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Keys To Victory For The Notre Dame Offense vs. Northern Illinois

Breaking down what the Notre Dame offense must do to not only have success against Northern Illinois, but also to improve as the Irish build for the 2024 season. Shop for Irish Breakdown gear at our online store: https://ibstore.irishbreakdown.com/  Join the Irish Breakdown premium message board: https://boards.irishbreakdown.com  Stay locked into Irish Breakdown for all the latest news and analysis about Notre Dame: https://www.irishbreakdown.com​ Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/irish-breakdown/id1485286986 Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/irishbreakdown Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/irish-breakdown-newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:
37m
Broadcast on:
06 Sep 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

Breaking down what the Notre Dame offense must do to not only have success against Northern Illinois, but also to improve as the Irish build for the 2024 season.

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Join the Irish Breakdown premium message board: https://boards.irishbreakdown.com 

Stay locked into Irish Breakdown for all the latest news and analysis about Notre Dame: https://www.irishbreakdown.com​

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And some of the stuff, Brian will post on Irish Breakdown's premium board at boards@Irishbreakdown.com. Yet another reason to be on there, Ryan. And my dude, it is kind of wild. I can't believe it's Thursday already. This week has really flown by and we are two days away from yet another. Notre Dame game and that is what we're going to discuss today. Ryan, we're going to talk keys to victory. We're going to talk Notre Dame versus Northern Illinois. I'll be joined by Bill Bender later to preview the four big games of the weekend. Ryan, if we finish up here soon, if you want to kind of get some quick thoughts on those four games, we can do that as well. But Ryan, it's another opportunity for Notre Dame to grow. And that is really what this weekend is all about. It's about getting better as a football team as you march on towards what your ultimate journey is. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members. 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That's code Irish on prize picks for a deposit match up to a hundred dollars. Prize picks run your game. You've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce, but have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy nugs takes the crispy and spicy nugs that you love and turn them up to eleven. Choose between flavors like buffalo, honey barbecue, garlic palm or if you're a real heat seeker, try spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. I dare you. That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug, it's got to be Wendy's at participating U.S. Wendy's. Yeah, well, and I would say for fans, if you're not enjoying the ride so far after beating a top 25 team on the road in a big time environment, then go outside and sit in the sun for a little bit and enjoy time because you're a little bit grumpy on nowadays. But I mean, you're actually right, Brian, I literally wrote about it yesterday that I don't want to call it a tune up game. I don't want to call it like a scrimmage, even though some people are going to quantify it that way. But this is a big test for Notre Dame in the simple fact that one improvement that we liked for Marcus from year one to year two was that year two, they buried the teams that they should bury, right? And that was great to see. They did not have the hiccups against the bad football teams and Northern Illinois is not a bad football team by any stretch, but a team that obviously in a vacuum is not nearly as talented or nearly as good a team as you are. So after a big win, Kyle Field Saturday night, prime time, college game day, all those things involved, there is a there is a reality where some teams would not be laser focused the next week and to Mac team where they would be just kind of going through the motions and talking. Everything's cute behind screen, behind scenes and all the type of stuff, but this is a big test in the simple fact of Marcus Freeman, this staff, these players, are they all locked in to going in and not messing around with this Northern Illinois team to bury them early and then hopefully get in some of these young sophomores freshmen, some of these young cats that we want to see so much. I really think that this is going to be about preparation this week about the process and if they're true to the process, I think that they shouldn't have too much of a problem on Saturday. You talk about this Northern Illinois team Ryan and it basically comes down to this right that people are going to see Mac and they're just going to say well Mac team, you know, they're not all the same number one Mac they're varying levels to the Mac just looking at Northern Illinois in that league. I think this has a chance to be one of the two to three best teams in the Mac this year I really like this Northern Illinois team they're not as athletic as Toledo was a couple years ago. That Toledo team in 2021 had legit athletes at a couple positions and quarterback being one of them. This is a different type of dangerous Mac team dangerous in that they can make this game more competitive than it should be not dangerous