Blue and Gold Illustrated

2 Consecutive Septembers that Notre Dame fin- ished unbeaten, a first since the four straight from 1987-90. It also was only the fourth time since 1994 the Fighting Irish went unscathed in September — 2002, 2012, 2014 and 2015 — and the third time in the last four years. Notre Dame has won seven in a row in September for the first time since 1992-94. BY THE NUMBERS BY LOU SOMOGYI What Worked • Handling Pressure. In its 25-23 loss to Temple a week ago, UMass effectively used a diverse blitz package to slow down the Owls' ground game. It worked well, with UMass holding Temple to just 45 yards on 25 attempts. The Minutemen carried that plan into its matchup against Notre Dame, but head coach Brian Kelly and the Irish offense were ready. After giving up a sack on the first play from an inside linebacker stunt, Notre Dame quickly found its answer to the pressure. The Irish used their perimeter running attack to soften up the UMass stunts. On the second se- ries, the Irish mixed in a perfectly timed and well- designed counter run. The line blocked it up, and sophomore tight end Nic Weishar kicked out the blitzing linebacker, opening up a wide hole for se- nior running back C.J. Prosise, who did the rest of the work, scampering 57 yards for Notre Dame's first touchdown of the game. • Field Position Battle. Notre Dame and UMass spent much of the first two quarters battling for field position, with both special teams units pinning the opposition deep and forcing each offense to go the length of the field for points. The only short field in the first quarter and a half was due to a Notre Dame interception, which gave the Minutemen the football at midfield, and they converted that into a touchdown to make it a 21-13 game. It was not until late in the second quarter that Notre Dame's special teams were able to change the game's momentum, with some help from the defense. After quarterback DeShone Kizer was stopped short on a third-down run, sophomore punter Tyler Newsome pinned UMass inside the 1-yard line. Notre Dame forced a quick three-and-out, and the Minutemen were forced to punt from the back of the end zone. Freshman CJ Sanders took the punt at midfield and took it in for a score, putting the Irish up 28-20. What Didn't Work • Inside Struggles. With Notre Dame geared to- wards stopping the perimeter pass and slowing down UMass's talented wide receivers, head coach Mark Whipple was able to find initial success in a surprising manner. Early on, the UMass ground game was able to attack the middle of the Notre Dame defense. The Minutemen effectively used a lead draw concept to gash the Irish defense. UMass allowed the Irish defensive line to get up field and the Minutemen running backs then found creases inside with the draw action. Notre Dame's linebackers were ineffective getting off blocks and getting to the ball carrier, and the result was a num- ber of big runs. UMass ripped off an 83-yard first-quarter touch- down run and had an additional 45 rushing yards on three other first-half attempts with this concept be- fore the Irish were able to come up with an answer. • Lack Of A Rush. For the second straight game against a pro-style offense, the Notre Dame defense largely failed to get pressure on the opposition quarterback. The result was UMass senior quarter- back Blake Frohnapfel getting comfortable in the pocket and pass for 155 yards in the opening half. — Bryan Driskell TAKING A CLOSER LOOK

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