Through the first two games of this season, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish offense had issues finding the end zone.
In the season opener against Texas A&M, the Irish scored 24 points, followed by an extremely disappointing 14 points which turned out to be a huge factor in Northern Illinois upset. Only 16 points were allowed by the defense, which is more than good enough for a victory.
Notre Dame did a complete 180-degree turn against Purdue, as the offense accounted for 59 of its 66 points on the day. The effort was much different than we had seen, and it had to do a lot with how offensive coordinator [autotag]Mike Denbrock[/autotag] called the game.
Notre Dame Football Stats & Analytics X account broke down the play calling against Purdue, and the differences were obvious. The Irish had significant upticks in play action, motion and snap motion rate last Saturday. With their play action rate, the offense more than tripled the plays going from 9% in the first two games, to a whopping 28%.
Motion rate saw a spike from 49% to 67%, and this was huge in my eyes. It gives quarterback Riley Leonard his first read of the defense when someone goes in motion. Having a pre-snap read of the defensive set, either man or zone, is huge for a quarterback to help process information, and it’s no coincidence we saw Leonard have his best game of the year against Purdue.
As for the snap motion rate, it almost doubled from 15% to 29%, which again helps Leonard. Hopefully Denbrock has found a groove with his play calling and will continue it throughout the rest of the year.
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