Notre Dame Midterm Grades: Irish Offense Is Heating Up

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1:01Not a member? Join for free today. Exclusions, more terms and restrictions apply. Can't be combined with any other discount, including but not limited to contract and or special price. Loyalty programs subject to terms and conditions. Details at lowes.com slash terms. Subject to change. Brian, let's dive into the Notre Dame midterm grades on the offensive side of the ball here on the Irish breakdown podcast brought to you by our friends over at Fandall. Let me start off by saying this before we dive into the offense and the midterm grades. How crazy is it to say that the regular season's already halfway over? It is flown by. It really has. It feels like we were just doing preseason prep and different things like that like a couple weeks ago. Now we're half worth to the halfway point of the season. Yeah, it's a little weird.

2:02It's very weird. But that's kind of how football season goes though. You know what I mean? That's kind of how it is, man. It gets crazy. And once you start getting into it, man, it's like it goes. It really goes. Then of course the last month will be like after Miami will feel like it's just dragging out. That's also how it goes. That's well. Yep. 100%. 100%. But now it's time to what we wanted to do over the next two segments is now that Notre Dame has played six games. This is the part of the season that I love. You guys know me. I'm Mr. I got to see it. And well now I have six games of I have seen it. And so we're going to sit down and look at just how the offense is performed. And we're going to look at, you know, the good and what we really like. We want what we want to see moving forward. The reminder here, and I had to remind myself of this. And I think it's a friendly reminder for everybody listening is they still don't have to play the national championship in two weeks. Like the things that we're talking about. Yes, do they have to be fixed or the things have to be improved or do we need to see more

3:03of this more? Absolutely. January 25th is still quite a ways away. Selection Sunday is still quite a day, quite a ways away. So these are just improvements that we want to continue seeing. But Brian, I think some of the stats that I know you're getting ready to pull up here in a little bit. They're going to shed some light on where Notre Dame is really at and where they truly like. Because there's things that we want to see as fans based on the preconceived notions that we have about this team. You know, at this point in the season, we wanted Jaden Graydowce to have nine touchdowns and 500 receiving yards. And we wanted all four running backs to have 400 yards rushing. And you know, so there are things that they are doing and taking big steps in the right direction. But there are still some things that we need to see from this unit. That certainly is. And what I'll say with the offense, big picture is it's trending in the right direction. That's the key. Are you trending in the right direction? And I think that they are now now we find out if the improvement the last two weeks is because the offense is getting better or is the offense getting better because they didn't play very good teams. That's that's the answer that we know because I don't think we still know if the North

4:05Carolina game is who they are or if it was an anomaly because I watched that get the Stanford game. I broke it down again. And it's like, yeah, they did some really good things in that game, but Stanford also really sucks. They do. And you have to look at it and say, okay, this next stretch is when you truly are defined as a football team. But at the same time, it's like you don't want to see a team that's regressing and wildly inconsistent. I think we can agree that they've kind of gotten better every week and at least in some areas. And it's the funny thing is it's like, well, when you guys are saying you're somewhat, the offense has not been as good as I thought it should have been the first six games. And when I pull up the stats of the offense in a minute, you're going to be like, what are you talking about, dude? Like you're contradicting. No, because the standard, the question isn't, are they really good on offense? Because they are. The question is, are they playing to their potential? And are they playing championship caliber football? And then that's what I'm saying is they're heading in the right direction, but they're not there yet.

5:05And there's a lot of teams that aren't there yet. Not nobody's there yet, to be honest with you. Everybody's still working through things, but they're getting to that. They're starting to trend to that. And some of the statistics kind of when I typed them, I'm like, wow, that's, is that accurate? And it is. But so when, and when we pull up these stats and we'll do it now, just keep in mind, these stats are against FBS opponents only. I'm tired of looking at teams that have their stats padded in the first half of the season by playing Bethoum Cookman and Florida A&M and Youngstown State and teams like that. So this is rankings for against FBS opponents in FBS games only. And when you pull that up, you're like, okay, I think that maybe the, they've been a little better than maybe we give them credit for, not giving them credit for, but they're not, they're not struggling as much as maybe some of the perception might seem

6:08to be trev, but this is still a team that has work to do. But the foundation is still pretty strong. Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that I thoroughly enjoy about looking at national rankings is it does give you that perspective of where they rank. We talk about Notre Dame should be one of the best this in the country while looking at national rankings is a good gauge of that. It's very, very difficult sometimes to sit down and think about, what does it mean for Notre Dame to not be scoring X amount of points? Like I said before, as fans, we firmly believe that there are things the offense should look a certain type of way. And unfortunately, there are some games like the Michigan State game or what have you, that sometimes it doesn't look like that, which is frustrating. But when you compare it to other teams, I think it was during a show I think, Brian, when I was out, when Dom was first born, that you and Sean were talking about how it's a good gauge sometimes reminding ourselves where Notre Dame falls amongst the rest of

7:10the country. We as fans can get wrapped up a lot as how good are they compared to this national title team and how good are they compared to this national title team? One of the grand scheme of things, the only thing that really matters is how good are they compared to the rest of college football. And I think that's what these rankings show, man. I'm excited to dive into some of these. Yeah, me too, especially once stream yard actually starts letting me click or you have in trouble clicking on things right now on stream yard at the bottom. So, okay. All right, because it's for some reason it's not letting me click on things. So let me see if, let me see if I, here we go. I only got it to click. Here we go. All right, so this is where Notre Dame ranks statistically so far this season, Trevor. And this is kind of what we talked about. So this is where they rank nationally when you look at teams and just, again, FPS games only and you look at the points per game and okay, that 44 points per game, that's, that's a lot. Now, they've had some, some defensive touchdowns and special teams touchdowns.

8:13They've had three not offensive touchdowns so far this season, correct? I believe and they scored 20 points off of those because they had a missed extra point after one, I believe, right? So, you're still looking at a team that's averaging 40.7 points per game just on offense. They ranked 19th in the country in yards per game, 11th in yards per play and team rankings dot com as a great stat that the playoff committee, I believe, uses as part of their formula. And that's points per play. They ranked second and cod football and points per play, which is a really impressive statistic. You look at some of their other statistics. It's amazing to me that Notre Dame is now 29th in the country in rushing yards and they're 23rd in the country in yards per rushing attempt because two weeks ago at this very moment, they were like you think in almost 80th because we're getting right onto the North Carolina game. And to see what they've done in the last two games, one against a bad team and one against a pretty good team says a lot. You know, I mean, Notre Dame kind of skewed North Carolina is rush rushing production on

9:18the season with that performance. And so that's been not that they're like an elite rush defense, but they're good rush defense. And to see what they've done the last two weeks and you're like, man, that's the part of the team that was really holding them back. You know, but now they ranked, you know, six that are second and few as tackles for loss allowed per game. They have the six most most rushing touchdowns, a number that's a tad skewed because some teams have only played four or five games so far against power four teams. So the raw numbers aren't as impressive as like the per game numbers. But then passing wise, you know, they're 30th in the country in pat yards per game, but there's seventh in yards per attempt, fifth in touchdown passes, sixth in pass or rating and second and fewest, uh, sex allowed and they lead the country in turnovers. And that number is even more impressive because of what I just said because they actually have played six FPS games where some teams have only played four or five FPS games. And so when you look at a lot of things, Trevor, there's still plenty of areas for improvement. Notre Dame's 13th in the country in time of possession.

10:19By the way, if you're looking at this, you're watching it on the YouTube channel, the highlighted areas, obviously are areas where they rank in the top 10. That's a lot of yellow. Trevor. We're Notre Dame ranks in the top 10 nationally. Time of possession or 13th. And then there's some areas where they obviously have to get better. You know, the explosive numbers are not where they need to be. You know, third down offense needs to get better. Red zone offense needs to get better. All those things are factors into where there's plenty of room for improvement because that's the thing, Trevor, when you look at this offense, the one thing you'll see is, yeah, they're ranked pretty high in some of these areas. If they finish the season, ranked in these same areas, that's going to be really impressive because they're scheduled in my opinion, gets ramped up quite a bit, especially defensively. You know, BYU and Miami have, without a doubt, the two best defenses that Notre Dame's going to face all year. They have the four defenses. Notre Dame should do what they've been doing everybody else so far. So they're going to get tested and we're going to find out how truly good they are. But the foundation is, in my opinion.

