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It's not a hugely long segment, but we want to talk about, "Okay, were these keys important to the game?" We thought that they would be. Did they hit these keys? Did they do what we thought that they should do? And did they have an impact, right? And did they have an impact? That's exactly right. So let's jump right in here offensively. Brian, the first one would start fast. Yeah. And that's always a good one, and it's always one that I feel like I would love to see happen in every single game. But did they start fast? I think there's an argument a little bit on both sides of this, but I want to hear your opinion. Did they start fast, and was it impactful in the game? Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. 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Get in before game one hits and you can predict how many passing yards your favorite college quarterback will hit. For me, I think Riley Leonard is going to go above two thousand five hundred and fifty and a half yards. So I'm going to take that one and I'm going to combine it with Quinn yours to throw two thousand nine hundred and ninety nine and a half yards. Put those together and bang bang boom baby. I'm going to be a winner. You just wait and see. I'm coming up on my one year anniversary of depositing my first ten dollars and I received an instant ten dollar bonus. If you have the skills you can play for a shot at turning your ten dollars into a thousand dollars. Download the prize picks app today and use code Irish for a first deposit match up to a hundred dollars. 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 US Wendy's. Yes and no right overall no they didn't start fast. You know they only scored six points to the first two quarters that's not a fast start. However, I do think answering Texas A&M's first field goal drive was important. So if I was doing like a great I'd say I'd probably go like with a minus on the did they answer it but I do think that that first drive was important. Yes. For two reasons. One is it tied the score. Right. Obviously. Number two is it did give the defense time to kind of go over a couple things that were happening that A&M was doing that they could kind of then okay get on the pet because like you've got those pads nice you can actually watch live places not like it used to be back in the day in the NFL right where they get like the screenshots and still it's like NFL is still stills. Really. It's not video. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where college now however it's. It's like it is the high school. Yeah it's like it's like we got the all 22 film. You know what I mean and it's like I'm like watching the play happens I don't. You know I'm I'm somewhat sympathetic to Chuck Martin's thoughts on that but you know it whatever it is the rule is what it is and you make the most of it so the more time you have on the sideline to kind of go over that stuff especially in the game like this. So especially in a game like this where you're not really sure what they're going to do. Yeah. The better it can be so it also took some time. And so then the defense was able to adjust and then obviously the defense kind of settled in after that first drive where they where they gave up you know that first score they kind of settled in buckled in and and were able to make some stops and you know and outside of some penalties would have really been able to shut them down so just in short no they didn't start fast and that's why this was a much closer game. There was a lot of opportunities early events for them to kind of make some plays and you know do kind of create some distance in this game like you know like first play the game. You know they run a swing pass to Jeremiah Love and Jaden Harrison has a really good block on that play. If Jordan Faison blocks his guy J Love might be out the gate. I mean we saw what these backs can do if they get in space. You know what I mean and you know I had to there are two different times that drive where they somebody ran a wrong route. Very clearly ran a wrong route and there so there's you know miscommunication you have a drop by bow Collins on series to a missed block by bow Collins on series one a blown pass protection. You know you had a bad RPO read by Riley Leonard. You know I mean there just were some different things like that misslide protection by Devin for just a lot of sloppy stuff like that where you look at it and you're like man. Boy if they could make a couple of these plays they might have a shot to do something and you know there was a play where Riley Leonard throws an incomplete pass and it was the second quarter. And it's a it was a it was the drive after the field goal drive where they were they tied at six to six. And it's first and 10 at the 49 yard line it was a play where he misses. Chris Mitchell over the middle. Now Chris Mitchell is pretty fast kid maybe if you lead him there maybe he out runs the safety at worst case enter gets tackled for 12 to 14 yard gain. And now you're in their territory but on that particular play. I didn't think Riley made the correct read. He should have gone back side to a burst corner from bow Collins and both stuck the top of his route in the corner fell. And he's walking