Film Don't Lie | Wrinkles and Checks Add to Running Success

I could have chosen all plays where Notre Dame picked on North Carolina linebacker Power Echols (23). The majority of the big plays the Irish generated off of play-action passes were targeting Echols specifically. That wasn’t a coincidence.

The telecast, with Dan Orlovsky doing a fantastic job in the booth, covered all of those really well during the game.

For this week’s Film Don’t Lie, I wanted to focus on the running game and a couple of great checks Notre Dame made at the line and another wrinkle added, or reintroduced, when Notre Dame is in 21 personnel (two backs, one tight end).

Let’s start with that play and you can see the Irish are starting out with two backs in the backfield. They were in 21 on only six plays against UNC and averaged 20.3 yards per play on those snaps. Add in what they did the previous week with the Audric Estime angle route and Chris Tyree seam route versus Cal and it’s clear that Tommy Rees has something cooking with this personnel group.

Earlier in the game they had hit Logan Diggs on a wheel route that was wide open (and then hit him on another wheel later on). That’s important to note because UNC is conscious of that with the edge defender widening out with Diggs on this play.

That opens up a big gap for Notre Dame to run this counter misdirection play to Tyree that goes for 19-yards.

Michael Mayer steps to the left and makes it look like he is going to the opposite side, but cuts back and follows the puller, Jarrett Patterson. Now the Irish have a hat on a hat on every defender to that side without having to even block the edge (7) because the threat of the wheel took him out of the play.

Notre Dame had success with this same running play against UNC last year. Here it is out of 11 personnel (one back, one tight end).

The next two running plays I wanted to highlight were “check with me” plays. When you see the offense look to the sideline, they are waiting to possibly check into another play. Those are “check with me” plays and this first one was a big run to Audric Estime on a check to a split flow zone call.

Split flow zone is a regular inside zone run with the offensive line, but with the added piece of a tight end/H-back blocking the back side of the play and giving the appearance to the linebackers of a lead block.

That player on this play is Davis Sherwood and the UNC inside linebacker, Cedric Gray (33), is keying on Sherwood. Gray runs over to that side and the ball ends up running right back where he was originally lined up. That’s why this hole was so massive.

The Irish O-line did a good job up front, but they didn’t even have to account for the linebacker and it led to a 29-yard gain.

This check was a critical one on 3rd and 5. I’m pretty positive that this was originally supposed to be a pass call, but UNC is basically daring them to run here with only four players in the box. With a box that light, that’s something an offense has to take advantage of. Notre Dame did just that and had to hurry because this was late in the play clock.

Joe Alt didn’t even have to block anyone on this play because there was no one to block (the edge defender is accounted for with the possible quarterback keep). Josh Lugg doesn’t even have to get to the inside linebacker, 33, because he is lined up at seven yards on 3rd and 5. He also steps to his coverage because he is thinking he has to cover Mayer on this play.

Rees definitely called a great game, but not all of those were his original calls. Some of those were “check with me” where the coaches were able to scan the defense and then check into plays like this.

A lot of the running success Notre Dame had (287 on the ground) was due to great blocking up front and great running from the backfield. Some of it was because of checks like on these two plays.

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