Notre Dame's offense is off to one of their better starts to date. They're they No. 26 offense in the country in points per game (40.0), No. 24 in the country in 3rd down conversions and No. 13 in the country in passing yards per attempt (9.7). We speculated throughout the offseason that year two in the Mike Denbrock system would pay major dividends, and so far it has. In back to back games, they put up 33 offensive points and 49 offensive points respectively backed by their redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr and two star running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price.
Unfortunately, the defense hasn't panned out the way we believed it would and ranks in the bottom half in the country in almost every defensive statistic worth tracking. Today, head coach Marcus Freeman talked about the offensive philosophy and what they need to do moving forward to continue adding "W's" to the win column.
"That’s something we’ve always said, no matter how well the offense is doing and no matter how well the defense is doing, our offense has to score one more point and the defense has to hold them to one point less,” Freeman explained. “We never go into a game with an objective to score 60 points and our defense gives up 50. No, that’s not the objective. The objective is, no matter what it takes, we have to score one more point and no matter what it takes we have to keep them to one point less. There’s different challenges to improve, right? But both groups have to continue to focus on how to get better.
Offensively, we have to be able to understand that we played really well, but how do we make this thing better and how do we handle success? I believe that our coaches and players do that. Defensively, how do we handle adversity? How are we going to find ways to correct this? The only way to do that is to point the finger at yourself. We have to say ‘it’s all of us’. It’s not one person, not one call, it’s about why we aren’t executing. Why did this explosive play happen? It’s on me and it’s on everybody. If we do that, we’ll both get better at a faster rate."
So far, a strong argument could be made that the offense has done enough for this team to be undefeated, but that's not the reality we live in. Notre Dame is currently 1-2 on the season and is preparing to take on an Arkansas defense on the road that's been struggling in their own right, especially stopping the run. After last week's performance, Price will likely have another strong output, and Freeman couldn't be happier with the Texas native's performance so far this season.
"You give credit to his mother and the way he was raised,” Freeman said about his redshirt junior running back. “He’s not a ‘me’ guy. He’s a selfless individual that is going to take advantage of his opportunities but do everything to help this team be successful. I wish I could take credit for that. He was raised the right way; his mother is an incredible woman. I’m sure he probably had people that did want it.
It’s a credit to his belief in this university and his belief in this football program that he can reach all of the goals that he has in the same running back room with Jeremiyah Love and some of those other guys. There’s a belief that he has in this place, this university and this football program. There’s not something I’ve said to him; he was raised the right way and he’s a team-first guy. That’s why I can’t praise him enough; if we get 105 players to be like that we’re going to be pretty special. That’s what I want to praise more than anything."
In their last two games, Love and Price have combined for 446 total yards and 10 touchdowns. Denbrock will need his running backs along with his redshirt freshman quarterback at the top of their games when they travel down to Fayetteville to take on the Razorbacks.
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