if he throws if he reads it correctly pre snap gets the ball out it's 13 six in the second quarter another name is now scored on back the back drives. And that's massive because the way the defense was playing right I mean right. Yeah. So it just it was a lot of stuff like that where I can't say you started fast when you missed on all those opportunities but I would say at least they get a little bonus points for the fact that they did answer that first score and they took some time to do it, which was important and definitely much better, you know, at the end than they were beginning. Much better in the second half and they weren't the first half. To your point about, you know, mistakes and things like that I mean the second play of the drive offensively. Number one, the first thing I wrote down was empty cycle. Okay. I'm going to do some empty here. This is my watching Notre Dame. But so they say they go empty but it was a bad snap. Right. And that became a bit of a recurring theme throughout the game which obviously, especially in the first half which has to be cleaned up for Ashton Craig look I'm one of the biggest, biggest Ashton Craig supporters and when he's on he's on. But the snapping has to get better right because. Look, Riley Leonard had issues in the passive game at times but it's not it's not always easy when you have to take your eyes down to collect the snap and then get your eyes back up and start figuring out what you want to do with football. It definitely didn't snap well, but there's a couple times when you look at the wide copy events if you if you look for this when you rewatch it again. Yeah, Riley Leonard was off about five, six inches too far to the right. Okay. And there was a couple times where it was like, okay, now that that's maybe two snaps. That doesn't have any do with the ones he was throwing at his feet and stuff like that. Just little things like that we're just I did notice Riley Leonard correcting himself at one point because he was a little too far and corrected himself back. Yes, I will say that I did see that. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Which was which was, I mean, and that's again that's all stuff that's going to get worked out when you've got your first time because this is why we, one of the things we talked about is like how quickly is Riley Leonard going to be able to get on the same page was teammates. Right. And in the past game on Saturday, he didn't really do that till the fourth quarter. Right. And, and so that that was obviously some part of it. But yeah, there are just a lot of things like that Vince in the, in the snapping from action Craig was part of it. Right. Yeah, starting fast did not happen, but I was ecstatic that they at least answered the field goal of the field goal because that was huge. I mean, it didn't take the crowd out of it, but it certainly calmed them down because, I mean, if Notre Dame comes out and they go three and out after a scoring drive. Good luck. You know what I mean, as far as like getting the car, like it just the atmosphere and everything else like that's just not a great way to start. They at least put together a nine play 47 yard drive. And kick a 40, what was it 46 yard field goal to answer a score like that's all I care about like answer score with a score, you know, and I know that's cliche, but it means a lot, especially when you're on the road. So, can I, can I say something else too Vince real quick here about this special teams comment. We knew Mitch Jeter from 40 in is money. Right. I think it was huge that his two field goals at the very beginning, the very end, we're both 46 yarders that he is very true on. Yep, very true on. Well, and, and something that I knew, but I didn't like, you know, ponder it a whole lot. Look, new kicker, new punter, two new snappers because where they have a different snapper for their long snapper. Yeah, I don't know that I've ever seen Notre Dame. Right. It was a long time. Yes. I think there was a time during Kelly's or Charlie's era where they actually had an offensive lineman or maybe it was Davey. We're an offensive lineman was their short snapper. I feel like that happened. Okay. So you had two new snappers, two new kickers, and a new holder, like the entire holder doesn't play anything else. Right. So it's not like punter who's been in the game and fielded some things like that. Right. Right. It was a completely new operation across the board. And it was, I mean, I'm not going to say flawless, because I'd like to see the puns be a little bit different or a little bit better, but flawless from an execute from a, there you go, a drill standpoint, that's fair. And then the results were at the very least good. Right. Yes. There was no one ever like 43 yards. Right. And he had a couple that weren't great, but he didn't have like, remember the first half against Clemson in 2015. First pun of the game for Tyler Newsome, he shanks out of bounds because Clemson 25 yard. Right. It didn't happen. Exactly. That did not happen. So, I was actually very impressed special teams wise that they had had a had clean operation. You know, because that's a lot of new pieces put together. Yeah. After a long time of having like milk, be the snapper always, you know what I mean? And just being