Scouting Ahead: A look at Notre Dame football team's game against Nevada

OFFENSE PLAY-BY-PLAY OF FIRST SIX DRIVES: FIRST SERIES:

• 2 TE sets, two wide receiver. Fake reverse to Michael Floyd. Pocket collapsed and Jimmy Clausen gained 7 yards.
• 3WR set with tight end. Clausen passes to Kyle Rudolph, who barreled down the left hand side off screen pass.
• 2 WR 2TE. Clausen overthrows Floyd
• 2 WR 2 TE singleback. Armando Allen up middle about 6 yards.
• GUN 3 WR single back, 1 TE. Clausen throw underneath to Allen for 3 yards.
• 4th and 1: 3 TE, FB: James Aldridge run middle for a yard and first down.
• 2 wr Offset I: Allen run left, big, huge hole for him for 10 yards.
• I form Allen and Aldridge, pitch left to Allen. Again, huge hole. Worth noting at this point that Nevada’s defense is not very good.
• Twins right, singleback: quick pass right from Clausen to Floyd.
• GUN 3 WR single back. Bad swing pass to Allen. Floated it to him. Could have been ugly.
• WILDCAT: Allen took direct snap. No yardage. Clausen at wideout, almost like an option play with Golden Tate running alongside.
• GUN 3 WR, singleback: Clausen pumpfake, perfect pass to Rudolph for a touchdown in the back of the end zone. The ball was a little high, but Rudolph was able to just jump over the linebacker and catch it. 19-yard touchdown.

• Trips left, single back: Allen up the middle.
• offset I, two WR: PA pass, goes deep to Tate. Complete after review. Perfect throw by Clausen over Tate’s shoulder. Impressive catch by Tate. 36 yards.
• WILDCAT: Allen in backfield. It works on a zone read of sorts, Allen takes off left after faking handoff to Tate. Nullified on holding call on Bobby Burger.
• singleback, 2 wr: Pass from Clausen to Golden Tate on a cutback.
• I form, 2 WR: Handoff to Jonas Gray. Goes nowhere.
• GUN 3 WR, singleback: Complete over the middle from Clausen to Parris. Wide open.
• GUN, 2 RB. Clausen has time. Sacked when he tried to scramble.
• singleback, bunch right: Pitch to Allen for 7 yards.
• Offset I, 2 WR: Clausen has time, throws perfect pass to Floyd on a post for a touchdown. Floyd cut inside of the defensive back. Floyd motioned toward center of field, Got in one-on-one coverage and well thrown.

• 3 WR singleback: Aldridge runs middle for 9 yards.
• I form, twins left: Clausen swing pass to Floyd. Floyd goes untouched, outrunning three Nevada defenders from the line of scrimmage with the ball. One Nevada defender fell. Showed good speed. Went 70 yards for touchdown. Tate had a good block, too.

• 3 WR, Dayne Crist at QB: Ran a misdirection screen to Rudolph.
• 3 WR singleback, Clasuen at qb: Reverse to Tate didn’t get too much.
• 2 WR, 2 TE, singleback: Allen toss right swallowed up.
• Notre Dame punt.

• 2 WR, 2 TE, singleback: Allen run middle. Had a pretty large hole to get through.
• (don’t know formation due to TV): Allen run middle for first down.
• 3 WR, singleback. Clausen pumpfaked, overthrew Rudolph, who almost had a Kevin Koger-like one-handed catch.
• 3 WR, TE, empty with Allen coming back to HB: Shotgun screen from Clausen to Allen goes for a big gain. Great setup and good lead blocking by center Eric Olsen and guard Chris Stewart.
• I form, 2 WR: Jonas Gray goes left off tackle. Good hole, again.
• I form, 2 WR: run middle, offensive line got beat but flag for personal foul.
• -singleback, twins right: Gray runs right. No hole there. A couple reserve linemen in on the play.
• twins left motioned into split, singleback: Pitch right to Gray. Good block by Olsen. Just short of scoring a touchdown. Olsen made the block to open the hole on the right side.
• on the 1-yard line offset I, three tight ends: Allen goes left and goes untouched into the end zone for another touchdown.