is and I'm concerned about another name losing this game. Because they are incredibly experienced and they actually have good skill, especially on the offensive side of the ball and and they're running a system that is new to them that I'm watching it again last night Ryan and I'm like. First played a game, you line up in a diamond formation essentially right with your stud running back in an offset almost like it's a fullback you run a motion away you bring him on a sweep. And that's just kind of what they do. And you've got one set of game film on it I promise you there's some stuff that they didn't show against Western Illinois that they're going to want to show against Notre Dame insult a leather next. You know but but this is a team that is very well coached I really like the job that Thomas hammock is doing and if he can find a way to get even more athletes there to Northern Illinois. They got a shot to be a really good Mac team because they are well coached but as you said this is a game that Notre Dame if they are locked in if they're the team that they need to be if they play the way they're capable of. This is not an overly competitive game if they go back to being the not focused team that they were at times in 2022, then this is a game that may be similar to the UNLV game. Maybe even a little bit tighter where you know your offense doesn't really wake up to the second half and you don't really pull that game away until late. And then you kind of let them come it just it was a sloppy game you don't want it to be like that but if Notre Dame comes out in their focus this is a game that they should roll and we're going to find out. What that Notre Dame team does this weekend when they do take on. And a quick note is that I had spoken to somebody that knows the program very well who's Ryan talking about I'm never going to tell you guys so stop speculating in the chat. But they had said that they think that Notre Dame might be playing the two best teams in the Mac potentially this year with Northern Illinois and then my new Ohio right so I think that this is a it's a test. And I think it's a it's a pretty strong test on one side of the ball specifically but yes any vacuum if Notre Dame plays their game. They are focused. They're ready to roll their week has been good they've been processing everything well. I think that this game should not be overly competitive by midway through the third quarter I think that's when it should be kind of off the rails a little bit. I don't know who said that but I tend to groove them. I think it's Miami Northern Illinois and Toledo. I think of the three best teams in that league in my opinion and so we'll see how it plays out but you know that again this is not central Michigan from last year. This is not Ball State. This is not Bowling Green from 19. This is an Akron from. Yeah. This isn't. This is a team that you've got a you've got to be on you've got to at least bring your B game to win convincingly. If you bring anything less than the B game then this could be a lot uglier than you need to. I don't know that there's a scenario in which I see Notre Dame losing this game I don't think that that Northern Illinois has the firepower to do that. There's a game where you could kind of slug your way through it and lose some of that momentum that you had after last week's game because that's really a big thing for me Ryan as you as you prep for this is. Can you build on the momentum from last week and can you get that kind of win that you need to get where you did play in the Texas heat. You did have I mean you played a lot of dudes they played about 20 guys on both sides of the ball yesterday which was nuts they played 22 guys that have freshman or sophomore eligibility on offense and defense. But you still had Howard Cross played 50 snaps I mean you still Jack Kaiser played over 60 snaps you still played a lot of snaps in the Texas heat it'd be really nice to come back home for a week. And get 30 snaps for Jack Kaiser 20 snaps for Howard Cross and Riley Mills and really put this thing away that would be very important in my opinion for Notre Dame. It would be I mean I'll just say this Brian it's Ohio State's lucky they didn't see Northern Illinois last week I'm just saying right I'm just saying in the chat a little bit there but I believe that this is the game because you have these games every single year where they are expected to be a lopsided blowout victory where hopefully you do get to see some of those young guys right like let's get a let's get a bogey K who in the game let's get a cold Mullins in the game let's get Carson Hobbs some reps at the nickel or outside corner wherever the heck you want to end up playing and like I want to see some of these young cats play I want to see Kenny Menchie or CJ Carr quarterback I want to see. This is a game where if Notre Dame takes care of business, this is where valuable reps are earned for the young players that are going to be a part of the future of your Notre Dame program as well. So I very much hope that Notre Dame takes care of business this weekend I sure. You know what I don't want to see a 21 14 halftime game like it was against Central Michigan last year. You know that that's what I don't want to see I want to see this team have a little bit more early game discipline and that's what we're going to get into when we get into our keys to victory which is coming up next as always Ryan because I love offense and I'm an