that, that, that steady piece. So hats off to the, to the special teams unit. I know you guys want to, and the reason we're bringing that up here is because you go down there and miss that field goal. Any momentum you have gone, you know, and right. Right. Right. Yes, momentum gone. So let's go to the second key for the offense. Brian, it was offensive line must hold up. They, but the offensive line did not play well in this game. If you're grading it without any context of youth, inexperienced opposition, any of that just did they do their job or all of it. Yeah. Not do their job. They all graded out pretty low. It's a Billy Shrauth probably graded out the best. Ashton Craig was probably the most consistent, but Anthony Knapp had some is a meal Wagner was steady, but unspectacular, didn't do anything special, didn't do anything bad. Had a couple times got driven in the quarterback. Overall, it's okay. Anthony Knapp had some bad misses mistakes. Sam Pendleton just turned like, yeah, they got to get a lot better. But they held that's why I said they don't need to Dom. They got to hold their own. And in this game, they held their own. Yeah. Look, there's a ton, no coach on the staff has more work to do to clean stuff up. Then Joe Rudolph, which is expected when you have such a young offensive line. Like that's not a shot at Joe Rudolph. That's, I mean, if it wasn't the case, then something either really bad went somewhere else or the offensive line played light years better, but without any context, did they execute? Well, not really consistently. A lot of, a lot of stuffs, negatives in the run game. Riley Leonard got pressured to decent amount, blah, blah, blah. All those things are important. You got to clean that up. You got to fix that. Yes, it worked against A&M, but you're not going to be able to win every game by only scoring 23 points, you know what I mean? You may not anyway, but they held up. And what you and I said, and what Ryan and I talked and Trevor and I talked about going into the game was with the backs you have, sometimes you just got to get a body on a body. That was that last touchdown, by the way, but all the touchdowns, like that's exactly what they did, a body on a body. And they did that enough to win. I also said, look, if you get beat in the past game, just stay engaged and Riley can make people miss that happened. They did that times. Yeah. And there was in the, there was a couple run throughs that got to get cleaned up, but I got beat one on one. And, but the big thing for me Vince is one of the biggest beefs I had about last year's old line. There's way too many these big road games where they just got their butts kicks physically, just physically got their butts kicked. Yes. And there was no win some loose. I'm like, there were some snaps where Anthony Knapp just got tossed or, or Sam Pendleton got the block destruction, smart turners, a monster. And that game number five, the detail. Okay, yeah, it is like shirt tucked up underneath. You're like, yeah, you tackle shouldn't do that, but go for a brother. You got it. I mean, like, yeah, right. He shook Sam Billy Shrout one time, but, but like there's also a lot of steps where Notre Dame's guys won those battles. I mean, Sam Pendleton had some really bad snaps. But go watch him on like the two touchdown runs and Jadarion prices long run and you're like, that's why Sam is starting. Yeah, you live with them. And, and, okay, so since I had some fun taking shots at BK last night. This is the perfect time to bring this up. This is why, for years, I have said, if it's close, go with the more talented player, even if he's younger. And remember people say, Oh, you can't do it on the old line. This is why you do it. Because Pat Coogan would not have got beat. And this is not meant to be a shot at Pat Coogan. It's just a reality of his talent level. Pat Coogan would not have had as many mistakes as Sam Pendleton. Like the mental mistakes going to a different place. He doesn't dominate a three technique or a one technique down into the whole run lane for the multiple touchdowns. That's the difference. Right. You live with that so you can get that. You live with the mistakes so I can get that dominant block because if I can just get a couple dominant blocks, Sam Pendleton had three great blocks in that game. And guess what happened on three off all three of those great blocks two touchdowns in a long run. I mean, right. It's not a coincidence. Yeah, exactly. Right. And then you trust. You also trust your coaching to that. Hey, we're going to take our lumps, but we're going to coach these guys up and they're going to keep getting better and better and better everything. Exactly. But you live with those mistakes and they did the same thing on defense. You live with the mistakes from the really talented younger players because you know, eventually, because here's the thing. More games does not make you more talented. Right. If you're a four or five on game one, the odds are you're going to be less than a four or five on game 12 because you're going to be a little tired, but like you're not going to be faster, stronger, more athletic. You know, your pro shuttle is not going to go from four seven as a guard to four two as a guard because you've played 30 games now. Right. That doesn't