The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame defeated the Air Force
Falcons yesterday evening by a score of 45-10. The victory was the third straight
win for the Irish and it improved their record to 6-2. I expected a blowout
with my prediction being 45-17, so this game went according to plan.
Despite the lopsided victory, the Irish remain unranked in
the latest AP Poll, but they did crack the Coaches Poll at number 25. The BCS
Standings will be released later tonight, but it doesn’t matter where Notre
Dame is ranked at the end of October. Notre Dame just needs to focus on winning
all their games, and then the Irish will likely climb up the BCS Standings. A potential
10-2 Notre Dame team would certainly be an attractive BCS at-large candidate.
The Positives
1. Tommy Rees’ career-setting
day. After leaving last week’s game with a strained neck, Tommy Rees
enjoyed a career day. The Irish quarterback completed 17 of his 22 passes for
284 yards and 5 touchdowns. Rees did not throw an interception and was able to spread
the ball around very nicely. Eight Notre Dame players had at least one
reception and five different receivers hauled in touchdown grabs. Rees now has
20 touchdowns to just 6 interceptions on his senior season.
2. Everyone got
involved. As I mentioned, many players were involved in the passing game
and three players caught their first touchdown. Corey Robinson, Will Fuller,
and Chris Brown found the end zone for the first time at Notre Dame, and that production
showcases Notre Dame’s depth at the receiver position. Outside of the receivers,
Tarean Folston and Andrew Hendrix also received some valuable playing time down
the stretch. Folston carried the ball 11 times for 47 yards and Hendrix
followed up a 47 yard completion to Fuller with a 4-yard touchdown run.
3. Defense made an
adjustment. After a long opening drive ended with a blocked field goal by
Air Force, the Falcons marched down the field and scored the first touchdown to
take an early 7-0 lead. During the 10-play, 71 yard drive, the Falcons triple
option attack exposed the Irish defense. The Falcon runners were able to get to
the edge and burn the Irish defense for several long gains. However, after that
opening drive, the Irish defense brought more pressure to the edge with their secondary
to help slow down the Air Force ground attack. Defensive backs KeiVarae Russell
and Cole Luke helped out the rushing defense by making six tackles on the edge.
Hopefully, the defense will keep that same strategy going with Navy next on the
schedule.
The Negatives
1. Stalled opening
drive and blocked FG. The Irish opened up the game with a nice 11-play, 46
yard drive, but it ended poorly. With 4th and 2 at the Air Force 24,
Notre Dame was lining up to go for it, but a False Start penalty negated the
decision. After the penalty, Kyle Brindza’s 46 yard field goal was blocked,
leaving the Irish scoreless once again on their opening drive. Fortunately, the
offense was rolling the rest of the day and that lack of execution didn’t come
back to haunt the Irish.
2. Air Force’s opening
drive. As stated earlier, Air Force took an early 7-0 lead with a 10-play,
71 yard drive. During that drive, Notre Dame’s defense looked clueless on how
to defend the triple option. Jaylon Smith was left out on an Island multiple
times, making him choose which player to defend. The results were not good, and
Air Force took advantage of the poor design on defense. The good news was that
Bob Diaco made an adjustment and the defense played much better after that.
That’s it. I couldn’t think of any more concerns about how
the Irish played. Notre Dame played well in all facets of the game, and they
will look to continue that next week when they return to South Bend to take on
Navy.
-Eric Tichelbaut
Follow me on Twitter
@etichel07
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