Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1509252
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 14, 2023 27 STRUGGLES ON THIRD DOWN LOOM LARGE IN LOSS Notre Dame junior left tackle Joe Alt said the Fighting Irish lost a little bit of confidence throughout their loss to Louisville. Never was that more evident than when the offense was on the field for third down. Notre Dame only converted 3 of 13 third-down attempts. The Irish were 0 of 3 when needing 3 yards or less. Alt is one of the best tackles in the country. Junior tailback Audric Estimé is one of the nation's most bruising, pun- ishing running backs. And yet, the first time Notre Dame only needed 1 yard on third down, the Irish tried a fake toss counter to senior wide receiver Chris Tyree. Graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman fumbled the exchange with Tyree. Louisville recovered. In his postgame press conference, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Free- man made it sound like Notre Dame was treating the situation as four-down ter- ritory. If that's true, then imagine facing third-and-1 and thinking about fourth down. Yikes. Painfully appropriate. Notre Dame only needed 1 yard on third down a little earlier, but junior right tackle Blake Fisher was flagged for a false start. On third-and-6, an end-around to freshman running back Jeremiyah Love gained only 3 yards. That forced Notre Dame to line up in punt formation. Nothing was pretty for the Irish on third down outside of a zone beater for 12 yards to freshman walk-on receiver Jordan Faison on third-and-8, a stare down and threading of the needle for 24 yards to junior tight end Mitchell Ev- ans on third-and-13 and a garbage time touchdown to Evans on third-and-5. Louisville owned the line of scrimmage on the money down at all other times. "We have to come back as an offen- sive line and realize that's the down we have to get," Alt said. "Third-and-1, that's on our shoulders. We got to look back and see where we're falling short." It's everywhere. All over the place. Hartman was sacked on his first two third-down drop-backs. Then there was another third down, with just 6 yards to go, when Hartman looked for Tyree deep toward the goal line but Tyree was unable to adjust to the ball and he dropped what would have been a touchdown. Louisville was only a tad better than Notre Dame on third down in going 5 of 13 but the Cardinals made the short attempts count. They were 4 of 5 when they only needed 4 yards or less. Short- yardage conversions keep stress away and keep punt teams off the field. Notre Dame ended up going for it on fourth down two times. The Irish didn't convert either attempt. Louisville did not go for it on fourth down at all. That's what an extra couple of third-down chain movers will do for you. In their last two games, the Irish are 6 of 28 (21.4 percent) on third down. For reference, the team with the worst LOUISVILLE GAME NOTES BY TYLER HORKA AND JACK SOBLE Notre Dame's offensive line did not have a good game versus Louisville, allowing 5 sacks and failing to open any holes for the ground attack. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER