Anatomy of a Play

While I had not planned to lament this weekend's football actions, my fans demanded more, so I'm back for another round. Let's go right to the videotape.


Notre Dame - Michigan State

There's many ways to lose a football game, and over the last few years of watching Notre Dame and the 49ers, I've seen a lot of these variations. However, around 11:50 pm last Saturday, I saw a new one: The Fake Field Goal in Overtime. While the game had numerous ups and downs and I could point blame at many people, I'll just focus on the play.

1. The Defense Called.
As TMQ pointed out, the odds at this point in the game skewed towards ND. Yes, MSU's kicker had made 4 field goals the game before, but there's a huge difference between kicking against Florida Atlantic and kicking to save the game on national TV. Furthermore, college kicker are significant worse than NFL kickers, so the odds he makes a 46 yard field goal, outside, on grass are 50/50 at best (I would best the numbers are even less), and at worst, Notre Dame would have the advantage in the 2nd OT, as they would get the ball second.

With all of that going on, why even bother rushing the kicker? The odds are great enough that college players will do something stupid and get a roughing the kicker penalty (ND had already committed a stupid, though questionable clipping penalty at the end of the game that kill a chance to ice the game before overtime) and rarely do kicks get blocked from the side rusher (more often, the block comes from a defensive lineup getting a push up the middle and getting a hand up). So while the fake was obviously a gusty and unexpected call, the decision to even have players rushing needs to be questioned.

2. The Scheme of the Play

Kelly swore after the game that the team knew about a potential fake, as MSU had run the exact play in their bowl game last year. If that's really the case (and I have serious doubts), then the Domers' special teams coordinator needs to have his head examined. The defensive play had Notre Dame's best cornerback (who's probably good enough to get draft in the mid-rounds next year) cover the kicker, while their safety covered the TE man to man, and their slower middle linebacker (the one who almost lost his job in training camp because his pass coverage wasn't good enough) cover MSU's fast freshman RB.

Neither of these players are very "athletic". Would someone ever scheme such a defense in a regular play (you can replace kicker with slow, skinny, unathletic fullback)? Of course not. Again, we'll never really know of that was the schemed response to the fake, but either way, it was poor coaching. Of course, ND Nation was promised better with a new regime. So far, not so good.