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Red Zone Keeps Irish Production Just Out Of Reach Tommy Rees stared down a waning play clock and eight Michigan defenders stacked up against the line of scrimmage early in the fourth quarter of the Wolverines' 41-30 victory last Saturday night. It was fourth down and the Irish, trailing by two touchdowns at the time, were inside the red zone. murphy's Law dan murphy Head coach Brian Kelly decided it was time to force the issue. Notre Dame senior wide receiver TJ Jones lined up to Rees' left in a one-onone matchup. Michigan blitzed from that side of the field, which should have provided a gap for the two seniors to connect quickly in the middle of the field for the four yards they needed to keep a big drive alive. Instead, Jones ran a post-corner route in to the end zone 20 yards away. Rees rushed to deliver the ball, under pressure by the time the route developed, and it skipped harmlessly off the turf and out of bounds — a missed opportunity. Rees' teammates say he knows Notre Dame's offense better even than some of his coaches. Kelly said the veteran changed nearly 40 percent of the called plays at the line of scrimmage against Michigan because he saw a different way to exploit the defense. It's his greatest strength as a quarterback. Occasionally, like the fourth-and-four play in the red zone, Rees misses a chance to put his team in the right play. The small snafus (little mistakes from all players, not just Rees) don't always occur in situations so easy to see, but they are the last barrier keeping Notre Dame's offense from slipping into its top gear. After scoring touchdowns on just 48.3 percent of its red-zone trips in 2012, which ranked 112th nationally, head coach Brian Kelly's offense has managed only a 42.8-percent rate through two games this season. photo by joe raymond "We've got to be more effective," Kelly said the day after the loss. "We did some really good things. There is more out there for us. We can't leave points on the board like we did, again, last night. We're close. We're really close." The Irish got close five times Saturday night in Ann Arbor. Five times the offense made their way into the red zone and twice more they reached at least the 26-yard line. Those trips resulted in two touchdowns. The red zone remains Notre Dame's biggest problem on offense. Last season, the Irish scored touchdowns 48.3 percent of the time they made it to the red zone — 111 Football Bowl Subdivision teams did better. Through two games this year, that number sits at 42.8 percent. Finishing was a major focus during training camp, and Kelly said he was encouraged by the team's progress in Au✦ Page 20 gust. But 99 good plays in a row don't guarantee that No. 100 will follow suit. "It's just recognition of what's happening from play to play, and not taking one play and assuming that the next one is going to look the same way," Kelly said. "I think each play is a brand new canvas, and you have to be able to see it and react to it. That's where we have to continue to evolve." The bright side for Notre Dame is that the coach has pushed teams through that process before. He's taken offenses across the threshold of "close" to being "there." Kelly's 2008 Cincinnati team had the country's 55th-ranked scoring offense while scoring 30 touchdowns (61 percent of its trips) in the red zone. The following year, his offense scored 42 times in the red zone (72 percent of its trips) and jumped to fourth nationally in scoring. They finished the regular season without a loss, and Kelly earned a job offer from Notre Dame. He said the key to those jumps was realizing that their success on a previous play or drive meant nothing on the current one. There are a lot of blank canvases strung up in front of the Irish this year. Each new season, new game and new play, they're learning, is a fresh start. Each stands on its own, untethered to history, immediate or distant. For Kelly's first three years in South Bend he had to teach his team to keep the weight of negative history from dragging them down. After a 12-1 season and a trip to the BCS National Championship Game, that task is turned on its head. Now the coaching staff has to keep its players from thinking past success will carry them. As the offense continues to take steps forward — and it has in these first two weeks — a similar challenge awaits on every play. ✦ E-mail Dan at dmurphy@blueandgold.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @BGI_DanMurphy.