Lots of good analysis. I haven't watched more than a few plays. I do remember one of the announcers mentioning their QB grips the ball away from the laces. Very unconventional but he does seem to have a pretty good gun.
Has anyone had a chance to watch any Notre Dame games?
- Thread starter BFANLC
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Red Zone production is actually up for the Tide this year. We are scoring 29% more touchdowns this year than the previous 5 years, and 26% more against ranked teams. Notre Dame is scoring 20% fewer TDs, and 25% fewer against ranked teams, compared to their 5-year average, and that includes a year in which they scored 0 TDs against ranked teams.
It's not a particularly tall order to ask one of the nation's top defenses to hold anyone to below their season average. Plus, their averages are ridiculously high, especially M. Lee.
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I hope you're right. We can't do what OU tried (abandon the run; throw 40+ times). I hope we learned the lesson from UGA; rely on our OL and force them to stop the run; then look for that PA pass.
Living in central Indiana I've had no choice but to watch most of their games. Many of the people I deal with on a day to day basis are ND fans, so I have to stay fairly aware of their team to hold a decent conversation. Here's my analysis based on what I've seen.
1. Notre Dame consistently plays to the level of their competition. This team that quite handily beat Oklahoma, took 3OT's to beat Pitt. The same team that took out USC in LA, beat Purdue by 3 points. Notre Dame is a team of survivors, they won't dominate anybody, but they can still beat anyone on a given day.
2. One of the biggest things that helps ND is the experience on the team. People think that they are a young team because they are starting a frosh QB, but that's just not the case. They have 8 upperclassmen that start on defense, both runningbacks are seniors, and 4 of their starting 5 O-linemen are seniors. This team is loaded with experience, which is the main reason that they are unflappable down the stretch.
3. Their biggest weakness on defense is their secondary, their biggest strength is their front 7. The ND defense is more than just Teo, they have a number of players up front that can hold their own. They are big, they are smart, but they are slow. On offense, they have a stellar O-line, but their biggest weakness is that they really don't have a dominant receiver. The best player on offense is Tyler Eiffert at TE who might be a matchup nightmare for us, but the good news is we will be able to load the box to stop the run if needed.
4. Everret Gholson has matured down the stretch. At the start of the season he was the weakness on the offense, now he has added a completely different dynamic to their offense. He doesn't have the best arm, but there aren't to many quarterbacks that are better at extending plays as EG. I would imagine we will play a good bit with one of our linebackers in spy to keep him inside the pocket.
The are two big keys to this game. We need to win the turnover battle, and we need to control their ground game. If Notre Dame can't run, then they can't move the ball. As every game does, this game will be won in the trenches, and I do believe it will be a battle. I think when the clock hits zero, we will have won by a decently comfortable margin, however, I don't believe they ND can be taken lightly.
One other thing I will add, I talk to a lot of ND fans, and the vast majority of them are really nervous about this game. Naturally every team has pessimistic fans, but I've met quite a few people who believe that Notre Dame doesn't have a prayer in this game.
Roll Tide
1. Notre Dame consistently plays to the level of their competition. This team that quite handily beat Oklahoma, took 3OT's to beat Pitt. The same team that took out USC in LA, beat Purdue by 3 points. Notre Dame is a team of survivors, they won't dominate anybody, but they can still beat anyone on a given day.
2. One of the biggest things that helps ND is the experience on the team. People think that they are a young team because they are starting a frosh QB, but that's just not the case. They have 8 upperclassmen that start on defense, both runningbacks are seniors, and 4 of their starting 5 O-linemen are seniors. This team is loaded with experience, which is the main reason that they are unflappable down the stretch.
3. Their biggest weakness on defense is their secondary, their biggest strength is their front 7. The ND defense is more than just Teo, they have a number of players up front that can hold their own. They are big, they are smart, but they are slow. On offense, they have a stellar O-line, but their biggest weakness is that they really don't have a dominant receiver. The best player on offense is Tyler Eiffert at TE who might be a matchup nightmare for us, but the good news is we will be able to load the box to stop the run if needed.
4. Everret Gholson has matured down the stretch. At the start of the season he was the weakness on the offense, now he has added a completely different dynamic to their offense. He doesn't have the best arm, but there aren't to many quarterbacks that are better at extending plays as EG. I would imagine we will play a good bit with one of our linebackers in spy to keep him inside the pocket.
The are two big keys to this game. We need to win the turnover battle, and we need to control their ground game. If Notre Dame can't run, then they can't move the ball. As every game does, this game will be won in the trenches, and I do believe it will be a battle. I think when the clock hits zero, we will have won by a decently comfortable margin, however, I don't believe they ND can be taken lightly.
One other thing I will add, I talk to a lot of ND fans, and the vast majority of them are really nervous about this game. Naturally every team has pessimistic fans, but I've met quite a few people who believe that Notre Dame doesn't have a prayer in this game.
Roll Tide
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most of the ND fans I have talked to have told me the biggest thing that scares them is their ineffectiveness in the red zone. They wind up having to kick a lot of field goals when they should be looking at touchdowns.
Exactly. That's why I'm so confident that Alabama can beat ND by at least 14 if we show up and play as good as this team is capable of playing.
Over the last couple of weeks I have watched a few of their games. I may be in the minority, but I believe the ND with all of their experience is as good defensively as LSU, Georgia (while not nearly as talented overall a these two), and TAMU. Offensively they are more than adequate. All three of these games were dogfights for us, and I expect this one to be too. I know that most will expect us to be able to throw on them, and I doubt we will be able to run all over them. However, I expect our running game to be the difference again.
I've seen four of their games. They have improved over the season and play disciplined football in all three phases of the game. As others have said, they play hard, to the whistle and have a lot of experienced senior leadership. Their inability to score TDs in the red zone has made games that should have been comfortable wins into squeakers. They are very solid on D in the red zone, though. They scheme to get Teo roaming free and have the supporting cast to do it. If we can get to the edge on them, then I think our speed is a problem for their D. I would think our playcalling/game plan from the UGA game would be the blueprint. We have a serious match up problem at WR, but don't expect them to just come out slinging it. They want to do what we do. If our front 7 controls their run game, then we should win fairly handily -- JW needs to do his usual fine job of creating pile-ups in the middle and commanding double teams. I do not think they will be fast enough to outrun us to the edge. I expect they will have trouble simulating our RBs in practice I look for us to have a some trouble moving it during the first half, but to get rolling in the second as we wear them down and the team speed difference starts to show up. Run/stop run/don't turn it over (including having stupid blocked kick returned all the way).
They are certainly better than TAMU and UGA on defense, not sure they are better than LSU due to overall team speed. Offensively they are better than LSU and equal to UGA.
I agree with the experience being key.
I heard somebody on tv/radio mention ND being a young team the other day and how they would be a top team next year. I looked at their roster and 8 of the offensive starters are seniors with 3 of those 5th year seniors.
The other RB and a couple of backups are seniors too.
That seems to be the general consensus of the ND faithful as well. Even their own fans don't realize how old they actually are. They will only have 1 returning starter on the offensive line, they will be losing both of their top backs in Woods and Riddick, they are losing their top weapon in Eiffert, and they are losing 2 of their top 3 receivers as well. Defense will be a different story, but there will be some big losses as well. They only have 4 graduating seniors on the D, most notably will be Teo, but they do have several draft eligible juniors as well. They will be solid next year, but they will not have nearly the team they do this year though.
I think a better question is "are they better than TAMU in Tuscaloosa". If the answer is no, then they won't beat us since that was the only game we lost this year.
To take this further - are they better than the first quarter A&M team that beat un in Tuscaloosa? Without that explosive first quarter, we beat A&M walking away, as we outscored them 24-9 over the remaining three quarters...
Well, I still haven't bought into ND but, maybe I'm still wearing my crimson colored glasses. I've only seen them play in 2 games and I wasn't overly impressed. They've had some great goal line stands but most decent teams have been able to move the ball against them. They have a good defense but, it is not the best Bama has seen this year. There offense though, is no where near the best we've seen. I'd rank LSU, UGA and A&M ahead of ND, there offense just doesn't scare me. Let me put it this way; ND hasn't face a team anywhere near as good as Bama this year but, Bama has faced 3 teams that are just as good, if not better then ND... IMO.
Notre dame does not have anywhere near the team speed defensively to slow down your rushing attack. I think tj yeldon is going to be a major contributor in this game. Depending upon how many carries he gets,i definitely think he goes for well over one hundred yards in this game. Also i look for the tide to throw yeldon some short passes and screen passes coming out of the backfield to try and get him the ball in space where he can make guys miss tackles. One thing i also noticed about tjy was that not only does he have awesome cutback ability,he is also deceptively strong. His ability to not only make the first guy miss but also to break multiple arm tackles is top notch. Notre dame has not seen the caliber of backs they are about to face in this one. To sum it up,in my opinion,notre dame is just to slow defensively. I also think big game inexperience and youth at qb(gholston)is gonna be a big problem for them. I look for gholston to commit more than a couple turnovers. Coaches saban and and smart have a lot of looks defensively that are gonna dumbfound that young qb. They are experts at disguising both coverage and blitz packages,lol,i foresee a long day for gholston.
The MAJOR difference is the scoring...THAT has been ND's biggest problem, they have been able to run it and throw it between the 20's, but they have to a better job of getting to the end zone
JBama_in_PCOLA
TideFans Legend
Um, nah, A&M isn't as good as that led on. When you take everything that happened in the LSU and us playing them back to back means, to me, that we are better than what happened on the field that day. Hats off to aTm for jumping on the chance to knock us off.
Looking at Georgia's offensive numbers and Notre Dame's I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. ND has had 4 games where they score 20 points or less. Another 2 where they scored 21 and 22. This is coming with one of the best defenses in the country which should be giving them short fields.
Uga only scored less than 20 once against Florida which had one of the top defenses in the country. Ug'a next lowest point total was 28 against Alabama. Uga has a 3 year starter who despite some mistakes can be very good. They also have a running back who is better than anything Notre Dame has. Gurley is a straight beast and was tearing us up for much of the game. Whoops left out USC game where they scored 7, but who the heck knows what happened in that game.
I see that their yardage numbers are high but looking at their scoring output makes me question people who think this is some sort of elite offense. Georgia was 18th in the country at 37.2 ppg Notre Dame is 76th at 26.8 ppg. To me that is not equal.
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to be fair, I don't think anybody said that their offense is elite. they moved the ball well between the 20s , but have difficulties finishing drives. but I do agreed with you, UGA offense is light years ahead of ND.
Yeah sorry about the elite I've spent a little too much time on their message boards. They seem to think that Eiffert and Riddick combined are an unstoppable force.
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