Notre Dame Snowflakes: The Offense

Even if we did not botch the field goal, 10-13 points of offensive production will normally not be enough to win a big game on the road.  The call on 2nd and goal outside the 2 proved to be a brutal mistake, but we did not generate many opportunities to score touchdowns tonight.

On the plus side, I thought McCaffrey looked remarkably poised and prepared when thrust into a tough situation.

Tough night! 

-Bring on the young O tackles.  Why not?  

-The Gentry TD drop - The DB was ripping his arm away, not going for the ball.  No flag. 

-Dumb plays - flags killed us.

-McCaffery is the real future.  Get'em an O line.  

I'd just like to mention how bad Zach Gentry looked today

Harbaugh needs to hire an elite OC. That was obvious in the off-season and still is.

i imagine Hudson and mayfield will start soon but they’ll be bad too this season. Maybe the 2019 o line will finally be respectable. This o line is already toast.

Harbaugh is responsible for this offense.  I think he calls the plays too.  No offensive identity is an accurate description.

And now we play some cupcakes and people will get all carried away with the success we see in those games, but know that Harbaugh's offense is easy to defend for good teams.

Came to find solace, instead got trolled. 

Did they really disable comments on the game recap?

Welcome to the norm 

We

Couldn't

Run

The 

Ball.

That's really all there is to it. It starts with the run game, and we have an OLine that couldn't open up holes in a slice of Wonderbread...

It really diminishes Michigan as a team but I don't think ND is all that great.  We gave them the game in the first quarter on stupid ass defensive penalties and then later on a Hail Mary to the end zone that should've been picked off or knocked down quite easily.  We played tight early on defensively when we had a chance to take control.  We played tight all game on offense.  Same thing every year in a high profile game against ranked opponents on the road.  When in the F is this team going to turn the corner?

I kept reading that Shea looks like Forcier. But I still wasn’t prepared for how small he looks out there. He’s got talent. But everyone is assuming he’s one and done, yet he just doesn’t look nearly big enough to be a high NFL pick. 

Wait wait wait so Ed warriner isnt the greatest oline coach in the universe? Im confused

I don't think the play calling was that bad. I would like to have seen more of Evans in the first half; I think his skills and packages might have helped. 

Our tackles were atrocious.

It's so hard to keep a defense honest when throwing deep is almost impossible. They just stacked the line on us.

Maybe it would have helped if we went full-on spread, and threw a bunch of bubble screens and stuff to get outside and let WR's block instead of our tackles.

I agree with some who have said it seems we're lacking dynamic playmakers - maybe we need Ambry more on offense than defense; that dude is electric.

Unlike many here, I'm not giving up on the season. It was a tough first game on the road. We'll get better.

Until proven otherwise Gentry is way overrated.

Nothing much to say. I really think all of our problems are gone on O if we had an average OL. On pass plays those defensive ends came right through without any resistance from our tackles. And the interior line wasn’t much better either. 

What disappointed me especially was the right side of the line. I know pass blocking is neither JBB’s or Onwenu’s (more so the former’s) specially, and I know they’re huge, so I was hoping together they could be road graders. I was shocked to see they couldn’t drive anybody off the ball.

I was just looking at the box score  Chris Evans only had 2 carries? That doesn't seem right, but it must be, so my question is why? I know the blocking wasn't great, but maybe a couple of more outside runs with Evans to throw more variety at their defense? Maybe that opens up the middle some. 

Don Brown got outcouched in the first half, and the defense didn't make enough plays on the ball in the first half either.

thought Shea looked good given the circumstances. The tackles will get him and any other QB that trots out there killed. Need to see what Steuber, Mayfield and Hudson have during in-game action asap - hate to beat the obviously dead horse but Runyan was...yikes. Ruiz, Bredeson and Onwenu need to step up and take a big step forward if this team wants to beat anyone with a pulse this year - and I expected them to take that step before tonight - but obviously not there yet. 

0-16 or whatever in our last road games against ranked teams is truly depressing; no coincidence that Michigan hasn't had an elite o-line for 10 years either. 

It starts and stops with the oline. If you can't run the ball on the road against big time teams you're not going to beat big time teams. Michigan hasn't done that for going on 10 years, and Michigan hasn't been or beaten an elite team for 10 years. 

Who implemented the “clap 6 frantic times before the center looks for the real snap sign”? 

This is a clown show and rightly a national joke. 

Same old Lions

1. The O-Line was getting beat all night. Must be fixed quickly.

2. The play calling is a bit antiquated and predictable.

3. Power football worked when we had 300+ lb OL and opponents average 275 lbs.

4. O-Line showed some improvement or Patterson is much better than previous Q.Bs.

5. Patterson needs to use RPO and make defenses respect his running ability.

6. Nico, DPJ, Perry, and Gentry could have had better games but we didn't stick with them.

7. Players in the zone single handedly win games. Make defenses stop players that are hot.

8. Ambry is a serious weapon returning kicks. N.D. couldn't stop him we stopped him.

9. Evans not involved early enough. Make defenses defend different run styles See Bama/OSU.

10. Time clock management a problem particularly late in the game.

Overall, its the first game against a formidable rival. Someone is going to lose. We didnt make enough plays to win.  I see bright spots. I like Patterson's command, quick release and WRs growth. We must let our play makers win games by going to them early and often.

Just looked up the box score. Patterson actually played very with exception of the two turnovers. 

Patterson threw for 227yds compared to Wimbush who went 12/22 for 170. 

The difference was completely in rushing: UM 58 total yards with Patterson losing 21 yds on the ground compared to 132 total for ND with Wimbush gaining 59 yards on the ground. 

What do these stats inform us?

1. Unfortunately, the Oline still sucks.

2. Coaches need to release Patterson to run rather than try to play him conservatively to protect him. We only have 12 games...

3. ND’s defense is solid. 

At this point maybe it is time to roll out the blocking sled/dummies. That might be an improvement on the o-line.