Breaking down PFF grades for the Notre Dame offense in win vs. Duke
Notre Dame didn’t play its best offensive ball for four quarters against Duke, but the Fighting Irish did enough to leave Durham with a 21-14 victory. Pro Football Focus graded every Notre Dame player who saw the field for the Irish on offense.
PFF gives every player a grade of -2 to +2 in increments of 0.5 for every play. A “0” is average or expected. Each position has its own grading rubric. The plus-minus grades are converted to a 0-100 scale.
Grades in the upper 90s are next to impossible. Grades in the lower 90s are elite. Grades in the 80s are elite to very good. Grades in the 70s are very good to good. Grades in the 60s are good to average. Grades in the 50s are average to below average. Grades in the 40s and below are bad. For reference, Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. leads all FBS QBs with a season-long grade of 93.7.
The following chart is sorted in order of overall offense grade.
Notre Dame offense PFF grades from Irish win vs. Duke
RankPlayerSnapsOverall Offense GradePassing GradePass Blocking GradeRunning GradeRun Blocking Grade1TE Mitchell Evans6087.989.267.9–59.82LT Joe Alt6671.3–79.1–64.73QB Sam Hartman6669.769.0–61.360.04RB Audric Estimé4764.762.238.365.5–5RB Chris Tyree4364.562.2––79.66RG Rocco Spindler6663.5–53.2–65.27TE Cooper Flanagan261.7–––67.18RB Gi;Bran Payne760.457.524.362.3–9LG Pat Coogan6659.4–59.7–58.010RB Devyn Ford459.158.8––59.511RB Jadarian Price956.656.622.6–59.212WR Rico Flores Jr.5956.457.1––73.713TE Holden Staes2954.252.5––61.014RB Jeremiyah Love753.760.5–53.9–14RT Blake Fisher6653.7–60.2–50.116C Zeke Correll6650.9–63.8–56.617WR Tobias Merriweather6342.744.6––62.7
Blue & Gold takeaways
• Evans undoubtedly deserves the top spot for his six catches and 134 yards.
• Alt had Notre Dame’s best pass-blocking grade. No surprise there.
• Hartman only completed 50 percent of his passes and did not account for a touchdown, but he showed up with the game on the line and did not make the big mistake that could have costed Notre Dame a victory. He had the ultimate grind it out type of performance.
• Estimé also did not have his best game from start to finish but he scored two touchdowns, and Notre Dame would not have won without him.
• Tyree was inconsistent as a pass-catcher in the first half of the season, but he’s a competitor. He turned in Notre Dame’s best run-blocking grade vs. Duke.
• Spindler receiving the second-best grade of any Notre Dame offensive lineman is encouraging. It felt like he had the best first half of the season he possibly could have after being named a starter very late in fall camp.
• Flores Jr. was targeted seven times and only caught two passes, so he was dinged in his overall score, but a run-blocking grade of 73.7 gets the job done. He’s physical on the perimeter.
• PFF didn’t like what it saw from Correll and Fisher, apparently. Correll seemed to be a bit off in the middle all night.
• Speaking of being a bit off. Merriweather played a team-high 63 snaps among Notre Dame wide receivers, of which there were only three healthy enough to give it a go. Merriweather looked a little worn down and out of it by the end of the game. He did not have a stellar first half of the season, to say the least.
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