Get a FREE 30-day trial using promo code BGI30

On paper the matchup of the Notre Dame offensive line against the Ball State front seemed like a mismatch, but that is not how things played out during the 24-16 win for the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame struggled to establish dominance up front, and the miscues helped stall the Irish offense.

This breakdown will begin with the grades and statistics for the Irish blockers from the game:

There were a number of issues for the Irish line against the Cardinals, who racked up four sacks and a total of ten tackles for loss. Notre Dame’s line had communication issues throughout the game, which created free runners at time and in other instances allowed defenders to come free late.

Here’s an example:

Including the running back, Notre Dame had six blockers to account for four Ball State pass rushers, so picking up this line stunt should have been easy. Right guard Tommy Kraemer and right tackle Robert Hainsey should be working together on the this protection.

The defensive end slanted into the B Gap (the space between the right tackle and right guard) and the linebacker came on a delayed blitz to the outside. Hainsey stepped down when he sees the end crash the B Gap and then worked back out to pick up the blitzer. He expected Kraemer to work out and help in the B Gap but Kraemer stayed locked into the A Gap (the space between the right guard and center).

Hainsey got caught in no-man’s land and two rushers end up coming free, forcing quarterback Brandon Wimbush out of the pocket.

Notre Dame had far too many snaps like this against Ball State, which partially explains the negatives and struggle to run the football. This many combination mistakes makes it seem that the Irish blockers were not prepared for what Ball State did to attack the run game.

Of course there were some snaps where individual players got beat, but those two issues were not the only reason for the struggles in the run game.

There were some obvious miscues in regards to who should be blocking who in the run game. Part of that issue was schematic and part of the issue had to do with the players being prepared to know how to react to the different looks and pressures that Ball State brought in the game.

Notre Dame is running its G Scheme on this particular play, which incorporates both down blocks and pull/kick out blocks depending on how the defense lined up. On the above clip Notre Dame clearly has some mix ups about who should be blocking who.

Based on how Ball State is lined up, left tackle Liam Eichenberg should have blocked down on the end, which would have allowed center Sam Mustipher to kick out the edge player that Eichenberg actually blocked. That combination would have allowed tight end Cole Kmet to work up to the linebacker. If executed correctly Notre Dame actually has Ball State lined up in a look it should have exploited for a potential big play.

The good news for the Irish is that mistakes like this can and should be corrected in relatively short order. They aren’t talent mistakes, they are assignment mistakes, which are usually the easiest things to correct with good coaching.

There were a few schemes that Notre Dame ran that didn’t seem to work all that well based on how Ball State attacked the offense.

Notre Dame is running what seemed to be a counter variation on this clip, with call side (right) blockers down blocking and the backside blockers (left) working around to the call side (right). Based on the scheme, the play calls for Mustipher to back block to his left in order to secure the gap that the pulling blockers (Bars, Eichenberg) are vacating.

Ball State has a player lined up over Mustipher and another lined up Eichenberg’s inside shoulder. The distance between Mustipher and the wide edge defender is too great for him to block back and prevent that defender from blowing up the play. Even though Mustipher gets a body on the blocker, he is able to quickly penetrate and knock Eichenberg back before he pulls, which blows up the timing of the play.

Getting beat off the ball was an all too common theme in this game, and this more than any other issue was the most troubling aspect of the game for the Irish line.

Not all the run game issues were on the offensive line. There were some missed reads by the backs, but the bigger issue outside of the line was the performance of the Notre Dame tight ends in the run game. The tight ends graded out at just 72.5 percent in the run game, a number that must be improved if the ground game is going to fully get back on track.

Notre Dame is running a its Lock Zone concept on this play and the linemen get a body on a body, and they get a good push on the right side of the line, which is where the play is meant to cut back to. The back gets through the line but tight end Nic Weishar is unable to seal the backside, which allowed the end to squeeze down on the run and stopping it for a short gain.

There were some good moments in the game that the line can build around moving forward. One of them was a 42-yard gain by Jafar Armstrong on the second play of the game, and another was the 31-yard touchdown run by Tony Jones Jr.

Notre Dame is running a variation of its zone scheme, and the line gets a body on a body and gets very good movement. Bars and Mustipher get strong base blocks on the left side, and Kraemer dominated the nose tackle, which opens up the hole. Jones does the rest of the work.

This is also part of the chess match. Offensive coordinator Chip Long catches Ball State in a slant away from the run, which sets the blocking scheme up perfectly.

Fifth-year senior Alex Bars continued his strong start to the 2018 season, grading out as Notre Dame’s top blocker for the second straight game. Bars was not quite as dominant as he was against Michigan, but he was assignment sound in the run game and handled himself well in the pass game.

