Punting and gaining 40 to 50 yards is a few plays and a minute or so for Alabama. The gain isn't much.
I'd rather Rees realize he has 4 plays in his pocket and be able to feel confident in his play calls. Keep drives alive, burn clock, and frustrate Bama.
But don't go for 2 until the end. Over and over and over, going for 2 points too early is proven to be a mistake. Coastal Carolina and Liberty game is the most recent example of this. Just kick the extra point.
ND obviously needs several things to go its way to have a chance, including but not limited to a turnover advantage, huge play on special teams (return TD or blocked kick), and/or a defensive TD.
If ND gives Bama a bunch of short fields by, those things aren't going to happen, but I agree ND needs to be more aggressive than usual on 4th down.
And throw it downfield....even if it's 50/50 balls....we will come down with 50%+.....even under pressure, chuck the rock Book!
Haven't watched Bama much this year, but in the past their philosophy on D was to make their weak spot in coverage the deep sideline ball, which makes sense as it's a low percentage throw. One area we are pretty good with is receivers with height that can fight for those contested balls. Maybe a little game planning to have essentially an isolation play set up to one side, and two others and the tight end to the other side. If they safety isn't too close, throw a longish back shoulder fade by design, so after the initial pre snap read, no decision making needed. Ball comes out on time and probably more accurately if he isn't getting pressured too quickly. Not saying to do it constantly and you'd need to vary the formation and who you are throwing it to a bit to keep it from being an easy read, but it does give the opportunity for a decent chance of success as well as chunk plays and maybe loosening up Alabama's D a little. WR screens might do okay once or twice as well, since our WR's are good blockers, but I can't see it being a staple, their too athletic to get beat often on that.
If he has to put air under the ball, it stays up a long time and the Bama D will get to it faster than our receivers will. ND doesn't have speed
receivers.
Bama will bring 5 on almost every offensive play and the scary thing about that (as if that isn't scary enough) they're skilled at defending
the screen pass and ND receivers can't get downfield fast enough for Book (who is very slow at delivering the ball) to get them the ball
even if he could read the secondary which he doesn't do fast enough.
Sorry but all Book's throws will become 50/50 balls. And we know, he often throws late and when he hurries, it's usually behind the receiver.
Kyren Williams will have to have an unbelievable game both running and pass blocking in order for ND to have a chance and you can
add into that the Tight Ends too.
And that's just the offense
Outside of Hamilton, ND's secondary will get beat all day long because they really aren't fast enough and don't tackle well enough.
This is going to be a blow-out. Sorry for the disappointing news.
I hope I'm way wrong, but even with the many skill players on ND, it won't be enough without good coaching.
They don't have to have the ball thrown to them, they just need to get down field in a hurry - keep one or two defenders trailing and it
opens up underneath plays -
I just don't get why Kelly doesn't use the talent he has even if it's just for deception to create openings for other plays.
