Over the past three to four games, Notre Dame has struggled situationally in all three phases of the game. They went 6-14 on third down against NC State, 3-11 on third down against USC and 3-10 on third down against Boston College. The offense has also turned the ball over in the red zone in back to back weeks against USC and Boston College. The defense, in the same span, allowed USC to convert six 3rd downs and Boston College converted eight 3rd downs.
While the struggles on offense and defense are prominent, the kicking game might be the worst of the three. Notre Dame has missed three field goals and two extra points in the last two games. Situationally, the Irish need a serious upgrade in execution and head coach Marcus Freeman is well aware of that moving forward.
"We know it wasn’t perfect," Freeman said in the opening statement of his press conference. "Obviously way too many penalties, mistakes, missed extra points and a missed field goal. There were just too many missed opportunities in all three phases. Like any other week, we can all figure out what happened, but the challenge is to figure out why and come up with a great plan of attack to fix those things while also getting ready to finalize a plan of attack against an opponent."
There have been several things that have inhibited this team from playing to the level they're capable of. Some of them have been very simple fixes, like presnap penalties and making extra points.
"Pre-snap penalties are not acceptable," Freeman exclaimed. "They do happen and we have to continue to work on them. I think we had one false start and one offsides and we have to get that to zero. Over the course of my career as a head coach, and even as a player, that number being zero doesn't happen often, but it doesn't make it okay. We strive for perfection."
"As far as the kicking situation. we owe it to the team to be able to make extra points, if we're going to attempt it and if we don't think we'll make an extra point, we shouldn't attempt it," Freeman continued. "I have confidence that we're going to be able to put the ball through the uprights. As I look at, some of the issues in our kicking game are both physical and mental, but I think it's more starting to trend towards the mental side. I'm confident in the kickers, the coaches, the sports psychologists and all the people that we're investing in to trying to fix the situation."
Over the past month, the offense has struggled with starting fast, maintaining a fast start and finishing drives once they get going. This is an explosive unit, no doubt about it, but consistently putting together drives is something Mike Denbrock's unit will have to improve upon.
"You have to make adjustments; it’s the game of football," Freeman stated. "We all aspire to go out and score every drive, that’s what we want but it doesn’t happen. You come up with different plans of attack, prepare for an opponent, have your openers and you go out there and try to execute. We can try to create as many different looks as we can in practice and say ‘if they do this then we want to do that’ but this isn’t robots. There’s only so much they can comprehend and you have to be able to get to them to the sideline, make adjustments and they did. We could have went four drives in a row with scoring but we fumbled on the 5-yard line. But they really, after that second series, started rolling. We just didn’t always finish."
Defensively, getting off the field on 3rd down hasn't been the easiest going either. Boston College, to start the second half, went on a 21-play, 74-yard drive that ate up 11:20 off the clock. They converted several 3rd and 4th down attempts along the way.
"I think, on paper, you strive for 50 percent but that might make you one of the best in the country," Freeman explained. "The best short yardage defense is being better on 1st and 2nd down. You have to have a good plan, but even with a good plan, it’s difficult to prevent an offense from getting a yard. But we’re never okay with that. We looked at our short yardage plan and how we can enhance it versus any opponent we’re going against. The biggest thing is being more efficient on 1st and 2nd down and not put yourself in 3rd and short situations."
This is an extremely talented football team, and that's been on display this season. There hasn't been one moment this season where I've questioned the overall talent at every level on this roster. The lapses in execution, fundamentals and discipline are an entirely different conversation. This team has the potential to be one of the best in the country; fixing these situational issues will go a long way in proving that to be true.
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