change. What changes is now I know the proper technique to use. Now I've seen this front. I've seen that stunt. I have experienced how to handle this. My footwork is better. My technique is better. My grasp of the office. All that's what gets better over time. Right. So you take the really talented player and put them in. And this is exactly what I've been talking about for years. This is why you do it. And they just went full. Okay. We're just putting our dudes out there. Yeah. You can see how it goes. And it went rough for a lot of the game. It did. But you saw why they did it because when it was right, it was right. Yeah. I mean, that counter run that they ran for a touchdown. You're like, dude, I don't know how you can block it up better than that when am knows. Dude, they were in 12 personnel. Everybody in the stadium knew what was coming. And when I saw it live. This is why I love going to 22. When I saw it live, I thought Jeremiah broke several tackles. Get through the line. He didn't. He touched him. He didn't break a tackle or make somebody missed till he got 10, 15 yards down the field and made a DB. But he had to leap through a hole. The hole wasn't huge, but nobody touched him. Right. Because they just blocked it as perfectly as you can block it. And Jeremiah was patient. He read it. And he hit it. And so, yeah. Yeah. Did they play great? No, I didn't play great. They played pretty average from an execution standpoint, but that competitiveness, the toughness, the physicality. And when they got a body on a body, then the backs could take over and do some things. Yeah, because there was seven negative plays, I believe, Brian, behind the line of scrimmage. And that's a great finish in the top 10 last year. Look, that number needs to go down. And it will. But they had zero sacks. Now, some of that is, is a tribute to Riley Leonard and what he's able to do. But not every crack was on. And one of the pressures on Riley Leonard was on Riley Leonard. Because he didn't set the protection the right way. Right. But then we tell you guys that we, I mean, we told you guys that, you know, this is a young offensive line and they've got a mobile guy back here. And so it's going to make things a little bit better from a sack production standpoint and all that. But at the end of the day, we're still zero sacks. And I think pro football focus has it is for pressures. Right. I mean, it was a little more than that. Fair. I haven't. It was more than that. Let me say this last two thing, Vince, is what did we say about this? You and I say about these running backs? Guys, they don't need that big of a hole. Right. Just give them a crease. And these kids are so explosive, they'll hit it. And that's exactly what they did. And I'll get into more some of the things the coaching did to make that happen here as we get to other segments. So third point, offensively get Texas A&M on its heels. I don't think they did a great job of that, to be honest with you. They did. They did some things that I thought were good with that. But, but. Maybe I'm being a little too harsh there, Vince. There are some things they did that I liked. But they didn't do quite as much of the moving the pocket. Like, I don't know that Riley Leonard did a single. Sprint out or bootleg. I don't think it did. In the game. Yeah. Like, they didn't change the launch point. The motions were effective. Like, they use some motions, but not some of the stuff I know we've seen. There was no like orbit kind of stuff. There were some things they did, like sending the back this way. And then, you know, faking that's because they ran a swing screen on the first play the game. And later in the game, they faked that swing screen to the left and then threw a tunnel screen back to both cars. The right got a good gain out of it. So, I mean, they had some screen game stuff that was going, but there wasn't anything that I felt necessarily had an aim on its heels in that game. What Mike then brought chose to do instead was to play the chess game. Instead of where is okay, I want to see what you're doing and then I'm going to have an answer for it. Right. And that's why I did it. So, no, I don't think he did a lot to. I don't think he did a lot of things. I don't think he did a lot of things. I don't think he did a lot of things. I don't think he did a lot of things. I don't think he did a lot of things. I don't think he did a lot of things. I don't think he did a lot of things. You know, quarterback missed or somebody made a mistake and it didn't work out. So, maybe my answer is different if they would have executed a little bit better. But no, I don't, I don't think they necessarily did a ton to have, like, did A&M at any point in time feel like, gee, we can't pin our ears back and go at these guys. I don't think because they kept coming and coming and coming. So, I agree with you on that front for sure. The last point offensively is create big plays. And Sean and I kind of talked about this in the last show. I'm curious to see what your thought process is. What is your definition of a big play, like from a stat standpoint? Well, it's a pass play over 20 yards and it's a run play over 10 to 15. Okay. Over 15 or 15 and also be a moment. Okay. Right. Like a 16 yard gain to Cooper Flanagan to me on first