Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/601719
clock-controlling offense was a ma- jor factor, helping to limit the Irish to 49 offensive snaps. When the Demon Deacons scored their first points of the game with 2:40 left in the third quarter, Notre Dame had run only 27 offensive plays. "Wake Forest did a very good job of controlling the football," head coach Brian Kelly said. Despite the Demon Deacons' ball control offense, the Irish managed to win comfortably by holding their op- ponent to a total of seven points in four trips to the red zone. "I thought it was very important," Kelly said. "Certainly, they had a missed field goal and then a few op- portunities. They were very aggressive in going for it on fourth-down situa- tions, where maybe in other situations that you would see during the game maybe you don't. "Some of their fourth downs were difficult. Other than the fourth-and- goal, they had some long fourth-down situations to try to convert." To avoid a second straight shutout at Notre Dame — the Irish won 38-0 in 2012 — Wake Forest went 55 yards in 11 plays to reach the end zone in the third quarter. Sophomore quarterback John Wolford's one-yard keeper ended a drive of six minutes and 16 seconds, which was kept alive on a roughing the snapper penalty on a punt against freshman Te'von Coney near midfield. Senior defensive end Romeo Ok- wara registered three sacks to give him eight in the past five games. Junior linebacker Jaylon Smith led the Irish with 14 tackles, and fifth-year senior linebacker Joe Schmidt contributed 10 stops.