offensive guy so we're going to start on the offensive side of the ball today I know you're a defensive guy but we'll get to the defense here soon we're going to talk about the Notre Dame offense and the big picture. It is important that Notre Dame get rolling a little bit on offense this week and and I talked about this in earlier shows and I want to hear this from you a little bit. I actually think this game is a good test for Notre Dame's offense because you're going to have superior talent and I know you were you were in the chat so you heard the points that I was making so I don't need to set it too much. You have superior talent to Northern Illinois's defense but this is a very veteran defense a very with a lot of not just older players but experienced players guys have played a lot of football for Northern. You have a defense that actually has some length to it if you which you don't normally see at that level and they're very well coached and so you are going to have to earn the success I would say maybe a little bit more than you did in Michigan last year who you just kind of slopped your way through that when it wasn't a central play necessarily great it's you had a lot of big mistakes you had a 70 yard touchdown get called back by holding things like that that you've got to eliminate but I actually think this is going to be a good test for this offense if they get rolling this week it's because they played well not just because they out talented Northern Illinois. Well I would say for this Northern Illinois defense I think for the offensive line I like a guy like Roy Williams at defensive end who's 66 251 pounds I think that that's a pretty good test against your young tackles that you still have or an experienced tackles that you have in a meal wagon or anything nap I don't think that this is just like an off game for them like if they don't play well against 97 that kid has enough athleticism and talent to be able to cause some pressure but I think that this is a game that I look at because I listened to your breakdown and I was kind of surprised that Northern Illinois had as good a pass defense numbers because I don't know man I watched them and I'm just like I didn't really see anybody in the secondary that I was blown away by at all. So when you go back and watch it last year Ryan number one, let's be real, there was not a lot of great passing teams in the Mac last year. Sure. Right. That's why there's so many quote unquote great pass defenses in the Big Ten. Right. That's part of it. But you know what I like about their defense Ryan they're just sound. Right. I mean they just they keep everything in front of them they don't make mistakes they don't give up the big plays on garbage plays where you turn a guy loose. Because as you in there long. And I think that helps them overcome the lack of athleticism that they have in a league where you know what the Mac used to have Ryan the Mac used to have a lot of really athletic white outs. Yeah. And you just don't see as much of that anymore especially nowadays that when kids do start playing well they jump to a power five school. I think that helped them in that regard and there weren't a lot of top level quarterbacks in the Mac last season. But I just think they play sound football. That's really what it comes down to they play sound football they don't have their corners come up like I I'll be shocked if this is a week where the corners come up and play press man. The way that a lot of teams do if they do that's going to like hallelujah thank you Jesus let's throw the ball down the field. Because to your point like somebody asked me to compare this team to Marshall. And I said the big difference is this team is as well coach like Marshall this team has got decent ability in the trenches like Marshall. And this team has a better running back than Marshall I like this quarterback limited sample size a little bit of what's all last year but especially in this new offense. The big difference is Marshall had legit athletes in their secondary and I don't think Northern Illinois and the linebackers to that linebackers to I mean they had the Bo plan kid and then the Elias Neil kid like I mean they had some talent on that defense on the second and third levels I mean they literally had Stefan Gilmore's little brother who was a good player for Marshall and then they had the other corner that was actually better than. Stephen Gilmore was right so like yeah Marshall's defense was good I remember talking that week Brian like I know I predicted Notre Dame is so blown out Marshall but I remember for talking about him that week and I'm like guys like I think that's pretty good man like it's a good defense I kind of feel similar about the Northern Illinois offense when we talk about them but like the defense for me. I look at it and say I know I have a very good idea that Notre Dame is going to be able to run the football against them I would be shocked that they wouldn't be able to run the football at a high clip. Jeremiah I'm sure the Jeremiah love will break off a couple I think you during price as an opportunity to break one or two. I think that Riley Leonard if used in the run game which I don't think that he will and I hope that he isn't. I think that he would tear that team up because I think they're pretty slow on the second level like I did not like the second level of this Northern Illinois defense. I just I want to see what they can do in the passing game