able to play offense and defense or it’s going to catch up to you,” Herbstreit said during a Tuesday appearance on ESPN’s Get Up. “After three weeks, Notre Dame’s defense has played inspired at home. They’ve looked very good, championship-worthy, but the jury is out on their offense. Right now, they’re one dimensional.”
Wow he agrees with 90% of this board. Or is it 90% of this board agrees with him? Either way it’s a ticking time bomb.
Link: https://247sports.com/Article/Kirk-Herbstreit-reacts-to-Notre-Dame-Fighting-Irish-3-0-start-122079314/
Unless the O gets straightened out, that bomb will explode sooner or later. There were some signs of life in the run game last week. Hopefully the return of Dex and continued OL gelling will lead to better things in the run game. Regardless of who is going to be the guy moving forward at QB, the WRs need to step up.
on this board would agree with this statement. I think I made this point all last year and would get at least 8+ down votes. This isn't a "hey look, I'm right"; it's just more proof of lack of reality here. Or, just straight over the top homerism. I love ND, but at some point you have to realize the truth, and this is it.
Last year you made the point that ND's offense struggled through thefirst 3 games of 2018? Okay, Nostradamus.
As for last season, through three games last year, ND was averaging 39 points per game. In game four, ND went on the road and put 38 up on MSU. Through 9 games last year, ND averaged 41 points per game, having scored 49 and 35 against #11 USC and #14 NC State in games 8 and 9.
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The potential for our offensive strength is certainly much higher with Brandon Wimbush at the helm, but the key word there is potential. We'll never reach our potential if he doesn't become a more accurate short range passer.
Think of it this way... We're in a long distance, high stakes car race. On one hand, we have a sports car that is capable of hitting 175 MPH, but tends to stall out at slower speeds, and the reliability is suspect.
On the other hand, we also have a passenger car that can go 125 MPH reliably, but doesn't have the sheer performance that the sports car has.
Which one do you go with? Obviously, we'd love to drive the sports car, and it would be worth trying to fix it up so that it becomes more reliable and doesn't stall out. After all, it can certainly cross the finish line faster *iff* (yes, with two f's) it can reliably run.
However, at what point do you look at having lost too much time from trying to fix the sports car, and finally decide to go with the more secure option? While you may have a much, much lower chance of winning the race with the second option, at least you can have a more respectable finish, and who knows? Maybe enough racers will wipe out that we can actually win it, but we do need to cross the finish line, after all.
At this point in time, the race is still in its early phases, but we're still trying to fix the issues with the sports car, even after it had proven unreliable in a previous race. Sooner or later, Brian Kelly will have to make a decision.
this year. - or followed ND during BK's tenure.
ND.as they have played to date, may (or may not) slide by Wake Forest.
If significant adjustments and better play do not occur on offense, including performing for an entire game, ND will lose to Stanford.
All things being equal, Shaw is a better coach than Kelly. Wish that were not the case, but it clearly is.
Getting Dexter back for Stanford will be a huge help, he's the best RB on the team (I believe, by far.)
The quarterback situation obviously needs to improve, but I'm not so sure it's all on Wimbush or Book...It starts with pass protection. I like the way Wimbush makes the most out of broken plays, but those broken plays are coming almost every other play because, I think, the offensive line needs to improve a lot. We know they're big and athletic, but they still need to learn and improve quickly. Not sure if it's experience, the new coach, or a lack of talent compared to last year's guys, but if they can somehow shore up the O-Line, it's going to help the passing game, no matter who is back there throwing the ball. While I don't think the offense will get to that "championship level" we pine for, I do think they'll get better and start to make more big plays in the passing game and put up more points.
With Stanford and VT looming, however, I fear there might not be enough time to make significant strides without taking a loss (or two).
I don't have a high degree of confidence that Kelly will make the proper adjustments, but you never know. They did smack USC in the mouth last year after all.
That was glorious.
It’s worth a full listen, but two things that stood out to me are:
ND has moved from a predominantly zone blocking scheme to a lot more man-to-man. This has been a root cause of some of the issues in his opinion. (But man blocking lead to some of the big gains for Josh Adams last year.)
In his Senior year, ND only had three running plays. All zones.
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