Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/169938
✦ News & notes By Lou Somogyi Offense Tries To Find Identity Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly arrived a couple of minutes early to his weekly noon press conference on Tuesday, and he also was eager to depart about 10 minutes earlier than normal once the questions were exhausted. Kelly's mind was centered on the upcoming Purdue game and getting the awful taste of the 41-30 Michigan loss out of his mouth. It was ruining the rest of his palate, too. "Dinner doesn't taste good, meetings are a lot harder, practice is probably a little bit more spirited," Kelly said of having to prepare a team for the next week after losing, a first for him in 13 regular-season games. "It still comes down to the attention to detail. We've got to be smarter and more disciplined as a football team, and that's what I'll be looking for this week." One of the popular topics was the imbalance in Notre Dame's attack, which saw 53 pass plays and 19 runs (although one was a sack). Notre Dame's all-time record in games where it threw 50 or more times dropped to 1-10 (it also is 0-4 when it throws 49 times). Kelly defended the game plan, especially after falling behind by two scores. "There's eight guys on the line of scrimmage," he replied while keeping his composure. "If the box is plus-one and plustwo [advantage for the defense], there's not much of a running game. When we had two [safeties high on the back end], we ran the ball effectively. And then we got behind. We were down two scores. We had to speed the game up and throw the football." Based on the defensive looks, senior quarterback Tommy Rees also had to check off at the line of scrimmage about 40 percent of the time, according to the head coach. Notre Dame now has an all-time record of 1-14 in games it has thrown the ball at least 49 times, after senior quarterback Tommy Rees (29-of-51 passing for 314 yards) and the Irish put the ball in the air early and often in the 41-30 loss at Michigan. photo by bill panzica Kelly's definition of "balance" is not necessarily about equal amount of plays or yards in the run or pass attack. Rather, it's about being able to run the ball when a defense is guarding the pass, and passing it effectively when everything is geared to stopping the run. "Balance is the panacea that everyone looks for, but you need to win football games — and whatever it takes to win football games, we'd better be good at it," he said. The silver bullet for opposing defenses two years ago against Rees was to drop eight into coverage because he was not a threat with the run. Michigan may have provided a different template by putting eight men along the line of scrimmage. If the opposition continues to copy that formula, Kelly welcomes it. "I'm very confident that if you want to play us that way, we're going to beat you, and that's just fine with me," Kelly said. ✦ Page 11 "… I have absolutely no question in my mind that if you want to play us that way, with Tommy Rees, you will pay for it." Defense Backed Into Corners One would think that after yielding 41 points and 460 yards of total offense in the loss at Michigan, head coach Brian Kelly would not give high individual marks on that side of the ball. However, he classified the performances