How Do You Solve a Problem Like Njigba?
There’s a long list of great college receivers that Notre Dame has had to cover in recent seasons. From Drake London to DeVonta Smith to Justyn Ross and everyone in between, they’ve been forced to configure game plans to try and limit these great players.
Sometimes it has worked well. Sometimes it hasn’t. It’s a lot easier to do when a team has one great receiver rather than multiple.
Ohio State had three last year, which is part of the reason why CJ Stroud went from not attempting a pass in 2020 to a Heisman finalist in 2021. Two of those three are in the NFL now and both were first round draft picks.
The one who remains is Jaxon Smith-Njigba and he was the best of the bunch last year. 95 catches 1,606 yards 16.9 yards per catch pretty much speaks for itself, but if that’s not enough for you, consider the fact that he led the Power 5 in yards after catch, was first in the country in yards per route run, and lit up Utah in the Rose Bowl with 15 catched and 347(!) yards.
That’s a fantastic three-game stretch for an All-American receiver. Doing that in a single game is indescribable.
Nebraska played defense against Ohio State as well as anybody did the entire season. On 83 plays, they OSU to 5.06 yards per play. On one play, though, Smith-Njigba caught a five-yard hitch and turned it into a 75-yard house call.
His short-area quickness is elite and it helps him not only gain separation as a route runner, but also force plenty of missed tackles. He had 19 total forced missed tackles last season by PFF’s metrics and no Power 5 slot receiver made more tacklers miss.
That’s where he does most of his damage. He lined up 88.6% in the slot in 2021 and he’ll primarily be there this year, but with no Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson, we may see him out wide a bit more often.
Wherever he is lined up, Notre Dame has to make sure they aren’t going to be put in a bad matchup against him. That’s the primary reason why the expectation should be for the Irish to be in some version of nickel defense for the majority of Saturday night. They don’t want to be in a spot where they have a linebacker on him because that is simply asking for the ball to be thrown his way.
On the most important play of the game, with the scored tied at 38 in the Rose Bowl, Utah had a linebacker on him on 4th and 4. That’s too easy for him.
Earlier in the game they had JSN lined up in the backfield and OSU took advantage of him being matched up with a linebacker. Unsurprisingly, it turned into a big play.
They went empty against Michigan and edge defender David Ojabo was assigned to cover him one on one. Big mistake. Huge.
Number one on the list of JSN rules is never put a linebacker on him. It’s asking for trouble.
Rule number two is always have help ready in coverage against him because it’s something that Utah paid the price for when they didn’t. They have a two high safety look here and a corner lined up on him. Pre-snap it looks like they should have a plan for help over the top or some type of bracket coverage on him.
(Narrator’s voice: they did not have a plan)
JSN splits the safeties who are dropping blindly to a zone and the space he has turns this play into a touchdown.
Here he is lined up outside with OSU in 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends). OSU likes to use quick tempo in the middle of the field and you can see Utah rushing to get lined up here with a safety dropping down to make it eight in the box.
That makes this a single high safety look and that safety doesn’t seem to be aware of who is lined up wide to the field. Stroud didn’t even bother to look him off the here. He just waited for JSN to cook the corner and it was another easy touchdown.
These are the kind of problems he presents and Notre Dame has to have a solution on just about every snap to prevent those types of big play touchdowns from happening. The good news is that Al Golden should have some answers as to how they’ll handle Smith-Njigba in coverage. When he was with the Cincinnati Bengals, they had to deal with a different kind of explosive receiver in Kansas City’s Tyreek Hill and did a pretty good job of it.
It wasn’t as simple as playing a two high safety shell and double teaming him on every snap. They mixed up looks and coverages and it was critical to their success defending Hill. He caught seven balls in the AFC Championship game for 78-yards and holding Hill to that is a win for a defense.
If Notre Dame can hold Smith-Njigba to that kind of day, they’d take it in a heartbeat.
Here’s Cincinnati with two high safeties, but look how this is disguised and how it confuses Patrick Mahomes.
He’s anticipating the slot corner to run with Hill and for that open up the pivot route. When that doesn’t happen, Mahomes has to move on and look at how the Bengals have Hill covered. If he goes vertical, there is the safety to field over the top. The boundary safety is there looking to rob any route if Hill comes across. He then runs with Hill when Mahomes scrambles, but there’s also help from the field safety over the top as well if needed.
Here’s another play with two high safeties that looks like it’s man to man with the cornerback in the slot, but he passes it off and there is a safety to help over the top for the deep route and is there to help underneath. The ball is eventually tipped and intercepted.
There’s different ways to approach Smith-Njigba and the Irish have to consistently mix up what they’re doing to slow him down. The focus can’t be all on JSN because he isn’t likely to be the only great receiver for the Buckeyes this fall. They have a plethora of options who will help keep their passing game elite.
Julian Fleming, Emeka Egbuka, Marvin Harrison Jr., and Kamryn Babb are as good of a group that any program could have to replace two first round receivers. All of those four were ranked in the top-100 as recruits and Harrison Jr. had three touchdowns in his first opportunity to start in the Rose Bowl.
They also have a great running back in TreVeyon Henderson and it’s not a coincidence that the games where OSU scored the least points were the games where they struggled to run the ball. Notre Dame has to dominate up front to shut down their running game too if they want to come out of Columbus with a W.
It’s going to be a tall task to keep the number low on the scoreboard, but they have no chance of doing that if they let Smith-Njigba go off in this game. Limiting him helps limit the ceiling of Ohio State’s offense and the Irish have to have answers for all of the problems he’ll present them.
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