Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 21, 2024 7 UNDER THE DOME go 31 yards in 11 plays and kick the game- winning 35-yard field goal with 31 sec- onds remaining at Notre Dame Stadium. "There were a number of first downs where they made it by a yard," Golden said. "We have to be better at yards af- ter contact on first and second down to get to that third-and-5, third-and-6, third-and-7, not third-and-1, third- and-2. Hard downs to live in. "We fought. We fought our asses off. We just came up short at the end there. We need to make a play. That's defensive football. Sudden change doesn't matter. It does not matter. It's immaterial how the ball got there. That's our job to go out and play defense. We have to go out there and do it." That's the bottom line. Notre Dame has to go out there and do it. Too many times in the first three seasons of the Freeman era, the Irish have not. Freeman has a ca- reer record of 20-9. It's not exactly ap- ples to apples, but for reference Brian Kelly had a record of 54-9 in his final five seasons in South Bend. This isn't a Free- man versus Kelly thing. It's a Notre Dame versus Notre Dame thing. The Irish were humming along in the latter years of the Kelly regime in a way they are not early in Freeman's tenure. That's just the reality. That's just football, perhaps. It needs to be better football if Freeman and Golden are going to have the full belief of the Notre Dame administration that this collection of coaches and players can guide the Irish to where they want to, and should, go — the College Football Playoff with the chance to win a national champi- onship. Kelly got there twice, failing mis- erably to capture the ultimate prize both times, but he was closer to it than Free- man has ever been in his short time at the top of the program. That needs to change. OFFENSIVE OFFENSE There was a point in Golden's Week 3 media availability when he subtly de- livered a sobering reality about Notre Dame's loss to NIU. It was right in front of everybody all along, but the way Golden bluntly painted the picture drove in the nail. "The way the game unfolded, we had to hold them to 13 to win," he said. "We failed. We didn't do it. End of story." The Irish defense, of course, held the Huskies to 16 and it still was not enough. That side of the ball was not without flaws, obviously. Golden said so himself. "It's not going to be perfect, and I got news for everybody — it's not going to be perfect the rest of the way," he said. "You have to find ways to win." That goes for the Notre Dame offense, too, clearly. Golden's statement of need- ing to hold the Huskies to 13 was an indi- rect way of saying offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock's unit put only 14 points on the board. That's a problem. Denbrock's. Not Golden's. Through two weeks, Denbrock's of- fense was one of five in the FBS that had not thrown a single touchdown pass. Un- related but alarming, Irish quarterback Riley Leonard was asked to use play- action against NIU only one more time than touchdown passes he's thrown this season. Yes, that puzzlingly equates to one play-action pass on 38 drop-backs. Leonard also had only one completion of 20-plus yards through his first two games as Notre Dame's starter. He aver- aged 160.5 passing yards per game on 5.2 yards per attempt. The nation's leader in that area through Week 2, Florida's DJ Lagway, posted a yards-per-attempt average of 15.7. There were 16 quarter- backs in double-digits. What Notre Dame has is a long way off. "It looks like a long and dusty trail right now, doesn't it?" Denbrock said in his Week 3 media opportunity. "No, I mean, listen. There are signs. There's just such an incredible inconsistency across the board. One play, it's a running back. One play, it's an O-lineman. One play, it's a receiver. One play, we're not making the best decision with the ball. "Whatever happens, I mean, we're all taking turns. And we've got to get to the point where, one by one, position group by position group, we eliminate ourselves from that equation." Fair or not, the quarterback is always going to have the highest stake in the equation. You cannot have a function- ing equation without a competent quarterback. Leonard was dependable at times in his first two starts, like when he helped lead the Irish on an eight-play, 85-yard drive to take the lead for good late at Texas A&M, and when he accounted for 73 yards and an 11-yard rushing score to give Notre Dame an early 7-0 lead against NIU. Other times, Leonard missed easy throws against the Aggies and the Hus- kies and put the ball in the hands of de- fenders from the latter on two occasions. His second interception against NIU handed the Huskies the ball at midfield with less than half a quarter of football to play. Leonard didn't get his hands on it again until there were 24 seconds remaining. He threw three incomplete passes mixed in with a 19-yard gain. Too little, too late. But like Freeman has been known to do in his short ten- ure, from defending Tyler Buchner and Drew Pyne in 2022 to having Sam Hartman's back in 2023 and now supporting Leonard in 2024, Den- brock did not pin Notre Dame's passing game shortcomings on the signal-caller. Denbrock denounced the entire offen- sive operation. Offensive in both senses. "Where it's route depth, whether it's protection, whether it's decision-making, whether it's all those things," Denbrock said. "Dropped balls. All those things have contributed to us having the poor show- ing that we've had in the passing game so far, and we're working really hard every day to try to make those things better." The one Leonard-specific area Den- brock addressed was mechanics. "We talked about his lower-body in particular," Denbrock said. "I think accuracy starts from the ground up. I think he'll be the first one to say that he's got to do a better job with his feet in the pocket. Got to do a better job of not getting skittish in the pocket and maybe sliding up into it from time to time, sticking on initial reads a little bit longer. Just things like that he's working hard to get better at. And I know he will." Salvation for the Notre Dame season depends on it, defense giving up 16 when Golden demanded 13 be darned. ✦ UNDER THE DOME "If I had the perfect answer, we would win every game we play. That's the ultimate challenge. I think every year presents a different challenge." NOTRE DAME HEAD COACH MARCUS FREEMAN ON THE LOSS TO NIU