A lot of rust was to be expected for Notre Dame football as they took the field for the first time this Saturday in a tighter-than-expected 14-point win over the visiting Duke Blue Devils. The Irish sputtered to zero yards on their first 3 drives and only led 10-6 at halftime before showing a lot more promise in a rainy and misty second half in front of a socially distanced crowd of 10,097 fans.
It’s good to see college football back and now we have a lot of data on this 2020 Notre Dame team. There’s much work to be done but also a handful of really promising areas to talk about after game one.
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | DUKE |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 13 |
| Plays | 73 | 67 |
| Total Yards | 441 | 334 |
| Yards Per Play | 6.0 | 5.0 |
| Conversions | 9/18 | 4/16 |
| Completions | 19 | 20 |
| Yards/Pass Attempt | 8.4 | 7.0 |
| Rushes | 42 | 30 |
| Rushing Success | 38.4% | 25.0% |
| 10+ Yds Rushing | 6 | 4 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 20.8% | 26.0% |
Unexpectedly, the game wasn’t very sloppy with just 70 combined penalty yards. Yet, Notre Dame definitely wasn’t very sharp early on–and as both players and coaches commented afterward–they took some time to get used to some new looks Duke threw at them compared to last year’s meeting.
Offense
QB: D
RB: B+
TE: B+
OL: C+
WR: D-
We’ve seen this type of performance in the past where Notre Dame seemingly tries to ease its way into a game by trying to overpower their opponent and put so much weight on the shoulders of its offensive line. It’s like the inverse of a Big 12 team thinking constant 4 verticals are going to open the game up in the first quarter. Well, it did not work early on against Duke. The Irish ran on 1st down 4 straight times to start the game for 5 total yards and with no success.
It was an ugly offensive performance until punter Jay Bramblett’s 14-yard run early in the 2nd quarter (the game’s first successful run for Notre Dame!) spurred a 96-yard touchdown drive. Prior to that fake, Notre Dame was averaging 1.1 yards per play and from then on they would average 7.3 yards per play.
Ian Book played very poorly at times, reverting back to old habits of happy feet in the pocket, feeling nonexistent pressure, holding on to the ball too long, and not being a big enough threat with his legs. This type of Book can get by against most teams but won’t cut it for the Irish in big games.
Clearly, Book was rusty. Many of his early throws were a little inaccurate but lacked his usual soft touch. Numerous short passes and screens were fired off way too hard. His decision making was acceptable but there just wasn’t his typical sharpness especially in the short passing game.
A big question moving forward will be how much of this was indeed rust and/or how much of this was Book not trusting or not being in sync with his receiving corps? The Irish lost 2,008 receiving yards from their top 3 main targets last year, didn’t have presumed No. 1 new receiver Kevin Austin, didn’t see presumed No. 2 target Braden Lenzy play due to a hamstring, and presumed helpful new transfer Bennett Skowronek left the game in the first half with a hamstring pull following one target and no catches.
Here’s my feeling: This won’t be a very good set of receivers until a couple games after Austin returns from his foot injury. Hopefully, that happens before the Clemson game. In the tougher games, I think Book has to be forced into a role as a runner early on. Notice in this game, he was pretty much a non-factor on the ground (1 successful run all game) and to me the offense usually doesn’t function well when this happens.
Rushing Success
Williams – 8 of 19 (42.1%)
Tyree – 1 of 6 (16.6%)
Bramblett – 1 of 1 (100%)
Book – 1 of 6 (16.6%)
Armstrong – 1 of 2 (50%)
Smith – 3 of 5 (60%)
I figured Notre Dame would dial up a lot of crossing routes to tight ends and boy did they ever. At times, it felt like that’s all that was working for the offense. Out of Book’s 31 targets, only 11 went to receivers with the tight ends picking up 11 and the running backs picking up 9 targets, as well. Even more interesting, only 1 out of Book’s first 12 targets went to a wide receiver. That smells like trust issues to me.
To be fair, 7 catches for 74 yards and a big touchdown from Avery Davis isn’t terrible on only 11 targets for the receivers.
One thing is for certain, Tommy Rees & Co. wanted to force feed redshirt freshman Kyren Williams and he responded with winning the game ball after 203 yards from scrimmage, finishing as the game’s leader in rushing and receiving. Williams was targeted 7 times through the air in addition to his 19 carries while not playing on the last two series of the game. Have the Irish found their main guy in the backfield already?