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12:28Like this commercial break. Did you need 15 seconds away from music or 15 seconds to eat a recess? Perhaps it's true. Everything happens for a reason. Yeah, there are some numbers on here that I expected to look like the way that they did. And there are some other ones on here that I did not expect. It points for game against P4. I did not expect them to be number two in the country, but I think that's a very eye-opening. Points per play is very eye-opening. The ones that don't surprise me kind of back the hypothesis that we talked about the last over the last couple of weeks. Notre Dame does an exceptional job of limiting the negatives. We heard it about all off season. C.J. Carter is a great job of putting this off in spots to not have negative plays. And I think that's reflective in these. They don't turn the football over. They're number one in the country in total turnovers, fumbles lost, interceptions thrown. They're number two in the country. And tackles for loss allowed. They're number two in the country in sacks allowed. So exceptional job. But the explosives, and we'll get more into that later.

13:30That definitely has to continue improving. I was not expecting them to rank inside of 30 or above in most meaningful offensive categories against P4. This to your point, this should give a lot of hope to Notre Dame fans moving forward. Just because on the box score and on the stat sheet, this offense doesn't look like what we thought it was going to look like back in January. What it can. What it can. Exactly. Exactly. Doesn't mean that this offense is off to a bad start by any means. Now it's just about continuing to build on it through the final six games. As things ramp up a little bit. The things that I, when I, the aspect that I find most surprising Trevor, to be honest with you is when I look at this as how are they as good as they are when they're not super efficient and they're not great in situational football. Excuse me, they're not super explosive and they're not and they're not good in situational

14:31football. Yet they still rank in the top five and scoring top five in yards or points per play. They're 11th in yards per play. When you rank, you kind of look at long plays. They rank 76 in the country and gains of 20 yards or more. They're 14th in the country and past plays of 10 yards or more, which needs a bit of an asterisk because of the fact that they have played more games. If you look at the statistic, I'll pull it up right now. If you look at longest scrimmage plays, rank 30 yards or more, Notre Dame right now, despite playing more games in most people's 35th. Because there's a, let's see here, there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 13 teams ahead of them, the going played five games. There's several teams right behind them, five games against power four opponents or FPS opponents. They haven't been overly explosive and they're not great in situational football. They're solid but not great. Yet they're still second and scoring still second and points per play, still 11th in

15:34yards per play. That's because they've been super efficient in a lot of ways, so far the season trip. And say, hey, they got to get better on third down. There's no doubt they got to get better on third down. At the same time, they don't often get to a pound of third down opportunities, Trevor. I mean, they're, they're 107th in the country in third down snaps. Again, remember pointed out there, let's see here, how many teams they don't have it that way. I was going to see if it can sort by games. But as I pointed out, there's a lot of teams that have played fewer games against FPS opponents. So 107th, well, they're not great on third down, but they don't get into a lot of third down situations. And that's because they're a very efficient football team so far. That's going to have to be there in this second half of the season. They're going to need to continue that because so far they've done that against teams that honestly aren't great defenses outside of Wisconsin. They haven't played a lot of great defenses so far. Solid defense as a couple, Michigan State's defense was solid.

16:36They're a little banged up now. North Carolina has a soft quality defense, but Stanford doesn't, Rice doesn't, Purdue doesn't. So I'm very curious to see kind of how they do it as they, as the schedule ramps up, can those type of things continue? And can you improve in other areas? I think those are, those are things that I look at, Trevor, and say, hey, this is where I want them to get to. Final thoughts on the stats before we kind of go into the, the grades piece. Yeah, the one thing too that I want to put as a caveat is with the bulk of their schedule, getting bulk of difficult games coming from basically this Saturday to the end of the season. Also, don't be alarmed if some of the highlighted numbers are not as highly ranked as before because you also have the factor in the level of competition that they're facing. After playing BYU in Miami, I think the offensive stats should actually look pretty darn good against SMU, but after playing BYU in Miami, it would not shock me if they go from second to like fifth in points per game when we're talking averages because it will still average out between playing Navy and playing Boston College and playing SMU and playing

