NIU vs. Notre Dame Review | PFF Grade Release Show

once again Notre Dame lost at home despite being massive massive favorites it's actually the third time since 2022 that they've lost despite being two touchdown favorites second time they've lost while being at least 20 point favorites and they were 28 and a half Point favorites over Northern Illinois but the Huskies came in and had the biggest win in program history taking down number five Notre Dame 16 to 14 in this game let's look over at the highest graded players from Northern Illinois to start off in this game and the highest grade player in this one was pretty easily antario Brown their star running back with an 85.4 Skyler Gil Howard at the D tackle at a 74.8 amaran nan at a 74.3 at the corner Ethan Hampton the quarterback at a 71.9 and Jason profit at a uh 71.5 deshaan Prof excuse me 71.5 but D we got to look at the Notre Dame side of the ball uh not a lot went right for not especially offensively in this game they had some defensive guys stepped up Xavier wat once again had a nice game at a 73 .9 Jeremiah love the running back really the only thing going right for the snow offense right now 71.5 linebacker Jaden Osberry at a 71.3 their offer to tackle Emil Wagner at a 67.6 and Jack Kaiser rounding it out at a 67.3 for you what was the stat that told the story in this massive upset maybe the biggest upset we're going to have all year I I'm going to start on the defensive side because there's going to be a a lot of talk about the offense but Notre aame is not getting to the quarterback right now they only pressured Ethan Hampton four times the entire entire game and came up with a 63.8 pass rush grade last year they were in the top 20 in in pass rush grade in the country and right now that it's just they're just not getting to the quarterback Howard cross especially has one pressure through two games a sack against Texas A&M last week a and if they're not generating look they need cross and Riley Mills to be those guys in the middle but especially cross as a pass rusher he was one of the best pass rushers in the country last year and you're seeing you're seeing that spread into the entire defensive line they're they're just not getting to the quarterback right now and even against a team like Northern Illinois that's really concerning and I know it's a lowc scoring game and their back Seven's going to play well Xavier watch Jack Kaiser Ben Morrison but they they just you have to complement it with rushing the quarterback and flustering him because Ethan Hampton really he didn't play a great game it's against that defense but he never looked uncomfortable even in the biggest biggest moments late in the game Ethan Hampton was kind of in his Zone and he understood the assignment of okay where a lowc scoring game and I just have to keep moving the chains and they just the defensive line never made a big play even in this type of game even when I know they only gave up 16 points and it was a low-scoring game we're going to get into the offense their defensive line if Howard cross doesn't start to turn it around here it starts to concern me a little bit they the craziest thing about that is that the one word I would use to describe Conor wigman last week was uncomfortable they made Connor wigman extremely uncomfortable in that game but they had to Blitz him a lot they blitzed him a lot in that game and the front four didn't do as much as you might think I I like their approach last week of blitzing him early and then he kind of was feeling that the old Sam darnold seeing ghost sort of thing you saw that from wigman I I didn't I'd have to check the numbers but I didn't see them Blitz as much in this game and their defensive line is not getting home right now but just the fact that Ethan Hampton like you said looks so comfortable but then Conor wigman who's qb1 in the draft and Texas obviously has a lot more Talent than Northern Illinois he looked uncomfortable it was just like the weird dichotomy of having the two of them right next to each other back back weeks it's just so weird my have that tells the story to on this Notre passing offense woof woof 4.9 yards per attempt in this game that is tied for the lowest they've had in a game since the 2019 season when Michigan held them to 4.6 yards per attempt Riley Leonard had a 53.4 pass passing grade in this game his accuracy all over the place missed wide open receivers he didn't see Defenders at times as well he was so uncomfortable under pressure 28 passing grade under pressure in this game uh one of his big time throws I will say he had two big time throws in this game one of them though was dropped by his receiver Jaden greous so even when he was putting the ball on target his receivers were dropping them sometimes as well and the leading receiver in this game Bo Collins had 45 yards receiving in this game this Notre ding passing attack this is the worst we've seen by their passing attack in half a decade in a game and it came against Northern Illinois uh I I'm again like the Michigan offense it's a little bit of panic now about okay how bad is this passing game going to be for Notre Dame this year yeah and look my most impressive part I think it's not just self-inflicted wounds Northern Illinois secondary played really really well they picked off Leonard twice they had a they had a 76.6 team coverage rade that's a really good Mark especially when you're stepping up in competition you got Riley Leonard you got all these transfer weapons coming in so their secondary was fantastic too and and there were times where they were just covering it really really well but I think the other thing that that I found odd especially with Notre Dame as a team who obviously they're based in the run right Jeremiah love trying Riley Leonard trying to run the ball they only run one play action pass the entire game I I I just don't and I know Mike Den Brock is spread it out and quick game and three-step drop and throw it down the sidelines but that's crazy they and they're and at LSU they were a very light play action team too with Jaden Daniels but understandably that wasn't a running team I would drop back and throw it with Jaden Daniels and neighbors and all those guys if I had him too but Notre Dame is not the team that can only get through a game running One play action pass they have to find something and would think especially on the move they could find something for Riley Leonard to run out on the edge if there's bootlegs