saying that right they know they got to improve on it and then they will and that's what these guys are you know are are had the type of offense they had last year they'll get better they'll make well they better but I think they will and now you know let's see what adjustments they do next week against Michigan state yeah next week is going to be huge for this team I am willing to to varying degrees and I'm saying this very lightly give this unit a mulligan for today in the run game they were very much a unit that was going through the motions now giving you a

43:01mulligan doesn't mean that what you did doesn't need correcting but I'm willing to say hey look that was a very very very physical second half that you guys played against Wisconsin and you turned it around on a short week you held serving past protection and that was clearly the point of emphasis today was letting CJ air it out also partially due to not being able to get too much of a push in the run game but what they were doing schematically they were looking to push in the past game which I'm totally okay with next Saturday is going to tell me a lot of okay there's no short week you're back on a normal schedule there's no flight back from Wisconsin there is no Sunday game there was no night game this week and so if they're able to get back in a rhythm next week that's going to tell me a lot but it does need fixed because unfortunately we can try to scheme some things and talk about all the improvements and Brian I agree wholeheartedly with all the things that you list it off but you can scheme something up as good as you want to but if you're just going through the motions in the run game even their most dominant run blocker and again this is why we go back and dive into film even their most dominant run blocker on a person

44:05at basis and Anthony nap today was fine in the run game yeah he was great yeah that's the thing that this is and I'll say this this is my final point because like you said that trip I wonder like it they played a physical football team on Sunday night I do wonder if the short week might have been why the O line more than anyone else didn't look like they have the same like they look like they were dragging a little bit more but again that goes back to then why are you running stretch all day you know what I mean like I I'm with you Trev I guess it was not good today doesn't mean it's not going to be good the rest of the year and I'm sure these are good coaches they're going to get in the they're going to get it back into the lab and figure out okay what went wrong today what let's evaluate what we did in practice let's evaluate our game playing what do we need to get this thing going that's that's where it's got to be but you got to be better you got to be better today there was no reason not to push rice around none agreed none I don't care

45:08hold there crashing their line I don't care you got to be better today and I'm I'm I'm I'm looking forward to seeing what those adjustments will be next week if you like the show please take a moment to rate review and subscribe it really does help the show to grow thank you for listening