James Guillory, USA TODAY Sports
Film Room: Notre Dame Offense vs. Duke
A common mantra I’ve heard from some looking to dismiss Notre Dame’s victory over Duke is simple, “It’s Duke.” I get that, but it’s misguided and doesn’t show knowledge of how good the Blue Devils have been on defense this season.
Even after giving up 38 points, 469 yards and 6.3 yards per play to Notre Dame, the Blue Devils still rank 25th in defensive efficiency according to the ESPN Football Power Index. The only offense to rack up more yards and have a better yards per play average against Duke was Alabama in the season opener.
It was an impressive performance. Notre Dame’s skill players were dominant, the line handled its business and quarterback Ian Book was aggressive with his legs and arm.
What really stood out to me, however, was how effective the Irish game plan was. It was one of the best game plans we’ve seen from the offense this season, and it was executed relatively well.
Notre Dame built its game plan around the run game, which was vitally important. The Irish would have had a hard time moving the ball effectively without game planning to handle the talented Duke front four, which means building the game plan around the run game and then building the pass game off that foundation.
We saw that against Duke.
RUN GAME
Duke allowed just one opponent to top 175 rushing yards in a game, but Notre Dame racked that up by halftime. Two of the hallmarks of the 2019 Duke defense is its talented defensive line and the aggressiveness with which the linebackers attack the run game.
Notre Dame did three things with its run game to take advantage of that aggressiveness. The staff used motions, shifts and backfield action to influence Duke, which opened up big play opportunities.
We saw an example early on Jahmir Smith's 40-yard run in the first quarter.
Notre Dame started with two receivers and two tight ends into the boundary. Duke is in its customary single-high safety look with its strong safety and rover into the boundary.
That is when Notre Dame shifted its two tight ends, which you can see here:
That pre-snap shift caused Duke to flip the strength of the defensive line, the free safety rolled over the tight ends and the linebackers shifted towards the tight ends.
Notre Dame already had Duke thinking "look right." At that point we saw WR Lawrence Keys III go in a fast "jet" motion in which he faked getting a hand off. When Keys went in motion the FS came down even tighter to play the Jet.
Everything about Notre Dame's shifting and motioning has Duke thinking Notre Dame is going to the right of the defense. At the snap, the motions and shifts have given the right side of the Notre Dame formation leverage for the off-tackle run.
On the very next play, Notre Dame lines up in a 3x1 bunch formation with both tight ends to the right of the offensive formation, to the left of the defense.
This an alignment that Notre Dame has run its toss play in previous games, but here OC Chip Long calls a quick reverse to Keys.
Watch the Duke linebackers and safeties. As soon as they see the backfield pitch action they flow to their left, following Smith.
The play works because of what happens before the snap.
Notre Dame also used a wrinkle to its counter play that worked well in the game. Duke likes to put its three-technique (the defender outside of the guard) to the strength of the formation, which in the clip below is the left side of the Notre Dame line.
Notre Dame puts the formation strength to the left so that it could get the nose tackle to the backside of the formation. What this does is give the right guard (#57, Trevor Ruhland) leverage on the nose tackle. Between Ruhland and RT Joshua Lugg (#75), the formation gives one of them the leverage needed to block the nose tackle, depending on the NT did after the snap.
Book shows a quick sprintout action away from the call, which causes the strongside linebacker to delay before attacking the running back, which allowed the center (#55 Jarrett Patterson) to get to the second level and to execute a block on the strongside backer.
The blocking was effective and RB C'Bo Flemister makes a great read and cuts vertical for the 10-yard gain.
Notre Dame also brought back the Power Read look that was so effective back in 2017 with Brandon Wimbush, but against Duke the Irish had a wrinkle.
Normally, when you run the Power Read the running back will run a Jet motion and the quarterback will make a read and either hand it off to the back on the sweep play outside, or he will keep the ball and following the pulling guard vertically.
If run in traditional fashion, the play below would see Book go left, where he would follow the guard (#57 Ruhland). But here, the pull by the guard is a decoy. Book will make a read, but it's not playside defender. In this instance, he reads a backside inside linebacker, which you can see here:
Book is reading the inside linebacker. If he flows to the sweep action then Book will pull the ball and go backside.
Notre Dame got exactly what it wanted from the play:
The entire defense runs with the sweep action by the back. You can see it in the clip above. The inside backers, the safety and the backside cornerback are all keying the sweep action to the defense's right.
The clip above was a 12-yard gain, but Book ripped off a 45-yard gain later in the game on the same exact play. It was excellent game planning by the Irish staff. They used the aggressiveness of the defense to get them running away from where the ball was going.
Later in the game the Irish went with a traditional Power Read action, but once again the aggressiveness of the Duke defense was used to the advantage of the offense.
This is a 3rd-and-1 snap. Both inside linebackers, the backside cornerback and the free safety all run with the sweep action by the back.
LT Liam Eichenberg (#74) blows up the defensive end and creates the inside run lane. Book reads it properly, attacks vertically and is able to rip off a 53-yard gain.
PASS GAME
Building the pass game around the run game worked well for the Irish. Duke plays aggressive coverage behind the front seven, which puts its cornerbacks in a lot of man coverage situations with just one safety in the middle of the field.
Here's what that looks like.
Duke doesn't always have a 7-man box like it does above, but it constantly has a seventh defender somewhere close to the box ready to get downhill to support the run.
Long used standout receiver Chase Claypool to attack the man coverage, and Claypool was absolutely dominant. His 7-yard touchdown was a win against man coverage, but he had several plays where it was all about Claypool vs. a defensive back in a one-on-one.
The key to beating man coverage is winning at the line of scrimmage. This is especially true for Claypool. If he can win at the line and get a step he's incredibly difficult to defend because of his catch radius and ball skills.
This is an excellent release by Claypool, and the moment he gets a step you know he's going to win as long as he gets a good throw, and Book made an accurate throw.
Claypool also was able to win at the line to make an impact in the quick game. In the above clip, Notre Dame is running an RPO (Run Pass Option). Book recognizes man coverage, makes the proper read and hits Claypool accurately on the slant.
But again, the key to this play is Claypool winning at the snap against the press coverage. It's strong execution all around. Great release, he stays level with his route, Book makes the right read and then fires off an accurate pass.
In this clip you see the run action and pass game truly come together.
Notre Dame had used the Jet action to open up running plays away from the Jet and it ran a reverse to Keys. Duke was very aware of that motion, and in the third quarter the offense used it to get Claypool open for another big play.
You can see the linebackers and safety coming downhill to play the reverse. Claypool works inside, which is similar to what he would do on run plays (inside cracks). The cornerback peaks in the backfield long enough to allow Claypool to beat him, and once the corner gets in trail position he has no chance against Claypool.
I've been critical of the offense not building around the run game enough this season, and the execution on offense has not been good enough this year. If what we saw in the Duke game is an indication of what we can expect the remainder of the 2019 season the Irish could get hot on offense.
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