If this game is any indication, tight ends Tommy Tremble (5 catches for 38 yards) and true freshman Michael Mayer (3 catches for 38 yards) are going to be a huge part of the offense. Tremble had a very up and down day with a couple drops and some poor blocking but offers massive play-making ability at his position. Mayer is likely a freshman All-American lock.
I thought the offensive line played okay, they struggled early when Duke was pinning their ears back against some vanilla play-calling and then rounded into form for the better part of the last 3 quarters. Book wasn’t really harassed much (3 sacks allowed but 2 I didn’t think were on the line, and only 2 pressures outside of that) and the pass-blocking held up just fine.
Normally, it’s the end of the world if one or two short-yardage situations aren’t converted while we rarely talk about it when things go well. Against Duke, the Irish paved the way for a trio of 3rd & 1 conversions on the ground, a 26-yard score by Williams on 4th & 1, and a goal line score by Williams again on 1st & 1. A perfect 5 for 5 in those situations likely won’t get much press but has to make the line happy.
At the same time, a 38.4% rushing success overall is quite poor. There was a little bit better of an explosiveness to the offense on the ground but the overall success rate just has to improve this year. Even for how well he played, Kyren Williams’ first 6 carries of the game were unsuccessful while budding freshman star Chris Tyree’s 25-yard scamper was his only successful carry of the game–his other 5 touches netted only 1 yard!
A lack of sharpness, a distrust of the receivers, and Ian Book not able to fully engage himself and lift the whole offense marred a fairly pedestrian performance for the offense on Saturday.
Defense
DL: A-
LB: B+
DB: B-
It was just another Clark Lea special. Duke had a few brief moments in this game when they could move the ball, especially in the first half when they put together 2 very long scoring drives, but nothing was sustained. Eventually, the Irish closed in and shut things down.
The tackling left a lot to be desired early, which is to be expected given the off-season. Some of the big plays needed to be cleaned up as the Blue Devils totaled 126 yards on just 4 plays. I thought the Irish were a little too aggressive early and over-ran a lot of plays (especially the linebackers) and yet they cleaned all of that up, too.
In Duke’s 63 other plays, they managed just 208 yards or 3.3 yards per play.
Another feather in Lea’s cap is that the defense rotated bodies. A lot. Second and third-team guys were seeing the field from the beginning and the drop-off wasn’t super noticeable. Players like linebackers Marist Liufau (first career start!) and Bo Bauer played liberally while someone like safety D.J. Brown got a ton of work, especially after Kyle Hamilton left the game with an ankle injury.
The brightest spot for Notre Dame was that the defensive line looks primed and ready for another big season.
Stuffs vs. Duke
Owusu-Koramoah – 2.5
Tagavailoa-Amosa – 2.5
White – 2.0
Hinish – 2.0
Foskey – 1.5
Bauer – 1.0
Hayes – 0.5
Ogundeji – 0.5
Ademilola, Ju. – 0.5
Oghoufo – 0.5
Lacey – 0.5
The starters on the interior played some of their best games of their careers, numerous guys all across the line made noise, and redshirt freshman Isaiah Foskey (1 sack, 1 TFL, 1 PBU, 2 hurries) looks like he’s going to be a major problem for Notre Dame opponents all season.
Drew White was his usual solid self and JOK continues to amaze. The rotation at Buck linebacker seemed to heavily favor Liufau and I thought he acquitted himself well.
I’m not sure about the secondary if I’m being honest, especially if Hamilton’s ankle is going to be an issue moving forward. With Crawford (180 lbs) at safety flanked by D.J. Brown (194 lbs) the secondary is really small and without Hamilton’s play-making ability it is going to be susceptible to poor tackling and/or getting dragged for extra yardage against the better teams.
Final Thoughts
The Kyle Hamilton injury obviously looms large over the program. He left the game early in the 3rd quarter and in just over a half had 7 tackles, a pass break-up, and one quarterback hurry and hit on Duke’s Chase Brice. Without him for an extended amount of time it’s big trouble for the secondary. After the game, Kelly said Hamilton could’ve gone back in but I don’t believe that and I’m extremely skeptical. I could see him missing the next month and sitting out through the bye week.
