Postgame reaction: Notre Dame stifles Texas A&M in Mike Elko's debut

welcome into this postgame edition of the gigum 247 sport podcast Andrew hattersley here with Carter Carl um I've been on the road today obviously checking in with some recruits you're checking in with us after a 2313 loss for Texas A&M Notre Dame Mike ELO's debut ends in pretty disappointing fashion I you know KN started with the Wi-Fi not working at the beginning of the game the internet or the elevator you know broken at the end of the game just kind of the story of the night for how it how it kind of went and uh what what what did you kind of take away from from this loss yeah I think first of all it was the defensive battle that many of us expected you know I I had predicted 17 13 a Notre Dame win it was it shaped up about as what we expected I think maybe the it's not a surpris that the offense struggled but how much they struggled and how much Conor wigman struggled was sort of the the more notable takeaway uh wigman had a bad game there's there's no way no other way of putting it yeah uh you know he kind of starts off uh hot they had the nice drive where they they go down the field they they end up having to kind of settle for a field goal but you're thinking man this is this is better than what we thought it would be and and and getting another field goal in in the first quarter you know starting fairly nice on offense but after after that first drive he you know seemed like he kind of got Happy Feet he was you know sailing balls over receivers his timing was off his anticipation was off um it just felt like something was off right and uh we had seen Conor wigman play really great under the spotlight before I mean you think back as a true freshman what he did against LSU in 2022 Old Miss La a couple years ago um certainly impressed uh in his minimal uh uh season that he had last year uh action that he had last year but but this was definitely the the biggest uh red flag that you could have seen from him today and uh going forward you know it's either going to be a hiccup right you're going against the elite Notre Dame defense first gear coach first game maybe there's some rustiness coming off the injury could it be that or is it a sign of what is to come where hey this just isn't going to be a very good offense and wigman's not going to be the first round pick that that people might have thought he would be that that's the question going forward uh that I think we may not know the answer to just yet look I think the thing for me too and and kind of one of the things I was thinking about after this game is Notre Dame didn't exactly light it up either if you look at the stats Riley Leonard finishes is 18 of 30 for 158 yards no touchdowns no interceptions obviously didn't turn the ball over but the difference in this game kind of feels like Notre Dame was able to get things going on the ground break off a couple really big runs Jeremiah Love finishes with 91 yards on the ground you know Riley Leonard finishes with 60 plus yards on the ground jaran price had a big big run as well for a score A&M on the other hand Le'Veon Moss had had a touchdown 20 20 carries for 70 yards but outside of that they really didn't get the running game going either to kind of take any you know to kind of open things up or or and you Mike Elko said after the game that you know there was kind of a sense that running the ball was going to be tough with with Notre Dame putting seven guys in the box but that that leads to opportunities on the outside and A&M didn't take advantage of that either and so you know I kind of felt like that was the difference in the game that Notre Dame was able to get things going on the ground especially on that last Drive broke off a couple runs and A&M really wasn't able to get anything going or find many creases outside of you know a good first drive and and also the the long touchdown Drive early in the fourth quarter yeah defensively I mean it was the main advantage that we thought A&M would have coming into the game as is that defensive front going up against an elite or not Elite an inexperienced Notre Dame offensive line and you know I think Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Den Brock you know early in the game it felt like he wasn't running the ball enough and it was kind of like is the game plan the right game plan for them and then in the second half you saw him kind of switch to where he really did start to lean on the run but the other thing that he did that I think kind of neutralized that pass rush was a lot of quick game a lot of screens a lot of you know quick throws you know not a lot of deep throws down the field for Riley Leonard a lot of quarterback runs too and you know A&M had a lot of opportunities to have some big plays defensively you think of the sack that Shamar Stewart almost had Nick scorton swatted down a pass where he was about to sack Riley Leonard will Lee almost may have had a a pick six uh uh there late in in the game fourth quarter um there's a few different things riy Ryland Kennedy almost had a big sack and and Riley Leonard just escaped and so the defense certainly had plays that were there but I don't put this as much on the defense because for a vast majority of the game they were playing lights out I think this secondary was you know lot you know kind of kind of what we've been saying all offseason hey this is going to be a better group than what they had last year and I thought they looked you know a lot better than last year um but I just go back to the offense that's the big storyline going forward you know you look at this team before going in the year and you saw problems at right tackle didn't know who to start there they went with Demetrius crownover you had a running back room where no one had had more than 600 yards in a season rushing you looked at a wide receiver room where no one had 700 plus receiving yards in the season at a power four program a tight end room no one had more than 250 yards in his season for a power for program so there was a lot of lack of proven uction on top of a quarterback coming off a significant injury and you know being limited for a lot of the spring