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Notre Dame Football
Chaos Can Be A Ladder for ND vs UNC
October 6, 2017
3,411
Things have been a mess at North Carolina this year for Larry Fedora and his staff. After having to replace a significant amount of starters and production from his 2016 team, Larry Fedora’s program has been ravaged by injuries.
They have lost over a dozen players for the year and have had some of their best players miss games as well. If they were healthy, then they could easily be 4-1 instead of 1-4. But they’re not and they are what their record says they are.
UNC is already a team that is in turmoil and Notre Dame can add to it by attacking the Tar Heels offense.
Injuries have hurt them at many spots, but I would argue it’s been felt the most on the offensive line. They were coming into this season minus two starters from last year, but they’ve been hurt by an injury to their best interior linemen in Tommy Hatton and right tackle William Sweet is out for the season.
They are playing two graduate transfers in the middle of their line and have returning starter R.J. Prince at right guard. That interior three has not been good so far this season. They have struggled in pass protection and it’s an area that Mike Elko will likely attack in this game.
Duke runs a T-T (tackle and tackle) stunt here and not even a very efficient one. UNC's guard and center do not pass it off and it results in a sack.
Later we see a complete bust here up the middle where they don’t even pick up the inside linebacker that is showing blitz. It's supposed to be a screen here, but either the right guard or the center should be picking this up. They pretty much ignore it.
They need to attack that interior three as much as possible.They have trouble communicating the right protections and that is partly due to having a new center, but mostly due to having a new quarterback.
Chazz Surratt is experiencing growing pains as a redshirt freshman. He’s a good athlete that can move the chains with his feet, but he’s not always going to make the right read or know where to go with the football when pressure comes up the middle.
I think Notre Dame will bring extra rushers and try to force him into some poor decisions like the one he made here. You can see his eyes are focused on the rush and are not down the field.
North Carolina has a sack percentage of 6.01%, 73rd in the nation. In their last three games that number is even worse at 7.22%. The Irish should be able to generate pressure in this game and create chaos for the UNC offense.
If they do that and stop the run like they should, then I don't see North Carolina putting up a ton of points in this game.
They have lost over a dozen players for the year and have had some of their best players miss games as well. If they were healthy, then they could easily be 4-1 instead of 1-4. But they’re not and they are what their record says they are.
UNC is already a team that is in turmoil and Notre Dame can add to it by attacking the Tar Heels offense.
Questionable protection
Injuries have hurt them at many spots, but I would argue it’s been felt the most on the offensive line. They were coming into this season minus two starters from last year, but they’ve been hurt by an injury to their best interior linemen in Tommy Hatton and right tackle William Sweet is out for the season.
They are playing two graduate transfers in the middle of their line and have returning starter R.J. Prince at right guard. That interior three has not been good so far this season. They have struggled in pass protection and it’s an area that Mike Elko will likely attack in this game.
Duke runs a T-T (tackle and tackle) stunt here and not even a very efficient one. UNC's guard and center do not pass it off and it results in a sack.
Later we see a complete bust here up the middle where they don’t even pick up the inside linebacker that is showing blitz. It's supposed to be a screen here, but either the right guard or the center should be picking this up. They pretty much ignore it.
They need to attack that interior three as much as possible.They have trouble communicating the right protections and that is partly due to having a new center, but mostly due to having a new quarterback.
Chazz Surratt is experiencing growing pains as a redshirt freshman. He’s a good athlete that can move the chains with his feet, but he’s not always going to make the right read or know where to go with the football when pressure comes up the middle.
I think Notre Dame will bring extra rushers and try to force him into some poor decisions like the one he made here. You can see his eyes are focused on the rush and are not down the field.
North Carolina has a sack percentage of 6.01%, 73rd in the nation. In their last three games that number is even worse at 7.22%. The Irish should be able to generate pressure in this game and create chaos for the UNC offense.
If they do that and stop the run like they should, then I don't see North Carolina putting up a ton of points in this game.
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