What else could possibly go wrong for Notre Dame so far this season?
The Fighting Irish have now suffered back-to-back consecutive losses to begin the season. This is just the eighth time in their proud school history that they have started a season with two straight losses. It is also just the sixth time this has happened to the Irish since 1900. So basically, the Irish are in unfamiliar territory with this inauspicious start.
Let’s start with week one. They played host to a South Florida team that many “experts” had projected to be near the middle of the pack in a seemingly weak Big East Conference. It didn’t seem like the Bulls necessarily “wanted it more” than Notre Dame, rather it was their superior execution that won them the game.
The Irish continually plagued themselves with turnovers, particularly ones deep in the red zone. It was certainly not a good start when on their first drive Jonas Gray fumbled at the goal line and USF returned it for a touchdown. Later on, the Irish shot themselves in the foot again when now current starting QB Tommy Rees threw the ball behind his receiver, thus hitting T.J. Jones’ helmet and resulting in another turnover inside the five yard-line. Then there was the fumbled punt return by Theo Riddick (who couldn’t hold onto the ball to save his life that day) that resulted in the Bulls starting with fabulous field position. There were costly penalties, untimely turnovers, dropped passes, missed blocks, and ultimately a very angry head coach.
Then, this past weekend, it was basically the same old story for the Irish. They got a big early lead behind the stellar play of QB Tommy Rees, while the defense was able to keep the animal known as Denard Robinson in his cage. They were able to move the football at will and control the time of possession and field position battles. Everything was going right… or was it?
The way Notre Dame’s offense moved the football, they still squandered a couple opportunities to tack on more points. If they had capitalized on all of their chances, they could have all but buried Michigan and silenced the Big House so much that the Wolverines would have had almost no chance to come back.
But they didn’t.
There was still an additional four turnovers in the Michigan game (in addition to the five from the South Florida game). Tommy Rees still had a couple interceptions. There were still a few dropped passes by Notre Dame receivers not named Michael Floyd.
All of the missed opportunities were eventually magnified when “the victors” made their epic fourth quarter comeback. They put up four touchdowns in the final fifteen minutes against the Notre Dame defense that got burned numerous times by the big play all night. Even when Michigan mounted the comeback, the Irish still had multiple chances to snuff out the rally.
First, there was the interception in the end zone thrown by Robinson. Notre Dame could have just put the ball on the ground and eventually ran out the clock enough that Michigan would have ran out of time to score enough more points. Instead, Brian Kelly and company elected to stay in the air (even though Cierre Wood has had two very nice performances so far).
The plan seemed to be paying off for the Irish until Rees dropped back to throw in the red zone and fumbled the ball just before his release. Michigan recovered and had brand new life.
The Wolverines rode that emotional turnover caused by the defense to rumble down the field and score the go ahead touchdown to seemingly cap off the comeback.
But then Rees hit Riddick for another touchdown with 28 seconds left and it seemed like the offense had redeemed themselves from the turnovers to still win end up winning the game.
And then Robinson and his crew had the final word.
The porous Irish secondary left a streaking Michigan wide receiver wide open down the middle of the field and after a huge passing play, the Wolverines were quickly in position to hit a game tying field goal and send it into overtime.
But Brady Hoke chose to take one more shot at the end zone instead. And the move paid off.
Roy Roundtree made the stellar catch near the back corner of the end zone on a perfectly thrown ball by Denard Robinson and Michigan won the heart breaker. The loss left Brian Kelly and Notre Dame stunned and left everybody else feeling like they just witnessed what will probably be the best and most dramatic college football game all year.
So what does this mean for Notre Dame. They seem to have a good running back tandem of Cierre Wood and Jonas Gray. They seem pretty solid now on having Tommy Rees start over Dayne Crist. And they have arguably one of the best wide receivers in the nation with Michael Floyd. They have good coaching. They are deep at every position and are loaded up with five-star players everywhere thanks to several highly rated recruiting classes by Kelly and his predecessor Charlie Weis.
It seems like the problem is not talent or even coaching related. The problem seems to be completely internal. What is the common theme in both of their losses? Too many turnovers (and a lot of them in the worst possible situations). Too many costly penalties and unforced errors (including two consecutive face mask penalties by their senior defensive back again USF). And too many dropped passes (the main culprit being Theo Riddick). They just seem to be mental mistakes, possibly caused by a lack of confidence.
It doesn’t seem to be an impossible problem for a successful coach like Brian Kelly to be able to address. But after two games like this, they need to not only be addressed, but fixed immediately at this point. If not, with the way their schedule looks this year (another tough game vs. Michigan State looms next weekend, with the annual USC, Navy, and Purdue contests later on) they may end up in danger of missing a bowl game.
Fear not Notre Dame fans. This is still a team that is full of talent and experience at important positions. Fix the turnover problem, and the rest of this season could still very well become a magical one for the luck of the Irish. The future of this program still looks bright.