Improving The Pass Game Is Key For Notre Dame - Part II
Notre Dame had some excellent moments on offense last season, but when the games mattered most the pass game was just not good enough. This has been true for much of the last decade, and if the Irish are going to take the next step as an offense the pass game must get better.
In part one of this breakdown I showed how far Notre Dame’s pass offense lags behind the top teams in the country. In part two the focus will be on specific areas where the pass offense can, and should, improve.
1. Better Use Of Play-Action — For this to work the Irish must become a more effective running team. Should that happen - and with five returning starters up front it absolutely should happen - the Irish must become a more effective play-action team.
One of the issues Notre Dame had the last couple of seasons is that the run game and pass game didn’t always seam on the same page. There were a number of tendencies that helped defenses get a feel for what was coming, run or pass. I expect the current staff to address this and make sure the run and pass game mirror each other from a looks standpoint.
If that happens the play-action pass game should become more effective. It should also allow the staff to use a wider variety of play-action looks. I’m using play-action in the broad sense to include both RPO’s and traditional action passes where a fake run is designed. The RPO concepts will be more effective with a more impactful run game, and an effective RPO concept will help with the called play-action throws as well.
From a called play-action standpoint, I’d like to see a bit more diversity with the actions the staff show. That means mixing in a few hard play-action looks where the quarterback turns his back to the line and really sells the play-action. It means effectively utilizing even more of the action throws off Buck Sweeps and jet looks, like this concept:
Notre Dame should be dynamic with these run concepts next season, which means using actions to hit home runs off those run looks is important.
I’d like to see more play-action looks that move the pocket as well.
2. More Designed Deep Shots With Limited Reads — Quarterback Ian Book made significant improvement throwing the deep ball last season. Book completed 33 throws that traveled at least 20 yards past the line, and his completion rate was 52.4-percent, up from 40.8-percent in 2018.
Book still struggles throwing downfield in big games. It’s not that he doesn’t throw deep effectively, because as we saw against Georgia when Book did let it loose downfield he was accurate and effective. It’s that he doesn’t make enough of those throws. Book shows a hesitancy attacking downfield in big games, often being unwilling to even make the attempt.
One thing the staff could do to not only create more explosive plays, but also help Book become even more comfortable throwing downfield is to run more designed deep shots where his reads are limited. If Book knows the ball needs to go deep and that’s really his only option (deep, checkdown, run) you’ll likely see him become more comfortable taking those shots.
An example of the kind of concepts I'd like to see more of, at least in big games, are like the one above. It's essentially a two-man concept where Book reads the safety to determine which deep shot to go to, but before the snap he has an idea where the ball needs to go.
This is a confident throw, and it's the kind of throw he needs to start making against the better defenses and teams on the schedule.
3. More Effective In The Vertical Stretch Concepts — Pass concepts can be essentially split into two types of philosophies, there are basically vertical stretch concepts and horizontal stretch concepts. Horizontal stretch concepts threaten the defense left to right. Ironically, the all verticals concept where all the wide receivers run vertical routes (go routes outside, seam routes inside) is a horizontal stretch.
A vertical stretch are more of the top-down concepts, or high-low concepts. Notre Dame runs a number of vertical stretch concepts, but outside of hitting crossing routes and the occasional drag, the offense wasn’t effective with these concepts the last two seasons. It was part execution with the quarterback and part a lack of creativity from a design concept.
This is partly why Notre Dame was so ineffective attacking the intermediate portion of the field. Book averaged just 2.4 completions and 4.9 attempts between 10-19 yards down the field this past season. Compare that to 5.4 completions and 7.9 attempts by LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, 4.3 completions and 6.1 attempts by Justin Fields (Ohio State) and 4.1 completions and 7.1 attempts by Trevor Lawrence (Clemson).
Book completed just 48.4-percent of his intermediate throws this past fall, compared to 57.5-percent by Lawrence, 68.6-percent by Burrow and 70.6-percent by Fields. (All of the data in this section is from Pro Football Focus)
Book and Notre Dame must be more willing to attack this part of the field, and do so with more diverse route concepts.
