Notre Dame offensive line needs identity reset, former player Bob Morton says

Pro Football Focus (PFF) isn’t the be-all and end-all for evaluating a performance, but it is an interesting data point. Of the seven offensive linemen Notre Dame played against Miami on Sunday night, just two had a grade above 60.

Grades in the low-to-high 60s are considered average to slightly above average.

“That was about as bad a performance as I could have imagined up front for the offensive line,” former Irish offensive lineman Bob Morton said in his show on Tuesday night with Blue & Gold’s Mike Singer.

Left guard Billy Schrauth had a 66.2 grade, while center Ashton Craig checked in with a grade of 72.6. Craig’s pass block grade of 83.2 was by far the best on the Notre Dame offensive line.

Morton praised Craig’s performance, mentioning that while Schrauth had pulling duties early in the game, he noticed Craig took over those responsibilities. Morton was impressed with Craig’s ability to block in space.

“Not only was he a rock in the middle in pass protection, but he was communicating well and had a really good game,” Morton added.

According to PFF, Carr dropped back 35 times and faced pressure on 11. The Irish averaged 4.7 yards per carry (sack-adjusted) and ran for 117 yards, but pass blocking left much to be desired.

“We have time to go back to the drawing board and fix our rushing plan,” said Morton. “What worries me is that there were technique issues from guys who are not first-year players.

“If you’re not ready to play with good technique Week 1 in Miami, what are you going to do in 10 days — how do you get back to the fundamentals enough to fix what is broken? How are we going to see these players get ready? Was this just an aberration?”

Notre Dame’s next opponent is No. 19 Texas A&M, which allowed 373 yards (203 rushing) and 24 points to UTSA last weekend.

“The area of improvement for this offense is a return to its identity,” Morton continued. “We have to be a run-first, play-action pass team. You need to threaten a defense with a downhill run — that’s the way you put a defense on their heels … You’ve got to open up the pass game behind the linebackers, and that doesn’t have to be with route trees — it’s quite simply by running and play-action pass.

“That’s how we can get our groove back as an offensive line. Once we put together drives and get momentum, it’s amazing to see how that snowball rolls and becomes more like an avalanche going downhill. We need that momentum to start somewhere.”

Morton feels that the issues the Irish O-linemen had in pass protection can be worked on, and for what it’s worth, they may not see two studs like Akheem Mesidor and Rueben Bain Jr. the rest of the season, which will certainly help.

“It’s fixable. Do I have concern with [Anthonie] Knapp at left tackle because these are some of the same things we saw last year? Yes.”