This team has the least experienced OL of any ND team in memory. Their stats looked pretty good against TAM because Leonard bailed them out repeatedly with his legs, and our running backs broke off two great runs. But the line is a major weakness right now, and we knew there would be significant growing pains, and yesterday was definitely painful. The question was always whether the defense could carry this team while the offense SLOWLY developed. That’s still the question.
If Greathouse catches the perfectly thrown homerun ball, we win yesterday and we would be talking about escaping a perfect trap game, etc…. But he didn’t and we aren’t.
Three observations about Leonard that concerns me. First, we moved the ball perfectly on our first TD drive with Leonard using his legs as a designed weapon, and yet we hardly saw this the rest of the game. Did Leonard get hurt or did Denbrock decide it was too risky? Secondly, I can’t recall a ND qb throwing the ball so poorly on so many passes. Some misses were clearly on the qb and receiver not being on the same page, and we don’t if these were qb mistakes or receiver mistakes. But, we do know Leonard missed so badly on several passes that neither the target or his defender had a chance at catching the errant throw. Thirdly, how the hell does any college qb underthrow his receiver streaking downfield by at least ten yards, and at the games most critical moment? Inexcusable and inexplicable unless Leonard is hurt and we don’t know it.
Going forward, we have to get much better play at the qb position, and this has to account for an OL that will continue to experience growing pains, and allow pressure on the qb in passing situations. My gut tells me each of Angeli and Minchey and Carr is a better passer than Leonard, but is any one of these mobile enough and strong enough and composed enough to thrive while our OL SLOWLY comes of age? It’s up to Denbrock to answer this and make his case to Freeman.
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