Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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32 OCT. 2, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED What Worked Beating The Blitz: One of the keys for Notre Dame com- ing into the game was find- ing a way to handle Michigan State's aggressive and complex pressure package, especially as it relates to the linebackers. A season ago, the Spartans relentless attack made the Irish pass game highly inefficient. Junior quarterback DeShone Kizer completed just 54.1 per- cent of his passes, and the Irish ground game gained only 57 yards (2.3 per attempt). This season, however, the Irish offense was prepared for the pressures, and offensive coordinator Chip Long kept the Spartans' defense off bal- ance all game long. Coming out and pushing the tempo on the opening drive forced Michigan State to just line up and play, keeping it from moving around pre-snap like it wanted to. Notre Dame quickly went down the field, scoring on a seven-play, 78-yard drive. Michigan State had a pressure and a sack on back-to-back plays to stall the next drive, but Long started to put his receivers into motion, he kept at it with the play-action passes and he effectively sent five players out to slow down the blitz. The best example was the touch- down that put Notre Dame up 21-7 in the second quarter. Michigan State was bringing linebacker Chris Frey on an outside blitz to the side of Notre Dame running back Dexter Williams. Instead of keeping Williams in to block, Long called for him to run a wheel route. Frey was forced to stop his blitz and peel back to find Wil- liams, something he could not do. Ju- nior quarterback Brandon Wimbush rolled right and found Williams in the end zone to give the Irish a two- score lead. Pressuring The Quarterback Early: Michigan State redshirt sopho- more quarterback Brian Lewerke is a talented player, and had he gotten into an early rhythm it could have been a long night for the Irish de- fense. Lewerke finished the game 31-of-51 passing for 340 yards, but most of that production came after the Irish jumped out to a big lead. Notre Dame mixed up its pressures and coverages, and had Lewerke out of sync from the start. He completed his first three passes, but they totaled just 17 yards, and he didn't have time to look down the field. On Michigan State's first posses- sion, senior defensive end Jay Hayes tipped a Lewerke pass on second- and-six, and then sophomore corner- back Julian Love baited Lewerke on third down. As soon as the ball was released to the flat, Love jumped the pass, picked it off and ran it back 59 yards for a touchdown. A first-down sack of Lewerke on Michigan State's third series led to a punt, and a pressure by sophomore defensive end Julian Okwara on third down of the next series resulted in a Lewerke scramble. Senior line- backer Greer Martini drilled Lewerke near the sideline, forcing a fumble that Notre Dame recovered at the MSU 24-yard line. The Irish scored six plays later to make it 21-7. That third-down play showed an ef- fective adjustment made by de- fensive coordinator Mike Elko. In the first three games when opponents got to third down, Elko had an alignment of four down lineman, two linebackers and five defensive backs. Against Michigan State, a team with a mobile quarter- back, Elko kept senior defen- sive end Andrew Trumbetti off the field and inserted Mar- tini, which gave the Irish more speed and range on the field. It paid off in a big way on that third-down scramble and forced fumble. What Didn't Work Not Handling The Middle: Michigan State loves attacking the middle of the field with its pass game, and throughout the night the Spartans had far too much success in that zone. Too many times the Irish defenders allowed MSU re- ceivers to get an inside re- lease with slant routes or other quick moves, and it allowed Lewerke to complete quick hitters over the mid- dle to move the chains. Lewerke also found success later in the game with deep throws over the middle, which helped convert a pair of third-and-long plays (10 yards or more) in the first half. The end result was the Notre Dame defense allowing Michigan State to convert 11 of 19 third-down oppor- tunities (57.9 percent). None of Notre Dame's first three opponents reached the 30 percent mark on third down, which provides some context to Notre Dame's struggles on that down after Love's early third-down interception, which came on a throw to the outside. One area where Notre Dame did have success over the middle was with the deep throws. The Irish safe- ties did a very good job recognizing Michigan State's long downfield at- tempts, and every time they were in place to force incompletions. ✦ MSU Game: What Worked And What Didn't CLOSER LOOK BRYAN DRISKELL Bryan Driskell has been a football analyst for Blue & Gold Illustrated since April 2015. He can be reached at bdriskell@blueandgold.com. Notre Dame's front, led by sophomore Julian Okwara (42), kept Michigan State quarterback Brian Lewerke off balance all game. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA