Notre Dame Pass Rush

BamaMcGowin

BamaNation Citizen
Dec 8, 2012
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Corydon, Iowa
Something I noticed throughout the entire game was that the Notre Dame defense never tried a significant amount to blitz McCarron and force him to make bad throws. Why? Every team that has had opportunities to beat us this year has put pressure on McCarron. ND did not have one sack in the whole game mostly because they only sent 3, while the rest dropped back into a man-to-man/zone coverage. (Amari's TD was a perfect example) I'm not trying to take anything away from McCarron or anyone, but it seemed to me that their entire defensive strategy (and offensive for that matter) was flawed from the get-go.
Also, I don't think it was because they would not have been able to put pressure on McCarron (because other teams have been able to do that), but they just didn't even try. Our O-line had shown at times this year a weakness in pass protection, but ND didn't come close to exploiting it.
Just a thought/question for you all.

Btw, we just won our 15th National Championship!!!!
Roll Tide!!!
 

CajunCrimson

Moderator (FB,BB) and Vinyl Enthusiast
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You don't blitz when you can't stop the run --

Sniff.....is that a wee bit of Irish Whiskey with a touch of troll I smell?

RTR
 

jps1983

Hall of Fame
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ND actually sent 4 or 5 a fair amount of times; Lacy would chip a defender and then go to the flats (what he did on his dropped pass). Our OL picked up the extra rusher well; ND did a "run blitz" a good bit though. Prime example was Te'o getting through the gap only to miss the tackle; a safety did that too early in the game. I was more upset Bama only brought 3 on that 3rd and 16 when a four man rush was generating a little bit of heat and that still left 7 in coverage.
 

Rolltide_PA

1st Team
Jul 31, 2011
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anyone have a boxscore with tackles listed? i heard Te'o only had 3 solo tackles but wanted to see how many #17 had. seemed like he had to make every stop 10 yards down the field
 
You don't blitz when you can't stop the run --

Sniff.....is that a wee bit of Irish Whiskey with a touch of troll I smell?

RTR
Hahaha

anyone have a boxscore with tackles listed? i heard Te'o only had 3 solo tackles but wanted to see how many #17 had. seemed like he had to make every stop 10 yards down the field
Yeah, he was making a lot of tackles but he had no choice because that front 7 was nonexistent.
 
Last edited:

TidefaninOS

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Feb 14, 2009
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found a full box score. #17 ended with 16 tackles including 7 solo. tells a lot right there

http://www.rolltide.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/2012-2013/bcs2013.html
Y'all remember all the "Red Zone Scoring Defense" baloney we kept hearing about before the game? Just saw that, according to the stats on rolltide, we were "5 for 5" scoring in the red zone! (Although I don't think that's correct - Eddie & Amari both had scores that were out of the red zone, right?)
 

Rolltide_PA

1st Team
Jul 31, 2011
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Y'all remember all the "Red Zone Scoring Defense" baloney we kept hearing about before the game? Just saw that, according to the stats on rolltide, we were "5 for 5" scoring in the red zone! (Although I don't think that's correct - Eddie & Amari both had scores that were out of the red zone, right?)
first TD was from 20 so was in red zone. Cooper's was 34 yarder so outside of red zone

so yes 5/5 red zone TD's
 

day-day

Hall of Fame
Jan 2, 2005
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Yes, ND run blitz straight up the middle left no linebackers in position to make tackles when the runner got past the line of scrimmage. This happened running up the middle but espectially when the running backs got to the edge.
 

bamabelle1991

All-American
Jan 1, 2009
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anyone have a boxscore with tackles listed? i heard Te'o only had 3 solo tackles but wanted to see how many #17 had. seemed like he had to make every stop 10 yards down the field
He was the only ND player who I noticed made tackles. I see above how many he had. I am not surprised. He carried their non-existent defense.
 

BamaMcGowin

BamaNation Citizen
Dec 8, 2012
54
6
27
Corydon, Iowa
I saw that they blitzed a lot and often when we were running the ball, but as soon as we showed them a shotgun set, or were on a passing down, they only sent the 3 pass rushers and dropped everyone else back into zone coverage which AJ picked apart. I'm just trying to think of what the ND coaches were thinking they were accomplishing by not blitzing AJ. Before the game I figured they would try to stop our run, and when AJ was going to pass they would try to pressure him and try to force him to make bad throws, but that didn't exactly happen.

Speaking of the run blitz:
ND run blitzing on the other hand did work here and there in the first half, but if they blitzed up the middle to stuff the run there, Lacy and Yeldon would just bounce to the outside and pick up 8 yards. If they had one of our lineman beat and met the RB in the backfield (which they did a few times), Our RB just side-stepped them out of the way. The missed arm tackles didn't help ND either.

The real MVP's in my book was the entire O-line. If you would have replaced our O-line with an average O-line, I don't think we'd have 2 1,000-yard rushers this season. Hats off to all those guys who don't get the credit they so often deserve. I do believe this has been the best O-line I've seen Alabama have in my short lifetime. Lacy and Yeldon didn't disappoint this year either! Roll Tide!
 

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