Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M Review | PFF Grade Release Show

let's go over to the Notre Dame game now big night game last night uh number seven Notre Dame in a just defensive slugfest outlasted A&M number 20 Texas A&M 23-13 in this game and let's go over quickly the Notre Dame and Texas grades in this game Notre Dame guy you're going to talk about dlan Jeremiah Love 77.8 grade as a new running back from Notre Dame after PFF Legend audri estimate now in the NFL uh Gone Cooper Flanigan not Mitchell Evans was the highest grad tight end from not yesterday 62.6 Billy sh at a 62.6 as well the offensive guard Jaden great house at a 62.5 and offensive tackle one of the new ones Emil Wagner at a 62 M's defense which was the best part of the team that we said in our preview and the best part of the team yesterday in the game man Xavier Watts at a 79.1 uh rning Defensive Player of the Year for college football Benjamin Morrison at 77.2 Jack Kaiser at 77 74.4 those are the three right there man it's like oh yeah that makes sense the three High great that's about right uh Jordan Patell at a 73.7 and Dake Bowen at a 7 3.2 let's go over to the Texas A&M offense in this game which obviously struggled a little bit out there offensive guard kenu I hope I got that right fou 69.5 arage Reed Adams at 62.6 uh two guards for them were the highest grade players Le'Veon Moss at 62.4 Trey Waton the tight end at 57.2 and Jay Walker at a 57.1 the wide receiver and finally the Texas A&M defense uh their star defensive player they got in the the transfer portal was Nick scorton highest graded player for them in this game 74.8 Scooby Williams at a 73.7 cases Howell at a 70.5 uh Shamar Stewart at 7.2 and will Lee the third at a 67.4 dawn what was for you the stat that really told the story in this game uh it's simple cuz we got the game that we thought we were going to get right but it it comes down to Notre Dame's defense against Conor Wegman and I'll focus on Wegman look it was a rough day there are going to be better days we've had better days from Wegman we've seen what he can do what he's capable of doing but last night I'll start with 28 passing grade uh you won't win many games with a 28 passing grade 12 of 30 for 100 yards two interceptions three turnover worthy plays no big time throws um Notre Dame's defense just won the battle we're going to see better from WG in future weeks right he's he's going to get a few weeks here including in a couple weeks against Florida where you go okay there's some better matchups here but Wegman um first of all first game back from an injury right a broken foot I believe it was and he only played four games last year and to have your first game even even though it was a Cozy home environment uh to have your first game back against this defense I I'm might have asked to sit out one more week uh that you mentioned those first three names we didn't even mention Howard cross and Riley Mills I mean and they were great a little lower was a good battle in the trenches but yeah Wegman um they they Notre Dame's defense won the battle that's that's all you can say to it we're not going to sit here and go oh Conor Wegman's terrible or none that we just still have to we just have to wait and see how he responds I think it's a good game to come back and resp spond to and and show what kind of guts you have coming come back next week and play well right but last night uh A&M just couldn't get any any passing game going right and I thought Notre Dame blitzed him early which I thought was really interesting but they're one of the teams with the few one of the few secondaries in the country that can go you know we're going to Blitz a lot we're going to trust Ben Morrison and Xavier wat those guys in the second even Jack Kaiser can cover him he's a hell of an athlete right but they were blitzing him uh to me he looked rattled early and and once he started feeling that pressure um he wasn't getting his feet set there was a lot of throws where his feet weren't set and and he looked like he was rushing a bit and he was just trying so hard to beat the pressure that may or may not have been coming you know the it's the old um the old Sam darnold thing yeah I'm seeing ghost out there yeah I think Wegman did have a little bit of that as the game went on last night I really like Notre Dame's approach of blitzing him early so rough night for Wegman for sure a lot of quarterbacks are going to look like that against Notre Dame it's like the gar green thing where it's like all right like you know to be fair there's a lot of this Notre Dame defense is a top three unit in the country oh yeah this is this is a nasty at all three levels right and if you have a guy like Batello off the edge who's going to add to what cross and Mills bring inside man oh man this this defense that defense and if Riley Leonard just manages the game like he did yesterday they could run the table Yeah they could run the table with their defense and I thought Leonard did we'll get into Leonard he did a really nice job managing and playing to the pace of the game much like Carson Beck did but yeah Wegman it was a struggle and it's going to be a struggle that's a brick wall man yeah absolutely is Maybe should have uh he should have worked out with uh gard and shador and actually the quarterback coach we got it from the chat thankful to the chat is Daryl cert from select quarterbacks was the quarterback coach so if you're uh if you're a quarterback looking to get better maybe maybe hit him up man maybe him and Jordan Palmer maybe the two guys hit up right now because they what they're doing right now but uh yeah wigman to be fair again it's like the G green the was like dude SN Dame's defense man and and to be fair again to him as well the A&M receivers I me they were getting suffocated out there it was like it was almost exactly what G was like dude he has no one to throw to right now so yes he didn't have a good game at all but uh I will say that they uh they really did a great job in this game that really is my stat that tells the story as well is that Notre Dame 85.6 coverage grade in this game allowed 3.3 yards per pass that's crazy man usually the average is what around like 7 or eight yards per pass R so if you're getting under like seven seven and a half you're having a rough night yeah and 3.3 man that's like even bad for rushing performance if you're getting 3.3 yards per uh per Rush man so Ben Morrison and Xavier watt you mentioned before uh both had coverage grades above a 76 and this is just this is Notre Dame's defense man even with uh Notre Dame's interior two guys of of cross and Mills not having the game of their lives you still have Jack Kaiser at linebacker you still have Ben Morrison you still have Xavier wats like those all three of those guys are like maybe top five players in the country their positions right so it's crazy man and I think Notre Dame's defense is going to be what carries his team to the college football playoff and it from that game alone you're like yeah that's the unit that is the unit man so they uh they looked phenomenal in this game Dawn what for you though was the most impressive part of yesterday of last night's game for you we knew we were getting a slugfest we knew it was going to be low scoring I had this game 2317 it wound up 2313 close enough um let me go to the offense and I I was questioning okay where is Notre Dame going to find it where are they going to find the points and Riley Leonard managed the game really well he ran the ball well but let me get Jeremiah love their highest graded offensive player look 13 carries 89 yards a touchdown an 80 rushing grade and 10 Miss tackles forced on 13 carries that's that's just ular right and I think what he gave them when they needed it most was just that physical noted aim back that that just goes you know you're not tackling me not before I get five six seven yards at the the big touchdown run I I mean he just they needed someone to step up and several guys were good enough Leonard was good enough much again much like Carson Beck understand the game you're playing in and our defense can win it I I think Leonard's going to have better nights statistically but tonight or last night I should say was about it was about love it was and even jarian price had a night to at 44 yards on eight carries right but Notre Dame's ability to run the ball is always big and if you have these three guys but especially love as physical as he was in the fourth quarter especially he took the game over and and I think if they have that they can at least work on the passing game as they go Bo Collins had a couple nice catches right Mitchell Evans working back into shape Cooper Flanigan right we're going to work on the passing game but if we have this run game with these three guys and especially would love this is a problem this is a problem for other teams cuz now you're talking about that grinding defense ground and pound time of possession kind of team that Notre Dame always puts out there but I think the the running Dimension especially with Leonard add it in ese was great last year yeah but Hartman didn't give you a whole lot in the running game not like Leonard right Riley Leonard gives you that other dimension and he's opening up holes for these backs too in a young offensive line you're about to get into I thought the running game led by Jeremiah Love was the most impressive part for me I knew their defense would play well that was a big part that absolutely was 77% foress tackle rate that's uh that's pretty that's pretty good that's pretty good like I said 30% or better is where you're like oh this is really good yeah that's double that right so uh yeah really great game for Jeremiah Love against a really good A&M defense too that's yes that's really nothing to scoff at so my most impressive part though you mentioned it was uh Anthony nap man want to shout him out true freshman left tackle this kid was also recruited uh as an interior offensive lineman as well and true freshman left tackle filling in for Joe Al massive massive shoes to fill in uh figuratively physically I think he's a guy man that just was really you know he came into this game Kyle Field night game massive environment and they actually showed D in the broadcast I don't know if you caught this but Marcus Freeman went up to him with and they had a miked up segment and Freeman's like hey man you're our guy like just believe in yourself out there you're going to do great I think Freeman himself is like oh man this kid's going up against two NFL guys maybe Shamar Stewart and Nick scorton like see what the kids got kids got something man kids got something he had an 82. three pass blocking grade yesterday one pressure allowed on 36 pass blocking snaps and I think like 40 or 45% of his snaps were against scorton who right now is a top 10 Prospect on our big board man so it really felt like yesterday was all about the true freshman Dawn and Anthony knp a guy that we previewed in our top 10 true freshman to know he really showed up in that game man and listen Notre Dame's always had great offensive lineman every single year it feels like and Anthony knap is a guy to know for the next three years of college football yeah absolutely and I like that you brought that up because again Notre Dame's season and how far they go is going to be decided by where they're how far their passing game takes them right and you always need three things you need somebody who can throw people who can catch and people who can block and we saw a little bit of all three of those last night I think I think the receivers are are the biggest work in progress I think Leonard was a really good game plan for Riley Leonard quick game young offensive line freshman tackle all that stuff really good game plan Leonard played a nice game game manager type of game offensive line was really good pass and run game obviously you know you have the backs breaking a lot of tackles but they need some holes um this passing game if nap is solid at left tackle in in the passing game you got an animal noted aim too because they their defense you're not scoring even good offenses you're not scoring more than 20 points on Notre aame that actually also is his hardest game of the season probably for him right with those edges and scon and Stewart like oh yeah it gets easier from here in that environment too it's like dude it gets easier from here man if he can capably block that guy we I look Joe Al's a big name to live up to but man that that's a good start to the next guy up I dude and it's like dude him filling it for Joe Walt Jeremiah Smith fing from Marvin Harrison Jr is like next one up here we go again like yeah Anthony natman not like wasn't a five-star recruit like Jeremiah Smith either like four star guy or like number only only four only four uh number 250 something or something like that I was like let's see what the kids got and then he has a lot man I'm I'm really excited to see what Anthony nap can do this season and Beyond [Music]