As we acclimate ourselves to what a Brohm program looks like and all that comes with that, I learned much Friday myself:
1. There were two bad practices last week; a lot of times those are Coach Speak and they are at specific plot points in a season--for us I would say preseason when you looked at the schedule it was similar to last year where the 1st half of the season was relatively weak compared to the 2nd outside of an FSU at home that was served on a platter. Our plot point was clearly Notre Dame and that trip to Raleigh in front of it was the barrier to going into ND undefeated.
What I learned was it wasn't Coach Speak; I have a strong suspicion given the demonstrated results of the first half Friday night the two bad practices were in large part offensive and pointed that out during the game. We had Plummer wildly gesturing to WRs throughout they were on the wrong side of the formation and we had one of my biggest stroke inducing moments during any game--the hustled snap to beat the playclock running out. The next time I see a positive play coming out of that will be the first. We had multiple first half drives stunted by dropped balls from multiple receivers. We had poor blitz pickup. But fatefully something didn't happen...we didn't have defensive breakdowns. Much of the stuff that vexed us against BC didn't materialize. We had very good gap discipline, we didn't lose contain, we rallied to the football which for my money was the play of the night and when you rewatch it on film you put multiple helmet stickers on Cam'Ron Kelly for his dead sellout sprint from two steps into a two deep safety on the hash drop into Armstrong like a guided missile into the football. You had the textbook form tackle early in the 2nd half deep in NC State's territory that signalled to their receivers it was going to be unpleasant from that point on...and another where a receiver alligator armed a pass over the middle because he was going to be decapitated by Kelly. So in my favorite Charlie Strong quote about "you'd better pack your defense for the road trip" Jeff Brohm can honestly say his defense showed up. The running game didn't and there was evidence for everyone of us that those two bad practices resulted in a very uneven performance out of offense that might have had things come to them a little too easy against BC.
So I learned that while Jeff Brohm might Coach speak with the Classics that are Saban and Bellichek...that was honest to goodness evidence of it which gives me optimism in a sense because it means our kids had part of their attention on Notre Dame.
2. In the three competitive games we have seen thus far, Ga Tech's TD in the 4th quarter is the extent of 4th quarter scoring against our Defense. We gave up a TD to Castellanos early in the 4th against what to that point was sparse first teamers.
...in each of the competitive games we had big defensive plays that thwarted comebacks.
3. We were missing multiple DTs Friday night, and really, who knew? Puryear and Clark made big plays both against NC State and IU. So much so it's like Tell's big game against Ga Tech is a distant memory. We have good numbers among the DTs and they are doing a good job of disruption but here's my biggest bullet as it applies to Saturday night.
4. ...we haven't faced anything but fairly mediocre offensive lines so far. Notre Dame's is one of if not the best Offensive line in college football and they certainly have the best OT tandem. Disruption is going to be a major factor against the Irish because while I love our corners, they aren't so good that we can afford to give Hartman 4 seconds to throw the football. If that happens we're chasing the game and while we have seen two games where we've come from double digits down I don't like our odds of coming back down 10 to Notre Dame. Notre Dame isn't going to spend all night holding our linemen like NC State did and busted so many of their drives.
5. ND still uses their TE for big plays when their backs are to the wall. That means guys like Ben Perry are going to be called on bigtime in coverage situations.
6. As I said earlier, I have some real difficulty with Plummer's decisions when faced with pressure. Throwing deep in your own territory short when you don't have an over under route is grade school stuff and we were lucky we forced a long field goal to end the half because NC State had 40 seconds to work with. You can say but there were breakdowns that caused that and I'm alright with the excuse, my faith is dashed the second that breakdown is recognized and the decisions making process which is like a series of If/Than statements to a programmer breaks down. There's no way around Plummer's breaking down and we have faced teams that have proven to be very flawed not having the strengths to capitalize.
...not only is Notre Dame by far the most physical team we will have faced this year--and likely with UK the most physical period--they have length all over the place. It's not really our skill set thus far as it applies to Plummer, but I think we're shortening routes early and getting some of that length for Notre Dame to chase what is behind them and on the flanks. That strips down all the exotic stuff it was an area where our gameplan against NC State probably hamstrung us; the second Plummer goes under center and playactions his back is to the defense and you know you are running deeper route combinations. I think that needs to get stripped out a little bit because NC State was running alot of run blitzes which would have jammed up any playaction as it was. They were good enough to virtually shutdown Harrison who is a generational route running talent. What does that tell you, they lack talent or a quality defensive scheme up in South Bend? They are a 6 and a hook favorite for a reason. Notre Dame's tradition is they are going to play in at minimum three really hostile road environments a year; some years it's Michigan or Michigan State, every other it's the Coliseum. Say what you will about Notre Dame but "they won't go to Clemson or Ohio State or Texas or Oklahoma" really isn't in it. They won't face anything Saturday night against us they haven't faced multiple times already. I mean who in the Hell ever expected to see an aerial shot of a night game against Duke where their stadium was full. I think we've played their four or five times already in league play and I'd bet the collective attendance of those games still didn't equal Saturday night.
7. Notre Dame beat Duke in part because of a big special teams deficit; converted fake punt for ND, missed PKs by Duke. We had much that same fate against NC State--until Coleman sprung a couple punts after we had botched a well executed fake with an unnecessary hold and NC State converted one on their own with us missing a FG. We dominated the special teams facets in the 2nd half. Mistakes can't be made in the kicking game and have the expectation of beating the Irish.
