Improving Situationally Is Top-Of-Mind For Marcus Freeman And Notre Dame

One of the issues that Notre Dame had against BYU was their performance situationally, or lack thereof. Offensively, they went 8-19 on third down and three of five in the red zone. Defensively, they allowed BYU to convert eight of their 12 third down attempts and allowed a 100% scoring percentage in the red zone. Those issues were prevalent in previous games, but teams like Michigan State, Purdue and Stanford didn't have the talent to stopping the Irish. 

BYU was able to, and Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman and his staff spent a good chunk of time during the bye week diving into how those things can be fixed and what areas they have to improve in. Third down success on both sides of the ball, but especially defense, is going to be crucial moving forward with matchups against Miami and SMU coming in November. That's a key area of focus. 

"We've got to get better for sure at third and three to six," Freeman explained. "One to two, those are extremely difficult plays to stop. Don't be in third and one to two. Try to be better on first or second down so you're not in that situation. You're susceptible for a sneak. It's hard to stop a one yard run. But it's the third and three to six where, as you identify, even in the last game, you get into some of your sub packages where you get a lot of your pressure."

The red zone is also an area of concern. BYU went 4-4 in the red zone against Notre Dame's defense while the offense struggled to turn short fields into touchdowns, which ultimately led to their four-point loss. Offensively, it's still about having success on 3rd down in some situations, but getting more creative inside of the 20-yard lines will also do a world of wonders. 

"Offensively, its the third down situations," Freeman stated. "We're either throwing an incomplete pass or it's a four-down situation where we're not having an efficient run on third down. So then I make the decision to say, okay, let's kick the field goal. A lot of times, I tell Coach [Mike] Denbrock 'we've got two downs here'. As long as we get enough yardage on that third down, we'll go for it on fourth. But a couple of those situations just weren't efficient enough, and I had to make a decision to kick it.

"We just got to make sure if we decide to run the ball, we prevent one yard or negative yardage plays," Freeman continued. "Like, that can't happen. Let's just make sure if we decide to run the ball that it's efficient. I don't think it's conservative. It's more just like what happened? Why do we only get one yard here? Where was the mis-execution in terms of blocking or in terms of checking versus a certain look?"

Red zone and third down success is going to be crucial for both the offense and defense in their final four games of November and in their final outing in October this Saturday against Navy. Throughout the bye we, we dove into the ways they could become more efficient in those areas. Now, it's up to the Denbrock and defensive coordinator Chris Ash to make the necessary adjustments. 

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