ND player that concerns me: Armando Allen

Submitted by wolverine1987 on

While all of us are well aware of Michael Floyd and Kyle Rudolph and the threat they will pose Saturday, and rightly so, my concern defensively is if the pass works, watch out for Armando Allen. I watched most of the ND game, and I was very impressed with him. IME, ND's skill players are better than any we will face this year, Crist aside. And the fact that Kelley loves the quick passing game will challenge our d-line to get pressure. This should be very interesting defensively.

GOBLUEinGA

September 9th, 2010 at 1:31 PM ^

We need to remain disciplined and keep the "bend but don't break" philosophy against the Irish that we showed during the UCONN game. If Floyd is in a one on one situation, we will be in trouble. By doubling him, it opens up Allen and Cierre Wood. Its a double-edged sword but pressuring Crist is our best way to attack ND defensively, IMO.

DreadTheLocks

September 9th, 2010 at 1:33 PM ^

I wouldn't be surprised to see Allen get to about 100 yards on the day to be honest.  As long as our D can hold em to FG's a few times and force 1 or 2 turnovers on the day I think M comes out on top. (In other words...Our O will cover for our D)

TheOracle6

September 9th, 2010 at 1:34 PM ^

It's no doubt that Armando Allen is Notre Dames most used threat.  We got some good practice against a very solid running back in Jordan Toddman.  One thing is sure, we have got to make sure when we get a hand on him that we bring him down.  Allen becomes dangerous once he gets through that first level.  He is very agile for a good size guy, and his punt return last week showed that.  After watching the ND v Purdue game it was clear that the punt return was very poor coverage on Purdues part, but was still a great play by Allen.  Most teams tend to stop the run and make the QB beat them.  However with the state of our secondary I think it's a better gameplan to stop Floyd, and Rudolph and force Allen to beat us.  Our run defense appears much better then the pass, either way I like our Maize and Blue 31-21

Steve Lorenz

September 9th, 2010 at 1:45 PM ^

Our ability to stop Allen is undoubtedly the key to our success defensively. If we can contain him it will allow our LBs to drop back a bit and hopefully neutralize Rudolph. I am not sure we can fully stop Floyd. I think Mouton, Roh and co. step up. Michigan 35-21. 

Side note: Something that's been nagging me in anticipation for this game.....I don't see how ND has gotten better all of a sudden to where we shouldn't be able to score all over them. We moved the ball at will last year and that was pushed by the pass. I don't know, thinking out loud. 

Red_Lee

September 9th, 2010 at 1:48 PM ^

Who wins the battle in the trenches will win the game. Face it, both teams have very dangerous skill players. UM has Denard, any RB, Odoms and so on while ND has Allen, Floyd and others. But that won't make much of a difference if the teams' o-lines don't open up holes and protect the QB. 

I think it's going to come down to ND's o-line vs. our front 6. Our o-line should be able to handle ND's defense well enough to put up a decent amount of points. But if our defense doesn't keep the pressure up then this game is going to be really interesting. 

DenverRob

September 9th, 2010 at 1:55 PM ^

one thing i didn't understand what ND did last week is that they ran several read option plays.

Crist is not a running threat, so why Purdue fell for this is beyond me. I understand that he could pull it back and throw, but that play will take sooooooooooo long to develop.

Another thing is that their Oline Tackles were slow. Roh can get some pressure this game

cadmus2166

September 9th, 2010 at 2:13 PM ^

involved the guards pulling to one side or the other.  At leat that is something you can gameplan for.  He'll probably get a couple of decent runs on us.  But as long as we can contain him pretty well, ND shouldn't be nearly as much of a threat in the passing game.

oriental andrew

September 9th, 2010 at 2:19 PM ^

(I think it was RoM, anyway) Cierre Woods looked pretty good against Purdue.  Allen, obvsly, but anyone have any thoughts on Woods?  Did he get much time, and is he a different type runner from Allen?  

 

Also, does "rakes of mallow" make anyone else picture garden rakes composed entirely of marshmallows?

NateVolk

September 9th, 2010 at 7:34 PM ^

He was tough on us last year. We're better in the trenches overall even with no more BG. I hope that and the loss of three of their O-lineman makes enough of a difference.