No. 4 Notre Dame overcame Louisville 12-7 on Saturday, extending its home winning streak to 22 games and its existing win streak to a countrys finest 10 straight. While thats all terrific for Notre Dame, its tough to think of anyone feels fantastic about the efficiency in general– or, a minimum of you d think so. But Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly felt differently when spoken with on the field right away after the win.
” I understand its 12-7, and its not going to go down as an immediate classic, however young boy, we did a lot of truly great things today,” said Kelly. “We scored goals instead of goals. Thats probably the takeaway here– that we got to improve in the red zone.”
The Irish offense handled just 338 lawns on the day as quarterback Ian Book was off-and-on. While Book scored a magnificent touchdown in the 3rd quarter that offered the Irish the 12-7 lead that proved to be the difference, he just finished 11 of his 19 passes for 106 yards. Running back Kyren Williams was the star of the day for the Irish offense, rushing for 127 yards on 25 carries.
The Irish are now 4-0 on the season and 3-0 in the ACC, leaving them connected atop the ACC standings. The loss drops Louisville to 1-4 on the season and 0-4 in ACC play, successfully getting rid of the Cardinals from any slight glimmer of hope they had about completing for a conference title this season.
Here are the three greatest takeaways from the Notre Dame win in South Bend on Saturday.
1. Notre Dame isnt among the four finest teams.
Ive now seen each of the four video games the Irish have actually played this season, and while theyre ranked No. 4 in the nation and will likely remain in the top four again next week, there are only 2 reasons thats the case. One is the Irish began the year at No. 10, and 3 of the teams ahead of them lost at least once. The other factor is that another three teams that were ahead of them have not begun playing yet.
Im not saying the Irish are bad. Theyre a top-10 team and would remain in the top 10 in any regular season after this start. If this is really one of the four finest groups in the country, then were in a lot of trouble. Notre Dames four wins have actually now come against groups that are a combined 4-15 on the season as I write this. Just one of those wins, a 52-0 pasting of South Florida, has actually seen a dominant effort from the Irish. Sure, they were never in major trouble last week against Florida State, however the Seminoles looked much better versus Notre Dame than they performed in losses to Georgia Tech and Miami.
Now, this is a team playing well enough to reach the ACC Championship Game, however its not near the level it requires to be if it wants to have a realistic possibility of beating Clemson.
2. The Irish requirement to fix their red-zone concerns.
Brian Kelly brought up the teams issues in the red zone versus Louisville, and hes best– it is a problem. The Irish came into Saturdays video game having actually scored a goal only 68.8% of their red-zone possessions.
You can get away with having to go for a field goal many times in the red zone against teams like Louisville, but its not going to fly against good teams. As for what the problem is, Im unsure it can be identified to simply one thing. Today it appeared that the Irish just got a little pass-happy inside the 20. Louisville was content to drop 8 guys in protection on those plays and force Book to find an open target. Book then kept the ball for too long before either being sacked or just missing a touchdown chance in the back corner of completion zone. Finally, on the 4th possession, Book took advantage of Louisville dropping a lot of protectors and removed on his own for a touchdown.
No. 4 Notre Dame overcame Louisville 12-7 on Saturday, extending its home winning streak to 22 games and its present win streak to a countrys best 10 straight. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly felt in a different way when spoken with on the field immediately after the win.
Notre Dames 4 wins have actually now come versus teams that are a combined 4-15 on the season as I compose this. You can get away with having to settle for a field objective various times in the red zone versus groups like Louisville, but its not going to fly against great teams. The Cardinals were a fun, exciting team that finished 8-5 and came into 2020 as a group some idea might make some sound in the ACC.
In the future, if Im the Irish, I may consider running the ball a bit more frequently inside the 20.
3. Frustrating season for Louisville.
There is no getting better from this point. This is a Louisville group that went 2-10 in 2018 and fired Bobby Petrino. In Scott Satterfields very first season in charge, the turn-around was immediate. The Cardinals were an enjoyable, amazing team that finished 8-5 and came into 2020 as a team some thought may make some sound in the ACC. The only sound theyve made is a thud as theyre now 0-4 in the conference after losses to Miami, Pitt, Georgia Tech and now Notre Dame.
Ironically, Saturday it was the offense that was the problem after the defense had actually been a sore spot all season. The defense did a wonderful task, however the offense could not string enough good plays together beyond its very first drive in the 3rd quarter. The excellent news for the Cardinals is that there are a couple of winnable games remaining on the schedule, however Im unsure how winnable they are thinking about how badly this group has looked. This might be a group that finds itself going 2-8 or 3-7 in the ACC this year.
