Hey Horka! What is the primary issue with the Notre Dame offense?

The Notre Dame offense has hit some bumps in the road the last two weeks, only averaging 17.5 points per game in a 1-1 showing vs Ohio State and Duke. We start this edition of the Hey Horka! BlueandGold.com message board mailbag column with the biggest issue for the Irish offense outside of simply facing very good opponents in the last two games. Then we get into many more Notre Dame football questions.

What is the primary issue with the Notre Dame offense? — BSmitty8

Not staying on time. Notre Dame was 3-for-15 on third down vs. Duke. Why? The Fighting Irish had an average distance to go of 8.9 yards. You’re telling me you can only get just over a yard on average on the first two downs of every series? Penalties factor into that. Ineffectively play calling. Poor execution on the players’ part. It all adds up. Gotta stay on time.

Did Notre Dame use any misdirection or counters in the running game? Any screens in the passing game? I don’t remember any. — KWSUSMC

Very vanilla in the run game. Lots of runs up the gut, and the last couple of games Audric Estimé has seemed indecisive and slow to get going. Notre Dame loves going to Jaden Greathouse in the screen game and obviously he wasn’t playing. I don’t think this was offensive coordinator Gerad Parker‘s best game.

Any chance Rylie Mills returns for a graduate season? — Irons50

I think so, absolutely.However, his stock is growing. He’s been the No. 2 graded player on the Notre Dame defense per Pro Football Focus each of the last two weeks.

How would you assign blame on a percentage basis for the following parties’ contributions to a poor offensive output for Notre Dame vs. Duke; Gerad Parker/play calling, Sam Hartman, offensive line, lack of wide receiver depth, Duke’s performance. — arrowfan624

• WRs – 30% (Those are arguably Notre Dame’s two best, most reliable wideouts who were missing [Jayden Thomas and Jaden Greathouse]; That messes with the entire operation)
• Duke – 30% (That’s a really well coached football team)
• Parker – 20% (I don’t think this was his best stuff from a play calling standpoint)
• Hartman – 15% (He missed some throws he normally makes)
• O-line – 5% (I thought they were good, particularly Joe Alt and Rocco Spindler and maybe even Pat Coogan. Zeke Correll was not great and Blake Fisher was so-so)

Does Al Golden need to blitz Benjamin Morrison less? — arrowfan624

I’m not a huge fan of corner blitzes unless the guy is the most surefire tackler on the team, and Morrison is not that, so yes. Stop blitzing him as much. That’s not his game. Let him do his thing, which is cover guys like glue.

Is Louisville still a trap game? — arrowfan624

Yes and no. Yeah, the Cardinals are ranked and undefeated and the game is in primetime so in a way it feels like the Duke game all over again. But I think Notre Dame players really respected the heck out of Duke and knew the Blue Devils would pose a serious challenge because of head coach Mike Elko and quarterback Riley Leonard. Louisville coach Jeff Brohm and quarterback Jack Plummer are guys who Notre Dame has beaten recently and Louisville looked really bad in a narrow win over NC State on Friday, so this is a trap game in the sense that the Irish might not be as up for it as they need to be.

Since we don’t have all-22 footage, what is your best guess for the problems the Notre Dame wide receivers are having getting open? — JoelMRapp

We basically have an all 22 view in the press box. And those guys just weren’t getting open. Period. It’s a serious problem. So is depth. You can’t have Tobias Merriweather playing 63 snaps when he isn’t in a place to deserve such a high share to begin with. The WR situation is still much better than it was a year ago but it was never going to be completely solved overnight. Notre Dame needs to get some more speed in the room. Tyree is fast but he’s new to this. And Merriweather is just missing something. Need more speed.

Does Marcus Freeman need to be less of a players coach and more of a disciplinarian to fix the stupid penalties and mental errors? — Hond92

I don’t think you can 100 percent correlate being a players coach to the increasing volume of discipline issues, but for what it’s worth I’ve always been of the thinking that the best coaches in college football have a mean streak. Nick Saban is living embodiment of it. He will chew you the heck out, but it doesn’t mean his guys don’t love him. From what it seems, they do. So yeah, I think there would be some benefit to Freeman going off every now and again to send a message.

Is Notre Dame getting the most out of Audric Estimé? — Hond92

He was given six carries in the first quarter and didn’t take any of them for more than six yards. He seems to be as hesitant as I’ve ever seen him as a runner. So some of this is on him. Even with that, though, he finds ways to impact the game. That game winner will be replayed for a long time. Estimé is going to be just fine, even if he isn’t getting 20-plus carries a game routinely.

Parker’s offense seems very vanilla. Are we getting to the point in the season when teams have figured Notre Dame out? — tky21

I do think this is a pretty simple offense, yeah. Parker called a very vanilla game vs. Duke, at the very least. Maybe that’s because the wide receiver corps was so undermanned. It’s not like Notre Dame isn’t dialing up deep shots though. The Irish just aren’t hitting them.

Hartman was 1-for-6 on passes that traveled at least 20 yards downfield vs. Duke and he’s now 13-of-26 on them for the year. I do think there was a good opportunity to dial up targets and passing plays for running backs given the circumstances and there wasn’t a whole lot of that. Estimé caught three targets for 16 yards and Jeremiyah Love caught one target for seven yards. Get back to scripting some designed catches for Jadarian Price. He was not used nearly enough being that Notre Dame was two skill players down.

How has the Notre Dame defense impressed/underwhelmed you in the second year under Al Golden? — thomasna

Notre Dame’s red zone defense has had a night and day turnaround from No. 130 last year to No. 6 this year. That’s impressive. On the negative side, I suppose I’m a bit surprised by the lack of multiplicity. I understand wanting to be a base nickel defense and really leaning into that, but if you don’t have packages to get a guy like Jack Kiser on the field more than he’s been playing then that’s an issue. The Jaylen Sneed development hasn’t been what I thought it was. Maybe that’s a Sneed issue, but that might also be Golden not scheming up a way to get him in there. So for me it’s just a couple personnel and development concerns.

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