Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6 NOV. 9, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA A s of Oct. 25, prior to Notre Dame versus Navy, the last time the Fighting Irish scored the first points in a football game, defensive end Jordan Botelho was still healthy. And center Ashton Craig. The top 15 teams in the Associated Press Top 25 were undefeated then. But in the Week 9 poll, there were only six unbeaten teams in the top 15. Yeah, that's how long it had been since Notre Dame scored first. Since Sept. 14 at Purdue. Notre Dame put the first 49 points on the board against the Boilermakers. In the four games thereafter, the Irish have faced the following first-half deficits: • 3-0 at home vs. Miami (Ohio) • 7-0 at home vs. Louisville • 7-0 at home vs. Stanford • 7-0 in Atlanta vs. Georgia Tech But here's the thing; until Geor- gia Tech's garbage-time touchdown with 23 seconds left, Louisville, then the No. 20 team in the coun- try, was the only opponent to score again in any of those games. Notre Dame beat Miami (Ohio) 28-3 and Stanford 49-7. The Irish were beating Georgia Tech 31-7 until the final minute. The starts have been slow, but they've been followed by downright dominant play to close out games — to the tune of a point differential of 139-23. As any good head coach would, though, Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman didn't play the, "Well, the starts have been bad but we're playing well thereafter and win- ning football games" card. He doesn't want anything to do with that one. He'd rather discard it and redraw. Freeman simply wants the starts to be better but still followed by supreme stretches of performance. He keyed in on one side of the ball, and it might not be the one you think of first, as the root of the starting slow problem. "What we gotta do is be better defen- sively," Freeman said. "I think we're 57 percent in terms of the opposing team's offense scoring [on its first drive], which is the bottom quarter of college football. We really gotta be better there on that first drive. "What you're seeing as you go back and evaluate it is a lot of different things on that first drive that you probably haven't seen on film. You got the same thing from Georgia Tech. Some different looks, some different personnel that we hadn't seen." Freeman also noted the Notre Dame offense, ironically, had scored on 57 percent of its opening drives through Week 8, which placed that unit in the top quarter of the country on the op- posite end of the spectrum as the Notre Dame defense. On the topic of the defense, though, Miami (Ohio), Stanford and Georgia Tech combining for six points after their initial — and in the case of the first two teams, only — scores says so much about what Notre Dame has been able to do once defensive coordi- nator Al Golden has time to react within games. "The adjustments have been crazy," Freeman said. "From the second through the fourth quarter, our defense is No. 1 in college foot- ball in yards per play. It's a credit to the adjustments that they're mak- ing, but we gotta continue to find ways to be better on that first series. That's the area of improvement that we can really focus on." Not muffing a punt to give the ball right back to Miami (Ohio) before the Irish offense ever got it once would help. Not fumbling the opening kickoff of the game and set- ting up Louisville with a short field would help. Not getting called for offensive holding on a 19-yard gain by senior quarterback Riley Leonard and having to punt four plays later would help. Not going three-and- out against Georgia Tech would help. "The special teams need to be better," Freeman said. "I want to be No. 1 in the country on the very first drive in all three phases." See — it's not all on the defense, which was Notre Dame's most consis- tent phase through seven games. But it is a little on the defense, and if the Irish want to be a serious national title con- tender Freeman is right — every phase needs to be better out of the gate. "You have to go back and evaluate, 'OK, what play, what is it? What play of the last game caused the outcome that we got?'" Freeman said. "That's what we gotta continue to focus on and attack those plays. If we can guarantee that every practice if we went out and said, 'OK, it's opening drive of the game. Let's make it competitive.' "If that would get the result we wanted, we would do it. We've done that before. But we gotta continue to just fix those plays, fix the issues that come about in those opening drives." ✦ UNDER THE DOME SLOW STARTS Notre Dame has been a solid second-half team this season, but Marcus Freeman wants the Irish to get going earlier In four consecutive games following Notre Dame's win at Purdue, Freeman's team allowed its opponent to score the game's first points. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER