Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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we're trying to do in the locker room." Following the victory, Notre Dame began the first of two bye weeks. With the number of players facing injuries and the unresolved status of the five involved in the academic investiga- tion, it just might have come at the perfect time. ROMEO OKWARA EMERGES Without freshman defensive end An- drew Trumbetti, Notre Dame needed junior defensive end Romeo Okwara to play more meaningful snaps than he had thus far this season. Okwara re- sponded with a career-high 11 tackles, including notching half a sack. Sopho- more linebacker Jaylon Smith certainly noticed Okwara's impact. "I felt like he was in on every tackle," Smith said. "Maybe not solos, but a lot of assists. The productivity was there and not a lot of mental errors. "He's progressing each week. A lot of people don't understand he's young. He's actually three days younger than me." Okwara's effort against Purdue was the best statistical performance of his football career, more than doubling his previous career high of five tackles. "I had no idea until the game was over," he said of his spike in numbers. SLOPPY IRISH Through the season's first two weeks, head coach Brian Kelly repeat- edly praised his squad for its "clean" play. Notre Dame did not turn over the ball against either Rice or Michigan, and committed only five penalties while giving up just two sacks. In the 60 minutes against Purdue, the Irish flipped all those trends. In the first half alone, Notre Dame com- mitted five penalties, including sopho- more safety Max Redfield's targeting penalty that got him ejected and a per- sonal foul for taunting by junior safety Elijah Shumate two plays later. "Crazy penalties," Kelly said with a hint of disbelief. "An off-side penalty [on sophomore receiver Will Fuller] because you can't take the time to look at the official's foot to line up — are you kidding me?" Notre Dame was also called for two false starts (sophomore running back Greg Bryant and sophomore offensive tackle Steve Elmer), holding (junior wide receiver Chris Brown) and an il- legal formation. "They were aggravating penalties for me more than anything else," Kelly said. "Two of them are knucklehead penalties, and one of them was an ag- gressive penalty, and the other one we'll take care of that one internally." Comparatively, Purdue committed only five penalties. Amid many struggles, the offensive line gave up four sacks of senior quar- terback Everett Golson, and that num- ber would have been much higher if not for Golson's innate maneuverabil- ity. The offensive line also struggled providing holes for Notre Dame's run- ning attack, while miscues and mis- communications opened up holes for defenders rather than Irish runners. "It's going to get better," Kelly said. "They will get better. It's just we're not where we need to be there. We're going to keep working, keep grinding. We'll get there. We're just not there yet." The four sacks cost Golson 18 yards,