17:38C-RQs, but between those two teams, you know, it's not like the offense is taking a step back. Look at where they were at the midterm and I look where they are at the end of the year. No, they're not taking a step back. We have to evaluate everything that's on the table here. And quality of opponent is one of those things that feeds into these statistics. And so I don't want to, I just, I'm inserting that caveat now before we get to the buy week, before we get to the seventh game of the season that some of these are subject to change where I'm really going to be paying attention to are things like the explosives, where I'm really going to be paying attention to is like does yards per completion go from 27th to inside over around top 15? Does 20 yard runs go from 76 in the country to somewhere inside of the top 40 year 50? That's the, that's the improvements that I want to see. People should be get too hung up on, hey, they were second in points per play through the first six games and now they're sixths. Like, well, that's still pretty darn good considering they played BYU in Miami. So that's just one. You could, you could play great against those teams and average 30 31 points in those two

18:43games. And you know, it's in the same is true for Miami because who's in the competition for Notre Dame to be number one and two in these a lot of these categories is Miami because they have also not played a very, very challenging schedule so far. BYU's in the conversation. Their top 10 team and several categories, which we'll show in a little bit again have not played a very challenging schedule. So this is when you separate the men from the boys and coach football. That's what this final stretch is going to start that is going to do and we started to see that. You know, with, with some of these teams, you know, already, but this final six weeks is going to do that. Trevor, you pointed out last week like it's really from now to like November 7th is really when you know, we start to see that right. It's going to be very interesting. Well, Brian, we've taken a look at the stats. Now let's kind of dive into what are some of the things that we have liked that we've seen about this offense and you know, there's a bunch of different directions that we could go with this conversation. But I think first and foremost, we start with C.J.

19:45Car. Still one of the favorites on Fandall to win the high's metrophy this season. He's putting up great numbers over 1300 passing yard 16 passing touchdowns, only one intersection, three rushing touchdowns to go along with those 16 passing touchdowns. He has been over the course of the first six games as advertised and commanding and leading the offense like we thought that he was going to. What's funny is I agree with that completely trevve what's funny is I still don't think C.J. cars really hit his groove yet. And I'm trying to remember who said I think it might have been my friend Jason. I think might have been the one that said this to me and any and it's a great point and so I say this it wasn't an original thought by me. But when he said to me, I was like, wow, no, if I buy that and then you start thinking about it, you wonder like it's part of the issue of why if you think about C.J. cars had, I would argue his two worst games this year against the two worst defenses that they've played Purdue and Stanford. Yeah.

20:46And had two of his better games against two of the best teams they've played this year. Wisconsin and defense was constant in North Carolina. His point was I just think he's kind of like not bored, but like just not as locked in maybe trying to get other parts of the team going, you know, a little bit and then North Carolina, he's got to be good and he's really good. So I don't know if I buy that, but I'll take what we're going to have an answer to that to a degree this weekend against BYU. But even with that Trev, you know, C.J. car still ranks among, you know, the top in the country and several very important categories, including, it's okay. It was funny. I watched Danny Canal who just says really silly, silly things a lot. You know, it's like, I don't even, I don't know if he's just, you know, if it's like an, if it's an act or if he really is that dumb, I'm not sure which one it is.

21:47But either way, he like a week ago, he had top 10 quarterbacks in the country and he's like, well, C.J. car doesn't rank in the top 10 and and and you know, any key things. And I was like, well, what do you consider a key passing stack? Because he's in the top 10 in yards per attempt. He's in the top 10 in pass or rating. He's in the, he's in the top 10 in passing touchdowns. He's in the top 10 in QBR. I think he's like fourth in QBR. He's been really good so far. But they're going to need him to be that good and better in the final six games. Just the leadership he's shown, the poisey shown, the control of the offense that he's shown. And you hope that that gets better and better the more he's asked to carry the team the way that he is. You hope that that grows and builds. But you know, he's been, he's been really good for this team so far this year. And you talk about handing out grades. And I'd give C.J. probably an A minus for how he's performed this season. You know, there's, there's some misses like, you know, Stanford. You had the early go route to Micah Gilbert. He just locked in on Micah Gilbert. If he throws that ball to Jaden Greathouse, that's a big play.

