Notre Dame vs. Arizona State: Game Grades, Analysis for Irish and Sun Devils
Just when it appeared as if No. 9 Arizona State would rout No. 10 Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish came roaring back after a 34-3 deficit in the second quarter to cut the ASU lead to jsut three points in the fourth. The Sun Devils held, however, scoring the final 21 points to emerge with their first-ever victory over Notre Dame, and their first win over a top-10 team since 2002.
What's more, Taylor Kelly laid some concerns to rest—likely once and for all—while the Sun Devils may have punched their ticket into the College Football Playoff conversation.
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| Pass Offense | D | C |
| Run Offense | D | D |
| Pass Defense | C | C |
| Run Defense | C | C |
| Special Teams | B | D |
| Coaching | C- | B+ |
Notre Dame Pass Offense
If you look at a quarterback who puts up 446 passing yards and a pair of passing touchdowns, you might be fooled into thinking he had a pretty remarkable outing. Well, it was, in fact, remarkable, but not in a good way. Everett Golson, despite the big numbers, also threw four interceptions and fumbled once under pressure in the pocket for five turnovers in the passing game.
Even though it's tough to place all of the blame on Golson for at least three of those interceptions (as two were deflected and one was a drop by Corey Robinson right into the waiting hands of ASU's Lloyd Carrington), we still can't ignore the terrible outing the passing offense had.
It's tempting to place all of the blame on Golson—and to be sure, he deserves a great deal of it—but there's plenty to go around.
We've already mentioned Corey Robinson's costly drop late in the game, but what about the offensive line? Golson was under tremendous pressure all game long, especially int he first half, and the O-line was able to provide only token protection through much of the afternoon.
Arizona State essentially put together a manual on how to beat Notre Dame: blitz early and blitz often, because the O-line can't protect Golson and Golson makes some pretty poor decisions.
Notre Dame Run Offense
We're very tempted to fail Notre Dame's running game after this performance against Arizona State. The Irish had just 23 yards on 21 carries in the first half and ended up with a grand total of 41 yards on 38 credited carries.
So what's keeping us from handing out an ugly "F" to the ground attack? First, Notre Dame did score two crucial, late touchdowns thanks to Cam McDaniel on the ground. Secondly, and more importantly, we recognize that Notre Dame's large halftime deficit pretty much removed the running game from the game plan in the second half.
Again, the offensive line struggled, failing to open up holes or contain run blitzes and allowing defenders into the backfield all day long.
So, we'll give Tarean Folston and McDaniel a break—but not much of one.
Notre Dame Pass Defense
Notre Dame was fairly effective on pass coverage over stretches of the game, but it was the intermittent lapses that not only led to big plays for Arizona State, but led to a massive first-half deficit that was just too big for the Irish to overcome.
After halftime, the defense stiffened a bit, but that is likely only because of the fact that Kelly attempted just eight passes after halftime. He completed five of them for 64 yards and a touchdown.
The lone highlight? Matthias Farley's interception and weaving 27-yard return in the fourth quarter.
Notre Dame Run Defense
The passing defense was mediocre, and the run defense was similarly middling against the Sun Devils. Arizona State's offensive line was effective at opening up holes in the middle while Notre Dame's team pursuit on the edge was lacking at times, particularly late in the game when it mattered most.
Arizona State went ultra conservative in the second half, opting to run the ball—almost to its own demise—and the Notre Dame front seven did a nice job in the third quarter of forcing the ASU offense off of the field. Still, when the chips were down, missed tackles and tentative play from the defense allowed the Sun Devils to pick up key first downs—and points—in the fourth quarter.
To put it nicely, the Irish run defense is lucky they're escaping with a "C-" after that kind of performance (Max Redfield, we're looking in your direction after an atrocious missed tackle with under six minutes to go).
Notre Dame Special Teams
Talk about a buzz-kill. After fielding one of the nation's top kicking games, Notre Dame has looked at its special teams with disdain on certain days over the course of 2014. Today was one of those days.
Kyle Brindza was technically one-for-one on his field-goal attempts, but that's only because he wasn't given the opportunity to try his second. A botched hold negated his second attempt, which would have then cut the ASU lead to seven points in the fourth quarter. Instead, Notre Dame continued to trail by 10 points, and despite scoring a subsequent touchdown, it never got closer than three.
Would the dynamic of the game have changed tied, instead of with Notre Dame trailing? Ask yourself what defensive coaching decisions you'd make down by three with under six minutes remaining versus being tied. There's your answer.
Notre Dame Coaching
On one hand, we really want to punish Brian Kelly for Notre Dame's sluggish, shell-shocked start. On the other, we really want to commend Kelly and his staff for the way the Irish rebounded after halftime.
Then, of course, there's the collapse at the end of the game. So where do we go from here?
It's a definite strike against Kelly for the first half. The Notre Dame defense, despite being placed in bad spots by the anemic offense, couldn't keep ASU out of the end zone. The offense didn't seem to have an answer for the ASU blitz packages, and Notre Dame was at risk of being absolutely humiliated in the desert.
