Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1510995
26 NOV. 18, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED scrimmage against Notre Dame. It didn't move the ball an inch on its next two, a pair of incomplete passes. It was evident then the only way the Tigers could upset the Fighting Irish. One, they needed some help from Notre Dame miscues, which they got in the form of an interception returned for a touchdown and a muffed punt that led directly to a short field goal. Two, ground and pound. They made that happen on their own. Eh, actually Notre Dame helped them there, too. The Fighting Irish defense that seemed so assignment sound and fundamentally undeterred in blowout wins over USC and Pitt did not make the trip to Clemson. Mafah's third carry exposed that reality. Graduate student safety DJ Brown started a blitz well before the ball was snapped. He got into the backfield, but at what cost? Mafah spotted his dead- on sprint well before he had the ball in his hands. Brown over-pursued, Mafah stepped up and away from him for good measure, and he did exactly what he should have — ran in the exact direction Brown blitzed from. Neither Notre Dame linebacker was there to fill the void. With a head of steam, Mafah ran right by senior safety Xavier Watts and sophomore corner Benjamin Morrison. His 41-yard touch- down run gave Clemson a 7-3 lead mid- way through the first quarter, and the Tigers never trailed again. Partly be- cause the Notre Dame defense let Mafah finish with a stat line of 36 carries for 186 yards and 2 touchdowns. In a game in which neither offense looked like it was capable of taking over the game, one positive constant from either side was Mafah pounding the rock. "[Mafah] is a big dude," Notre Dame graduate student linebacker Jack Kiser said. "He runs hard. We knew we were going to have to run our feet and have to tackle him and bring our weight behind ourselves. "The first couple times, we didn't quite do that, and his runs were able to bleed. He was just running hard, so we had to make sure we could wrap up and bring him down." It wasn't a missed tackles problem for Notre Dame as much as it was an issue of positioning. Linebackers and safeties weren't run fitting properly. Defensive linemen were getting blown off the line of scrimmage. It was an uncharacteris- CLEMSON VS. NOTRE DAME QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Clemson 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 5:17 5:55 11:23 9:13 11:12 20:36 31:48 Third-Down Conversions 1-4 2-2 2-5 0-4 3-6 2-9 5-15 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-1 0-0 0-1 0-1 Average Field Position CLE-47 CLE-25 CLE-30 ND-49 CLE-39 CLE-42 CLE-41 Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 9:43 9:05 3:37 5:47 18:48 9:24 28:12 Third-Down Conversions 0-4 2-3 0-2 1-4 2-7 1-6 3-13 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-1 0-0 0-1 0-1 Average Field Position ND-22 ND-30 ND-34 ND-12 ND-25 ND-23 ND-24 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards CLEM ND Nega ve 7 6 0-5 40 35 6-9 10 8 10-19 9 3 20-29 1 6 30-39 0 2 40-49 2 0 50 or more 0 0 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Clemson 3 2 1 0 Notre Dame 3 1 2 0 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Notre Dame • 1-15 ND44 Estimé run for 25 yards to CLEM31 • 2-4 ND31 Hartman run for 38 yards to CLEM31 • 1-10 ND26 Hartman pass to Flores for 35 yards to CLEM39 • 1-10 CLEM26 Hartman run for 26 yards and a touchdown Clemson • 1-10 ND41 Mafah run for 41 yards and a touchdown Graduate student linebacker Maris Liufau and the Irish defense surrendered 202 yards rushing on 5.2 yards per carry to Clemson's two running backs. PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • Notre Dame is now 3-5 in the all-time series against Clemson and 1-2 in Memorial Stadium. • The Fighting Irish are now 175-67-3 against ACC opponents. • Junior tailback Audric Estimé rushed for his 13th touchdown of the season early in the second half. He now ranks ninth on Notre Dame's single-season list. He also moved into sole possession of 12th on the career rushing touchdown list with 24. • Senior defensive tackle Rylie Mills set a career-high with 8 tackles.