play of a, you know, or on first down of a drive to me. That's a big play. That's a tone for the drive. Yes. Second and sixth, you know, you're, you know, you need a play and you hit that play to get that. That's a big play to me. So, it could either be a big statistical play or a big moment play. Gotcha. When I think of it, it's both. It's statistically, it's, it's, you know, it is what it is. Actually, for me, it's actually anything 25 yards or more in the pass game or 15 yards or more in the run game. Okay. We use the 20 yards or more in the pass game. And if you use 20 and 15, Notre Dame had five, Texas A&M had zero. Right. I mean, statistically. And I was actually a little surprised to hear that number after watching the game. But as I look back, I was like, okay, yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. But. Light it. 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. Watch triple option on YouTube or listen on Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping Kroger for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouthwatering meals. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week. And up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with points, so you can get big flavors and big savings Kroger fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply. Yeah, so they had the boat columns play in the past games are only one of the past game right. I believe so. Sean's the one to tally everything up. So I don't have it because you had, you had, you had a 21 yard run by. Well, yeah, because you had the 18. You had three. Here's the funny thing. Three of them came on the last game. Correct. Like real drive of the game. Yes. And then you had the one run by Jeremiah Love. So that's four. What would the other one be trying to find the other one here. On the touchdown run, duh. Okay, right. Yeah. Yeah, it's two touchbound runs. Yeah. Yeah. So my answer to that they do that Vince is in the past game. No, they didn't do a very good job. And I think there was opportunities there. Right. And. You know, let me just do I want to get into this now. Let me grab my notes for the next segment. I'll wait till the next segment to get into my thoughts on whether they were what I thought of them not being more aggressive in the past game. The reality is they didn't try to generate a lot more big plays in the past game. They were trying to gash, am with the run game. And like, and I'll get into some specifics here again in the next segment, but run game wise. This is a plus. And ultimately, I said before the game, you're going to get four or five chances for big plays in this game. You got to hit them. And then it thought it'd be three or four in the past game then maybe a big runner two. It was flipped. And they got the four or five big plays and it was, I mean, and so like, was this a key to victory? Absolutely. Oh my gosh, your offense is struggling to do anything. You haven't really moved the ball all that well all game. And all of a sudden just like that with your offense sputtering a little bit. And you get off a 29 yard run, you know, and it kind of sparks you a little bit, right? And then you come out in the second half. And possession to the second half and you're starting to get a little bit going, right? You get a 15 yard 16 yard game in the past play, which to me was a big play not statistically but moment wise. What does that drive do. And you go hit it. And, you know, again, I'll break down here in the next segment, some of the things that I really liked about how they got there. But the point is, is those big play started to have an effect in the second half. And you were able to do things schematically to generate those big plays. And then the execution was there. And that's really what broke A&M's back. And again, three of them came on that last go ahead drive. But I think leaning on them all game and doing things all game is partly what opened up that opportunity for them because in the fourth quarter's game. Your offensive line was still going strong and they were starting to wear out of down a little bit. Oh yeah. And that's partly what sparked them. They were bullied in the four, like in the, especially in that last drive, but the fourth quarter specifically, Notre Dame kind of bullied Texas A&M. I mean, they, they were the team that was more physical. At the end, I mean, you just, you look at that last touchdown drive and what Notre Dame was able to do, even from a play calling standpoint. I mean, quarterback runs, and, you know, two big pass plays, and then three more runs. And what was, hey, we're going to just kick your butt. 85 yards down the field and hold on to the ball for four and a half minutes, and put together the longest drive of the game to put this one away. And there's nothing you can do about it. You know what I mean? And so, all of those mistakes, they were absolute mistakes and they're all things that need to be cleaned up. There's no doubt about it. They mattered. They did it. You know what I mean? And so those, those, and like you said, three out of the four, three out of five big plays were in that drive. And so that, and that's when it mattered. So I just, I just love that drive. I've gone, but also what really sparked Notre Dame in that game. So 47 yard touchdown run. Oh yeah, but truly because now A&M was kind of playing catch up all game. Yes. So they had to slip back and throw the ball and Notre Dame could then defensively pin their ears back and come get it and just do some different things on the defensive side of the ball. And it was just, yeah, it was great. Let's flip it over to the defense, Brian, and let's go over some of these keys to victory defensively. Here we go. First one, dominate the line of scrimmage. I don't think they dominated. They get like a, so you, so for me it's, you can either do a plus a check or a, a plus is like you would got that one and you nailed it like a check is okay you did your job there. And then a minus as you did next. They did not dominate up front. And honestly, that's what's even more impressive about this performance is the D line didn't play poorly at all. They just didn't play great. They did their job and they did it hard. And, you know, there were some areas where, you know, you missed Gabriel in this game. Sure, because Donovan Highness is a good football player and he's, he's done a lot of good things from now. And we'll continue to do more good things from today, but this wasn't really his game. Right. This isn't a game where if you were healthy, you would have necessarily wanted Donovan Highness to do the things you were trying to do because what Notre Dame was trying to do in this game. I didn't like it at first because I wanted them to be more aggressive against him. And what I don't think is was, I did not think it's a very good Texanum offensive line author, and I'm so offensive line was a lot better in this game than I, than I thought we were going to be coming in. Completely agree. They use their size of their game. Right. But Notre Dame's game plan defensively Vince Vince was very much a, we are not going to looking at it from their standpoint we are not going to do things that are too aggressive that can potentially open up some. You know, bad fits by our linebacker equal big gains. And so there was a lot of playing gap assignment football. There was some two gapping going on with the D line, which they don't always do a ton of. And Jason Onier did that well, Howard Cross handled that well, Riley Mills handled that well Donovan, not quite as much and that's when you started to see them have a little bit of success. Some of the edge players handled that pretty well. Others didn't. And, and so overall I didn't think that the D line played good football in this game. Good football and they made some big plays and some clutch moments I mean, there was a play where A&M's trying to put a last drive together. And one, I think it was the drive after Notre Dame took the lead, or maybe it was a drive before, where they punted and then took the lead. They tried to run an outside zone on Notre Dame and it had been working for them relatively well to get some good chunk yards, and George Pozzello got held like a dog on that play, but he thought he, he would not let them reach him. He fought so hard to make sure he stayed outside and just wrote that he was being held Vince but he carried the tackle to the sideline and forced the running back out of bounds despite being held. Like, that's the play we've been dreaming of during the show. Yeah, we know we can make the flashy pass rushes but can he do the little things and I thought Jordan did a great job of that Marcus Freeman talked about that today. But it was stuff like that Vince we're like did they play great no but then Howard Cross has the big sack. Yeah, Asinone has a good power rush to get the quarterback on his heels. Buba Carr had a couple really good pressures to get in there. Burnham had a couple really flashy plays in the game so they did enough to where you could say they won the battle. There's no doubt they won the battle. They just didn't dominate it the way that I hoped that they would dominate or thought they could dominate. Part of that in fairness is, I think A&M is going to have a much better offensive line this year than we thought. Yeah, agreed. I thought they were pretty good in this game. Yeah, I was impressed. And I thought also the game plan was geared a little bit towards protecting the linebackers a little bit in this game as well Vince, where they're just not putting quite as much on the linebackers as they did last year so And that's fair though. I'm not. I'll give them a check. They did their job. They didn't dominate. Right. But doing their job in this game because, I mean, Al Golden said it last week, we said it. If you just play your game you're going to win. Right. You know, and A&M could do nothing defensively offensively. They had like a 18 yard pass play in the first half to their tight end. They beat a corner fire. Okay, good for you. And then they had that 14 yard run late in the game. Inside of that, like they did nothing. I mean, they had like no big plays, like 18 yards was their biggest play the game, Vince. I mean, and, you know, they didn't get a plus 10 yard rushing play until the fourth quarter. You know what I mean? Like, you look at their long plays of the game, they had four plays of more than 10 yards. That's it. You had a 10 yard, sorry, six plays. You had a 10 yard completion, an 11 yard completion, a 12 yard run, a 14 yard run, a 15 