4. More Isolations — One weakness in the Notre Dame pass game this past season was an unwillingness, or inability, to utilize isolation concepts more frequently. I’m still puzzled why Notre Dame didn’t use more one-on-one concepts on the outside against Georgia, but it isn’t really what the Irish did last fall.
Georgia started the game down a starting corner, and the other starter went down during the first series, but it wasn’t until late in the second quarter that Notre Dame attacked outside, and after that it wasn’t until they went down 23-10 before going back outside.
This is partly about Book being more savvy about going to certain looks when his team clearly has the advantage, but it’s also about Rees and the staff putting more schematic emphasis on attacking weak spots on the defense and using formations, motions and calls to get advantageous matchups.
5. Greater Effectiveness In The Screen Game — Notre Dame has not been a great screen team in recent seasons, and the reasons have been numerous. Part of the reason has been a roster that lacked the kind of athletes you need to thrive in the screen game. Miles Boykin and Chase Claypool were both outstanding players, but they aren’t guys who are going to do a lot of damage in the screen game, especially against the better defenses.
That should be different in 2020, as Notre Dame will field an offense possessing a lot more speed across the board at wide receiver, and there are some potential screen game weapons at running back and tight end as well. Rees will have no fewer than five legit home run weapons (that play three positions) that he can utilize in the screen game in 2020.
Making the screen game a greater part of the offense would be a wise idea. That means the RPO quick screens, perimeter screens to wide outs and tight ends, middle screens to those same players and both quick and slow developing screens to running backs. Developing a strong screen game will take some of the burden off Book and the run game, and create easy ways to get his playmakers the ball in a way that puts greater stress on the defense.
6. Mix Up Personnel — Former coordinator Chip Long did a good job mixing up his personnel groupings, using thee wide receiver looks, multiple tight end looks and two back looks to put pressure on the defense. But Long didn’t always have the kind of across-the-board skill depth that Rees should have next season.
Rees won’t have an overly experience wide receiver unit, and there isn’t an established running back or tight end on the roster. Experience will have to be developed, but what he has is arguably the best depth of talent at those positions that Notre Dame's had under Brian Kelly. Notre Dame also has a unique depth chart from the standpoint of having a wider variety of skill sets.
I’d like to see Rees and the staff do a good job of mixing up the personnel, and building certain concepts out of those looks that are different. What I have in mind here is on one series go with a faster lineup that puts players like Braden Lenzy, Lawrence Keys III and Kevin Austin type athletes on the field and calling plays that series that emphasize that speed and explosiveness. Then mix in the “big athletes” like Tommy Tremble, George Takacs, Brock Wright, Michael Mayer, Bennett Skowronek and Micah Jones into different looks and taking advantage of their size.
What this does is allow Rees and the staff to design calls that fit the speed players well, concepts that fit the bigger players well, and then you have a broader number of calls to work with that don’t add a mental burden on the entire group. It’s about building around the specific talents of the players, and then using the variety of talents to attack defenses in different ways.
If Rees can be a quick study when it comes to using this diverse talent in a creative way his offense could be outstanding next season.
7. Better Use Of Tempo — Finally, I’d like to see Notre Dame push the tempo more next season. Again, I’m not calling for Notre Dame to become an up-tempo offense on a full-time basis. What I am calling for, however, is being more willing to push the tempo more within each game. Just come out in a series and go fast until you reach the end zone, or push the temp until you get an incomplete pass before you slow things down.
Then come out the next series or two and slow it down a bit more, use motions and shifts, throw different looks at teams (which doesn’t require a lot of different play calls) to gain advantages. Then go back to tempo.
This is another way Notre Dame can stress defenses, especially the better units, instead of being an offense that can become a predictable from a tempo and looks standpoint. When an offense can use points six and seven to its advantage it takes the pressure off the players from the standpoint of always having to be better than the opponent by creating situations where the defense is prone to more mistakes.
Conclusion: Notre Dame has the weapons to make a major jump in production and effectiveness with its pass game next season. Notre Dame has an experienced quarterback, a veteran line and a deep, talented group of pass catchers. If Rees and the staff are willing to dive deep into the ups and downs from the pass game in recent season, make adjustments and be willing to shake things up both philosophically and schematically the offense could be the best of the Kelly era.
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