The Breakdown: Notre Dame Offense vs NC State
The final score and the stats said it all. Notre Dame imposed their will on NC State's defense like no other team had done to them this season. The previous high in rushing in a game against them was 133 and it took 47 carries to accomplish that. The Irish ran it 54 times for 318 (5.89 per carry).
The Wolfpack made some plays versus the run, but they lost way more battles than they won. The dominating performance by the offensive line is a big part of The Breakdown this week. I did include the punt that was blocked too, even though that is a special teams play and not on the offense. I think you'll see it was an easily avoidable mistake. The Irish are lucky it didn't cost them because the offense outscored the Wolfpack offense 28-7.
Overload right
This was bad news right from the start. You can see by the numbers that it is an overload situation to the punt team's right. Yet for some reason, Drue Tranquill (23) didn't adjust over. He actually didn't block anyone on that play. It typically would be him who sets the protection and slide over if there was an overload. I'm not sure why he didn't.
John Shannon (54) looks to his right first and lets the man go who ends up blocking the punt. I'm not putting the blame on Shannon. I just want to point out how there was an obvious miscommunication here because he must have assumed Daelin Hayes (9) was taking that player or else it would have not made sense for him to come back to the left to make his block.
This is the kind of thing that gets decided before the ball is snapped. For that matter, it gets decided in practice pretty much virtually every week where they work against an overload to one side or the other. This should have never happened based on that.
If you count them up, NC State is rushing eight. Notre Dame has eight players in to block. Again, there was not breakdown when it came to numbers. It comes down to a breakdown with the assignment of each player. Fortunately, it didn't cost the Irish the game. Hopefully they learn from this and it won't happen again.
Motion opens up the B gap
It's the two back look for the Irish with Tony Jones Jr. (34) motioning out of the backfield before the snap. You can see that it takes the linebacker (4) out of the box and that opens up the B gap (between left tackle and left guard) where Josh Adams (33) has a huge hole to run through.
Mike McGlinchey (68) does a good job of kicking out his man. Quenton Nelson (56) and Sam Mustipher (53) double the 1 technique. Mustipher comes off that block to pick up the linebacker and Nelson finishes his block with a pancake of the 1 tech. With them doing their job on the playside, it makes this a big play with only the safety to make the tackle.
Durham Smythe (80) does a good job of getting a block on him from difficult angle. It was close to breaking the whole way, but the Irish ended up scoring right after.
Extra attention on Chubb
Great players are going to find a way to make plays. No matter how much a team might game plan to stop that from happening, the great ones find a way. That was the case with Bradley Chubb. Even though the Notre Dame offense was generally successful, he still made an impact with a sack and three tackles for loss.
On this play they stopped him from doing anything by making sure they had extra blockers ready on that side. McGlinchey had him one on one frequently, but with him on the right side they weren't going to take any chances.
It's an E-T (end-tackle) stunt with Chubb going inside first and the tackle looping around to the outside. Alex Bars (71) and Tommy Kraemer (78) did a nice job of passing this off to each other. They also had the benefit of getting help from Mustipher and Adams. They made sure they had four on two to Chubb's side with McGlinchey and Nelson being able to hold up one on one to the left.
The protection was good. Bars and Mustipher had Chubb in check here. It was good enough that Brandon Wimbush (7) could have hung around the pocket to find someone open if he wanted to. There was nothing wrong with him electing to run, though. He ended up turning a 3rd and long into a 20 yard gain with a big assist from the offensive line and more help from Kevin Stepherson (29) who got a block down field too.
Smythe down block
This was not something we would have seen from Smythe even as early as the beginning of the season. He deserves so much credit for the work he has put in to improve as a blocker. I know the catches he made received more attention, but it's the blocking that is helping him become a legitimate NFL prospect in his final season at Notre Dame.
Brock Wright (89) is lined up as the fullback in the backfield with Adams dotting the I. Smythe is on the line to the right with Nic Weishar (82) outside of him as the H-back. I loved this. Loved everything about it. This is old school Power with down blocks from Kraemer, Smythe, and Weishar getting to the second level to block down on the linebacker. They all do their job, but it's Smythe blocking down on Chubb that creates the opening for Wright to lead through for Adams.
Bars pulls and needs to do a better job of getting the corner on the ground, but he forces the corner to avoid, which is good enough. Wright gets to the safety at the first down line and that allows Adams to easily convert. I loved this and I loved Chip Long continuing to go back to it immediately after.
Adams is special
Was this a well executed play? Nope. Robert Hainsey (72) is having a heck of a time against Chubb, which is not unusual when a senior All-American goes up against a true freshman. That happening is what forces Adams to jump cut to his right, though, and show just how special he is as a runner.
He may run tall when he is in the open field, but watch him bend to make the cut and then lower his pads to finish it off. This could have been a tackle for loss and he turned it into a five yard gain.
You look at him and almost forget to notice that Nelson is treating a defensive tackle like a child by putting him on the ground. Or that Bars is knocking back Jerod Fernandez (4) more than five yards before he falls to the turf.
This kind of play is almost as demoralzing for a defense as the 77 yard run that was to come.
33 Trucking
I wanted to show this angle and not the other one to give a better look at the ridiculously poor gap defense by NC State, but I'll set the stage by saying that the formation was a huge reason why this play worked out the way it did.
Notre Dame had two receivers stacked out wide to both sides of the formation. NC State combated that by having a safety over the top way wide to the boundary with a corner at the line of scrimmage. On the other side the Wolfpack had two corners (they were in nickel) with one over the top as well. You can see the other safety lined up directly in the middle of the field, but shaded to the field receivers relative to the Irish being lined up on the left hash. That's why the middle of the field is so wide open.
From there, it becomes bad news for NC State with them only having five players in the box with the one linebacker (3) shading to the boundary. I don't really understand why he is lined up like that other than they wanted him to account for the quarterback given how the back was aligned for the Irish.
Without him lined up inside, they don't have enough players that are assigned to each gap. They have him and the defensive end (39) both responsible for that outside gap (C gap). That's a head scratcher.
The two defensive tackles are slanting to the offensive right. That means the 3 tech ends up slanting down to the backside A and the 1 tech is slanting to the playside B. Unless one of them was going to get penetration into the backfield, then this play was doomed from the start.
No one has the playside A gap. The closest play is that safety. And if they are asking him to defend that gap, then it's time to go back to the drawing board with what you are trying to accomplish on defense because that is darn near impossible for him to be able to get there.
The run hits right into that A gap. That safety (31) needed to be more aggressive and have a better shot at making this tackle, but it's still just him one on one with Adams. I don't want to say it wasn't blocked well up front. It was. But this is on the scheme for NC State as much as anything else. There had to be some sort of mistake with how they were aligned and defending this formation. Their mistake ended up helping Adams cement his place as a Heisman candidate. So, thanks, I guess?