When Hamilton went down Brown came in as we mentioned above. As far as I’m aware the perceived third safety Houston Griffith didn’t even see the field. Ohio State transfer Isaiah Pryor made a couple nice plays on special teams but doesn’t look like a factor in the safety rotation, either. Someone needs to grow up fast back there.
Speaking of special teams, my goodness. Jay Bramblett changed the game with his fake punt,boomed all but one of his punts, and finished with 3 inside the Duke 20-yard line. Jonathan Doerer was also cool as a cucumber on a pair of field goal attempts, while coverage was good, Keys looked calm returning punts, and Tyree had a couple nice kick returns.
Is it okay that I was a little disappointed in Tyree’s debut? In his first action he didn’t seem quite comfortable enough and missed some cutting opportunities, while slipping on the wet turf a couple times. Still, his 38-yard kick return and 25-yard rush flashed some of his future brilliance hopefully.
Many months ago, I would’ve put C’Bo Flemister as one of the top 2 backs for 2020 just based off the perception from last year. The coaching staff seemed to love him. He had zero carries on Saturday against Duke. That could be a health issue that we’re not aware of but it’s pretty crazy that Kyren Williams and Chris Tyree have quickly become the unquestioned 1-2 punch in the backfield.
According to the depth chart, Shayne Simon was supposed to make his first start at Buck linebacker. He didn’t, then I thought he looked a little underwhelming (0 tackles on the day) while not playing a ton. I’m curious to see how this situation develops over the season.
The stadium atmosphere was surprisingly refreshing given the low expectations and only about a 15% full bowl of seats. Things didn’t seem all that weird on television.
Tony Dungy is perfectly milquetoast as the new color commentator. One thing for me though, I’d love someone really young in the booth in this position. I understand that you want a seasoned veteran calling the game but the color man doesn’t have to be the in the same vein. Dungy is 64 years old and the last 3 people to do it long-term (Doug Flutie, Mike Mayock, and Pat Haden) were all in their 50’s as they solidified their spot on the broadcast. I’d really like someone who grew up with internet and understands modern television and viewers a lot better.
There were ACC patches on the jerseys and the ACC insignia’s all over the field, too. Nothing felt as jarring as seeing the ACC logo on the front of the helmet bumpers! Is it weird that I’m upset we went there?
Besides Davis’ 17-yard touchdown, was a single pass caught more than 8 yards down field against Duke?
Prediction: Michael Mayer will leave Notre Dame with the most receptions by a tight end in school history. If he plays 37 more games for the Irish (leaving after his junior season) he has to average 3.7 catches per game to surpass Tyler Eifert’s 140 receptions.
Notre Dame was trailing 3-0 in this game and decided then was the time to release the news that Brian Kelly has been extended through the 2024 season. This could’ve provided us with invaluable off-season content, guys!
The good: the dudes in defense jumped out: Foskey, wu, and Hamilton all looks like they made jumps and will just wreck game plans. Thought the d line was really active; only drawing 1 holding call seemed really low. The running backs are a huge upgrade and we’re really fun to watch. I thought Rees called a good game quarters 2-4.
Bad: the wr were not good. At all. Davis made a nice catch and joe Wilkins did some good things but the rest created no separataion. McKinley and Skowronek together felt like the d could put 9 in the box, it was like a 5 tight end set. Book, it wasn’t just chemistry with the receivers it was all the small stuff. In 2018, it’s not like he had a whole off season as the no 1 guy but he meshed right away and was really accurate. Yesterday, like last year, he wasn’t accurate on short stuff, didn’t know when to use tough passes, missed open guys. He’s going to have to make a sizable jump and that doesn’t feel possible at this point.
Sadly agree. The other thing about Book that I think will just never go away is running out of bounds for a 2 yard loss instead of throwing the ball away. That is a super frustrating habit and I don’t know why he can’t be coached out of it.
We clearly looked rusty – Book and WRs especially. Of the other ranked teams who played yesterday we saw: Clemson won big but didn’t cover. UNC won and covered, but they were only up 10-6 going into 4Q. Texas and OU beat up on a couple of bodybags at home.
Among unranked teams, Iowa St, K State, Kansas, and Texas Tech all struggled or straight up lost their warmup games. FSU lost to GT while 14 point favorites at home. Not a lot of data at this point, but only a couple of teams looked really solid in their first game, and we’re not sure how good Duke is.