• start inside 1-yard line: 1 WR, 3 TE, singleback: Allen runs middle between left guard and tackle for a couple yards.
• 2 WR, 2 TE, singleback: Allen up middle. Worth noting that Allen looks a lot more comfortable this year, has pretty good cutback abilities. Decent speed.
• 1 WR 3 TE, singleback: Allen pitch right for a few yards.
• 2 WR, 2 HB: Clausen throws a one-on-one jump ball to Floyd on the left sideline. Floyd jumps over the Nevada cornerback, comes down with it, steps over the Nevada cornerback who tries to tackle him and he just shrugged it off. Great adjustment by Floyd on the ball, too, on the 88-yard touchdown pass.
• After this, it wasn’t worth charting much anymore, but you get the general idea of formations and how Notre Dame looked.

Notre Dame’s offense, against a bad Nevada defense, looked really, really good. Wide receivers Tate and Floyd looked like two of the best wide receivers in the country and Clausen appeared to play just as well as he did in the Hawai’I Bowl. Notre Dame’s run game also looked more than adequate, which is a big improvement from the last two years. Clausen wasn’t pressured all that much, either, which might signify an improvement in the offensive line.

Or, it just proves how bad Nevada’s defense is. Nevada doesn’t have anyone on its team like Brandon Graham, Mike Martin or Obi Ezeh. How the Irish line handles those three will be a key Saturday.

NOTRE DAME'S FIRST OFFENSIVE TOUCHDOWN:

DEFENSIVE THOUGHTS:

• Notre Dame opened in the nickel.
• Unsurprisingly, Notre Dame’s defense has a ton of movement. Safeties constantly cheating up and back, faking blitzes, especially Kyle McCarthy, who is very good against the run. Defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta loves to throw exotic blitzes at teams, so the movement throws opponents off.
• Notre Dame was sending pressure almost every play. A lot of six- and seven-man rushes with guys getting through on every play.
• Even early on, Nevada was able to run pretty well. There were a lot of openings for running backs there, a lot of gashes. However, when Colin Kaepernick (Nevada’s qb) ran, Notre Dame covered that well.
• Linebacker Brian Smith was pretty much everywhere. He sacked Kaepernick twice in the first half. The second one he came through unblocked and tackled the Nevada QB 1-on-1. He’s the leader of the defense and is one of its best readers when it comes to playaction and options.
• Notre Dame was sending safety Sergio Brown on blitzes a lot. He overran Kaepernick a bunch, but is fast and could be a problem. He’s also one of the best athletes on the defense and one of the fastest defenders the Irish have.
• If Notre Dame’s defense did one thing against the run is it collapsed the middle. When Kaepernick got outside the tackle box, he had room to run. Notre Dame wasn’t really needing to respect the pass, either, against Nevada.
• Kaepernick didn’t have much time to throw when he looked to pass. Scrambled a lot. Much of that was due to the blitzing. Would have been sacked a few more times but Notre Dame players overran him a couple times.
• If there is a weakness that stood out during Notre Dame’s win, it is the defensive line. Most of the pressure put on Kaepernick came from the linebackers. And against the run, most of the stops came from the linebackers, too. Holes were there for the Nevada offense.
• That said, on a big fourth down in the second quarter, Nevada ran up the middle and was snuffed by about five Notre Dame defenders, including Toryan Smith.

SPECIAL TEAMS:

• James Aldridge and Theo Riddick take opening kickoff. Riddick returned. Has pretty good speed, hit a nice wedge.
• Nick Tausch, the freshman kicker, couldn’t get the ball to the end zone. Slipped on his second kickoff.
• Kickoff coverage was pretty good with its assignments.
• Golden Tate didn’t look great on his punt returns, but he’s an electrifying returner when given a gash.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan sports for Annarbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.