1. There were two bad practices last week; a lot of times those are Coach Speak and they are at specific plot points in a season--for us I would say preseason when you looked at the schedule it was similar to last year where the 1st half of the season was relatively weak compared to the 2nd outside of an FSU at home that was served on a platter. Our plot point was clearly Notre Dame and that trip to Raleigh in front of it was the barrier to going into ND undefeated.
What I learned was it wasn't Coach Speak; I have a strong suspicion given the demonstrated results of the first half Friday night the two bad practices were in large part offensive and pointed that out during the game. We had Plummer wildly gesturing to WRs throughout they were on the wrong side of the formation and we had one of my biggest stroke inducing moments during any game--the hustled snap to beat the playclock running out. The next time I see a positive play coming out of that will be the first. We had multiple first half drives stunted by dropped balls from multiple receivers. We had poor blitz pickup. But fatefully something didn't happen...we didn't have defensive breakdowns. Much of the stuff that vexed us against BC didn't materialize. We had very good gap discipline, we didn't lose contain, we rallied to the football which for my money was the play of the night and when you rewatch it on film you put multiple helmet stickers on Cam'Ron Kelly for his dead sellout sprint from two steps into a two deep safety on the hash drop into Armstrong like a guided missile into the football. You had the textbook form tackle early in the 2nd half deep in NC State's territory that signalled to their receivers it was going to be unpleasant from that point on...and another where a receiver alligator armed a pass over the middle because he was going to be decapitated by Kelly. So in my favorite Charlie Strong quote about "you'd better pack your defense for the road trip" Jeff Brohm can honestly say his defense showed up. The running game didn't and there was evidence for everyone of us that those two bad practices resulted in a very uneven performance out of offense that might have had things come to them a little too easy against BC.
So I learned that while Jeff Brohm might Coach speak with the Classics that are Saban and Bellichek...that was honest to goodness evidence of it which gives me optimism in a sense because it means our kids had part of their attention on Notre Dame.
2. In the three competitive games we have seen thus far, Ga Tech's TD in the 4th quarter is the extent of 4th quarter scoring against our Defense. We gave up a TD to Castellanos early in the 4th against what to that point was sparse first teamers.
...in each of the competitive games we had big defensive plays that thwarted comebacks.
3. We were missing multiple DTs Friday night, and really, who knew? Puryear and Clark made big plays both against NC State and IU. So much so it's like Tell's big game against Ga Tech is a distant memory. We have good numbers among the DTs and they are doing a good job of disruption but here's my biggest bullet as it applies to Saturday night.
4. ...we haven't faced anything but fairly mediocre offensive lines so far. Notre Dame's is one of if not the best Offensive line in college football and they certainly have the best OT tandem. Disruption is going to be a major factor against the Irish because while I love our corners, they aren't so good that we can afford to give Hartman 4 seconds to throw the football. If that happens we're chasing the game and while we have seen two games where we've come from double digits down I don't like our odds of coming back down 10 to Notre Dame. Notre Dame isn't going to spend all night holding our linemen like NC State did and busted so many of their drives.
5. ND still uses their TE for big plays when their backs are to the wall. That means guys like Ben Perry are going to be called on bigtime in coverage situations.
6. As I said earlier, I have some real difficulty with Plummer's decisions when faced with pressure. Throwing deep in your own territory short when you don't have an over under route is grade school stuff and we were lucky we forced a long field goal to end the half because NC State had 40 seconds to work with. You can say but there were breakdowns that caused that and I'm alright with the excuse, my faith is dashed the second that breakdown is recognized and the decisions making process which is like a series of If/Than statements to a programmer breaks down. There's no way around Plummer's breaking down and we have faced teams that have proven to be very flawed not having the strengths to capitalize.
...not only is Notre Dame by far the most physical team we will have faced this year--and likely with UK the most physical period--they have length all over the place. It's not really our skill set thus far as it applies to Plummer, but I think we're shortening routes early and getting some of that length for Notre Dame to chase what is behind them and on the flanks. That strips down all the exotic stuff it was an area where our gameplan against NC State probably hamstrung us; the second Plummer goes under center and playactions his back is to the defense and you know you are running deeper route combinations. I think that needs to get stripped out a little bit because NC State was running alot of run blitzes which would have jammed up any playaction as it was. They were good enough to virtually shutdown Harrison who is a generational route running talent. What does that tell you, they lack talent or a quality defensive scheme up in South Bend? They are a 6 and a hook favorite for a reason. Notre Dame's tradition is they are going to play in at minimum three really hostile road environments a year; some years it's Michigan or Michigan State, every other it's the Coliseum. Say what you will about Notre Dame but "they won't go to Clemson or Ohio State or Texas or Oklahoma" really isn't in it. They won't face anything Saturday night against us they haven't faced multiple times already. I mean who in the Hell ever expected to see an aerial shot of a night game against Duke where their stadium was full. I think we've played their four or five times already in league play and I'd bet the collective attendance of those games still didn't equal Saturday night.
7. Notre Dame beat Duke in part because of a big special teams deficit; converted fake punt for ND, missed PKs by Duke. We had much that same fate against NC State--until Coleman sprung a couple punts after we had botched a well executed fake with an unnecessary hold and NC State converted one on their own with us missing a FG. We dominated the special teams facets in the 2nd half. Mistakes can't be made in the kicking game and have the expectation of beating the Irish.