So, we clearly need to see improvement, in the passing game especially, but the sky is not falling yet.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/page/gamedayfinal200912/sun-belt-big-12-notre-dame-acc-more-college-football-week-2
Of the guys who have played already (so no SEC guys) Kryen is getting some Heisman love (search his name or scroll down) as being the 4th on a five guy list for his performance yesterday.
One disagreement: the receivers were fine (nothing special, but fine). Wilkins got a ton of separation when he was on the field. Davis looked unexpectedly solid. The broadcast showed at least 2 or 3 wide open receivers downfield that Book didn’t notice, which is nothing new for him. Until Book is willing to throw downfield, this offense will never be a top 10 unit. He’s just not a QB that you can ride to a championship.
And that’s fine! He’s still been a good player for this program, and he’s never going to lose you a game. But let’s stop laying all this blame on the receivers. He never could stretch a defense, even when he had Boykin (3rd round pick), Claypool (2nd round pick), and Kmet (2nd round pick). We’ve been hearing for years that ND doesn’t have the pass catchers to create a strong passing attack, but clearly the NFL disagrees.
I think it’s a little of column A, a little of column B. IMO, Book did stretch the field with Claypool last year, he had plenty of long catches and a big average.
You’re not wrong Book wasn’t sharp, and any Heisman talk is crazy. He’s a good “system” QB, will be productive but not perfect from time to time.
That said, it’s also more than fair to say ND just didn’t have a lot of talent on the field at WR yesterday. That problem might have been compounded by Book and/or Rees not having confidence in them too, which hurts the WR’s even more of the QB isn’t really looking at them and the play calling isn’t good for them either.
I’d hope Book, playcalling and WR talent all takes a step forward in the weeks to come. Clearly Book isn’t going to be a huge elite player, but he’s shown he can distribute the ball and win games he should.
Maybe, but it seems like every year we start the season saying Book doesn’t have talent at receiver. Every year the NFL proves us wrong. Really wish All-22 existed for ND games, because I swear he was just ignoring McKinley in 1-on-1 situations downfield over and over. And Keys seemed to beat his man downfield multiple times too.
Got the win, didn’t really make any bad decisions, so I’m happy with the win. But there’s a 0% chance that the Book we saw yesterday will keep us in a game against Clemson.
Not sure the NFL draft is the indictment on Book having sufficient talent at WR. If you compare Notre Dame to other playoff teams (Bama, Clemson, UGA, Oklahoma, Ohio State), ND lags a lot in WR talent, by a mile. And what was on the field yesterday was by far the least talent collection while Book has been playing.
I do agree that Book playing like yesterday has no chance of beating Clemson. Same could be said about the o-line and overall talent level all over the field, really.
A lot of teams losing their top two WRs in camp would struggle in the pass game opening day. I’m not saying Book wasn’t disappointing, just that I don’t think Austin and Lenzy being out should be over looked.
I agree, it’s definitely both columns.
I get the sense that WR inconsistency really gets to Book. He struggled at the beginning of last season too but settled in once he developed a connection with Claypool and Kmet. When asked about Book in the press conference, BK seemed to allude to this idea, noting that he was trying to do too much and couldn’t even do the easy things right. In the first half, his fundamentals were all over the place but seemed to settle in during the second half.
I was really impressed by:
(1) Lea — continued excellence, solid adjustments, and great job rotating players
(2) K Williams — finally, a back with some moves
(3) Mayer — Baby Gronk seems like a good nickname so far
(4) Hamilton — I’m already sad that he’ll be missing games (or will be rushed back too soon)
(5) Foskey (and others on the d-line) — great unit led by Elston
I was really unimpressed by:
(1) Quinn’s o-line — the line could not budge Duke at the start of the game
(2) I thought that Book looked pretty bad, and all that I could think of was “same ol’ Book…we don’t have a chance vs. Clemson”. Why won’t he look downfield and open it up? It’s no secret any more for opposing d-coordinators — load up the box to try and stop the run and the short passes; no need to worry about anything more than 15 yards downfield
If you rewatch the first three series there was very little to complain about with the OL’s performance. Wright and Williams were the biggest culprits for the poor start for the run game.
It’s a testament to how well we’ve done these past few years that I – and I suspect many of you – never thought we could lose yesterday at any point in the game.
