It sure has been a fun, frustrating, satisfying season. I wanted to wait til after the Stanford game to voice my concerns about ND moving forward whether it be in the playoffs or a major bowl game.
1). Coan.... Man has he turned it around this year after the bye, been really pleased with his performances. But man is he a statue in the pocket with little to no sense of pocket awareness. Here's my concern and it two fold. The OL pass protection has improved greatly, to the point that ND has been able to take shots down the field on longer developing routes/passes. I feel like Coan/Rees are getting a little to comfortable with that and are starting to go away from the quick/up-tempo game that helped changed the offense momentum. I am afraid that they are relying to much on the protection when ND has been playing these worse teams and defenses on their schedule these last few weeks. Coan also got away with some passes that would have probably been picks/deflections if playing vs. better athletes.
2). 3rd Down- ND 3rd down conversion rate vs Stan was awful. It was a little disappointing to see, because Stan isn't a very good team and their 3rd down defense is awful as well with a 108th ranking. It's unacceptable to be 2-11 on 3rd downs vs one of the worse teams on 3rd down.
3). Movement in the run game. We all are aware how bad Stan has been in the run game. So it was pretty disappointing as well to see 4.9 rushing avg.
OBVIOUSLY if ND makes the playoffs those numbers have to improve. I hope ND can get back to tempo where Coan has to make quicker decisions but also helps with the run game as well. Playing a WF in a bowl game, I feel they can get away with how they played vs Stan, but a higher quality opponent is going to need a more efficient offense.
Thoughts???
1). Coan.... Man has he turned it around this year after the bye, been really pleased with his performances. But man is he a statue in the pocket with little to no sense of pocket awareness. Here's my concern and it two fold. The OL pass protection has improved greatly, to the point that ND has been able to take shots down the field on longer developing routes/passes. I feel like Coan/Rees are getting a little to comfortable with that and are starting to go away from the quick/up-tempo game that helped changed the offense momentum. I am afraid that they are relying to much on the protection when ND has been playing these worse teams and defenses on their schedule these last few weeks. Coan also got away with some passes that would have probably been picks/deflections if playing vs. better athletes.
2). 3rd Down- ND 3rd down conversion rate vs Stan was awful. It was a little disappointing to see, because Stan isn't a very good team and their 3rd down defense is awful as well with a 108th ranking. It's unacceptable to be 2-11 on 3rd downs vs one of the worse teams on 3rd down.
3). Movement in the run game. We all are aware how bad Stan has been in the run game. So it was pretty disappointing as well to see 4.9 rushing avg.
OBVIOUSLY if ND makes the playoffs those numbers have to improve. I hope ND can get back to tempo where Coan has to make quicker decisions but also helps with the run game as well. Playing a WF in a bowl game, I feel they can get away with how they played vs Stan, but a higher quality opponent is going to need a more efficient offense.
Thoughts???