I know they don't get under Center much with Den Brock but there has to be something in there where you can just make it a little bit easier open the windows a little bit more because if it's just if you're always facing just standard send four drop seven we've talked about the goal you don't really want to Blitz Riley Leonard you don't want him taking off running on you so you're going to see a lot of conventional coverages and teams are going to hit their landmarks and there not going to there's going to be tight Windows like they were in this game like a team team like Northern Illinois who obviously more than Talent is just really fundamentally sound they always are that's those are the teams that can beat you if you drop back and you're predictable all the time and you're always just three-step quick game no deception if there's no deception in your offense you don't get people moving and you really need people moving to make your quarterback's life easier so that that was an odd part to me that only only one play action pass I didn't I didn't see how many they had last week against Anam but only one play action pass in the entire game when you're a team that really should be built on running the ball in play action yeah absolutely even with Jeremiah Love is by far your best offensive player through two weeks right now and you're not running play action when they're the defense they're the thing they're most scared of right now is Jeremiah Love they they will move up like there are shots that can be created if you if you run action off of Love absolutely yeah that's what they're most scared of right now and speaking of running backs that scared defenses that's my most impressive part of this game antario Brown listen it was an ugly ugly offensive game obviously only 30 points total scored in this game but inario Brown was Northern Illinois's entire entire offense in this game you saw it already he's the highest graded player from this game he had 99 rushing yards and 102 rushing yards after contact he actually had more yards after contact than he did rushing yards which speaks to how good he was at breaking tackles but not even that D that's that's a good day on the ground he had two catches on two Targets for6 yards and two touchdowns he was outstanding as a receiver in this game he actually accounted for 75% of Northern Illinois's points and 61% of their total yards in this game so antario Brown was by far the best player on the field in this game and really it's the reason why Northern Illinois was able to pull off this upset absolutely and I think the touchdown early was the big one when you talk about going up 7 nothing on a slow pace Notre aame offense early so big for Northern Illinois to get out ahead and and I think that's how you're going to beat Notre Dame is getting out ahead of them and then just kind of playing you're gonna you're going to get in those grinder games right you're just it's going to be Notre Dame's defense and it's going to be low scoring and every game's going to look like this right I I don't I don't know that Notre Dame is capable of winning a highs scoring game if a game got somewhere into the 30s right so those are the games and this is the only thing about you know for Notre aame sake you were hoping to see that their offense it was going to take time to gel a whole new offensive line that I think was six career starts coming into the year Riley Leonard all the new weapons young running backs they needed this time to get through this and play these defensive games the problem is is when you play these close to the vest games teams like Northern Illinois are perfectly willing to stay in it they don't want to get in those underdogs don't want to get in those highflying shootouts most of the time they want to be in one score games and just see where it goes and that's exactly what happened and you know I don't know about you but I think Notre Dame's in a spot now with this loss because Northern Illinois was not one of the group of five teams to watch out for to like watch out for as playoff contention first of all now all of a sudden if they win the mac and maybe they finish the year with only one loss now they're in that group but preseason we didn't think they were in that group I I think I don't know about I think Notre Dame might have to win out just just to get if they if they have another loss especially with kind of a light schedule outside of A USC game and that that game at the end of the year is going to might be everything they can't lose another game I don't think with this loss I agree with you it's too easy it's too easy to schedule and and the fact that they don't play a conference title game either like that's that's another thing against them so and a Florida State game that isn't nearly as meaningful as it was in the preseason when they were number 10 right yeah I'm with you I think they have to I they also think they have to win out now and so real quick Don how is this a fluke or do we think this is something to be a little worried about Notre Dame going forward I'm I'm a little worried I don't think I'm as worried about the Notre Dame offense as the Michigan offense but I don't know that it's that that it's that far away from it they they need to they need everything to just sink together right and I think the offensive line has played reasonably well the first two games considering how young they are but again they have to find answers to create explosive plays in the pass game whether it's play action whether it's finding someone who can get deep uh they they Mike Den Brock doesn't have Malik neighbors and Brian Thomas this time it's it's not that easy and he doesn't have or Jaden Daniels so they have to find a way to create explosive passing plays to make people feel like okay they're a threat vertically then you soften them up that it's everything we saw from Texas against Michigan okay okay they're a threat downfield then the Run game opens and it all sets each other up right now it it's not it's disjointed when it because they don't have any threat of a vertical passing game I mean this is again third time in three years Mark M frean had a massive home upset happened to him I mean Stanford happened a couple years ago Marshall happened a couple years ago and now Northern o this year it's just it's rough it's really is rough and I'm with you I think notus has to win out now it's it's it's a tough uh tough sledding for the Fighting Irish right now [Music]