Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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2-6 Notre Dame's record the last eight sea- sons the week after playing Navy, includ- ing a loss last year at Pitt (28-21) to go with this year's setback at Arizona State. Only one of the first eight opponents the Midshipmen played this year won when it played the following week (Rutgers), including Ohio State. Notre Dame's opponent next year the week after playing Navy on Oct. 10 is USC. 4 Consecutive touchdowns scored by Arizona State in a span of 7:07 that covered the late first quarter and early second quarter to make the score 31-3. It began with a one-handed 13-yard grab by wideout Jaelen Strong with 3:19 left in the first quarter and was capped by a 43-yard score from quarterback Taylor Kelly to wide receiver Cameron Smith with 11:12 still remaining in the first half. 5 Arizona State head coach TODD GRAHAM became the fifth coach in history to defeat Notre Dame at two different schools, with his first win coming at Tulsa in 2010 (28-27). The other four BY THE NUMBERS BY LOU SOMOGYI What Worked • Screens/quick passing game. To counter Ari- zona State's constant blitzing, Notre Dame needed the ball to come out of senior quarterback Everett Golson's hands quicker in the short passing game. That approach also opened up the vertical attack better in the second half. The longer progressions for Golson were not working as well, and usually gave the ASU pass rush time to get to him to the tune of seven sacks and several other hurried throws. • Keeping composure and keeping playing. For all its faults, this team still gives you the feeling that it can come back and be in any game. From a 34-3 deficit, the Irish were one stop away from potentially taking the lead late in the fourth quar- ter and achieving the greatest comeback in its football history. What Didn't Work • Nowhere to run. Almost every time Notre Dame loses, it has an ugly double-digit figure in rushing, and this time it was 41 yards to Arizona State — which was ranked 88th nationally against the run at 180.9 yards allowed per game. ASU's slanting and angling along the defensive front seemed to throw off the Irish line, which was unable to provide any surge after displaying progress each of the past three weeks. Once Notre Dame fell behind by three scores, it relied almost exclusively on the pass and Golson's scrambles. • Blitz package. This went for both sides of the ball. Until the full-time insertion of senior running back Cam McDaniel in the second half, the Irish had problems with the blitz pickup. Defensively, Notre Dame's blitzes didn't seem to be timed as well and were slower getting to the quarterback. • Tempo in Tempe. North Carolina might have provided a blueprint on how to attack the Irish. The Sun Devils slowed down on offense when they tried to run clock after taking a 34-3 lead and seemed to play more not to lose than to win. Once threatened, ASU went back to its faster pace, and to its credit was able to execute it. • Stopping the bleeding. When Arizona State scored four touchdowns in a span of 7:07 in the first half, the Irish couldn't make a single play on offense, defense or special teams to apply a tour- niquet. They also allowed 24 straight points the previous week to Navy. Notre Dame has forced only one turnover each of the past two games, or too few in a scheme where generating big plays/turnovers was a trade- off to allowing some big plays to the opposing offense. — Lou Somogyi TAKING A CLOSER LOOK