Notre Dame had a good offensive line in 2019.
However, in some places, certain things simply require more than being just “good”.
When it comes to Notre Dame, the play of the offensive line is one such thing.
A look at the recent NFL All-Pro First-Team saw three of the five selected offensive linemen be products of Notre Dame where the standard is being dominating as a unit, not simply good.
Pro Football Focus released their team rankings for offensive lines and Notre Dame, although rated fairly high, came in far from elite.
Here is the PFF write-up of the 13th ranked Notre Dame offensive line:
Splitting hairs with the team right above them, both Notre Dame and Penn State ranked 17th in overall grade from their offensive lines this year, but the Fighting Irish get the advantage due to their second-ranked pass-blocking grade in 2019. The Fighting Irish were led by Eichenberg, who didn’t allow a single sack all year long.
-Pro Football Focus on 1/6/2020
Liam Eichenberg graded the best of any Notre Dame offensive lineman, largely because of his ability in pass-protection, something the entire unit was rather dominant in.
Unfortunately, the dominance was not nearly as evident in the running game for Notre Dame. The most telling number to that comes when you look at the Irish’s ability, or lack thereof, to run the ball successfully against the two best teams they played at Georgia and Michigan.
In those two games Notre Dame ran for just 93 yards total on 45 attempts, good for an average of just 2.06 yards per carry.
If Notre Dame is going to take that next step and close the gap separating them from the likes of Clemson, Alabama, LSU and Georgia, they’ll have to re-establish the ability to run the ball with regularity.
For what it’s worth Oregon, Alabama and Georgia graded out as the three best offensive line units for 2019.