yard completion, and an 18 yard completion. That is it. That is it. Yep. So, yeah, they only had five plays of double digit. It was as simple as this. There are some things they did coaching was, but it was Notre Dame's players made a lot of mistakes, but they weren't the big mistakes. Drake Bowen did some things he's going to have to improve upon wasn't quite as aggressive hitting a hole sometimes kind of took on blocks a little bit more than he should have Kingston had a couple of plays like that. He knows we had a perimeter play like that. Jaylen's knee took a wrong angle to the football blew it up, but, you know, you know, yeah, but they weren't the big no blown coverages, no, you know, run fits that just open up gaping run holes, things like that. They avoided those big mistakes in the first game, Vince, which was surprisingly good, but I think part of that was by design that he wasn't going to, he wasn't going to put those same linebackers and maybe some of the same stress situations that he would. Moving forward, when they get a little bit more agreed, agreed. Next defensive key to the game and I'm very interested to see whether we're going minus checker plus here, be disciplined, don't get out leveraged or outnumbered. It's not a plus. It's not a minus. It's a check. They got out leveraged a few too many times, but it wasn't a consistent problem. It was a problem that crept up at times, but not, and I didn't actually, there was a couple times I noticed it live. I actually noticed it more on the rebound on the rewatch. And here's why it didn't, it didn't show up as much watching it live, is because they're so freaking fast on the second and third levels of the defense. Right. I think you and I talked about this before, so I don't think I said this in the show, but there was a play, for example, where they ran an outside zone and Notre Dame got caught in a slant, a twist. And that's not the play you want to run when you run against when you're running a twist. So Riley Mills got caught up in the trash patello crashes inside and Jaylin's need is just standing there Vince just standing there. And you're like this going to be a big play. And then Jaylin starts running and it turned into a three yard game. And just was like, you're completely out leveraged, you are running the exact wrong stunt again. Now when I say wrong stunt, that's not a crit. That's just how football is sometimes you don't know they're about to run outside zone Connor stallions wasn't at the game last I checked so you don't know what plays coming. You know, so it's just that that's part of the chess match right. And you're caught in the wrong stunt, like you're an offensive. If you run a twist at me running outside zone, I'm thinking I'm like, Jesus, thank you so much for having them called us play because we're about to ghost this sucker. And there was no corner help because they ran it to a, they ran it to a tight inside, I believe, with no receiver. And Jaylin's need just shoots out like a cannon and stops it after three yards. And there's another play where I'm like, they ran a play where I thought they were about to crease it. And then Rod Heard comes out of nowhere and just blows it up. And I'm like, God, this team is so freaking fast at the football. Now, not just fast and speed, because I don't know that Rod Heard's a burner. Jaylin's needs really fast, but it was also like, like a Don Schuller's not a four four guy. He's got good speed. He's not a four four guy. But they just knew where to go. They just like, this is my key. So you may think, Oh, there's a hole there, but no, there's not a hole there because that's the safety's job. The safety's got to come down. And he's responsible for that play. Because you've you've forced a bounce. It was an inside zone that they bounce something and that cut back is there. But no, they got a safety flying downhill to take care of that. And Rod Heard blows it up. There was a play where Xavier Watts was playing deep middle. And they ran a crossing route, Vince. And he was at the guy by the time he got to the line scratch. And there's like this. And yes, Xavier's fast, but it just was they were so on top of it. Right. That you're just like good Lord. You can tell you can tell fast here and then physically fast. And that allowed them to overcome some of that. But it wasn't an often thing. Now they were disciplined in an execution standpoint. Their lack of discipline. We're not thought about giving the minus was the penalties. Right. You know what I mean? Yep. So sure to who that was the thing is where I kind of want to give them. So check for post snap discipline minus for pre snap discipline because of the leverage things and, you know, and then some of the penalties. Right. That happened pre snap in my opinion. So wasn't as great as I hoped, but also not bad. The next offensive, the next defensive key. When I first read it, I thought this is going to be a negative because of what you just talked about in the penalties and stuff. Right. Because it's labeled no cheap yards. Right. I was like, well, they gave up some cheap yards with some penalties. Yeah. But I mean, I don't think that's the way that you were going. Well, no, I mean, it does to a degree. Yeah. It can be like, so like if it's third and two and you jump