First Half Analysis: Notre Dame Leads Central Michigan 21-14

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Notre Dame played a sloppy first half of football against Central Michigan and leads the 1-1 Chippewas by a 21-14 score. The Irish jumped out to a 21-7 lead, but a missed field goal and a failed drive combined with an undisciplined defense giving up big plays to set up a scoring drive to close the half.

Here is my first half analysis of the game.

NOTRE DAME OFFENSE

*** The numbers look good for the offense, but in many ways it was a sloppy first half for the Irish offense. The run game didn't get a lot of consistent movement, and there were some mis-reads by the backs in a couple of instances where there seemed to be creases. Notre Dame's pass game feasted on big plays, but there were some players open that didn't see balls thrown, and dropped pass stalled a drive and a sloppy holding penalty helped kill another one.

*** The results of this half are more about Notre Dame just having much better players than Central Michigan, which is why almost half of the yards in the first half came on just two plays.

*** Of course, the good news is Notre Dame continued its big play ability in the pass game into this matchup. There were even a couple of more chances to hit some big plays that were missed.

*** Quarterback Sam Hartman made some impressive deep throws in the game, hitting Tobias Merriweather and Chris Tyree in stride on bombs. Merriweather beat a CMU cornerback off the line and he stumbled, which game the Irish wideout even more room to work. Tyree took the inside position and beat a nickel vertically up the seam for another long touchdown. Tyree was open on that route on previous snaps but the ball never came his way. Hartman also had Jayden Thomas open on a vertical route that would have went for a touchdown, but he looked to the opposite side.

*** Merriweather had a strong first half even beyond the long touchdown, as did Tyree. The duo combined for 173 yards on four catches in the opening half.

*** From a run game standpoint, the timing seemed to be off. Notre Dame tried to mix up its run-pass ratio out of the tight end heavy alignments later in the half, but with little success. Backs were late hitting the hole at times, and by the time they got there it closed down. There were other runs where the backs got downhill too quickly. Gi'Bran Payne's 10-yard run on a counter is a good example. It worked out against CMU, but against a better defense that play is stuffed once he runs into the guard. Notre Dame will need to figure some things out timing wise in the second half, and trying to run more out of 11 personnel might do them some good.

*** I counted Notre Dame being in 12 or 13 personnel 15 times and in 11 personnel 11 times in the first half. They ran the ball 11 times on those tight end heavy alignments (11-15, 73.3%). Hartman went 0-2 and scrambled twice throwing the ball out of those looks. That kind of lack of balance is not ideal.

NOTRE DAME DEFENSE

*** The offense had moments of sloppiness, but the defense had an entire half of sloppiness. Missed tackles, penalties that showed a lack of focus, bad gap fits, blown assignments in coverage and a game plan that was unnecessarily blitz happy against an inferior opponent allowed Central Michigan to make this a game in the first half.

*** Central Michigan had just 219 yards of offense in its 31-7 loss to Michigan State, but it already has 160 yards and 14 points in just a half of football against Notre Dame, and that's with their backup quarterback in the game. The overall lack of focus and sound play from the Irish defense is without question the biggest disappointment in the half so far.

*** CMU had success running right at Notre Dame, who clearly miss middle linebacker JD Bertrand. The defensive line doesn't seem to be fitting correctly, and the inside linebackers were often out of position. Jack Kiser seemed to turn loose a swing route for a big gain, Xavier Watts appeared to turn loose a seam route for a big gain that set up a touchdown, bad inside run fits, the first half had it all.

*** The poor tackling, poor angles of attack and overall lack of discipline from the defense has been the biggest issue in this game so far. Notre Dame should be dominating this CMU offense, but they have yet to do so. Central Michigan not only had two touchdown drives, it also had a missed field goal drive. This was a week where the defense could have gotten back to basics, but instead it is trying to out-smart an overwhelmed CMU team and giving them easy gains.

*** Defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste has been an early bright spot for the defense. He's been stout on the edge against the run and had a couple of strong pressures. From what I could tell Thomas Harper also had a very good half. He was stout against the perimeter runs and was good in coverage. He also had a pair of strong edge pressures on blitzes, one of which resulted in a sack and a forced fumble. That helped make up for his missed tackle on the first play of the game.

*** Up front the defensive line hasn't gotten enough consistent pressure and are trying to run through blockers. Kiser has been very inconsistent in the middle, but I'll need to break the film down more to see if he's the only reason for some of the missed early run fits.

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