we saw it all during Camp a lot of receivers dropping passes you know maybe not as an elite of a quarterback as as some were talking about right a lot of you saw ESPN in the Athletics say hey this could be a first round pick we're kind of in a believe it when we see it mode and certainly that was validated after night and uh I still think this is a good football team Andrew uh Notre Dame is a dang good football team I think after watching tonight and looking at the rest of their schedule there's no reason that they can't go 12 and0 and so is the sky falling uh no is the offense worse than people thought absolutely uh but it's still a long season it's still you know things that this offense can improve going forward it's not going to be a strength of this team we knew that uh but with this defense and with this schedule this is still a team that can win nine games right this is still a team that can take care of business um you know you looked at the Florida game today like that probably looks like more of a win uh after watching them get you know blitzed by by Miami so I still think hey it's not time to overreact this is not a horrible la did the Mike ELO Era start the way that people hope no but um looking into this game this is the seventh team in the country and they look just as good as that ranking tonight no doubt you've got I mean this was a 13 13 game you know into the fourth quarter and and one of the things that that I think stands out in this game is you know A&M didn't really take advantage of some opportunities you look at early in the third quarter Notre Dame goes for it on back to back fourth down opportunities AEM gets a stop gets the ball at Midfield and does nothing with it uh have kind of a weird sequence there where Conor wigman you know throws it up to Noah Thomas I think A&M felt like maybe Notre Dame jumped off sides um and you know that play kind of stands out as one that you're it just kind of sums up they were just off like they it they just they couldn't get separation against this Notre Dame Secondary they had some opportunities though and you know Noah Thomas was open on one and but you know what was the read and and it's tough to kind of know what was the read on that play Le'Veon Moss doesn't get a yard on on a you know on a on a ball along the sideline that would have that would have extended that play you know there's just plays like that I think the one thing that does kind of concern me coming out of this game though and it's a question that we talked about a lot on the on the podcast you know in the weeks leading up to the season is who's going to emerge as that number one receiver and I feel like we come out of tonight and I don't know that we necessarily have a closer answer you know we thought maybe Trey Watson might be that guy as kind of from the tight end perspective you know he had a big big catch early but was largely pretty quiet and uh you know was was just quiet overall I think he had one catch for 18 yards that was his only catch and you know jay walk has six receptions for 31 yards but outside of that you really didn't have anybody creating big plays down the field and and and so that is a question going forward and I don't think it's going to be answered next week I don't think it's going to be answered against Florida but it's just something we're going to have to kind of watch over the course of the Season you mentioned plays that stood out and one that just is stuck in my brain is A&M down seven fourth quarter late less than two minutes left third and 10 and what do they do they run the football now you could argue hey this is uh you know you're trying to set up fourth and manageable but my goodness how much lack of faith do you have in your offense and your quarterback if you're running the ball in third and 10 with less than two minutes left down seven to me that tells you that they have no faith in this passing attack getting going 100 yards through the air two picks you know talking about those two picks real quick yeah he had the overthrow Noah Thomas I mean got to give him credit he was open on that play he was just overthrown and then you had Theo Mel and or orstrom I didn't get the cleanest look at it but it looked like kind of a forced error on wigman's part it looked like you it's hard to know was was throw was a little behind it looked like yeah was Thor supposed to stop there and maybe it was a miscommunication did he just throw it behind him I'm not really sure so it's like hard to know who that's completely on it looked like it was on wigman but we just don't know what the route was but certainly you know two picks where you're shaking your head and thinking man and they gave Notre Dame a short field a couple times uh now Notre Dame didn't quite always take advantage of it you know a couple of their touchdowns were on pretty large pretty long drives that they sustained but um yeah I just I keep going back back to that third and 10 you're running the football um you know that's something that you do game six where you know your offense is bad but game one like that to me speaks that you don't have any faith in your offense at all and that would concern me going forward um and this this offense has a lot to uh address in in the coming weeks no doubt they do and and you know I gotta ask you just because it was such a storyline coming into the game from your perspect how do you feel like the offensive line played because obviously that was one of the big question marks right what what' you take away from that offensive line performance yeah I don't I don't think they were a glaring liability like you know some people may have feared I mean the big plays that they gave up were because they had injuries and they were rotating like TJ Shanahan comes in for a couple plays and what happens Howard lros swims right past him and Martin abou and gets a sack right uh we saw AR Reed Adams go down we saw Martin Neu come down but the difference last year the last couple years your starting center goes down your starting guard goes down and there's a huge drop off but you know Coy fayu came in and I didn't think he was a big liability and they were able to run the ball they were