:: Notre Dame Football: Irish Game Day ::
Notre Dame vs. Air Force: Fighting Irish ready for dangerous Falcons, who bring potent cocktail on offense to complement solid defense
Leprechaun Express: Notre Dame Football Intel Update Oct. 8, 2011
Air Force brings a 3-1 record into Notre Dame Stadium, their only loss having been to TCU. Like Navy, Air Force is a smart, tough-as-nails, excrutiatingly well-conditioned, hard-playing military academy team that views every down as a leadership exercise and brings their best game against the Irish.
In 2011, Air Force has a top-3 rushing attack and is top-4 in passing efficiency. So while the total passing yardage has not been extensive, they have a powerful rushing attack, and when do they do pass, they carve up the opposing defense with it. As Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly has noted publicly, roughly one-sixth of Air Force passes have been touchdowns.
Moreover, with their blend of intelligence and athletic ability, Air Force can apparently react on the fly (so to speak), to not give away tendencies and to adjust quickly to a defense keying on one aspect of the game, to shift gears to exploit over-commitment by the defense to one part of their attack.
While Kelly says Air Force does not really run the same offense as Navy, he has noted, at a minimum, their blend of triple option, veer option and highly efficient aerial attack.
Admittedly, as is often the case with Notre Dame opponents, statistics can be a bit deceiving, given that the opponents generally do not play nearly as difficult a schedule as Notre Dame, and can sometimes have stats all over the map, depending upon the opponent. (Last year, Notre Dame ended up playing literally the very toughest regular season schedule in college football. Notre Dame, as an independent, played a tougher schedule than any member of the SEC, for example.)
In the case of Air Force, the Falcons are averaging 365 yards of rushing per game, but they only rushed for 223 yards in an overtime win over Commander-in-Chiefs Trophy rival Navy. They rushed for a similar amount against TCU.
But those rushing figures are still quite robust, and, perhaps more interestingly, they spread the carries across six different runners who each had between 17 and 66 yards rushing against Navy. Against TCU, Air Force had seven runners with between 24 and 48 yards rushing. So clearly the Falcons can spread the ball around on the ground, and present incredible diversity of personnel for the defense to account for.
On paper at least, Air Force seems to spread carries around like a good quarterback ordinarily spreads around receptions. It is a good day when a passer finds six or seven receivers, yet Air Force does that with rushers.
Kelly says Notre Dame is not changing its defensive scheme. But against Army later last year, Notre Dame Defensive Coordinator Bob Diaco demonstrated how that scheme was versatile and agile enough to dial up quite a bit of variation against a diverse and eclectic offense, such as who lines up at the line of scrimmage, down or not, how many line up in the traditional linebacker locatoins, assymetric shifts for all of the above, the assignments for defensive backs and everybody else, blitzes, and the whole nine yards.
Interestingly, while Air Force has a solid defense, and a cornerback praised by a Notre Dame premier wide receiver for his intensity and athletic ability, the Falcons defense does not seem to be receiving as much attention as the offense.
And, perhaps paradoxically, while Air Force has a top-3 rushing offense, and their overall defense is solid, their rushing defense is 112 out of 120 teams in Div. I-A/FBS. Meanwhile, Notre Dame has been becoming a power running, and gashing-run team in its own right, with a still-young quarterback who can carve up opposing teams with efficiency to complement this vintage/retro Notre Dame running attack.
The key, of course, to that efficiency is if Tommy Rees can continue avoiding turnovers that had plagued the Irish earlier.
So what we are left with is a Notre Dame that, if it brings its best game, and plays hard from start to finish and avoids mistakes, might be able to power up against, and carve up, the Air Force defense and light up the scoreboard. And the Notre Dame defense, as good as it is getting, especially against the run, where it characteristically has been limiting opponents to averages below 100 yards, with low per-carry averages, could step up and stifle the Falcons a bit.
But the offense will have to recognize that, as seen in the first two games, statistical productivity can be neutralized by penalties, mistakes or turnovers. And even if the defense has a good day, taking just a few plays off here and there, or a mistake here and there, could prove even more dangerous than usual against a team like Air Force.
So it will be up to the players and coaches to strike early and often and not let up. They cannot afford for what could have been a stellar offensive drive in the second quarter to get sleepy, then have it turn out that Air Force ended up surging in the second half, and Notre Dame really needed those points they let get away.
An interesting measure will be the Irish is the red zone. When they smell the end zone, will the Notre Dame offense get tougher and more intense? Will the Irish defense continue to snort anger when they feel their back to the goal line, and refuse to give up points?
And, as has been receiving attention both on this site and in Notre Dame pep rallies, the Notre Dame Family in the stands will play a role. When the crowd energy shoots to the sky, and noise gets deafening, good things happen for Notre Dame. The last time the Irish won a consensus national championship, the opening game was shut down for five or ten minutes, or more, as the officials threw a flag on the crowd for being too loud, and the crowd responded by getting louder.
Notre Dame and Air Force have had some tremendous contests over the years, in a series dating back decades.
During the dedication of a sculpture to legendary Notre Dame Coach Dan Devine, a Hall of Famer, one speaker recalled a game against Air Force where Notre Dame was trailing by 20 points, only to win by one point behind the Comeback Kid, Joe Montana. In their last meeting, in Notre Dame's trough year of 2007, Air Force blew out Notre Dame. Air Force believes it can beat Notre Dame every time they blew, and Notre Dame had better come loaded for bear against the Falcons.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Air Force Falcons, 3:30 PM ET (12:30 PM PT), Oct. 8, 2011, Notre Dame Stadium, NBC, and on the Notre Dame Football radio network
Keywords: Notre Dame Football, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Notre Dame Offense, Notre Dame Defense, Notre Dame Special Teams, Brian Kelly, University of Notre Dame, Air Force, Air Force Falcons Football
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