Notre Dame Issues Exposed by UNC Must Be Fixed Before Showdown vs. FSU
As the points piled up, so too did the collective uneasiness of Notre Dame football fans Saturday during the shootout between the Irish and the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Notre Dame prevailed in the 50-43 victory at Notre Dame Stadium, but the Irish weren’t overly convincing ahead of next week’s tilt with No. 1 Florida State at Doak Campbell Stadium.
“Lots of points, lots of penalties, lots of turnovers, lots of things to correct,” Irish head coach Brian Kelly said to reporters after the win.
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The Irish will be looking for quick fixes in various areas before facing the Seminoles.
Communication
Notre Dame appeared to struggle with communication in a slew of areas Saturday. On multiple occasions, the defense was still shuffling players onto the field or setting up its positioning when North Carolina’s uptempo offense was ready to begin.
Kick returners Cam McDaniel and Amir Carlisle miscommunicated in deciding whether Carlisle should bring a third-quarter kickoff out of the end zone.
In the fourth quarter, Notre Dame sent multiple men in motion across the formation at the same time, and the ball was snapped while they were still moving.
And, of course, the Irish committed two false-start penalties on consecutive plays while preparing to punt on fourth down. Notre Dame had three false starts on the drive.
Taken individually, these aren’t major issues. Taken collectively, however, it’s evident the Irish have plenty to fix here before squaring off with the Seminoles—when the margin for error will be remarkably slim.
Turnovers
Notre Dame fans were left scratching their heads again at Everett Golson’s up-and-down performance. On the third play from scrimmage, Golson fumbled in Notre Dame territory, setting up North Carolina’s first touchdown. After a three-and-out, Golson tossed an interception on the second play of Notre Dame’s third possession.
“I got in his face a little bit about the first interception,” Kelly said. “He's above that interception. That's a stick route that he's seen a million times.”
After handing the Tar Heels 14 early points, Golson did settle down—only to fumble again in the third quarter, again deep in Notre Dame’s end of the field. And, again, North Carolina turned the miscue into points.
So what needs to change? Kelly and Golson both said this week how Golson has been working with the running backs on ball security.
“We will just continue to ask him to commit himself during the week,” Kelly said.
Maybe more so than any one week, Golson will need to be committed to taking care of the football with Florida State ready to pounce.
Tackling
After a solid week of wrap-up tackling against Stanford, Notre Dame tackled “poorly” against North Carolina, Kelly said.
Tar Heels quarterback Marquise Williams and running back Elijah Hood, in particular, made Irish tacklers miss and helped North Carolina move the ball. In total, the Tar Heels piled up 510 yards of total offense on 84 plays—good for 6.1 yards per play.
Asked if he believes Notre Dame loses confidence after tackling poorly and turning the ball over, Kelly said no.
“You're going to have some of these games. You shake it off,” Kelly said. “They will be ready to play their very best against Florida State. But the nice part about it is we got great film and great teaching off of another win.”
Quarterback Contain
Williams impressed against the Irish defense. He completed 24-of-41 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns to go along with 132 rushing yards and a score on 18 carries.
On a few different plays, Williams took off right up the middle and gashed the Notre Dame defense. The junior quarterback had rushes of 41, 28 and 11 (twice) yards.
Asked what went wrong defending Williams, Kelly credited the dual-threat signal-caller, who came in as North Carolina’s leading rusher.
“Nothing went wrong, he's pretty good,” Kelly said. “He's difficult to defend. Great runner, threw the ball effectively, we couldn't tackle him. We had him two or three times where we couldn't get him down, missed tackles.”
Kelly said there isn’t a whole lot Notre Dame can take from facing Williams into its preparation for Florida State quarterback and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston.
“The offense is a totally different situation for us in terms of defending it,” Kelly said. “We tackled poorly. We executed poorly. We got to coach better. We just got to do a better job all the way around.”
All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Mike Monaco is a lead Notre Dame writer for Bleacher Report. Follow @MikeMonaco_ on Twitter.
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