Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/95140
UNDER THE DOME Nothing Special its first 11 games, making it the only undefeated bowl-eligible team in college football. Despite the perfect record, the Irish are not a perfect team. There are chinks in the armor that could keep the Irish from finishing their dream season on top of the polls, and none is bigger than their shortcomings on spe- cial teams. Let's start with the re- It's time to start picking nits. Notre Dame won turn game. Notre Dame's inability to pick up even a handful of yards on punt returns has become a run- ning joke during the past two seasons. Field position will be an important factor against whomever the Irish play in January. Even a mid- dling return of 15-20 yards can go a long way to flip a field during a big game. Then there's sophomore WHAT FLAW COULD END UP HURTING NOTRE DAME THE MOST? By Dan Murphy Point ✦ Counterpoint: Seeing Red proved throughout the course of the season, it still has let a pile of points slip away. The Fighting Irish were tied for 76th nation- ally in red zone offense prior to their trip to Southern Cali- fornia, scoring 41 times on 52 trips (78.8 percent). Alabama, for instance, which ranked third in the country in the same cat- egory, scored 44 times on 47 trips (93.6 percent). Whereas the No. 1 Fighting As much as the Notre Dame offense has im- By Wes Morgan Irish came away with 26 touch- downs and 15 field goals, No. 2 Alabama reached the end zone 35 times and kicked nine field goals. Notre Dame can't afford to Sophomore placekicker Kyle Brindza made 18 of his first 25 field goal attempts (a success rate of just 72.0 percent), but none of the misses have cost the Irish yet. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL Kyle Brindza, who possesses a powerful right leg and is on pace to make more career field goals than any kicker ever at Notre Dame. Consistency has been a problem for the first-year placekicker, though. He's missed attempts against Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Stanford and Purdue in close games this year. In fairness, he bounced back to make clutch kicks down the stretch in all of those games, but at a 72.0 percent success rate is it only a matter of time before a miss comes at the end of a game instead of the beginning? don't make the most of every scoring opportunity. Too many game have been closer than necessary come up empty in a place like Los Angeles Memorial Coli- seum, and if the Irish get past the Trojans and reach the BCS title game, probably against the Crimson Tide, they'll get washed away in Miami if they this year for head coach Brian Kelly, who watched his offense score just three touchdowns in eight tries in a triple-overtime victory over Pitt Nov. 3. The Irish also were just 2 of 5 in a 17-14 rally versus Brigham Young Oct. 20, 1 of 3 in a 13-6 win over Michigan Sept. 22 and 2 of 5 in a 20-17 vic- tory against Purdue Sept. 8. Any wasted drives from here on out might be the difference between winning it all and coming up just short.