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Game Observations - Offense: Notre Dame Beats Pitt

Instant analysis of the Notre Dame offense from its 45-3 victory over Pitt

Notre Dame earned an impressive, and much-needed blowout victory, taking the Pitt Panthers to the woodshed en route to a 45-3 victory. It was the widest margin of the Brian Kelly era away from home.  

Here is my initial analysis of the Notre Dame offense from the victory.

*** It was good to finally see the RPOs worked back into the offense. I saw at least two during the game, and both went for easy 9-yard gains. Those are the kind of easy "stealing yards" types of situations this offense needs a lot more of.

*** The red zone offense was problematic in this game. Even on the drive where the Irish scored in the red zone they caught a break by Pitt missing an interception and then committing a pass interference. On their second red zone trip, the Irish got the ball first-and-goal at the 2-yard line, and two of the three plays were throws and the Irish settled on a field goal.

*** It was good to see the Irish get the running backs and tight ends more involved in the game plan. There were a high number of throws to both positions today, and it was obvious from the play design that they were either first or second reads, something we saw very little of in recent games. I talked about the need for this HERE and HERE prior to the game, so I was obviously quite encouraged to see OC Tommy Rees make it a priority in the game plan and with his play-calling. 

*** Notre Dame needs to find some answers for teams that overload the box and attack the backside of runs. They were able to get away with it in past games because they played really poor defenses. Against Pitt, however, the Irish faced a run defense good enough to expose this area, and it kept the run game from really taking off.

*** Quarterback Ian Book had an interesting game. If you look at him throw by throw, he was off target quite a bit in the game. There were several misses that were just mistakes, and he wasn't accurate for much of the game. There were at least five very uncharacteristic misses in the game that could have allowed this score to be even more. Even a number of his completions were off target and required tough catches. Book also was late on far too many throws, which caused more incompletions and missed opportunities. He had some chances to attack downfield and didn't take advantage, showing an unwillingness on far too many plays to give his players chances to make plays.

*** That's the bad, there was also a lot of good from Book in this game. First and foremost, he competed his tail off in the game. Pitt attacked him all game long, and he stayed in the pocket, kept his eyes downfield, took a lot of shots and made a lot of big plays. By not rushing in the pocket, and keeping his eyes downfield, Book was able to find creases in the pass rush, and he exploited that for 39 first half rushing yards.

*** When Book did give his players chances they rewarded him (see Ben Skowronek's 73-yard touchdown pass), and he improvised effectively in the game. The long catch-and-run by Javon McKinley was not a throwback pass. It was actually a play where Notre Dame was trying to run a pump-and-go off a screen look, but tight end Tommy Tremble got held and Book scrambled. But by keeping his eyes up he was able to find McKinley all alone on the backside for the big gain.

*** There are a lot of things Book must clean up from this game, but his competitiveness was impressive, and there were some things we saw in this game (his playmaking, moving around, throwing it downfield more) that can be used to take the offense to another level.

*** Running back Kyren Williams ran the ball extremely hard in this game. He was patient with his reads when it was needed, but against Pitt he seemed to know that he had to have a sense of urgency, and he did that. The numbers won't blow anyone away, but he maximized his yards on most of his carries, and he finished runs off extremely well. Williams also made plays in the pass game, catching three passes for 37 yards.

*** Where Williams struggled was in pass protection. He gave up a sack and another hit on Book after getting beat right up the middle.

*** Graduate transfer wide receiver Ben Skowronek finally made his presence felt in an Irish uniform. Skowronek got the game started with a 34-yard touchdown on a well-designed play call from Rees. On a 2nd-and-11 play on the opening drive, Rees used his tight end to run off the deep safety and brought Skowronek underneath that on a deep in cut. Book read it well, fired a shot to Skowronek, and the veteran wideout made the catch and raced into the end zone.

*** Skowronek also out-played a Pitt defensive back on a jump ball from Book, and when the defensive back fell down the Irish wideout raced the rest of the way for a 73-yard score. 

*** Skowronek was extremely effective in the run game. Notre Dame couldn't get outside much in the run game, so you might not have seen this on the television, but watching live there were a number of strong downfield blocks. On one particular red zone play, Skowronek drove the Pitt defensive back out of the back of the end zone on a block.

*** Seniors Javon McKinley and Avery Davis were used as complementary players in today's game, and they both played their roles extremely well. McKinley had two catches for 50 yards and blocked well. Davis did a good job working open over the middle of the field and added three catches for 44 yards.

*** Freshman tight end Michael Mayer had an impactful performance in the pass game. The talented first-year player led the Irish with five catches, and he added 73 yards and a score to go with it. He was clearly a focal point of the game plan, and it paid off. Mayer made plays on crossing routes, he did a great job working open over the middle against the zone and he worked down the field. He got open on a seam route in the first half and if Book threw him the ball it's likely a 20 yard gain at least.

*** Where Mayer struggled in this contest was in the run game. He had a hard time sealing off the backside edge on zones away, and he had a hard time handling the Pitt line games and edge pressures. There will be plenty of teaching tape for him and position coach John McNulty to go over after this game, both good and bad.

*** The Irish offensive line handled their business in this game. It wasn't a lights out performance, but they won more battles than they lost against one of the nation's best offensive lines. The line didn't allow any free runners, and even when they got beat up the field in the pass game they did a great job staying engaged. By keeping a body on a body, even when they got beat, the line allowed Book to step into the pocket and take off, which resulted in a number of quality run gains.

*** At times I felt the interior blockers were catching a bit too much, almost as if they were expecting to get beat off the ball. When they came off low and fast they got pretty good movement in the run game. But there were some consistency issues from an execution standpoint, something you expect against the talented Pitt defensive line.

*** I was most impressed with their pass protection on third-down. Notre Dame's first-team offense went 9-13 on third-down, and a big part of that was the ability to give Book time to throw in those situations.

*** Left tackle Liam Eichenberg got flagged for 15-yard penalty early in the game, and he gave up a pressure on a stunt where he was late getting off to the looping linebacker. Other than that I thought he handled himself quite well on the edge against the vaunted Pitt edge players. His push in the run game was solid, he was strong in pass pro and played a big role in Notre Dame's third-down success.

*** Right tackle Robert Hainsey wasn't as sharp in this game as he usually is. At times it looked as though he got impatient on the edge, and he lunged instead of letting the rushers come to him. The result was a few too many snaps where he had to recover on his way to the edge. 

*** Where Hainsey did well was even when he got beat around the edge he stayed engaged, which allowed Book to make the rushers miss and then to escape the pocket or buy time and make a throw. I also though Hainsey was strong at the point of attack in the run game on the snaps where I keyed on the right side of the line.

*** I will need to study the film more to give a better read on the guards. There were snaps where they were chasing, and overall they didn't get a lot of movement. Left guard Aaron Banks also committed a facemask penalty early in the game. His mistake wasn't just grabbing the facemask, but it was turning back to block someone behind him on a perimeter run, which you just shouldn't do.

*** Center Jarrett Patterson had a rough game from what I could tell. My view might change after I break down the film, but I saw him with his shoulders turned and chasing a defender up the field on far, far too many snaps. Like Hainsey, Patterson did a good job of not just turning guys loose, but he needs to be more stout up the middle.

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