Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com SEPT. 11, 2021 29 nel better," Kelly said when asked what Freeman can learn from the narrow win over FSU. "You know what you can and can't do. You know there are some things that, 'OK, I got to be really care- ful making some of these calls in these situations.'" There might be some merit to that. The list of those who thought Coan would go out and break Tommy Rees' program record for passing yards in a season opener probably wasn't a long one. The list of those who thought Notre Dame would struggle as mightily as it did to make tackles was probably on the shorter side, too. Freeman trusted every single player to make plays, but not all of them fol- lowed through. Senior safety DJ Brown missed a tackle on Florida State's 89- yard rushing touchdown, for instance. Fellow senior safety Houston Griffith was left on an island with Florida State speedster Ja'Khi Douglas in the slot. The Seminoles' running back-turned-wide- receiver got the best of him, burned him down the sideline and caught a 60-yard touchdown pass. Those things happen. And when they do, especially for the first time in a sea- son, Freeman finds out what schemes he can and can't call with the players he has on the field. As for the tackling, it wasn't a clinic in how to wrap a player up and bring him to the ground. But with the athletes Notre Dame has, it's not unreasonable to think that can be fixed rather easily. "We needed one more step most of the time on the quarterback," Kelly said. "We left our feet one step early. So those things are things that [Freeman] learned a lot about his defense and what we can do." Notre Dame has time to work the kinks out. It won a game in which it al- lowed more total yards and first downs to the opposition than it gained itself. That's not a sustainable formula for success, but it lets the team know that when those statistics turn the other way around then Notre Dame will be in pretty good shape. "First game in a new defense, I think we played well when we were really needed," junior safety Kyle Hamilton said. "I think we have a long way to go, and we're going to get a lot better. This was only a start for us." ✦ FLORIDA STATE VS. NOTRE DAME QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Florida State 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 5:59 5:51 8:01 9:19 11:50 17:20 29:10 Third-Down Conversions 1-3 0-2 2-4 4-5 1-5 6-9 7-14 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 1-2 0-0 0-0 1-2 1-2 Average Field Position FSU-22 FSU-31 FSU-28 FSU-20 FSU-27 FSU-25 FSU-26 Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 9:01 9:09 6:59 5:41 18:10 12:40 30:50 Third-Down Conversions 0-4 2-5 3-3 1-4 2-9 4-7 6-16 Fourth-Down Conversions 1-2 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-2 0-0 1-2 Average Field Position FSU-36 FSU-29 FSU-42 FSU-25 FSU-33 FSU-34 FSU-33 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards FSU ND Nega ve 9 10 0-5 42 35 6-9 7 11 10-19 9 5 20-29 4 4 30-39 0 1 40-49 0 1 50 or more 2 1 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Florida State 4 3 0 1 Notre Dame 2 2 0 0 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Florida State • 2-10 FSU11 Corbin 89-yard rush for a touchdown • 3-7 FSU40 Travis pass complete to Douglas for a 60-yard touchdown • 2-9 FSU23 Travis 25-yard rush Notre Dame • 1-10 ND25 Coan pass complete to Mayer for 25 yards • 4-1 FSU41 Coan pass complete to Mayer for a 41-yard touchdown • 1-10 ND25 Coan pass complete to Aus n for 29 yards • 3-1 FSU37 Coan pass complete to Aus n for a 37-yard touchdown • 3-17 ND24 Coan pass complete to Williams for a 55-yard gain to the FSU 21 A missed tackle by senior safety DJ Brown led to an 89-yard rushing touchdown by Florida State redshirt sophomore running back Jashuan Corbin. PHOTO BY BOB MYERS