because again on paper it looks like a decent passing game defense and they have some players that have played a lot of football. But I was talking about this and like I really want to see the offense get opened up this week because although it doesn't matter if you're an explosive passing attack against these teams if you fail to open it up against the bigger schools it doesn't really matter in a vacuum but in order for them to start to open things up and gain trust that they can open it up against better competition. You need it to start somewhere right like I need to see if Chris Mitchell can create a big play I need to see if Jayden greenhouse can you know bang eight for a big game kind of down the seam I need to see if Eli Reardon can take the seam a little bit I need to see if some of these other wire series of both towns can consistently be a vertical threat for them in some capacity like I really hope that Notre Dame comes out and tries to create some explosive plays in this passing game because that's what I most want to see to be honest I think that Notre Dame could just sit there and they could run like they did last week as far as like their game plan and being a little bit conservative in the passing game just run the football and they could probably win by 20 plus points doing that but I really want to see if they can open things up because I think that that is the spot of this offense that I think has a lot of potential but I still think is a very big unknown because we just saw them throw for under 160 yards last week let's see if they can open things up a little bit Hey Irish Breakdown listeners it's Urban Meyer this fall the game changes join me Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and broadcaster Rob Stone as we bring you a new perspective on football and culture every week we will be joined by the biggest name in sports and talk about everything inside and outside of the lines let us guide you through a new era of college football that's triple option on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts Spotify or wherever you get podcasts With that in mind Ryan let's dive into our keys to the game and that's a lot of it's going to be centered around that and so for me there's it starts where I always start with keys to victory Ryan and it's because I'll say I'll continue to say it I will stop having this as my number one key to success when Notre Dame proves to me that they can actually do this with some level of consistency and that is start fast they've got to come out and get off to a fast start Ryan because it's going to be harder to put this Northern Illinois team away if you slug your way through the first half because they will try to run the football and control the clock and play field position and they have very good special teams at Northern Illinois and so I want to see this team come out and have a fast start and not only practically speaking but I think they need it Ryan I think the offense started to kind of feel it's way a little bit in the fourth quarter that game last week you had the big play to Jaden Greathouse you had the big throw to both college had the corner out on the snack concept the Cooper Flanagan for the 16 yard game which kind of sparked another drive you started to see a little bit of it kind of coming alive in the fourth quarter of that game late third quarter they need to build on that and really come out and start fast in this game look I understand why they were a little sloppy last week you and I think you predicted them to have what 20 we both I think I mean 24 point you had 28 I had 24 yeah right so kind of in the wheelhouse you had them scoring four times I had them scoring four was the four four times right they ended up scoring five times am I correct right three two touchdowns and three field goals right or correct right so it kind of went how we thought because a and as a really good defense and be the reality is Ryan as I pointed out in the show they started nine players on offense with freshman or sophomore eligibility they started in this game with Mitch 11's not playing they did they started two players on offense that started no excuse me four players on offense that started in the at the end of last season that that's it right now there was other guys that played Jane Thomas obviously played and Cooper Flanagan played last year and any librarian played last year but as far as the starting lineup get a very young lineup your two quote unquote veterans in the starting lineup are brand new to your system neither really did much in the spring Bo did nothing in the spring Riley did very little in the spring so yeah you play that kind of defense you're going to go off to a slow start that's fine I can I can excuse away the slow start against A&M they're not even excused away it's understandable that I'm not going to I'm not going to have as easy of a time explaining it away against if you can't start better against Northern Illinois you know you do need to get Riley going a little bit you do need to build some confidence you do you do need to be willing to push the tempo a little bit I understood playing a little bit slower last week but sure this is the week you need to start becoming who you want to be moving forward because the key in week one Ryan we've talked about it sometimes I don't care how you do it, just get a win and then you can you've got these get right games coming up well this is a get right game for the Notre Dame