After halftime, however, Kelly showed why he's so highly regarded as one of the game's top play-callers. Notre Dame came storming back, thanks in large part to an offensive scheme that brought back the screen pass and slant protections from the O-line.
But, as we'll talk about in a bit, Kelly's adjustments were made to look a bit better than they actually were thanks to Todd Graham's uber-conservative schemes while nursing what was then a 24-point second-half lead.
Still, for Kelly, it wasn't a horrible day, taken in its totality. It just wasn't good, either.
| Pass Offense | B | B+ |
| Run Offense | B- | B |
| Pass Defense | A+ | A- |
| Run Defense | A+ | A |
| Special Teams | B | B+ |
| Coaching | A+ | B+ |
Arizona State Pass Offense
When the season started, people questioned whether or not Taylor Kelly was the right guy for the quarterbacking job at Arizona State. After this week's game, the few who were left questioning that have been all but silenced.
Kelly finished 17-of-28 for 224 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. He also picked up 18 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
After some early underthrown passes, Kelly was accurate for much of the rest of the game, including some deep balls right on the money. He and his receivers countered Notre Dame's secondary nicely, and three ASU receivers (Cameron Smith, Jaelen Strong and Demario Richard) had more than 50 receiving yards on the day.
Richard was especially impressive, averaging 17 yards on his three receptions, including a touchdown grab from four yards out that put ASU back up by 10 right after Notre Dame had cut the lead to just three points.
While the Sun Devils may not be as flashy as some passing games around the nation—or even in the Pac-12—they are certainly one of the more efficient groups when given the opportunity to shine.
Arizona State Run Offense
D.J. Foster might be one of the best-kept secrets in the nation. After a marquee game against Notre Dame on national television in which he put up 120 yards on 21 carries, the secret might be out.
Arizona State's offensive line—like the defense line—played an incredible game, and Foster was the chief recipient of their exploits. Richard also got in on the action, putting up 50 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.
While the passing game is clearly a strength for ASU this season, the running game is playing a bigger role, taking a great deal of pressure off of Kelly and the receivers. Notre Dame was often fooled by the play-action for big yardage (and points).
That's what 4.2 yards per carry can do for a team.
Arizona State Pass Defense
This was the tale of the game, right here. In a tale of two halves, Arizona State's pass defense domination—absolutely, unequivocally dominated—the Irish in the first half. If Arizona State lives and dies by the blitz, today was life.
The Sun Devils were in the backfield constantly in the first half, and the Irish seemingly had no answer for the pressure. After halftime, despite some adjustments, ASU was still the most disruptive force the Irish had seen this season—and that includes a game against Florida State.
The defensive line was instrumental in this success, not only bottling up the Notre Dame O-line to allow blitzing lanes, but also knocking down and deflecting passes. In fact, two of Golson's four interceptions were passes that were tipped or deflected at the line. The third turnover that can be credited to ASU's pass defense came early when Tashon Smallwood sacked Golson, knocked the ball out, picked it up and rumbled for a 13-yard fumble return to set up ASU's first touchdown of the day.
Arizona State Run Defense
The run defense wasn't testing much, thanks in large part to early successes in the passing defense that set up short fields and loads of points for the Arizona State offense. Notre Dame was quickly forced into a passing mentality.
When Notre Dame did run the ball, however, the Sun Devils were all over it. On 38 total carries, Notre Dame averaged a pitiful 1.1 yards per attempt—shockingly low from a team that entered this week averaging nearly 170 yards per game on the ground.
Arizona State's run defense was nothing short of impressive, and despite ranking just 90th against the run this season before this week, the Sun Devils defense may just end up being the extra spark the program needs to break through an win a Pac-12 title this year.
Arizona State Special Teams
Zane Gonzales was 2-of-2 on field goals and a perfect 7-of-7 on extra points on the day.
Matt Haack had six punts for an average of 39.3 yards. Not great, but considering how poorly this aspect of the ASU game has been this season, we're not going to raise too much of a fuss.
There wasn't a lot to talk about in the return game, either, as ASU didn't attempt a single punt return and were able to return just two kickoffs.
Because there was some improvement in the punting game, we'll bump the grade just a tad, handing out some extra credit for Haack's homework efforts.
Arizona State Coaching
Like his counterpart, we're tempted to both pass and fail Todd Graham. In the first half, Graham was clearly out-coaching one of the very best in the business. There's little question about Graham's first-half grade: "A+" all the way.
After halftime, however, we were greatly concerned to see Arizona State not only unable to adjust to Notre Dame's change in play-calling on offense, but also Graham's decision to "turtle" over his 24-point lead. Instead of continuing to attack Notre Dame's secondary, ASU went into a run-first, clock-chewing mentality in the third quarter.
It almost ended in disaster. Almost.
It didn't, so we can't call for the guy to be burned at the stake. What's more, Graham kept his head about him, and more importantly, kept his players from panicking when the Fighting Irish came storming back in the second half.
For that, we're not only passing Graham, we're passing him with flying colors. Not quite the "A+" we were expecting after the first half, but an impressive final mark, nonetheless.
Unless otherwise noted, quotes or references to quotes were obtained firsthand by the writer.
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