Notre Dame’s BCS hopes came to a crashing halt last Saturday
night when the Pittsburgh Panthers handed the Fighting Irish their third loss
of the season, 28-21. I thought the game would be a close one, but I did not
expect the Irish to play as poorly as they did. Notre Dame made many mistakes
throughout the game and they could not overcome the errors. As a result, by
losing their third game of the season, Notre Dame will have to regroup and
focus on ending the season on a positive note. After a bye week this week,
Notre Dame will host BYU and travel to Stanford for the season finale. With
both games providing tests for Notre Dame, the Irish will be fortunate to
finish the season 8-4.
Notre Dame started off the scoring when Tommy Rees found
DaVaris Daniels for a 10-yard touchdown with 3:41 remaining in the first
quarter. From there, the Panthers and Irish would trade scores with Notre Dame
eventually taking a 21-14 lead with 3:29 remaining in the third quarter when
Rees hit T.J. Jones in stride for an 80-yard strike. After the Irish took the
lead, the Panthers would dominate final 18-plus minutes to come away with the
victory.
The Positive
1. Big play
potential. There weren’t a lot of positives to choose from in a very poorly
played game by Notre Dame, but the one bright spot was the Irish’s ability to
make big plays offensively. Notre Dame had 451 yards of total offense, with a
good percentage of that production coming on six plays that totaled 243 yards.
Rees had pass plays of 80, 38, 34, and 23 yards on the night, while T.J. Jones
(35) and George Atkinson III (33) added long plays of their own on the ground.
Without the big plays, it would have been a long night for the Irish offense as
they could not sustain any long drives. Despite the explosive plays, Notre Dame
was on the losing side due to many mistakes, miscues, and errors.
The Negatives
1. Turnovers. In
a game that was as close as Saturday’s, turnovers proved to be the difference
in the outcome as the Irish lost the turnover battle, 3-0. Tommy Rees threw two
careless interceptions and T.J. Jones had a costly fumble after hauling in a
34-yard grab. One of the Rees interceptions and the Jones fumble occurred in
the red zone and cost the Irish potentially 14 points. The other interception
set up a Pittsburgh touchdown as Ray Vinopal returned the INT 40 yards to set
the Panthers up with first and goal from the five yard line. In all, the three
turnovers created a potential 21-point swing that was too much for the Irish to
overcome. All three turnovers were careless and are mistakes that senior players
should not be making in November.
2. Time of Possession.
Based on Notre Dame’s tendency for big plays, the Irish controlled the ball
for only 23:27. The 13:06 time of possession advantage for Pittsburgh was
critical for sustaining offensive drives since the Irish defense could not stay
off the field. I will never bash an offense for scoring too quickly, but there
are times when sustaining a drive are crucial to the overall outlook of the game.
There was several times where Notre Dame’s offense needed to chew up some clock
to give their defense a breather, but failed to do so because of big plays,
three-and-outs, and two quick possessions that ended in turnovers.
3. Play calling. Immediately
after the game ended, I was looking for reasons as to why the Irish lost the
game, and the play calling stood out right away. During the first half, Notre
Dame displayed balance on offense by rushing 18 times for 128 yards and passing
the ball 14 times for 115 yards. During the second half, Notre Dame rushed the
ball just 6 times for 10 yards and threw 24 passes for 203 yards. With Notre
leading or tied for the majority of the game, it is inexcusable to pass the
ball 14 more times than running it. Uneven play distribution like that causes
the defense to favor the pass and that often leads to interceptions and sacks.
One of the reasons both of Tommy Rees’ interceptions occurred in the second
half was due to there being no threat of a run. When looking at the play and
yard distribution, it is worth pointing out that 68 of Notre Dame’s 128 rushing
yards in the first half came on two plays. If you take away those two plays,
Notre Dame had 70 yards on 22 carries for the entire game. That may not seem
like a lot of production, but it is still 3.18 yards per carry and a strong
enough output to stick with the running game. Instead, Brian Kelly completely
abandoned the running game and put his team in a difficult situation to win.
Furthermore, four of the Irish passing plays resulted in 175 yards, meaning the
other 34 pass plays only accounted for 143 yards. That comes out to about 4.02
yards per attempt and further proves that the Irish passing game was not as
efficient as it should have been to warrant relying solely on the passing game
in the second half. This is a coaching mistake, and one that is correctable.
For those saying that Brian Kelly can’t call a balanced offensive attack, look
at some of the games earlier this season and most of the entire 2012 campaign.
-Eric Tichelbaut
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