offense and I think coming out fast is going to be huge for them to not only practically put Northern Illinois away early but also to give this team some much needed confidence and I'll feel good about this offense if they do come out start fast because as we said this is a quality veteran Northern Illinois defense yeah I mean look at the end of the day and offense is if you are a run centric or pest centric offense I really don't care as long as the other side is efficient and create create plays when you needed to that's been the problem with Notre Dame in several years is that when they've had a great run game their past game isn't efficient and they don't have the ability to create big plays in that regard Notre Dame I think more than anything needs to come out and they need to create efficient and explosive plays in this game I'm going to judge this game off of because again if they ran the ball 60 times in this game and chose not to throw once they probably still win and they probably still win by a decent margin because they are incredibly talented at running back and maybe a dynamic athlete a quarterback there's no doubt I think Riley Leonard talked about this in his post game where he had said they asked about the bow Collins play and he had said that like he said something to the vein of I needed to throw to him earlier but I didn't right and why didn't you because you didn't have trust at that point right now you saw that boat can make that play so the next time it's easier for you to trust that he's going to make that play I think players showing that they can make those plays makes others comfortable around you and that starts by having a strong start to the game if Riley throws a ball up to bow Collins on a back shoulder an early person this game for 20 something yards and he makes the reception we're rolling boys if the first hand off the Jeremiah love goes for 15 plus yards and shows a little bit of explosiveness you're rolling if you give a short cross or to a Chris Mitchell or an outside vertical Chris Mitchell and he creates a big play you're rolling like this trust starts to build and when this team trusts itself offensively I think it's going to be dangerous but that is only going to happen if they have success once you taste success that breeds more success I need Notre Dame to show that they can do that this week and they've got to be put in position to you can't you can't complete balls down the field you can't complete the deep overs you can't complete post routes and wheel routes and go routes if you don't call them. That's going to be the other thing. Now again, this isn't a criticism. I understand why they did it. I get it, but you need to see it now. The things that we saw in fall camp, the things we saw in spring, it's now time to see them in games because you're going to need to start building that momentum. So that's obviously number one is starting fast. Number two, and this is kind of what we talked about before we got into the specific keys, but it is a very important thing. Is Notre Dame does need to get the past game going early. Two reasons why. Number one, big picture, because as we said, like a lot of keys to victory in this game are not necessarily if you don't do this, you can't beat Northern Illinois. It's more about, yes, this is going to help you beat them, but this is also about building your team for future success. When you do play tougher teams like Purdue next week, Purdue is not necessarily a sound as this Northern Illinois team, but they're a lot more talented than this Northern Illinois team at certain spots. And then, of course, in three weeks when you when Louisville comes to town, that's going to be a big time test and you need to get your offense going. So the past game's got to get going early. What does that mean? You've got to have some efficiency early, right? You've got to get those balls out, throw the ball on time, Riley's got to go through his progressions. Well, did you see the play the ball he threw to on the end cut to Chris Mitchell that he drove into the ground? Did you see the burst corner that both Collins had backside? No. So they ran a concept and it was it was a three by two to the right and a two it was two guys to the left. And Mitchell ran an end cut. They basically ran a burst corner smash concept backside. So number one runs the burst corner. Number two runs a slide. It was a two over two backside. To me, that's where the reeds got to go. And if and Riley looked there for like a split second and then immediately went away from it. Bo has a one on one. So I liked that anyway, because he got up on the corner. And then he stuck his corner at it as soon as he stuck that inside foot, the corner falls down and both wide open. It would have been touched out. Like I need to see Riley be more patient with the reads and that comes down to partly trust. Hey, Bo's got a one-on-one. I'm going to stick with this for a second and get the ball out. That's part of that timing thing, that trust thing that they need to have. So efficiency early, get in the ball out, let Riley get into a nice early rhythm. That being willing to take some shots down the field, the receivers got to make more plays. But at the end of the day, this is going to come down to the quarterback has got to get more comfortable with the system and comfortable with the players around him. That's going to be a huge part of this because there were stuff there against Texas A&M. One