Notre Dame football vs Toledo: Offensive Grades for 2021 Week 2

Notre Dame football vs Toledo: Offensive Grades for 2021 Week 2

Offensive Line

Coming into the year, one could be cautiously optimistic about the offensive line. Yes, four of last year’s starters needed to be replaced, but the Irish have always been good on the offensive line during the Brian Kelly era. Several players on this Irish offensive line had even seen playing time.

Yes, it was cautious optimism, but it was optimism about the team’s biggest question mark.

Through two games, it’s clear that this optimism was fool’s gold. Injuries to both the starting left tackle Blake Fisher and his backup Michael Carmody left third-string left tackle Tosh Baker in, and he was quickly overwhelmed in both the passing and rushing games.

It would be unfair to single out Baker, though, as the entire offensive line got blown off the ball almost every play. Toledo, a MAC team, dominated the line of scrimmage. It was as frustrating a game as could have happened for the line. Worse, this unit is clearly not working well together, missing blocking assignments and existing out of synch.

Notre Dame Football vs. Toledo: 3 things we learned in Week 2

It was another nail-biter for the Irish, but in the end, the Notre Dame football team ran their record to 2-0 on the young season at home in Week 2.

The entire offense fails if the offensive line fails, and this unit is currently failing. Toledo has 6 sacks and 11 tackles for loss. You can’t do anything with that.

Grade: F