Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/200019
zone. Notre Dame recovered to carry the 14-point advantage into the locker room. On the first drive of the second half, Air Force reached Notre Dame territory before Romine fumbled and freshman Dog linebacker Jaylon Smith recovered. Romine's fumble was initially ruled an incompleted pass, but was overturned via replay. Six plays later, Rees threw his fourth touchdown pass of the day to put the Irish ahead 31-10. For the sixth time in their last seven games, the Irish fell behind early. Notre Dame won the toss and marched 47 yards down the field before the Falcons blocked junior kicker Kyle Brindza's 46-yard field goal attempt. Notre Dame lined up to go for it on fourth-and-two at the Air Force 24-yard line, but freshman offensive lineman Steve Elmer's false start led to the field goal attempt. Elmer started in place of senior guard Christian Lombard, who is out for the season after undergoing back surgery Oct. 23. Air Force took the succeeding drive 71 yards and scored on junior Colton Huntsman's 10-yard touchdown scamper. "We told our guys that Air Force was going to give us a punch — and it was in the very first quarter when we drove down and had a field goal blocked and subsequently they scored," Kelly said. "Our team was going to have to respond, and they responded quite well. That was the challenge to our football team that something was going to happen early on and they would have to respond. They responded very, very well and from then on really played well. "We scored 45 of the next 48 points after that touchdown." The offense broke out due in large part to its distribution among the many options, with Rees completing passes to eight different players. Jones said it was hardly a surprising performance. "I don't think I look at [the receiver corps] any differently now," he said. "We expected to make big plays. Whether it's this game, the next game or games in the past, we look at ourselves as one of the best in the country, and we have that confidence. We expect ourselves to perform at our best each week." But Notre Dame's success centered around its senior quarterback and the top statistical performance of his career. In the month of October — during which the Irish won all three of their games — Rees completed 48 of 81 passes (59.2 percent) for 729 yards with 10 touchdowns and one interception. "He's played well, except for the interception against Arizona State," Kelly said. "I thought he played very well against Arizona State coming from a subpar performance against Oklahoma. … I thought clearly he was playing well against USC until he got injured. We really felt like he's been playing well and putting the ball in great locations. "I'll give you one example. TJ's catch — a couple of his catches the ball position was outstanding — but the one in particular that I liked was Chris Brown's touchdown catch. It was put in a position where only he was going to catch