Bars allowed a defender to get free late for a sack, but outside of that Bars won the vast majority of his one-on-one matchups. His minuses in this game were usually in situations where there seemed to be some miscommunication, and the result was Bars not getting to his man in enough time to make the block to the level it was needed.

The Irish captain was by far Notre Dame’s more effective run blocker, grading out at 94.1 percent in the game. He got a good push off the ball, but more important he stayed locked onto defenders and was assignment correct.

Bars finished the game with a 91.4 percent assignment grade.

Junior left tackle Liam Eichenberg graded out as Notre Dame’s second best blocker, and there were moments when he was quite good in this game. The issue for Eichenberg remains consistency, and when he misses it tends to be a bad miss. But when Eichenberg came off with confidence he got strong movement in the run game. When he flashes there is no doubt that he’s Notre Dame’s most punishing player.

You can see an example here:

Eichenberg made this touchdown far easier than it should have been, blowing the defensive tackle off the ball and inside, opening up an easy run lane for the back. He had a similarly effective block on Notre Dame’s first touchdown run. When Eichenberg kept his base and drove his feet he hammered defenders off the ball.

There needs to be some nuance with Eichenberg’s grade. My grades for linemen have to do with being assignment correct. They do not take into account whether or not a player uses the necessary technique to maximize his blocking potential on a particular play.

For Eichenberg, there were a number of snaps – especially in the pass game – where he was able to use his talent, athleticism and length to make the block and be assignment correct. The issue for the junior tackle is that Eichenberg didn’t always dominate the way he should because of lapses in technique.

Eichenberg gets a check for this play because he makes the block and keeps the edge rusher from impacting the quarterback. The problem for him on this clip was that Eichenberg narrowed his base when he got into his pass set, which caused him to play too high and sapped the power out of his base.

His technique was sloppy far too many times in this game, which must be cleaned up. Eichenberg graded out as Notre Dame’s best run blocker against Michigan and its second best run blocker against Ball State, which is incredibly impressive when you consider his lapses in technique. If he can clean up his technique he will be a true force in the lineup. It will also allow him to finish better, something he did not always do against Ball State.

Eichenberg led the Irish in knockdowns and graded out at 85.7 percent in the game.

Fifth-year senior center Sam Mustipher had a rough game against Ball State. He led the offense in pass blocking grade (91.7%), but even though he was often assignment correct the captain did not dominate in the pass game. Mustipher did a solid job keeping defenders at the line at times, but he also got knocked back a bit more than I would like and a few of his pass snaps could have easily been marked as a minus if I wanted to really be critical.

Where Mustipher struggled was in the run game, which was very surprising. He had a tough time getting around on combo blocks, he got knocked off the ball too much and there were way too many snaps where a player with his experience looked uncertain of what he was supposed to do.

Mustipher graded out with 11 minuses in the run game and a 67.6 percent grade on run plays. That is an abysmal number for any player, especially someone with Mustipher’s talent and experience. The communication issues affected Mustipher more than any other Irish blocker.

Mustipher graded out at 80.0 percent in the game.

Junior right guard Tommy Kraemer had a very average performance against the Cardinals. Kraemer graded out with a total of 18 minuses on 70 snaps, getting 10 minuses in the pass game and eight in the run game. He was responsible for giving up four hits on Wimbush, including losing a defender late on a play in which Wimbush threw a pick after the ball floated when a defender Kraemer was blocking got on him.

Kraemer has to clean up his footwork in a big way.

When he keeps his pads low, keeps his base and works his feet through contact the Cincinnati native is really good. We saw a few clips of that in this game, but far too often he wasn’t able to use proper footwork, and the result was him not getting the movement he should have.

You can see it in the above clip. Kraemer gets a poor drop with his inside foot, he comes off too high and he doesn’t drive his hands, hips and feet into the defender. The result is the defensive tackle beating Kraemer inside, getting movement towards the ball and closing up the run lane. Kraemer must clean up his footwork and also work on keeping his eyes locked onto the right things.

Kraemer finished the game with an overall grade of 74.3 percent, the lowest of the Irish blockers.

For the second straight game, sophomore right tackle Robert Hainsey did not play anywhere close to his full potential. After a strong freshman season, it was expected that Hainsey would become one of the team’s top blockers this season, but through two games he has not played good enough.

Hainsey had some footwork issues on the edge in the pass game and he took a few too many bad angles on down blocks in the run game. Hainsey and Kraemer did not work well together on combo blocks or when facing line stunts/twists and blitzes. An issue for Hainsey is that he just isn’t playing with the footwork or confidence we saw a season ago.

The sophomore graded out at 77.1 percent in the game, with a 77.8 percent grade in the pass game and a 76.5 percent grade in the run game.

----

• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.

• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD, @BGI_DMcKinney and @BGI_CoreyBodden.

• Like us on Facebook.