Notre Dame vs North Carolina: 3 Confidences & 3 Concerns
Nothing comes easy. That’s the lesson rookie Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman is learning the hard way this September. From a competitive loss versus Ohio State, to the starting quarterback going down in a no show effort at home against Marshall, to a less than inspiring but at-least-it’s-a-win versus Cal, Notre Dame has had to fight for every inch of progress made early on in the Freeman era.
What Notre Dame team shows up to face North Carolina? Nobody knows, including Notre Dame.
While this may be unnerving to the Irish faithful, the truth is this team is struggling to find itself, its identity. Both now, and what they want it to be in the future. While ND nation sits in “wait and see” mode Saturday in Chapel Hill, I do think there is now enough body of work from Notre Dame that we can identify some key confidences and concerns to ponder leading into the game.
Confidence 1: Defensive Line Comes Alive
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After a frustratingly quiet first two games, the defensive line came to life against Cal’s weak offensive front. Six sacks, eight tackles for loss, and a boatload of hurries were just what the doctor ordered. This trend of disruption needs to continue against North Carolina and there is plenty of reason to believe it will. Foskey, Cross, Lacey & the Ademilola twins feast.
Confidence 2: Offensive Line Improvement
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No, this unit isn’t anywhere close to being as dominant as Notre Dame fans had hoped upon with pope of line play [autotag]Harry Hiestand[/autotag]’s return to the program. However, the unit did eventually wear down Cal’s front last week and found some creases in the run game. A steady run game is Drew Pyne’s best friend. Given that North Carolina has struggled mightily against the run so far, the Irish should be able to have more success and build off of last week’s mild success.
Confidence 3: Secondary Play
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For all of the complaints about the play so far this year, secondary play would have to be lower on the list than many, myself included could’ve imagined. [autotag]Tariq Bracy[/autotag] is playing the best ball of his life and young players like Morrison are making an early impact. I expect that to continue vs the young North Carolina gunslinger and perhaps and interception is finally in the works this week as Notre Dame still awaits their first takeaway of the year.
Concern 1: Drew Pyne
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[autotag]Drew Pyne[/autotag] has been tasked with holding the weight of the world of Notre Dame football on his shoulders. He did enough to win last week but looked shaky at times especially early even in front of the friendly home crowd. How will he hold up in his first true road start?
Concern 2: Limited Passing Game
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Notre Dame was able to find some success in the short passing game last week that was much needed. That being said, the passing game needs to evolve into more medium to deep range success to keep defenses honest. Can the wide receivers finally start get open and can Pyne find them this week?
Concern 3: Linebacker Play
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Coming into the year, the linebacking group was thought to be a plus unit. It hasn’t played as such yet as they’ve regularly lost the perimeter, taken too many bad angles to count, been slow on blitzes, and offered plenty of bad tackling.
This group needs to steady itself this week vs a very active and potent offense.
Video Breakdown
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If you’re interested in hearing my discuss each of the sets of three more at-length then check out the Always Irish podcast on this exact topic. You can check it out in video form on YouTube, where you can also find live call-in shows four days most weeks (including Saturday mornings!). You can also follow all of my work and Notre Dame thoughts on Twitter @AlwaysIrishINC.
