Key Observations Of The Notre Dame Win Over Boston College - Offense Edition
Notre Dame's offense had arguably its best performance of the season in the team's 44-0 victory over Boston College. The Eagles came into the matchup struggling, but Notre Dame dominated in a way we haven't seen against this team all season.
The only thing that could slow down the Irish offense was the weather. Notre Dame scored on its first eight possessions of the game, including its first possession of the second half before the Irish went into run out the clock mode as the snow storm hit South Bend.
There was plenty to learn about the Irish offense from the win.
Bounce Back Game - Notre Dame had one of the worst halves of offensive football I've ever seen in the 35-32 win over Navy. The Irish racked up just 12 yards of offense and were shut out while barely surviving its matchup against the Midshipmen. A big question coming into the Boston College game was how would that unit bounce back.
Quite well, as we found out.
Notre Dame ripped off a 51-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage, and despite having to settle for a field goal on the opening drive, getting points on the opening drive was key. Notre Dame kept pouring it on, scoring 17 points in the first quarter and 37 points in the first half while racking up an outstanding 336 yards of offense and 8.2 yards per play in the first two quarters.
Success in the first half was a good bounce back, but the Irish played well in the first half against Navy as well. Would the Irish be able to come out of the halftime break and keep piling it on?
The answer to that is yes .... sort of.
A key to this game was that Notre Dame came out of the halftime break and put points on the board early. After getting the ball near midfield on its first possession, the ground attack immediately went to work, and 47 yards later Audric Estime raced into the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown to make it 44-0.
Ball game.
Notre Dame likely would have put more on the board, but by the time the Irish got the ball back with just 1:47 left in the third quarter the snow storm had really taken effect, and the Irish were stopped inside the 10-yard line on its next drive. Notre Dame only got one more possession after that.
Ground Game Was Dominant, Well Designed - Notre Dame's ground game has been the heart and soul of the offense this season. When it goes the offense is good, when it doesn't go the offense sputters in a big way. The Irish ground game was excellent against Boston College, racking up 281 yards on the ground for a season-high 7.4 yards per attempt.
Boston College isn't very good on defense, but this was still by far the most yards and yards per rush it had allowed all season. Notre Dame's success was a combination of a strong game plan, good play-calling and high level execution up front and at running back.
Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees has been inconsistent putting together well-designed run game plans this season, but he was at his best on Saturday afternoon against the Eagles. Notre Dame still ran a lot of its Duo concept often, but we saw a nice blend of run calls.
Notre Dame's first carry of the game - a 51-yard run by Logan Diggs - wasn't Duo, it was a counter play with left guard Jarrett Patterson and tight end Michael Mayer pulling around from the backside. BC was aggressive attacking downhill, expecting an A Gap run, and the counter action opened up a huge run lane for Diggs, who did the rest.
Later in the game we saw a pitch play to Diggs that went for 26 more yards. Notre Dame also twice handed the ball off to Lorenzo Styles on Jet Sweeps to also quickly get outside of the defense. Styles had 27 yards on two carries. It was a smart way to get a talented athlete the ball without asking him to catch it, something he has struggled with. It not only worked well against Boston College, but hopefully it serves as a pick-me-up for Styles.
That blend of inside-out run designs with some mis-direction worked in gave Boston College a lot of problems.
Using All The Running Backs Works - Notre Dame has a deep and very talented stable of running backs, and Rees made good use of that group in this game. Not only did we see them putting in great work in the run game, we saw more two and three-back personnel groupings, which aided the pass game as well.
Notre Dame doesn't use the backs enough in the pass game for my taste, at least based on how the current offense is constructed, but when they do it works very well.
Diggs hauled in a 28-yard reception on a wheel route, and on that play the Irish had all three backs on the field. They faked a pitch play to the left with both Chris Tyree and Estime going in that direction. Diggs ran his wheel to the opposite side and BC wasn't ready for him to go vertical, which allowed him to get behind the defense for a big gain.
Using the multiple running back sets has worked all season, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to use a lot more of that next week against USC. There's always a risk of using it too much, and to the point where it loses its effectiveness, but I don't see that being the case next week. There's a lot left for Rees to turn to with that personnel grouping.
Pass Game Complements Effectively - There is still work to be done in the pass game (see below), but the pass game was used effectively against the Eagles. Early in the game we saw quarterback Drew Pyne struggle, going 1-3 on the first drive of the game, but he bounced back and completed eight of his next nine throws in the opening quarter.
He hit a key third-down completion to Deion Colzie on a scramble, threw one of his best passes of the season to Mayer on a deep out to convert another third down, he hit the aforementioned wheel route to Diggs, and Rees did a lot to get the ball out of Pyne's hands early and into his playmakers in space.
Pyne went 9-12 for 111 yards in the first quarter, and that pass game success had Boston College on its heels, which then allowed the run game to be even more effective.
Notre Dame's ground attack has been a grind-it-out unit, one that doesn't really gash teams as much as it just hammers them. That wasn't the case against BC, as the Irish not only had he grind-it-out plays, it also had several gash plays. The play design was part of it, but the early pass game success also played a big role by keeping Boston College from keying on flying downhill all game.
Still Some Pass Game Missed Opportunities - The pass game was complementary but there were still a few too many missed opportunities. Pyne was very good in the first quarter, but he went just 1-7 in the second quarter and missed multiple opportunities for even more production.
Here's an example:
We've seen this plenty of times this season. This is a 3rd-and-10 play where Pyne is keyed on Mayer, who actually comes open. Pyne makes two mistakes on the play, with the first being that as he waits on routes to come open he keeps working up towards the line, which is a big part of why he gets so many passes batted down.
The second is that he shouldn't wait, he needs to see that the defense has all dropped deep and he needs to turn and throw the ball to Tyree on the right side. One of two things happens. The first, and most likely, is that Tyree catches this ball and easily picks up first down yards. The second is he gets tackled right before the sticks, which gives Notre Dame a 4th-and-short conversion attempt.
Instead, the ball is batted down and Notre Dame had to settle for a field goal. It didn't hurt against Boston College but it could against better teams.
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