of the field goal drives, he's got Jeremiah Love on a one-on-one. You need to have a better ball. Jeremiah needs to run a little bit more to the corner, but that was not a good football. Make a couple of those throws and all of a sudden this offense goes off just based on what they did last week. Forget what they're going to do against match up against Northern Illinois. There were stuff there last week. You've got to hit some of those early, Ryan, because if the pass game gets rolling early, Northern Illinois has no chance of saying it's football game because now they don't need to run 60 times to get to 250 yards. They may only need to do it 35 times because if they have, if they're forced to spread that defense out and now you're gashing them up the middle with your running backs and running some of your stuff with your running backs and they have to vacate the box a little bit because that's what happened to A&M last week, right? Now, the difference is with last week, Ryan, Mike Denbrock had to force the vacate with the formations. This week, hopefully you can do it with your normal stuff because you're having success in the perimeter, but obviously getting that pass game going early is a huge part of what this offense needs to do in this game. I just think you need to be more well balanced leaving this football game, right? And obviously, the balance comes from you just ran for almost 200 yards against a good Texas A&M defense. Now it's about like, let's get the pass and game up to the par and because I truly believe this and maybe some people disagree with this because I know I still find it hilarious that there's like a play Steve Angeli over Riley Leonard stuff in chats. Sometimes it's pretty hilarious, but I got to think those people aren't serious. Like, I have to tell myself that so I can feel better about humanity. That's what I have to do, right? I unfortunately, I think that you're probably incorrect with that assumption. I believe, unfortunately, let me live in my world over here of naivete that tells me that people can't be that just off. I think they are, unfortunately, but I do believe that Notre Dame to hopefully go undefeated or not not very close or make a deep playoff run, which I think they're very capable of. They're only going to go as far as Riley Leonard can take them. I mean, he is a get get out of jail free card as an athlete. Everyone saw against Texas A&M, right? He's one of those guys and people heard me talk about this a nauseam of the last couple years. You need players that can make right out of wrong sometimes and there were some plays where they had no business being a big play or being a sound play and Riley Leonard's athleticism was able to save you last week. Now we need to see that happen in the passing game because Riley has all the talents to be a very good passer on this level. You saw flashes of it. It's there, I mean, at Duke, it was there a lot at Notre Dame week one. You saw the flashes, but it was inconsistent. Now, I expected some inconsistency early, right? Like, I did. I mean, again, you have a brand new wide receiver room kind of, I mean, at least from some of your some of your depth, especially, but Bo Collins, Chris Mitchell, Jaden Harrison, who played a little bit in the first half. Like you have a new group and then you have a new quarterback and you have a new offensive coordinator. Like there was always going to be some things that had to be ironed out that wasn't going to be super sharp. Now this week, you need to start to figure that stuff out. He talked about his confidence in Bo Collins at the end there, right? Like he knew he could throw it up and he would make a play. Well, I need to see that translate to the next week now, right? And then Jaden Greathouse has a big catch on that game winning drive. Need to see him start to get going a little bit. Chris Mitchell didn't have only had a couple opportunities in that football game in general. Only one catch for 10 yards. So getting those guys involved and making this a more well-balanced attack is the key for this game. That's the stepping stone that you need to have because again, getting Riley Leonard comfortable, getting this passing game comfortable because the run game is going to be great, I think. I think that has eventually a big time running game, but we have seen in the big game, we have seen in some games the last couple years, because no games had a pretty good run game in recent years, is that there's going to be a game where it's not working guys. It's just not working. It just isn't. Louisville last year was that to a degree. I know they went away from it for Clemson, but like either way, there's going to be a game where you're just not efficiently running the football because they're stacking the box. Need the passing game to get open, get going here, you need Riley Leonard to take a step forward, you need these weapons to make place for him when the ball is in the spot. Running game put up 198 yards last week against Texas A&M, did not have that in my prediction sheet, and it feasted on big runs, feasted on big runs. Ryan, I had Notre Dame in my breakdown, I actually added the play where there was the hold on Ashton Craig, and I had them at 207 yards, 204 yards in the game, just pure runs, not scrambles, just pure runs, at seven yards of play. And so the raw numbers were excellent. However, my efficiency number was 37%, 60 is a good game. They were at 37%. That's really where number three