You know, this is a really good point. 10 years ago this game would have been a total white-knuckler with the team panicking and making all sorts of dumb mistakes.
+1 to this.
Interestingly, it seems over the last ~3 years when ND has come out sluggish, they’ve made excellent adjustments at halftime, which begs the question – how is the coaching staff always gameplanning wrong? I get that you can’t scout a team 100% accurately and everyone likes to save a little something, but seems remarkable that they have months to scout teams and but then are able to adjust on the fly during the game while also coaching the game.
The other teams scout too and throw new wrinkles that need to be accounted for in game.
But then why doesn’t ND have any wrinkles to throw at the other teams? It’s still a one-way problem that gets fixed relatively well at half…but man, why even bother scouting if it doesn’t seem to help and can easily be addressed in the locker room. Just practice basic stuff more, like touch-passes and turning your head to the ball.
Of course ND throws in wrinkles and practices basics. Of course this year practice was limited more than ever.
But ND’s wrinkles don’t work – and everyone else had limited practices. Just amazing how ND is consistently stymied in the 1st quarter/half and then turns it around. It is remarkable how well they adapt and adjust.
I’m willing to give it a few more games with Tommy Rees at the helm before I agree this is the case. He’s coached 2 games, and in one game he put up 10 points in both the first and second quarter.
I think it’s possible that we only seem to be consistently bad in first quarters because we’ve been so so good at halftime adjustments the past few years.
For clarity, I was not singling out TR – seems like both sides of the ball have had problems starting games for years now, but seem to figure it out later on.
Sometimes teams start fast, sometimes not. Most games it takes the better team some time to separate. This is not an ND thing.
Rees and Quinn were Kelly’s two most questionable assistant hires and it’s showing, unfortunately. Rees needs time to grow, but Quinn is a real problem. If he can’t produce an top-flight OL with this personnel, then it’s never going to happen.
I think Rees is OK and probably was the best hire to maximize this year’s returns – switching offenses this year would have been particularly hard given the lack of spring practice and *gestures vaguely at everything else in 2020*. But I think it’s also clear enough after a couple games that he’s not a playcalling savant. It’ll be more steady-as-she-goes than, e.g., Oklahoma after they hired Lincoln Riley as OC.
Quinn, man, I dunno. He can recruit well enough but it sure seems like he’s not a good coach.
I liked the most of Rees’ calls and game plan. They clearly had it in mind to run a lot on first down and didn’t want to abandon that. It just didn’t work. That’s kinda why I’m at a loss some are miffed there was no vertical passing game with the weapons that were on the field. This is going to be a power run type of team, hopefully incorporating play action, jet sweeps and fakes and get to the edges like that. It’s not designed to be a vertical offense.
The Quinn stuff, who knows. Is it possible the players just aren’t THAT good? They’re clearly not McGlinchey/Nelson top-10 picks. It is disappointing they have found another gear, for all their experience you would think that alone would help them develop into better players. But that hasn’t been the case. I’m sure Quinn isn’t absolved here, but I kinda wonder about the actual material he has.
Also if a defense is stacking the box with 6-7 players, what can 5 o linemen do? The numbers game is going to hurt that group until they get Lenzy to stretch the field more or be in motion pre-play to give defenses more to stay honest.
Commitment to the run is great, but the first few series were painful to watch. Where were the jet sweeps, counters, RPOs, etc. that ND has run so effectively the last couple years? There were also no screen passes early. The offense looked like the play book of a 5th grade Pop Warner team, with no misdirection to speak of. It looked to me as if Rees either:
A) Didn’t respect Duke at all, and just assumed our boys could maul theirs right out of the gate
ii) Didn’t trust his veteran QB to make anything happen.
Tommy’s early play calling also meant the O-line was given an unnecessarily difficult task. Every play was exactly what it looked like it would be, and Duke could be as aggressive as they wanted to be.
I’m not sure I agree with your assessment of the first few drives. First play was a pretty straighforward zone run, but the second play I think Book had two receivers coming open if he doesn’t panic into a sack. It was hard to tell what happened on the third play because you can’t see the routes, but I don’t think there was a lack of trust in Book the first drive. Second drive would’ve been converted if Book doesn’t panic in a completely fine pocket and give Tremble a bad ball. Third drive we ran a counter trey to Tyree that he probably takes for 7 if Tremble chips the guy on the edge who slows Tyree down. Then Tyree makes a freshman move and leaves a rusher completely free.
