Duke vs. Notre Dame: Game Grades, Analysis for Irish
Another week in the books for Notre Dame, and it's another loss after Duke beat the Irish 38-35 Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium. We're going to present our weekly report card for the Fighting Irish, and as you can imagine, it's not going to be pretty.
You'll have to excuse the relative cursory look we'll be taking at the positive aspects of Notre Dame's performance against Duke, because, well, the negatives far outweighed the positives. We know what's good; everyone can see the offense racking up yardage and putting up more than enough points to win most games.
But it's time to take a hard look at things other than the box score. It's time to have an honest tete-a-tete about what's going on in South Bend.
Strap in—here we go.
Pass Offense
1 of 6
As we've been saying all season, there are plenty of positives for the Irish when it comes to the offense. DeShone Kizer, while still settling into the role as the 2016 starter, has had some impressive moments (punctuated by mind-numbing errors).
Equanimeous St. Brown continues to mature and was a highlight again Saturday with six receptions for 116 yards and a touchdown.
DeShone Kizer completed 22 of his 37 attempts for 381 yards and two scores.
Fine. That's all well and good. It wasn't enough to win, but let's not blame a passing offense that managed nearly 400 yards of offense.
Pass Offense: B+
Run Offense
2 of 6
The running game hasn't been as impressive as in years past, but the Irish have more than enough to put up efficient, if not eye-popping, numbers.
Saturday was another perfect example of a performance that doesn't impress but doesn't concern, either. Josh Adams and DeShone Kizer both had 60 rushing yards, on 14 and 11 carries, respectively.
As a team, the Irish had a mediocre 153 yards but found the end zone three times on the ground.
The offensive line did a fine job of opening some holes, but downfield running never became much of an issue, as Duke limited Notre Dame to just a single run of 20 or more yards.
Again, that's OK, but it's not really what we're here to talk about.
Run Offense: C+
Pass Defense
3 of 6
If you could tell the story of Notre Dame's secondary in one picture, it might be this one from the Associated Press' Charles Rex Arbogast. It shows Duke's Anthony Nash running almost casually down the sideline with nary a Notre Dame defender within 15 yards on him.
Yep, that's how the day went for Notre Dame.
Daniel Jones passed for 290 yards, while Nash had 123 yards and two touchdowns on six receptions. T.J. Rahming had eight receptions for 87 yards, and Quay Chambers added 55 yards and a score on five grabs.
And even when receivers weren't running in the open like Nash did, it didn't make much of a difference. The tackling for Notre Dame has been so atrocious this season that opposing receivers have little reason to fear being hauled down quickly.
Missed tackles isn't an official stat, but if it was, there's little doubt that Notre Dame would be leading (or is that trailing?) the nation in the category.
Pass Defense: F
Run Defense
4 of 6
Notre Dame gave up 208 yards to Duke on the ground. With 42 rushes, that's 4.95 yards per carry. Believe it or not, that's actually an improvement over the 5.28 yards per carry the Irish surrendered to the Spartans last week.
One would think that with the disparity of size and talent on the line of scrimmage that Notre Dame would impose its will against the Blue Devils.
So what went wrong against Duke? Missed tackles? Check. Inability to shed blocks? Check. Horrible pursuit angles? Check. Basically, it was another complete failure on defense.
But we're done blaming 18- to 23-year-old guys on the field. It's time to start looking at the real culprits.
Run Defense: F
Special Teams
5 of 6
No, Justin Yoon and the rest of the special teams aren't the culprits. But since we're talking about it...
Yoon missed his only field-goal attempt of the day, a 42-yard attempt as time expired in the first quarter. How big was that miss? As it turns out, it was massive.
But lest we make Yoon or the special teams scapegoats, let's finally move on to the real meat of the discussion. Let's talk about the coaching staff.
Special Teams: C
Coaching
6 of 6
We've been patient with head coach Brian Kelly. We've been patient with defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder. We've been patient with the process.
Like Notre Dame fans across the nation, we have run out of patience.
You know things have turned a corner when the Irish faithful in the stands at Notre Dame Stadium start chanting for the firing of the defensive coordinator, as they did against Duke. As "Fire VanGorder!" rang out from the crowd—particularly from the student section—there's not a lot of doubt that Kelly and VanGorder heard what was being said.
Sure, the coaching staff will give us the usual coachspeak and brush it off, but for once, the fans are 100 percent correct. VanGorder needs to go. Kelly needs to fire his defensive coordinator.
Why blame VanGorder? It's simple. One of the glaring problems with Notre Dame's defense this season has been the lack of effective defensive scheming. Notre Dame has been recruiting blue-chip prospects from the moment Kelly stepped foot on campus. The Irish are—supposedly—loaded with young talent that should rival any program in the nation.
Instead, much weaker competition such as Duke runs around, through and past the Notre Dame defense while the Irish stand around looking befuddled.
That's on the coaches.
The Irish have also done a horrible job of tackling this season, showing a clear lack of preparation for the fundamentals of playing defensive football.
That's on the coaches.
Notre Dame's defense seems to get worse as the games wear on, which means that halftime and on-the-fly adjustments are not being made or are being made incorrectly.
That's on the coaches.
Are you seeing a theme here?
Even if Notre Dame's defensive talent level wasn't as advertised, the Irish should never be caught in a dogfight with Duke. With all due respect to the Blue Devils' football program, Duke and Notre Dame are about as disparate in football as Duke is to Northwestern in basketball.
Again, so there's no misunderstanding, VanGorder is not the man for this job, and Kelly needs to show him the door.
If Kelly doesn't, it will begin the conversation about whether he is properly executing his duties as the head football coach at Notre Dame.
Coaching: F
All recruiting information via 247Sports. Stats from NCAA.com, CFBStats.com or B/R research. Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow Bleacher Report CFB Featured Columnist and Notre Dame Live Correspondent David Luther on Twitter @davidrluther.
_0.png?w=600 "Real Winners & Losers At Mania")
