Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Under the Dome Charting The Irish Fewer Plays, Fewer Points Notre Dame's offense was supposed to be a more high-powered operation this year, but seven games into the regular season, the Irish were averaging 25.4 points per game compared to 25.8 a year ago. Part of the problem is not being able to stay on the field. Notre Dame ranked 86th in the nation heading into its game against Air Force in offensive plays per game (66.3). That number will likely drop with back-to-back games against the military academies. In their last five games against the academies, the Irish ran more plays than their season average only once. A closer look, though, shows it's not so much how many plays a team runs as what it produces with them. Four teams in the top 15 of the BCS standings run fewer plays per game than the Irish. Notre Dame scored a point for every 2.6 plays it ran during the first seven games of the year. All four teams in the BCS that ran fewer plays — Alabama, Stanford, Miami and LSU — average less than two plays for every point they score. Brian Kelly's teams have yet to dip below 2.4 plays per point since he arrived in 2010. 2013 Season (Through Oct. 19) School Plays Per Point Alabama1.6 Stanford1.8 Miami1.6 LSU1.7 Notre Dame 2.6 Notre Dame Under Brian Kelly Year Plays Per Point (Plays Per Game) 20102.62 (68.8) 20112.4 (69.7) 20122.66 (68.8) 20132.61 (66.3) Moving? catchinG fire Prince Shem bo and get hot in 37-3 the Irish 4 win over Sun Devi ls Let our customer service department know your new address! Call us 1-800-421-7751