22:49You know, there was another play later in the game where it's like, he just locked in on Jerome Betis. If he looks to the right, he's either got Milen Graham or he might have Jordan Fazon for a touchdown. Just some of those things that he can still get better at. But he's sitting here with what, 17 touchdown passes on the season. And he's actually, he's got 16. No grubs has seven. He's got a 16 to one touchdown to intercept, an episode ratio. He's averaging 9.6 yards per pass attempt, which is even better than what he did last year when he ranked. I think he was what fourth in the country last year and pass rating at 9.4. This year, he's at 9.6, you know, which if it, if that's what he is at the end of the year, it would, would it be better than anybody in coach football last year, just a little, you know, to kind of point it out. The Heismatrophy winner last year was at 9.1 yards per pass attempt. The Heismatrophy winner last year was at 182.91 in pass rating, which led the nation. CJ is currently at 186.49, which ranks some six in the country way behind like Darien Mensa

23:50and Josh Hoover and some, but those guys have played really bad past defenses so far. You know, but now it's like, okay, can you stay this, be this guy down the stretch? And the thing is we haven't really seen CJ have like that big game like he had against Arkansas, like he had against NC State. What we've seen from CJ this year is just steadiness, a lot of steadiness so far. And that's the thing is like, is are the big games about the happen or is that just kind of where the offense is this year? But the Stanford game was the first game he had this year with less than 100 yards or 200 yards passing, but then he went over 200 in total offense because he ran for over 41 yards. So what, what version of CJ are we going to see down the stretch? I don't know, but the one that we've seen so far is pretty darn good. And I don't know that I'd say CJ improving is the key to them winning a championship. I think the offensive line improving is key. But if CJ can take it to another level, that only raises the bar for what this offensive football team can be. I think the past catchers has also been a pleasant, not maybe pleasant surprise,

24:51but well, it has been pleasant. Maybe not a surprise this season. There were certain things about this group. We knew what we were going to see from Jordan phase on. If Jayden great house was going to stay healthy, there are two varying degrees. What we expected to see from Jayden great house. The coming out party for Mike Gilbert has been very promising, especially after the previous track records and previous off seasons. We'll talk a little bit more about what else we want to see, but in general, I think the past catchers has also been something that we've liked this year. They've shown that they can be a good unit, a reliable unit, a playmaking unit. I think they've done a pretty good job so far this season. I agree. I mean, I know they catch a lot of flak because sometimes people just look at stats and say, well, this is what a stats are. So he must be playing well or not well. I think the receivers that have gotten on the field have played well so far. Jordan phase on having a very good season so far. Mike Gilbert, when he's been good, he has been great. He's been good, but he's been flashy. He's had some flashy moments. Last couple games, not quite as good. Jayden great house is coming along him and CGR starting to connect a little bit

25:53more. Hopefully that only builds the other thing, guys. I just want to see a little bit more of him because when Elijah Burst has been in the game, he's looked pretty good when Jerome Betis has been in the game. He's looked pretty good. The one time Matt Jeffrey had a ball thrown to him. He looked pretty good. So I'd say expanded, but the past catchers have been good so far this year. They have. And now they've done that against some quality secondaries at times. I think North Carolina has a quality secondary. I think Wisconsin has a solid secondary this year. Now they need to really show that they can be that as the schedule ramps up because I would argue this is one of the two best secondaries you're going to face is going to be this upcoming Saturday against BYU. I think it's debatable between Miami and SMU. Or I'm excuse my Miami and BYU, but this group has played well so far. The blocking is coming along. I think Mike Gilbert has struggled as a run blocker if you look at for the entire entire entire season, but he's gotten better the last two weeks. Great house had a rough first game as a blocker. He's been good since then. Faizons always I mean he

26:57everybody has a miss here and there, but he's he's always good in in run blocking. That's a part of his game that doesn't get enough attention. And it's a part of his game. He clearly takes a lot of pride in, but I think so far the this group has been good. It's been good. Now can they do it in the final six games if they're still playing 60 snaps a game without any kind of rotation. Will they be able to be good in the fourth quarter against BYU if they're not playing a deeper rotation? We're going to find that out, but so far midterm. I like what I've seen from the Notre Dame wide receivers. Speaking of the Notre Dame run game and the run blocking, another thing that we've liked so far through these six games is this running back room. And it is what we thought it was going to be. They were very talented. When I mean it is what we thought it was going to be. We said in the offseason that yes, you don't have Jeremiah Love, Jardarium price anymore, but this is still a very, very talented room. And I think through the first six games, they've showcased that. It's funny to see what the perception of this group is now compared to what it was like, I don't know, two weeks ago. Yeah. And what I said at the time is it's not that the