Hard for me to chalk it up to the play-calling when we had three drives killed by pretty clearly poor execution by individuals.
Appreciate the reply. I’ll go back and re-watch, as my comment was based on first impression. The running play selection was what stood out to me most.
Is it possible that Foskey is already the third-best player on defense? He looked like an absolute beast yesterday.
E — I agree with your comments on Dungy. Tirico is awesome, but Dungy was a bit “meh”. I agree with the idea of opening it up to someone younger, perhaps Collinsworth?
Drew Brees was anointed the next NBC color man in April. A lot has happened since then, but I did write something for the site on the subject: https://18stripes.com/drew-brees-mike-tirico-and-whats-next-for-notre-dame-on-nbc/
Oh hell yeah! I missed this, but I’ll love hearing Drew do commentary. Great voice and I imagine he’ll be a very strong analyst/color guy. He comes across as super genuine as a person imho, and I think he’ll be a better “former opposing QB turned color guy” than Haden or Flutie ever were.
I will say, I’ve been a big Kyren Williams fan ever since Eric’s excellent analysis of ND’s running back elusiveness in 2019 (great read btw, link posted below).
There have been reasons here or there as to why Kyren did not receive much playing time last year, but that potential elusiveness (small sample size or not) made me excited about his game. Glad the coaching staff gave him a chance, and his hard work is paying off well this year. I wonder what our RB elusive ratings will fare this year as compared to last year, when all is said and done. Makes me excited for this year and the next couple with respect to our running game!
https://18stripes.com/elusive-rating-how-to-save-the-2019-irish-run-game/
Did you see how elusive Kyren was on Saturday!?? Made me so happy.
Yes I did – even that 2 yd goal line touchdown, where the defender thought he made a TFL… What’s that word the 18Stripes used to use – explosiva?? If so, maybe we should bring it back for this new crop of running backs
I think it would then be “ELUSIVA” – but then I’d just be incorrectly guessing Portuguese
(Side note: Why did the announcer not use EXPLOSIVO? Doesn’t Portuguese operate the same feminine/masculine ending scheme as Spanish? Or was the object of the explosiveness his speed, which is always feminine?)
The latter (speed or play), announcer was not directly describing Weel.
Obrigado
I rewatched the first 9 plays of the game closely and I actually think the OL did quite well. The first stuffed run was due to a perhaps miscommunicated double team where the wrong guy came off the block and couldn’t get the LB who made the stuff. Other than that everything was on either the RBs or TEs as far as I could tell. I think the OL is an easy scapegoat when the running game isn’t working, but people are rarely able to actually parse what’s going on with the line in real time.
Nice observation. I think that this call’s for an 18 Stripes article breaking down some of these opening plays!
Well put. In many ways it’s a no-win situation for Quinn and the current linemen because it’s fairly unattainable to be 2017 blowing-everyone-away power line led by Nelson. And as has been analyzed here, even that line had a fair % of getting stuffed themselves. So the line has to battle a lasting perception that probably is better in memory than it even was in reality.
The most improvement I’m looking for is in the short yardage situation where they struggled big time last year to get first downs. And like Eric wrote in the article, they were 5/5 in such situations in game 1. Not glamorous, but effective. That 4th &1 TD run was basically the key point and turning point of the game to make it 17-6 and Duke’s offense sputtering.
One thing that interests me is Book was under center for that and Ryan Harris mentioned on The Shamrock podcast how running games can be more effective there, since the RB is moving faster when he gets the ball versus a pistol/shotgun where he usually doesn’t have a lot of momentum going when he receives the hand-off. I’ll be interested to see if they go more under center in the weeks to come, at least until more of the WR weapons are back.
Hopefully with Lenzy back they can also motion him more and give the defense more to worry about on the edges rather than just middle runs where they can overload and use numbers to muck it up for short gains.
Yeah a lot can get better with a bit more vision from Kyren. Something very teachable with tape watching, practice, and more game reps. I’m not super worried yet.
If the takeaway from his first ever collegiate start is that he was a stud in pass protection, but needed to be more patient in letting gaps open up, count me as a huge fan. It implies that his gaudy stat line has plenty of room for improvement, and he can be trusted to stay on the field in all types of game situations.