off sides or you hold, that's the first down. That's cheap yards. Yeah. What what so it's part of it. I mean, that's always going to happen to a degree. You got to limit it. Right. And they definitely limited it. Especially after the first couple of drives, you had the passenger parents on drive to and. Yeah, this is off size, but the other part of it is just don't give up big plays because you weren't disciplined. You know, you give up a big plan or reverse because you didn't read it correctly. They ran a jet sweep. And. It was a play that Jaylen's need blew it up. But then Jaylen took kind of a bad angle and he holds the guys, but that even if Jaylen doesn't completely wiffs on the guy, he forced got about Kingston was right there. Kingston read it perfectly. They tried to run action away to suck the linebackers in and it didn't work at all. Light linebackers read their keys perfectly because one of the things I said was, you've got to read your keys. Don't fall for all the action that they're going to do. And they didn't. So there's a play where like everyone's running this way except one guy who's coming this way and Xavier Watts is just screaming down him with that one guy that was moving away from everybody else. It's like, because he didn't care what anybody else was doing. That's not my key. My key's that guy. And I think from that standpoint, Vince, that's why they limited a lot of the, the, the potential big plays, the cut back that opens up. The linebackers had mistakes, but they didn't have any of the bad mistakes that can open up. I mean, that's, you talk that you're not talking about this. You know what I mean? The linebackers are going to make some plays, but you just got to hopefully you avoid some of those big plays you give up and they did that. They did that partly because they executed pretty decently. Second part of this because they're just way better than the guys that A&M has on offense. I mean, that, let's be honest, that's part of it too. It's better than you. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just better than you. And that's just kind of how it is. Right. They were really good at that. They were terrible at this two years ago. And last year, they were really good at it, but you have continued the red zone dominance. I mean, they weren't great in the red zone, but they, they, like late, obviously give up that touchdown. But the holding to that field goal early was huge. Like that was, that was a big moment. You need that one to me mattered more than giving up the touchdown late, to be completely honest with you. But look, A&M scored on both of their red zone tries, but only one of them turned into a touchdown. Right. Because the problem that they had two years ago Vince is not only did they give up scores in the red zone, but they gave up touchdowns in the red zone. Like, that's what was so, it's like, you'll see teams sometimes Vince that have a very low red zone, you know, ranking, just overall, but then their red zone touchdown rate is, is, you know, not bad. And, or, or a lot better. And so like, here's an example in 2022. Notre Dame ranked Notre Dame ranked 100 and 30th in red zone defense. Ohio State ranked 126th. When you go to red zone touchdown defense Ohio State ranked 74th, which is still bad, but not nearly as bad Notre Dame ranked 131st. So they're actually worse in red zone touchdown defense than they were in red zone defense overall. And they gave up 79% of the red zone scores the teams had were touchdowns. Last year Notre Dame finished third in red zone defense they held teams to 41.2%. They basically went 50% in this game. Last year 50% ranks you 19th in cons football. So is it elite? No. Is it pretty good against a pretty good team? Yeah. I mean, you know, yeah, I would have liked to see them make that stop and make them hold them that last one to a field goal. No, absolutely. Especially the game. They do great here. No, but I would say I'd rather flip it. I would rather not have flipped it where you had a touchdown earlier. And now you're hoping you got to hold them to a field goal. And not another touchdown late. You know, because now they're taking the lead on that last touchdown if they wouldn't stop them earlier. So, right. Not great. But, I mean, Vince, let's be real about this Notre Dame had a good game plan. This game really came down to Notre Dame's dudes are just way better in Texas and his dudes on that side of the ball. Yeah, a lot of that. I mean, it doesn't mean the coaches didn't do a great job. They did. But there's a lot you can do as a coach when I just know my dudes are better. It makes things a lot easier as a coach as a coach. That's going to do it for this segment of the show where we kind of look back at the keys to victory or keys to success. Make sure you hit that like button that subscribe button that notification bell share with your family and friends really appreciate that. And of course, jump on the boards boards out Irish break down. That's where you want to be, because there's going to be even more material on there tomorrow. So you're just going to have to wait and see. So we're going to break it and break it down. It's going to be, it's going to be awesome. So, boards out Irish break down. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
