That green, inexperienced O line gave up zero sacks
Having a mobile QB makes a big difference, but still….
'I define fear as standing across from Joe Louis and knowing he wants to go home early.' - Max Baer
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Level 1
Both offenses played probably the best defenses they will face in the regular season.
We will see how both teams offense improves over the next few weeks.
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Level 1
Whatever we are paying Joe Rudoplh...
...it is not enough. To play like that against a really good team with such an inexperienced line in that environment is a near miracle. I still remember the days of Willingham and Weis where we could not block anyone.
Flanagan still needs to block better.
edit: I should say "really good defensive front." Not sure how good A&M will be overall.
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Level 2
Offensive line wasn't a problem under Willingham
Well, aside from the fact that he recruited *one* lineman for those horrible 2004 and 2005 classes...
Willingham's problem was that he tried to run a very much stripped down version of the West Coast Offense, where he took out most of the downfield passing aspect. That was OK for his time at Stanford, where outside of USC, that Pac 10 was a very weak conference, to say the least. Once he got to ND, the competition level was much higher, and a kid-friendly offense got squashed.
This isn't to say that the WCO can't work in college. Far from it, since Jim Harbaugh successfully used it at Stanford and Michigan. Harbaugh, though, ran a relatively complete WCO.
While the WCO is built around short passing plays, it still requires a QB who can sling it downfield with reliable accuracy in order to prevent teams from squatting in a short zone and zone blitzing.
It was all too predictable, especially with a triple option QB at the helm in 2002, as well as in 2003 where Carlyle Holliday started the season, and a very green Brady Quinn finished it. Heck, it was too predictable in 2004 where it was all too rare of an occasion where Quinn was allowed to throw downfield.
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Level 1
Denbrock should get a lot of love here too. His play calling kept the Oline and RL safe.
RL might not be alive this am if Parker or Rees were still OC.
Huge hire paying immediate dividends.
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Level 1
Riley was the difference.
Hartman would have been sacked 5 times last night.
The o-line will improve every week. They made plenty of mistakes, but they fought all night.
Kind of reminds me of when Rocket Ismail played for Notre Dame
Invincibility with no vulnerability-
Level 2
Re: Riley was the difference.
He certainly was as per avoiding the pressure and handling bad snaps…..but he was also a factor in the lack of a successful passing game.
Here’s to hoping that part improves significantly moving forward. He seems like a fine young man and did what it took to win last night.
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End of conversation