27:59I don't want to act like, oh, the running backs were always playing this well. It's just the offensive line is the only problem. No, I mean, the running backs were had their own issues too, but they were playing a lot better than people were giving them credit for. A big part of it is when you have to, when you're forced into making quicker decisions because your offensive line's not doing the job, it's you are going to make more bad decisions. And as the line is done a better job, lo and behold, this running back room looks really good. Well, that's because you played Jonas Walton more. No, it's not because Nolan James Jr.'s average drove for seven yards to carry the last two games as well. And these Williams had their longest run against stand against North Carolina. He had the longest carry of the game. Not Nolan James, not, you know, not, not Jonas Walton. So as a group, they're playing better. That's a, that's a big key. As a group, they're playing a lot better. And they're starting to show what what we thought they could be. And I think in Neas Williams has also shown the last couple games,

29:01he's just better not as the starter. He's just better coming off the bench. I would argue the same thing about Jonas Walton. I think they need to stick with what they're doing as far as having Nolan James be the starter. The adjustment that I would say coming down the stretches, it's got to be Nolan and Jonas as your top two ball carries. And Neas needs to be your change of pace, your, your third down back, your situational back. And if you want to rotate somebody else in, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing more of JVN Osborne. But if we're just looking at the top three, I think it needs to be more of the large bulk of the carries need to go to two in 20. And then let 22 get some occasional carries like you did it. Get him back to being what he was in 2024 because as we saw on Saturday, that's where he's at his best. Just that all around player. He's not a, he's not a bulk guy compared to the other two for a lot of other teams. He's your top back. But for this team, that's just not where where his game is needed most right now. But at the end of the day, Trev, you look at that, that where they are statistically. And right now, if they all just repeat in the

30:06second half of the year, what they've done so far, Jonas will finish with 818 yards, which would be what's 18 short of breaking the freshman rushing record. Nolan James will be at 670 yards and 10 touchdowns. And the neus Williams will be at 598, no, 588 yards, 488 yards, no, 588 yards, and eight touchdowns. That's pretty good work. You know what I mean? That's pretty good work for those three kids. So keep it going. Keep doing what you're doing. The other thing that's improved with the running backs as well. I wholeheartedly agree about the offensive line. We're going to talk about them here in a second. I think the coaching staff, whether it's Mike Denbrock or Jay Wonsider, also getting better Joe Rudolph. They're all getting better of how to utilize them. Early in the season, it was let's just play all three and run mid zone and whoever does the best with mid zone is the hot hand for the game. And I think now they're doing a better job of, hey, let's get a neus out in the slot and get them in as a pass catcher. Let's run more counter with

31:07Nolan James. Let's use a little bit more zone with Jonas Walton because he is that guy that can crease a 97 yard house call in the shadow of your own goal post. So I think they're also doing a much better job of utilizing and playing into the strengths of these running backs as well. Not just let's run all of them with mid zone and whoever does the best is our hot hand for the weekend. Yeah, that's that's a piece of that too. Yeah, that's been good. As we said, I think there's still more work to be done there because I think it can be hard to have three backs just rotate in as like all equal pieces of the puzzle. That's that I don't love. I felt like you're also preventing Nolan James from getting into a rhythm because you see him on the first series and then we don't see Nolan again till the second quarter. And I don't know that that's the way to kind of get your backs into a groove. The one of the three is going to have to become a situational back. You just can't have it one a one b one c. I don't think you can do it that way. Not against the good teams. You know, and so we'll see if that can continue, but it's going to be a it's going to be an

32:10interesting finish to the season, but I think these backs are their role. And then, look, Jonas is the hot hand now, but Nolan's going to have a breakout period. We'll see a Nias with a big game, but yeah, ride two and 20. That needs to be your one a one b and then make a Nias your situational back and that's where he's really good. Whoever says saving money is hard doesn't know that new customers who bundle and save with progressive save hundreds because switching your hominato insurance is better than cutting down on the things you love, like those iced lattes that help you get ready to face the day. So, switch your hominato to progressive and see if you could save and keep sipping away. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive casualty insurance company affiliates another insurer is not available in all states. Hey, jumpstart your holiday savings with 10% cash back during Rakuten's big stack event. Stack 10% cash back on top of early holiday deals and

