Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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30 FEBRUARY 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED "I feel like our preparation was great," graduate student linebacker Drew White said. "We practiced that all bowl prep. We practiced the conditioning. We prac- ticed communication, getting lined up." The preparation either wasn't enough or was simply defeated. Either way, Oklahoma State ran 95 plays against Notre Dame's defense and didn't slow down until its final clock-milking pos- sessions. The Cowboys' previous sin- gle-game high this year was 87 plays. Notre Dame, meanwhile, hadn't played more than 79 defensive snaps all season. Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy saw it as a game-changer. "The key to this game was Rob Glass, our strength staff, our conditioning," Gundy said. "Our ability to play fast. In my opinion, we fatigued them, and they never could play catch-up." Even after three empty possessions to start the game, Oklahoma State kept the tempo. The Cowboys ran 61 of their 95 plays after falling behind 28-7 late in the second quarter. Only eight of those were third downs. Notre Dame's pass rush went quiet after a strong opening act. Its secondary struggled to stick with receiv- ers down the field. Its tackling was shaky. The result was frequent chunk plays in rapid succession — and often as part of long drives. All four of Oklahoma State's touchdown marches were at least 75 yards. Notre Dame pushed back on tired legs or running on fumes as the cause. "I wouldn't say it was anything to do with a conditioning aspect," White said. "I think it forces you to stay in a base defense. It forces you to simplify so you can easily get set up and be disciplined and run the right call. I think that kind of limited us in our play-calling a little bit." Even subbing in waves to get fresh legs and go to sub-packages made no apprecia- ble difference in generating enough stops. Notre Dame played 11 defensive linemen. When it generated pressure or when the Irish blitzed, Oklahoma State quarterback OKLAHOMA STATE VS. NOTRE DAME QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Oklahoma State 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 6:53 3:40 9:17 5:13 10:33 14:30 25:03 Third-Down Conversions 0-3 0-3 2-4 1-4 0-6 3-8 3-14 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-1 0-0 1-1 1-1 Average Field Position OSU-23 OSU-24 OSU-26 50 OSU-23 OSU-40 OSU-32 Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 8:07 11:20 5:43 9:47 19:27 15:30 34:57 Third-Down Conversions 2-5 4-5 2-5 3-5 6-10 5-10 11-20 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-1 0-0 0-1 0-1 Average Field Position UND-28 UND-23 UND-21 UND-21 UND-25 UND-21 UND-23 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards OSU UND Nega ve 8 5 0-5 46 52 6-9 15 8 10-19 17 17 20-29 8 5 30-39 0 1 40-49 1 0 50 or more 0 1 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Oklahoma St. 9 4 3 2 Notre Dame 2 2 0 0 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Oklahoma State • 1-10 OSU38 Sanders pass complete to Presley for 41 yards to the UND21 • 1-10 UND30 Sanders pass complete to Owens for 25 yards to the UND5 • 2-10 OSU22 Sanders rush for 26 yards to the OSU48 • 3-10 UND40 Sanders pass complete to Martin for 29 yards to the UND11 Notre Dame • 1-10 UND25 Coan pass complete to Tyree for 25 yards to the 50 • 3-4 OSU29 Coan pass complete to Styles for 29 yards and a touchdown • 3-7 UND47 Coan pass complete to Tyree for 53 yards and a touchdown • 1-10 UND30 Coan pass complete to Styles for 33 yards to the OSU37 • 2-10 OSU25 Coan pass complete to Austin for 25 yards and a touchdown Notre Dame's defense was on the field for a season-high 95 plays in the 37-35 loss against Oklahoma State. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • Notre Dame tallied a touchdown on its open- ing drive for the first time in a bowl game since the 2014 Music City Bowl against LSU. • The Irish scored two touchdowns in the first quarter of a bowl game for the third time in program history. The previous two starting quar- terbacks were Tommy Rees (2010 Sun Bowl) and Joe Montana (1979 Cotton Bowl). • It was the first time all season that Oklahoma State allowed two touchdowns in the first quar- ter. The Cowboys entered the game sixth in the country in scoring defense (16.8 points allowed per game). • Graduate student quarterback Jack Coan threw four touchdown passes in the first half, the most by any Irish player in the first half in bowl history. Thanks to his big game, he also moved into seventh place all time in school history for most pass completions in a single season (253). • Five different Fighting Irish receivers tallied five catches or more — freshman slot receiver Lorenzo Styles (eight), sophomore tight end Mi- chael Mayer (seven), senior wideout Braden Lenzy (a career-high seven), senior wide receiver Kevin Austin Jr. (six) and sophomore running back Chris Tyree (six) — for the first time this season. • Tyree's 115-yard receiving effort made him the first Irish running back to tally 100 receiving yards or more in a game since CJ Prosise in 2015. • Notre Dame's nine third-down conversions marked a season high (previous high: 8, two times). • With his nine-tackle performance, junior linebacker JD Bertrand reached the 100-tackle plateau for the season (103). He is the first Irish defender to reach that mark since Te'von Coney (123) in 2018.