Thought ND played pretty well in the first half. D was really solid. The game wasn’t too big for Buchner or Freeman. Ohio St took over the line scrimmage towards the end of the 3rd quarter. What stood out to me talent wise was Chris Tyree and Braden Lenzy had the speed to compete with Ohio St . Likewise I thought Joseph stood out. ND has to recruit 2/3 offensive playmakers like Tyree every year. No moral victories and 10-2 or 9-3 is OK in year 1.
Line of scrimmage
- Thread starter edub72
- Start date
Our line communication sucked likrme always in big games
The stats speak for themselves
Winning the LOS was the key to the game. As soon as OSU took over the LOS, ND had a tough time. OSU had better playmakers and the ND game plan was conservative.
Josh Lugg by far had the worst night of any player on the team.
When they were running through the Michael Hall jr highlights at the end of the game, half of the plays on the highlight Lugg didn’t event try blocking him or anyone else for that matter. The other plays he was just blown completely off the ball. Lugg gave up at minimum 4 drive killing plays to hall alone.
When they were running through the Michael Hall jr highlights at the end of the game, half of the plays on the highlight Lugg didn’t event try blocking him or anyone else for that matter. The other plays he was just blown completely off the ball. Lugg gave up at minimum 4 drive killing plays to hall alone.
Actually, I believe the key to the outcome was the OSU depth. Go back and look at their rotation - especially on defense - throughout the game. They must have played at least a dozen DL. That will wear on any other team.
As for playmakers, they were basically with 2 of their top 3 WRs - starter Julian Fleming did not play because of injury and that Jaxon Smith Njigba (sp?) left early and did not return. The kid that caught that 1st TD pass was a former walk - on which is almost unheard of on that roster. Again, DEPTH
Seemed like Zeke got blown off the ball which will happen against 5* type competitio, where Lugg was blowing assignments left and right and getting blown off the ball.
Both had long night
There was a communication error between Zeke and Lugg. Not sure whose fault it was but they were both blocking and leaving the gap open. That should be on the center, but it appeared lugg was pointing out some defensive coverages as well.
Blake Fisher didn't do well on switches either. Buchner was pressured or sacked twice because OSU ran a stunt and Blake switched to the wrong guy.
Noise could have been an issue there as well as just not playing together much
The worst part of the oline was zero punch.
I am not and have never been a Zeke fan but I wonder if the longer jpatt is out if he doesn't go back to center and let kristofic and Rocco rotate in more at guards if nothing else because they are the future.
You told us how great Lugg has been. He looked below average at best
Not having Patterson hurt like I said it would. Kristofic was fine. But we could use Patterson to replace Zeke or Lugg. Having that leadership and an all american would have been nice in game 1 in that environment
Bro get over it. Patterson lasted one play at guard.
Oline isn't an individual position. There is no argument that Patterson probably should have stayed at center.
Lugg didn't look great but most of those were because Zeke or Blake didn't know who to take on stunts. That was a big issue with Zeke all last year. That huge hole on the right was due to assignment mistakes not an individual not playing well once engaged
But then again he's hurt every off-season so they can't practice together.
Agree that Ohio State had stronger control of the line of scrimmage during much of the game, but thought the play of Stroud and his receivers was the most significant difference. Can recall at least 2 times when he was under pressure but was helped out by a receiver coming back and making the reception. Helped them keep drives going.
QB experience often makes a significant impact.
QB experience often makes a significant impact.
Not sure it was experience as much as ability…. Our weakness is clearly IOL yet we never rolled Buchner out and gave him run pass options … so confusing
With that said Buchner missed Thomas wide open for td right infront or him when corner fell and over and overthrew styles for potential long td
On the infamous 3rd and 18 QB draw, if Lugg had held his 1-on-1 block for half a second Buchner would have picked up enough yardage to let us go for it on 4th.
That's why I was getting pissed and thought to myself that will be fixed by week 3 and Patterson will be back by then.
Good points but give the ND defensive staff a ton of credit because if you read OSU's Eleven Warriors site, the OSU coaching staff admitted that the ND defensive plan frustrated Stroud as ND was dropping the safeties and were determined not to get beat deep.
At that point, OSU just reverted to pounding it on the ground (with an occasional short pass) in the late 3rd and 4th quarters and by that time the ND lines were exhausted as the official OSU site listed a rotation of 10 DL and either 7 or 8 (not sure) OL during the game. That team is very deep.
My point is that the ND staff really called an excellent game and went toe-to-toe with OSU until their depth took over late