33:14maces, Durmstore, Lands-in and more. It's October 5th to 7th only, so join now at Rakuten.com or download the Rakuten app. That's RAKU T-E-N. They say everything happens for a reason, but I suspect everything happens for a Reese's like this commercial break. Did you need 15 seconds away from music or 15 seconds to eat a Reese's? Perhaps it's true. Everything happens for a Reese's. The final piece of that puzzle, Brian, is the offensive line. One thing that we do like is over the course of six games. The offensive line is getting there. Pat's protection has kind of always been there for this unit. I thought over the course of the season, they've done an exceptional job of past protection. The run game is also starting to come along. Run blocking is starting to come along. We like what we've seen from this unit. The one thing I will say about this offensive line is the only thing that I now question about this. I've never questioned their talent. I've never questioned if they're going to get better as the season goes along. My only remaining question

34:17for this unit is twofold. One, can you stay healthy? It's not like they have as much control of that as what we would like to think that they do. But the other question is, now will you just reach your ceiling? Will you reach your full potential this season? That's what we have. The final six games and then the post season to find out. But I had no doubt that this line at some point in this season was going to be a good unit. Joe Rudolph, the last couple of years has put together sporadically or for the course of a season like good units. Now the question is, can they reach their full potential? But through the first six games, Brian, we like what we've seen from the offensive line. They're getting there. The talent was never the question. It's nice to see that they're finally getting the reps together to be able to play to their ability. Imagine that. Imagine that. But to your point, Trev, if they can keep playing this way the rest of the year, that's the key to being a championship football team. I actually think they're capable of being

35:19a lot better. And we had this question. We were talking about the upon further review. I think they can be even better than they've been. But if they just do the rest of the year, what they've done the last two weeks, their name's going to be pretty good on offense because of the talent running back the town at quarterback, the town at receiver and things like that. But if they can, if they can peak down the stretch, that's going to make this offense really difficult to stop, really difficult to stop. And it will go find out if they're capable of doing that Saturday night. And you tall, that's going to tell us like, I think I got to go out and run for 250 yards, but you got to do like what you did against pit last year. You know, where you just outplay them in the trenches and then let your backs do what they need to do, let your quarterback do what they need to do. That's going to be the key for me, Trev. Let's kind of dive into the flip side of the coin. What we want to see moving forward from this unit, obviously, they're continued growth. But we're talking specifics. And one of the things that we want to start, and you mentioned it when we were going over the stats is improve situational football. That is going to be key for this team, getting better on

36:23third down, getting better on fourth down, continuing to improve in the red zone, getting more creative down in the red zone, all of those things situationally. And it's even more big picture than that. You brought it up last week, Brian, about being better at the start of a half, being better and more consistent at the start of a game or capitalizing off of turnovers more. They've done a pretty good job of it, but it's continued improvement in all of those situational areas. That's the number one thing that we want to see moving forward in these final six games. If they can be a better third down on and be better at putting red zone opportunities in the end zone, be a little bit better at, you know, in the middle eight, that type of stuff, then this team becomes really, really dangerous. Yeah, very dangerous, but, you know, I'm, of course, the best way to be good on third down is not to get there. So I mean, keep doing that. We're going to be all right, but that won't, that won't be the case in every game down the stretch between BYU, between Miami. I mean, heck, BC's got a little bit of a salty defense. You know, they've gotten better on defense. We saw that last year, it's no

37:26rain, but between those two teams, the two top teams left on your schedule, maybe SMU to a degree, they're going to force you to get into some third downs. How do you handle those situations? Can you be effective in those situations? We're going to find that out, Trev, but if they can improve in situational football, that's going to help. I also think expanding the depth chart is going to help. We talked about this on Sunday and they upon further review with Vince. With the last couple, you know, what the few games we've seen this year have shown us and what Saturday showed us is with all due respect, with the exception of Jonas Walton, who you didn't really do a whole lot with until the last two games, your most explosive playmakers are all sitting on the sidelines outside of Jordan Faeson for most of the game, if not all the game. I mean, Elijah Burris, Bubba Frazier, Raiden Robinson, Jonas Walton, Javien Osborne, Ian Primer, and two a degree, Jack Larson are your best playmakers, especially in the past game. And so, yeah, you're not going to have a super explosive offense when your most explosive

