Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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24 NOV. 18, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 1. Clemson Gave Them Every Chance Clemson punted 3 times in the fourth quarter of its 31-23 win over Notre Dame. Going back to the last four minutes of the third quarter, the Tigers booted it twice more. None of those punts — all of which wound up in- side the Notre Dame 15-yard line, with all but one pinning the Irish inside their own 10 — resulted in Irish points. To be clear, Clemson was trying to score. They made several mistakes, from giving up a sack to snapping the ball over sophomore quar- terback Cade Klubnik's head to botching a pitch. The Tigers had the ball with less than two min- utes to go, at the Notre Dame 24-yard line, when a field goal would have iced the game. There was no way the Tigers would risk passing the ball, so the one thing Clemson couldn't do was fumble. And junior Irish defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio stripped junior Tigers running back Phil Mafah, giving Notre Dame one last chance. Graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman and the Notre Dame offense still couldn't get it done. 2. Home-Road Disparity Impossible To Ignore During his Monday press conference prior to the game, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Free- man insisted that the issues that plagued the Irish against Louisville had little — if anything — to do with playing on the road. After the effort his team put forth against Clemson, that's difficult to believe. Many of the problems in the Louisville game, including a slow start, an anemic passing game and too many turnovers, resurfaced in Death Val- ley. Going back one road game before that, Notre Dame was lucky to escape with a win at Duke. The Irish looked nothing like the team that shocked USC and crushed Pittsburgh in South Bend. 3. No Answer When Forced To Pass Notre Dame did one thing well on offense in Week 10: Pro-style, power running with junior running back Audric Estimé behind one or two pulling guards. Estimé finished with 87 yards on 17 carries. He stayed patient behind the line of scrimmage, letting his blockers get to their spots and clear the way. That was all well and good until the Irish were forced to pass, either by down and distance or game flow. Notre Dame was 3 of 13 on third downs, because it didn't have any way to manufacture a downfield passing game. The inexperienced Irish receivers couldn't get open, even against backups like fresh- man Tigers cornerback Avieon Terrell. The pass protection broke down when Clemson could pin its ears back and go after Hartman. And, as he admitted after the game, Hartman himself did not play up to the standard Irish fans expected when he transferred to Notre Dame. On his second interception, he had a window to hit senior wide receiver Chris Tyree over the middle of the field and potentially spark a game-tying drive. He sailed it. 4. Defensive Front Gashed In Multiple Ways Notre Dame's run defense gave up 186 yards on 36 carries, for an average of 5.2 yards per rush, to Mafah. The eye test, however, was even more concerning than the numbers. I don't think I had seen the Irish defensive line get pushed off the line of scrimmage all season as much as it did against Clemson. This was also a Tigers offensive line that played without both its starting guards due to injury. That was issue No. 1; issue No. 2 was that the Notre Dame linebackers got sucked too close to the line of scrimmage way too often, allowing Mafah to run by them. There were times when it looked like they were shuffling to one side or the other without much of a purpose, staring into the backfield while Mafah made a break for it. That happened on Mafah's 41- yard touchdown run in the first quarter. 5. No Positive Spin For This One There is no way to spin this defeat other than dev- astating, dispiriting and disastrous for Notre Dame. The Irish entered this season hoping to contend for the College Football Playoff, and that dream died in early October. Now, Notre Dame is 7-3 and does not have a chance to improve on that for 14 days. Its next two games, versus Wake Forest and at Stanford, will not move the needle for how anyone feels about this team. Notre Dame fell short of a lot of its goals this sea- son, and 2024 just became even more important for Freeman than it already was. FIVE THOUGHTS BY JACK SOBLE Senior wide receiver Chris Tyree and the Fighting Irish had a tough time manufacturing a downfield passing game against Clemson, averaging just 4.9 yards per attempt. PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP