Taking A Deeper Look At How Notre Dame Made The Stop On 4th and 2

all right everybody let's go ahead and talk about Notre Dame versus Texas A&M and for this video I just want to focus on the fourth and two play that basically was the game ceiling play late in the game for the Fighting Irish and Kirk Herbst Street he talked about the play during the broadcast for our purposes we're going to use the endzone view with the sky cam but as herb Street pointed out it's a slot fade right here by Noah Thomas and then we have Jay Walker he's running a 5 yard in and because it's a broadcast past herp Street really can't get into everything that's happening on this play and so I just want to point out a few things that you might not have noticed while watching it so first and foremost I want you to pay attention to Christian Gray right here I want you to watch his technique and the first thing that I'm going to point out is it's obvious just based on this look that Christian Gray is already preparing for an in-breaking route like his mindset is thinking they're going for something short to get the first down so I don't really need to bail in my drop and as I run the play you're going to see he doesn't really backpedal and because he's not backpedaling it allows him to really drive on the ball quickly his feet are basically at the 39 yd line and now he takes a couple steps but he never really reaches the 40 yard line and because he doesn't backpedal too far when he makes that break he's able to close the distance quickly another thing important to note is he's not opening his hips watch he's not opening his hips to run as though he's going to be given getting driven off the ball he is just staying square and so the minute he sees that Walker is Breaking Inside notice that he is starting to drive to go to cut off so that's the first thing you could tell that Christian Gray has been well coached on this play like hey expect something short I'm sure during the timeout they were talking about that in the Huddle hey we've worked on this this is something we've seen on film be prepared for something short where they're going to try and and have someone run in your way be prepared for that the second thing that I would like you to notice is that I don't think that Noah Thomas goes wide enough all right Noah Thomas has the slot fade excuse me wrong color here no Thomas he's supposed to probably go a little bit wider you would have liked him on this play to go a little bit wider I'm sure that the training is kind of taken over here with the technique but you probably just need him to go a little bit wider to get in the way of Christian Gray a force gray to go underneath him or run into him whatever so that you can buy the time for the route to be run by Walker and then really the third thing is I'm not a big fan of Jay Walker's route here it nothing about that really screams like hey I'm threatening you as a receiver it's kind of one two three now I'm going to break inside and just based on that look there was no threat that was telling Christian Gray hey I better start opening up a little bit more backpedaling more instead it's like as though they're just just matching each other with their steps if you watch one two three okay and because of that there's nothing to sell there's no threat to Christian Grace So Grace is just not going to feel any threat that way compare that o to what's happening over here right let's look at these guys on this play so you've got a tight Corner press and he's at least kind of trying to come out of the break but the problem is there's not enough on the rub by Noah Thomas I'm not a big fan of this route being run here but that's just me and I'm not going to the reason I'm not a big fan of it is I just don't feel like it's going to make Christian Gray feel threatened at all and he's able to to to cut underneath it and so that's that that's that's what leads to this play being a fail but overall just a great job by Christian Gray again probably would have liked Noah Thomas to go a little bit wider to help his team out uh but unfortunately didn't and this was the this was the game so hopefully enjoyed a little bit more little few more things to take a look at when you're watching uh defensive back play you enjoyed this content let me know your thoughts down below if you enjoyed the content please make sure to leave a like if you want to see more breakdowns like this make sure to subscribe we'll see you next time though have a great day I do want to recognize the members of this Channel at the booster level and above for their support if you wish to have your name in a video just like this make sure to check out the join Link in the description below here on the end screen you can see that there's another recommended video make sure to click that and watch it also make sure to subscribe so that you don't miss out on any future breakdown videos I hope you have a great rest of the day