Notre Dame Overcomes Poor Performance and Kicking Woes for Another Ugly Victory
- Bruce Straughan
- Nov 2
- 5 min read
In a game that Notre Dame was a 30.5-point favorite at kickoff, with an over/under set at 56.5 points against a 1-7 Boston College team, it was totally reasonable to expect this game to be a blowout in Notre Dame's favor. Right? Well, in the words of Coach Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend!"
Photo by Notre Dame Athletics
Notre Dame received the ball first, and it was a very depressing opening drive for the Irish, going 3-and-out in a series that only lasted a little over a minute. This, unfortunately, wouldn't be the last time the offense would fail to get going in this game.
The Notre Dame defense started out on fire and made quick work of the Eagles' offense, stopping them on a quick 3-and-out that lasted only 50 seconds and resulted in negative two total yards. Once again, one side of the ball started out slow, and the other side started out fast for the Irish. This appears to happen every week, where neither the offense nor the defense can ever find a way to both start a game fast and with a purpose.
This begs the question - Why? Why does this keep happening? This isn't the first time a Marcus Freeman-led team has come out flat on one side of the ball or even played badly against an inferior opponent. In fact, ever since Marcus Freeman took over as head coach, the Irish have struggled against their worst opponent on the schedule. It's now happened three years in a row. Does anyone remember the Marshall game? Or dare I bring up Northern Illinois? Didn't we all get on Brian Kelly for not having his teams ready to play and playing down to his opponents' level?
It would be nice to link it just to these two, but the problem doesn't stop there; it goes back decades, and with many other coaches. For some reason, Notre Dame has had a long-standing problem of playing down to their opponents' level, a trend that even occurred during Lou Holtz's tenure. Does anyone remember the 1993 Boston College heartbreaker that still haunts Irish Fans' dreams to this day? So what is it? It would be easy to blame the players, but it can't stop with them when there are multiple examples throughout the years. Is it a culture thing? I believe it is. Notre Dame has lost its golden days of Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy demanding excellence and complete domination of the opponent.
With famous quotes from Rockne, of "Show me a gracious loser and I'll show you a failure" and "If winning isn't everything, why bother to keep score?" And quotes from Leahy, of "You not only need the will to win, you must have the will to prepare," and "There are no such things as overachievers; only underachievers to different degrees." It's easy to see with these mentalities why their teams were so successful and dominate. They demanded it and wouldn't accept anything else. Marcus Freeman and, for that matter, Notre Dame, have to get back to that kind of mentality; after all, the football program is what made Notre Dame what it is today.
With all that being said, yesterday was just sloppy all across the board, both offensively and defensively. As good as the defense was at times, it was equally as bad with missed assignments, offside penalties, poor tackling, and late hits. This team continues to have a discipline problem that has to be addressed and cleaned up immediately. These are the type of things that happen weekly, and if it doesn't change, it will eventually cost this team another loss.
The kicking game is the worst I've ever seen at Notre Dame. Much like a hitter's slump in baseball, these kickers seem to be in their own heads, and it's now become contagious to the point they're trotting out three different guys in the hopes that one can actually make a successful kick. As Freeman stated in his post-game press conference, "If you have to rotate three kickers, then you don't have one." The first step of any problem is admitting you have a problem. Freeman did that; now it's time to fix it. I don't know what they have to do to fix it, but something needs to change, because eventually you're going to need your kicker to win you a game. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
The officiating continues to be a major problem every week, with Notre Dame often having to face both their opponent and the officials. From phantom facemasks calls to one of the worst roughing the passer calls I've ever seen (which, for once, actually benefitted Notre Dame). The NCAA has to step in and do something about this, as it's progressively gotten worse as the season goes on.
With that being said, Notre Dame didn't do itself any favors yesterday and looked like a team that wasn't prepared or even motivated to play coming off a bye week, which made it that much more frustrating of a game to watch. It was one of those games where you are just glad to get out of there with a win, but the coaching staff has its work cut out, as so much has to be cleaned up before they take on Navy next week. One thing is for sure, they cannot play anywhere near this poorly next week, and they certainly can't if they expect to beat Pitt the following week.
A win is a win, and in cases like this, you're just happy to survive a game like that, but for a team that wants to consider themselves playoff contenders, they certainly did not play that way yesterday. All eyes are now on this coaching staff to fix it. Will they? We all hope and wait until next Saturday to find that answer.
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This team, despite what fanatic Homer's say, is merely mediocre. 2 or 3 truly great players, is not enough to make mediocrity great. Regrettably, they should probably not be participating in the CFP. If your auto's trans performed like the team, you would unload the car or your mechanic.