Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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thanks to the presence of the India- napolis native. Day's ability to quickly shoot gaps and get penetration often resulted in Walker being forced to move around as soon as he reached the top of his drop. On a number of occasions, the Temple quarterback had open receivers down the field, but the pressure from Day kept him from set- ting his feet and making an accurate pass. "He's playing the best football of his career," said Kelly emphatically of Day. "When you have your cap- tains playing their best football, that's a good sign for your defense." RED-ZONE WOES Notre Dame's fourth-quarter come- back should not have been necessary. The Irish offense had several chances to put significant distance between itself and Temple during the game's first half, but simply could not finish enough drives off in the red zone. "A couple mistakes in the red zone obviously were costly, but we were able to overcome them today against a really good football team," head coach Brian Kelly noted. The first came early in the second quarter with Notre Dame leading 7-3. The Irish had the ball at the Temple 7-yard line, facing a third-and-goal sit- uation. Temple brought a heavy inside pressure and sophomore quarterback DeShone Kizer tried to throw the ball to senior wide receiver Chris Brown on a crossing route. Kizer was off tar- get, and the ball sailed over Brown's head and into the hands of Temple redshirt junior defensive end Praise Martin-Oguike. "The first one was just an unaccept- able mistake on DeShone's part, and he knows that," Kelly said of the sec- ond quarter pick. "He can't throw that ball into traffic like that. He had a hot receiver into the boundary. That's one of those mistakes he'll look back and won't make again." Temple turned that turnover into a touchdown drive, with the Owls go- ing 94 yards to take a 10-7 lead. Kizer responded with a 79-yard scoring run to put the Irish back on top, and Notre Dame's defense firmed up and forced a Temple punt. Kizer then led the Irish on a me- thodical nine-play, 74-yard drive with the half coming to a close. Facing third-and-10 at the Temple 11-yard line, he tried to fit a pass to Will Fuller, but the junior wide receiver could BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Temple • 1-5 TEM11 Thomas rush for 39 yards to the 50 • 2-10 50 Walker pass complete to Bryant for 26 yards to the ND24 • 1-10 TEM25 Walker pass complete to Bryant for 28 yards to the ND47 • 4-4 ND38 Walker pass complete to Anderson for 31 yards to the ND7 Notre Dame • 2-6 ND29 Kizer pass complete to Brown for 25 yards to the TEM46 • 3-1 ND21 Kizer rush for 79 yards and a touch- down • 2-8 ND17 Kizer pass complete to Carlisle for 31 yards to the ND48 • 1-10 ND46 Kizer pass complete to Hunter Jr. for 40 yards to the TEM14 • 1-10 ND38 Kizer pass complete to Jones for 45 yards to the TEM17