Notre Dame vs. Michigan: Keys To An Irish Win

With the Irish and Wolverines both projected to have poor seasons, the game Saturday is a must win for both teams. Effort, physical play, and determination should go a long way in determining the winner as the contest should be a low scoring affair decided in the waning moments.

Offense

1. Establish the run. As was true last week and will be true all season, Notre Dame must run the ball successfully to be consistently effective on offense. The running game chews the clock, wears down the defense, opens up play action, and takes pressure off quarterback Jimmy Clausen and the passing game. As Michigan has one of the more talented defenses on the Irish schedule, running the ball well is paramount to success on offense for Notre Dame.

2. Minimize mistakes. If the Irish can avoid the offensive mistakes that plagued them through three quarters of play against San Diego State they should win the game. Turnovers, poor execution on third down and missed opportunities in the red zone nearly cost them the game.

3. Execute the screen and draw game. If the Michigan coaching staff is worth anything they will lock down on the edge, put eight in the box, stop the run, and apply pressure to Clausen on obvious passing downs. The Irish passing game showed improvement against San Diego State, but the performance carries an asterisk as the Aztecs aren’t a good defense. To slow the pass rush and prevent Michigan from blindly rushing the passer the Irish offense must give them pause.

Defense

1. Tackle well in the open field. Like last week the Notre Dame defense must tackle well to prevent long gains and get the Michigan offense off the field. Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez will make every attempt to get his offensive players the ball in space, one-on-one with an Irish defender. Notre Dame must tackle well to stop the Wolverine offense.

2. Call off the dogs. The Irish don’t have to stop blitzing all together but caution is advised. Multiple times against San Diego State Irish defenders took themselve out of the play by blitzing with little control. The zone-read is tough to stop, if the Irish blitz and take themselves out of position they could be in for a long day.

3. Help from the reserves. This figures to be a physical game and with Michigan spreading the field the Irish will frequently play nickel and dime packages. The secondary needs help from backups Robert Blanton and Gary Gray and the defensive line needs help from reserves Ethan Johnson and Maurice Richardson. This should keep players fresh and help executing tackles in open space.