is for me, is I want to see more consistency in the run game. Now, part of that was your young offensive line, but let's be real part of that was also Texas A&M as a really good front, and they played well. And I thought Notre Dame had to earn all their yards, but I do want to see more efficiency, because if this offense can combine efficiency and explosiveness in both the run and pass game, then they're going to be a really, really dangerous offense. So just want to see some of the mistakes that they had last week get corrected early. I want to see some of the the minuses negated, the run throughs negated, where you've got a guy crashing off the edge and tackling your running back as soon as he gets the ball. I want to see those things negated, but you know what I will say, Ryan, I didn't talk about this in my breakdown, but I want to give some props to Joe Rudolph for this, because early in the game, one of the reasons they were having in the run game is they were doing a very poor job with their angles on down blocks. And they were taking a really level angle, which was letting the A&M guys really easily destruct and get over top and blow the play up. Late in the game, they did a much better job of working towards that upfield shoulder. And they were then allowed to kind of keep those holes open. So good job making those in game adjustments. This was that was one of the best in game adjustment situations that their names had on offense and a long time against a quality opponent. But I want to see that also now carry into this week where you do have a little bit more efficiency, you know, turn minus twos into plus fours turn some of those plus threes and the plus eights. I want to see a little bit more that you and I know they can hit home runs, Ryan. And we didn't even see Riley hit a home run last week. He will, right? Maybe this week, who knows, but he will. He's done it before. We know they can be home run hitters. Now, let's see that they can do the little things. And it's not so much the backs that I'm worried about. It's the line giving them the opportunities to maximize some of those carries. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a marriage a little bit because like the offensive line, I just naturally when you're talking about a team that only had six career starts in a five man unit, there's going to be some natural communication errors. There's going to be, you know, they're not cohesively moving together. There's just kind of a double team too early, right? I will say to be fair to them, though, that I do think there were a couple misreads by love and price. Like I don't think that they needed inside zone to love. Yeah. If he cuts that back, they had a really good hard press to the front side. If he cuts that back, he might have housed it. Even even there was one, there was one QB power, I think, or maybe it was just a sweep. I can't remember what it was, but there was a play where Ryland was out in space. And I think Riley was just kind of working to the sideline a little bit too fast. And if you just kind of stays patient, I think he cuts off a Billy Strauss, but you might have another five, 10 yards, potentially like inside type of play. So I think that all around, we're just talking about one more cohesiveness up fronts. You're talking about offensive running backs and quarterbacks, evolving the run game, being a little bit more patient and trusting the guys that are in front of you. And then that naturally will just kind of take over because I don't think we saw all the run looks that we're going to see at Notre Dame either. Like I guarantee we're going to see some jet stuff at times. I guarantee we're going to see some outside zone at times, not like just the pulling stuff that we saw like the pin and pull stuff. So I think that we saw a taste of it, but it can definitely get better. There's no doubt. It was very feast or famine is kind of how I would kind of quantify it last year. You weren't efficient in the short areas of the running game, but in you were able to break some home runs that kind of elune the stats a little bit. And that's what I think with who love and price are. I do think that that's going to be a little bit of what you are, but it could definitely be more efficient. There's no, but you are going to be a little bit more fissive famine compared to estimate because estimate was a bulldozer. He's a little bit more of an efficient runner. Right. Also, I want to see more success on first down running a football run. Their first down efficiency numbers were also not good. Now, they had some big runs on first and second down, but I just need to see a little bit more efficiency on that. That's going to do it for the offensive side. We're going to get over the defensive side next folks, but before we do hit me and do me a favor, hit that like button. Make sure you guys have liked this show. Make sure you're subscribed and make sure that you have the notification notification bells on because when we go live, you're going to be, they're going to let you know about it. And you can always check out what we're doing here at irisbreakdown.com. [Music] [Music] [Music] At King Super's pharmacy, care is making it easy to get vaccinated. Care is helping you stay protected from flu, COVID and RSV. Seasonal vaccines are available seven days a week with evening hours. Care is giving you a shot at staying healthy this season. 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