Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME The red zones have been anything but hot in Notre Dame's first five games of the 2012 season. Notre Dame scored touchdowns on only 52 percent of its first 25 trips CHARTING THE IRISH inside the 20-yard line in its 5-0 start. That ranked them 93rd in the country among Football Bowl Subdivision schools. The Irish came away empty handed from those trips fives times. Among the teams that started week six ranked higher than the Irish, only South Carolina had a lower red zone success rate. The Gamecocks, though, were better than most when it came to getting touchdowns instead of settling for field goals. Team (Success Rate) Alabama (100%) West Virginia (95.8%) 20 Florida (93.8%) Oregon (88.5%) Kansas State (85.2%) Notre Dame (80%) South Carolina (77.8%) 19 10 27 18 13 TD (green) 16 OFFENSIVE RED ZONE RESULTS FG (yellow) 6 5 7 1 5 3 1 2 6 5 ficulty finishing red zone chances than they have. Notre Dame's first five opponents scored points only 58.3 percent of the time they made it inside the 20. They Irish allowed touchdowns on only two of those 12 trips, which was the lowest percentage of any team in the country. Team (Success Rate) Alabama Opponents (57.1%) Oregon Opponents (57.7%) Notre Dame Opponents (58.3%) DEFENSIVE RED ZONE RESULTS TD (green) 4 9 3 South Carolina Opponents (64.3%) 4 Kansas State Opponents (75%) Florida Opponents (83.3%) West Virginia Opponents (84%) 2 5 8 17 7 5 5 3 7 5 2 (no field goals allowed) 6 FG (yellow) 11 5 4 4 cess than an offense's ability to close the deal. Five of the eight best teams when it comes to stopping opponents in the red zone were still undefeated, including Notre Dame. The country's top team in that category is upcoming Irish opponent BYU, which had allowed only four scores in 10 trips inside the red zone. Defensive prowess in the red zone seems to be a better indicator of suc- Stopped (red) The bright side for the Irish is their opponents have had way more dif- (no stopped possessions) 4 4 4 Stopped (red)