able to convert you know short yardage situations we saw that last year how many short yardage situations they failed to convert so that might have been a little bit of a positive it wasn't like wigman was running for his life there were a lot of clean pockets for him he had some running Lanes where he could you know run through he had you know quite a few nice runs in that game so I didn't think they were that bad I think they just had that one sack if I'm not mistaken y I think they did and you know cly yeah one of the picks you could attribute to being you know there was a pressure there I think that the overthrow to Thomas I think he was pressured so like there were a few plays here and there but you know coming into it we're like ah that right side of the old line I don't know and didn't really turn out to be much of a glaring liability I didn't think gotta say you never know how a game's going to play out until you know until it played on the field did not see you know only one sack coming between these two sides tonight I think that was one area that we kind of felt like maybe A&M would be able to exploit Notre Dame a little more we talked a lot about it coming into the game with Notre Dame only having six career starts up front entering this game didn't really you know A&M was able to get some pressure and and I kind of liked what they did on third down with some of their Blitz packages and some of the third down packages we'd heard a lot about those but otherwise not really kind of what we kind of what we saw they they brought some pressure they they they got they got home a couple times delivered some hits on Riley Leonard but otherwise you know one sack between the two sides I think was was not what I saw coming in yeah and I I think you know Notre Dame's part again a lot of quick game running the football keeping keeping the chains moving you know trying to get third and short third and medium even some third and Longs though they they weren't you know getting them and and again part of it not finishing those sacks you know there were three or four that they were just right there and didn't quite finish you even felt like that with the running backs a little even on that last drive for Notre Dame where they're fighting for extra yards and it just felt like A&M couldn't quite bring some guys down sometimes uh yeah noted on the other side you know uh again I think from a pass protection standpoint outside of a handful of things you a handful of plays it wasn't that bad so um it's a positive to taking the next game I also think another positive is I think they realize that Levon Moss is their best running back and this is not a committee yes you saw some Amari Daniels yes you saw some EJ Smith they're going to get some work but Leon Moss got 20 plus carries in this game and it seemed like he was trending that way going coming out of Camp he kind of won that job and you know certainly impressed a lot last year just had kind of the injury concerns with with missing time the last couple Seasons but you know after losing Ruben Owens there was a question hey you know what's going to happen with this group I think if Owens was still healthy Moss would still be the number one guy and and I think he showed tonight there were multiple times where he was fighting for extra yards he even had help from Demetrius crownover on one instance where he pushed him forward for seven yards which you know really played a big role in them scoring a touchdown on that drive but I think you can feel good about the running game and and the the o line it's just the skill outside guy and the quarterback right that that you're concerned with we didn't see I don't know if Donovan Green got a snap tonight um I don't think that surprised me uh just based off what we saw in preseason camp uh but he could be somebody that you know as the season progresses you know you got to think about how he's a year removed from an ACL tear can he be somebody that game six game seven can return to what he was two years ago that would you would fig that would give a big boost for the offense uh so he is uh one to watch but um yeah fortunately for A&M they got MCN state next week they can regroup they can uh you know feel better about themselves by getting a Big W and maybe giving some confidence for the offense W with you know a high score total there but uh then you head to Florida and you know this is a team that has lost 10 straight road games dating back to the 2022 season and and you know they still got to win that one it's been evasive for them the last couple years um I don't think they showed like tonight even though the offense had a lot of issues I still think this is a team that's good enough to win that game at Florida to win at Auburn and at South Carolina and at Mississippi State this is not a team that's going to go six and six in my mind now looking at the message board during the games I think everyone is pretty resigned and saying oh going six and six now but have to remind yourself that hey this is a good Notre Dame team it was 133 with five minutes left yes the offense was very disappointing yes Conor wigman is a is a big question moving forward you know can he get close to his potential that that that some people thought he could have and uh but again you know the schedule plays out well this team can group it's a long season and they've got a good enough defense that they can beat the teams on their schedule that they're supposed to be I think that's a pretty good look ahead forward I know you've still got a lot to write tonight and a lot lot to got to get to so we'll we'll certainly have plenty more coverage coming this week on on the gig 247 Sports podcast be sure to stay tuned um over at gig 247 for all our coverage from tonight's game and moving forward into the next couple of days if you're not a subscriber we have 7 5% promo that you can take advantage of um if you're looking to jump on board and and and read our coverage so thanks again for joining us Carter thanks for jumping on after the game and and we will see you guys soon as Texas A&M looks to rebound next week against MCN State back in Kyle Field thanks everybody have a great night