38:27athletes are all sitting on the sidelines. And so finding some way to get them going would be nice. I'm not saying like, oh, Jordan Faeson's not your guy anymore. Jaden Graydowski and Mylon Graham shouldn't play Mike. No, it's like instead of giving Jordan Faeson 65 snaps, maybe he only plays 55 snaps and you give him a breather from time to time. And you let Elijah Burris get some of those reps outside or maybe you put Mylon Graham outside a little bit, but you put Jaden Graydhouse outside and put Bubba Frazier inside to give Jordan Faeson a little bit of a breather. You know, maybe you put one of those guys, you know, Elijah Burris complaining the boundary as well. So he gets maybe five snaps, you know, to this field, he gets five to seven snaps into the boundary or now he's got 10, 12, 15 snaps in a game and he's getting some opportunities to make some plays. So look, there's a way to do it. I've done it. Other teams do it when you have the depth that you have a receiver, you're just you're missing out on the opportunity to build that

39:29and develop that. And I just I think this offense can can be a far more a far more dynamic group if they're just more willing to play more guys to be honest with you. And I just I want to see them do that. We'll see them do that. This is a huge aspect of what I want to see moving forward for all the reasons that you touched on. One, yes, we talk a lot about, you know, bulk of the schedule coming up. I also don't want to paint this picture that from now until the after Thanksgiving, they play BYU Miami, Bama, Georgia, Ohio State. It's you have BYU Miami. We'll see what test says and you brings it down, but then you have three other games where I don't want to see Jordan phase on play over 60 snaps. It's even 95 to 900% of the snaps until the starters are yanked. You know what I mean? Like against BYU, play whoever you need to play to win the game. No doubt. It's my amy play who you need to play to win the game. But I would also also argue that especially against BYU, it might be the most important game to get a rotation going because you are

40:30going to altitude. So we'll see if they do that. But you know, like, look, I'm sorry. Like when I watch just Cooper Flanagan just not running hard down on a clear route and throws off the timing of that whole play. Fortunately, it worked for touchdown. But let's be real. That touchdown pass to Elijah Burst is not a touchdown pass against Miami or BYU. It's an inner and completion or a pick. You know, I'm sorry. Yeah, I know you're a great blocker, but you got to you got to figure out a way to either use those tight ends with what they do well. Or maybe it's time when you go 12 personnel occasionally maybe have James Flanagan as your lead blocker and Ian Primer in there. Or maybe you have, you know, Cooper Flanagan in there and Ian Primer in there or Jack Larson in there. I mean, Jack kind of, I think wasn't I keep I keep getting this one wrong. There was one play where Jack was in the game for one of the touchdowns. And I can't remember if it was for the 97 yarder or if it was for the it was for if it or if it was for the the the one from Nolan James. I think I think

41:35I'm looking at now Cooper Flanagan was in the game on the Nolan Jay or the Jonas Walton touchdown run. I'm looking to see I think I'm pretty sure it was Jack and I think I'm on that series now where Jack was on the field when they had the long touchdown run to Nolan James. I believe I'm looking at that now. So, you know, I mean, hey, you can still do it. Now it was it was Cooper. I got that one completely wrong. I could have swore I saw Jack Larson on the field blocking on one of the big runs in this game. So, but you just you've got to get you've got too much talent sitting on the sidelines. That's the moral story. Way too much talent sit on the sidelines. You brought up that they're most explosive players are kind of sitting on the sideline on a down basis and that's kind of the final thing that we want to see with this offense is more explosive place. You need to be a bit more explosive and what does that mean? That doesn't necessarily mean that CJ Carnies to throw out and have at least one four votes played dialed up every single series. But more explosives in the run game is definitely going to be a must because getting just being

42:39efficient and just limiting negative plays won't be necessarily enough to go out and beat BYU or beat Miami or make a run in the playoffs. You're going to need that level of explosiveness. Now, some of the explosive numbers I will say can be skewed a little bit in my view because the defense does give you a good amount of shortfield. So, it's not like you're going to have a 40 yard touchdown run when you get the ball in the 19. So, I there's a piece of that that I understand. But this offense of six games has shown just an exceptional ability of not going backwards. Now, let's see what more chunks we can get moving forward. More explosive vertical plays, stretch the field more horizontally as well. I think that's going to be big time. But in order to do that, you have to get some of those explosive pieces on the field. I agree. Some of the most important design choices are the ones that go unnoticed. The details that together make it experience feel intuitive, comfortable, and above all exhilarating. At Acura,

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