Michigan Pass Offense vs. Notre Dame Pass Defense
Notre Dame brings back virtually the same secondary that Tate Forcier tore to pieces last year even without a competent running game to back him up. The Notre Dame defense also allowed Robert Marve to complete nearly 75% of his passes in Week 1.
In Week 1, Denard was one late game completion away from setting a school record for completion percentage in a single game. However, a lot of the throws he made in going 19-22 for 186 yards were of the dink and dunk variety. Rarely was he forced to throw the ball downfield and that is something that Notre Dame is going to force him to do this week.
Michigan lived off the bubble screens and slants last week and Notre Dame is going to try to jam receivers at the line to prevent Michigan from getting easy yardage on soft passing plays. Denard is going to be forced to make more difficult throws this game but I think he’s going to have just as much success in terms of finding open receivers all over the field. The reason for this being that the Irish are going to be forced to play man to man coverage a lot of the time in their attempt to stop the run game and Michigan has talented enough wide receivers to make the secondary pay.
Daryl Stonum could be in line for a big game this week. He will be Michigan’s main deep threat and I don’t see any of Notre Dame’s corners really being able to matchup with him on the outside. Unfortunately, Roy Roundtree will potentially miss this weeks game which means that either Terrance Robinson or Kelvin Grady will need to step up with a big game in the slot. The slots should have a solid advantage over the outside linebackers for Notre Dame.
Michigan’s offensive line should be able to keep Denard clean and with time to throw, the Michigan offense could be in line for even bigger passing numbers this weekend than they had in week 1 against the Huskies.
Advantage: Michigan
Notre Dame Pass Offense vs. Michigan Pass Defense
Gone are Charlie Weis, Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate, but in there place comes a Brian Kelly who has produced top offenses everywhere he’s gone and turned guys no one have even heard of (Tony Pike) into Heisman contenders.
If Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate had returned with Kelly at the helm, this would have been hands down the most dangerous offense in college football. In fact, it wouldn’t have even been close. However, there is no Clausen and in his place we have former 5-star recruit Dayne Crist in his first season as the starting quarterback.
In the first game, Crist was efficienct and effective while going 19-26 for a shade over 200 yards. However, Purdue rarely pressured the quarterback and we’ve all seen the prowess Purdue has on defense. Crist has only started one Division 1 game and I would suspect that Michigan will bring a variety of different blitzes and get a little more aggressive on defense to try to rattle Crist early.
Michael Floyd returns on the outside and I’ll be shocked if anyone in the Michigan defense will be able to do anything beyond slow him down just a little bit. Watching Floyd abuse BooBoo last year in the Big House, it was pretty clear he was the best wide receiver that Irish had and Golden Tate turned out to be a first round pick. Michigan is going to have to shade one safety over top on Floyd’s side to prevent him from coming down with every sideline jumpball.
Kyle Rudolph returns at tight end and produces an even bigger matchup problem for Michigan. Our linebackers are weak at best in pass coverage and it always seems like there is a wide open soft spot about 15 yards downfield against our defense that Rudolph could really exploit.
J.T. Floyd will have to play well again and James Rogers must also play well. The linebackers are probably a lost cause in coverage in this one so Michigan is going to need to use them to generate pressure and prevent Crist from getting too comfortable in the pocket. Look for both Jonas Mouton and Craigh Roh to be sent on a variety of different blitz packages to prevent Crist from getting too comfortable in the pocket.
After seeing how many open receivers UConn had last week, I do not see how Notre Dame’s pass offense won’t put up decent numbers this week against a very young and suspect secondary.
Advantage: Notre Dame
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