Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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24 NOV. 7, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED ing. The Hurricanes were able to run for just 18 total yards on 35 carries (though lost yardage via sacks counts toward that total). "It was a complete effort from a de- fensive standpoint," Kelly said. "There are things we can do better, there's no question, but I thought the run de- fense was solid. We got our hands on balls and pass break-ups and deflec- tions. And we pressured the quarter- back. A lot of good things happened out there today defensively." Jones was a huge part of the Irish de- fensive effort. He finished with seven solo tackles, six stops for loss and a sack. Kelly awarded the Rochester, N.Y., native the game ball for his effort. Morgan also had a strong defen- sive game, tallying nine tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks. Junior safety Drue Tranquill also finished with nine tackles. Overall, Notre Dame finished with five sacks, 12 tackles for loss, a first- quarter interception by senior corner- back Cole Luke that set up a touch- down and eight passes broken up. "We do sack the quarterback here at Notre Dame," Kelly said. "If you want to go direct snap and drop back, we can get to you. "Now, if you just catch it and throw it, it's hard to get to you." Notre Dame built its lead in the first half through the air. Kizer found se- nior wide receiver Torii Hunter Jr. for a five-yard touchdown on the game's first drive to take a 7-0 lead. Yoon hit a 37-yard field goal on its second posses- sion to make it 10-0. On Notre Dame's third drive, Kizer found sophomore wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown for a 14-yard touchdown, boosting the lead to 17-0 out of the gate. First-year Miami head coach Mark Richt said it didn't take a dramatic halftime speech to turn around the game. "The coaching staff did a good job of painting a picture of what could hap- pen," Richt said. "Just fight. See what happens. We knew if we would fight and execute it, we'd have a chance to get back in this thing, which we did. "We did more than that, quite frankly." But in the end, it was Notre Dame making a few plays, something the Irish had failed to do during close losses this season. It was a matter of being decisive. "Our whole football team had been battling at times being indecisive in certain areas, whether we were in- decisive at the quarterback position, whether we were indecisive as a play caller, whether we were indecisive at the cornerback position, indecisive- ness kind of put us where we are today," Kelly said. "The word that we were using was let's be decisive in everything that we do. "There's still some indecisiveness that is lingering. It's slowly leaving, and the opposite of that is being de- cisive and confident in what we're doing. And we have to be more con- fident. We've got really good players that care a lot, that have a lot of pride in what they do every single day. I just have to reinforce with those guys to be more decisive. "They're coming from the other end of that, being indecisive. They're getting closer to being decisive." ✦ Sophomore running back Josh Adams' 41-yard touchdown run with 5:53 remaining in the game helped bring the Irish back after they fell behind for the first time in the contest midway through the fourth quarter. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA FIRST QUARTER UM ND ND Hunter 5-yard pass from Kizer (Yoon kick) 11:32 0 7 Drive: 9 plays, 75 yards, 3:28 ND Yoon 37-yard field goal 6:34 0 10 Drive: 8 plays, 36 yards, 2:55 ND St. Brown 14-yard pass from Kizer (Yoon kick) 4:23 0 17 Drive: 3 plays, 13 yards, 1:12 SECOND QUARTER ND Yoon 26-yard field goal 10:31 0 20 Drive: 5 plays, 53 yards, 0:34 UM Njoku 2-yard pass from Kaaya (Badgley kick) 6:50 7 20 Drive: 4 plays, 38 yards, 2:01 THIRD QUARTER UM Walton 1-yard run (Badgley kick) 8:36 14 20 Drive: 13 plays, 76 yards, 6:19 UM Badgley 43-yard field goal 4:41 17 20 Drive: 9 plays, 42 yards, 2:50 FOURTH QUARTER UM Badgley 38-yard field goal 12:30 20 20 Drive: 11 plays, 48 yards, 4:23 UM Jackson, M. 0-yard fumble recovery (Badgley kick) 6:49 27 20 ND Adams 41-yard run (Yoon kick) 5:53 27 27 Drive: 4 plays, 75 yards, 0:56 ND Yoon 23-yard field goal 0:30 27 30 Drive: 10 plays, 34 yards, 4:13 UM ND Total First Downs 20 20 Rushing 3 7 Passing 15 12 Penalty 2 1 Rushing Attempts 35 29 Yards Gained Rushing 77 158 Yards Lost Rushing 59 10 Net Yards Rushing 18 148 Net Yards Passing 288 263 Passes Attempted 42 38 Passes Completed 26 25 Had Intercepted 1 0 Percent Completion 61.9% 65.8% Yards Per Attempt 6.9 6.9 Yards Per Completion 11.1 10.5 Total Offensive Plays 77 67 Total Net Yards 306 411 Average Gain Per Play 4.0 6.1 Fumbles: No.-Lost 0-0 3-2 Penalties: No.-Yards 10-86 7-53 Punts: No.-Yards 7-314 4-153 Average Per Punt 44.9 38.2 Average Net Punt 38.4 30.8 Punt Returns: No.-Yards 1-30 5-45 Kickoff Returns: No.-Yards 3-56 2-55 Interception Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 1-14 Fumble Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0 Miscellaneous Yards 0 0 Possession Time 33:25 26:35 Third-Down Conversions 7-19 8-16 Percentage 36.8% 50.0% Fourth-Down Conversions 0-1 0-1 Percentage 0.0% 0.0% Sacks By: No.-Yards 1-5 5-41 NOTRE DAME 30, MIAMI 27 Oct. 29, 2016 ✦ Attendance: 80,795 ✦ Notre Dame Stadium ✦ Notre Dame, Ind. 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Tot. Miami 0 7 10 10 27 Notre Dame 17 3 0 10 30