Northwestern vs. Notre Dame: Game Grades, Analysis for the Fighting Irish
It was supposed to be a bounce-back game for Notre Dame. It was supposed to be a statement game for Notre Dame. It was supposed to be a statement to the College Football Playoff committee that Notre Dame was still worthy of consideration for a "New Year's Six" bowl.
Nobody told Northwestern, and the Wildcats strolled into South Bend and hung around until the time was right to strike. Despite being favored by more than two touchdowns, Notre Dame allowed the Wildcats to stay in the game long enough to eventually pull off the victory in overtime.
From Notre Dame's perspective, it wasn't pretty. Let's rip off the Band-Aid quickly and dive right into our postmortem of the Irish's shocking loss to Northwestern with some game grades.
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Oh, and Notre Dame? We're going to need a parent or guardian to sign this and get it back to us by Monday.
| Pass Offense | B- | B |
| Run Offense | B | C- |
| Pass Defense | B | B |
| Run Defense | C- | C |
| Special Teams | D | F |
| Coaching | B- | D |
Pass Offense
Don't worry, it's not all doom and gloom. There were actually some decent moments for the Irish. Everett Golson, despite a first half that included yet another interception, actually finished with halfway decent numbers.
Golson finished 21-of-40 for 287 yards and three touchdowns, plus that aforementioned interception. Golson also battled through some obvious pain in his throwing shoulder in the second half after landing awkwardly while being tackled.
William Fuller caught all three of Golson's touchdowns passes and finished the night with 159 receiving yards to lead all receivers in the game.
Still, we're not going to heap too much praise on the passing game as a whole. As mentioned, the halfway decent showing from Golson only deserves a halfway decent grade—which is further reduced by some pretty ugly drops from the receiving corps.
There really wasn't a single culprit, and both the Irish and Wildcats had a hard time catching balls that were thrown right into their hands.
Run Offense
We'll start by breaking down the numbers: 40 credited rushes for 211 yards (5.3 average) and two touchdowns. OK, not bad.
But you have to dig beyond the box score to get the real story. It wasn't about the yards or the touchdowns tonight. It was all about the fumbles.
Notre Dame lost three fumbles on the evening, two of which were particularly costly late in the game. First, Chris Brown, while reaching for the goal line, lost control of the football, which was recovered by Northwestern in the end zone for a touchback.
Take at least six points off of the board.
Then, with under two minutes to go and Northwestern out of timeouts, Notre Dame simply needed to chew a little clock to seal the victory. Instead, the typically reliable Cam McDaniel has the ball stripped, giving Northwestern a shot to march down the field and kick the tying field goal—which the Wildcats conveniently did.
Oh, and Golson fumbled the ball once, too, just for good measure.
We're not going to flunk the entire running game (although we're tempted to), but this grade isn't going to be pretty. Heck, we think even a low C- is a bit of a gift.
Pass Defense
Notre Dame's defense continues to battle injuries, but we're not going to buy that excuse forever, especially against a team like Northwestern. This is, after all, the same Northwestern team that could only manage nine measly points against a pretty terrible Michigan squad last week.
Trevor Siemian put up 284 yards on a 30-of-48 outing that included one touchdown pass.
The Irish did pick off two passes (Matthias Farley and Cole Luke each with an interception), and both were returned for sizable yardage (55 total yards). But when it really counted, late in the fourth quarter, the Irish couldn't contain the Northwestern receivers.
While defending against the deep pass in the final minute, the Irish secondary apparently forgot about the short-to-medium routes that allowed the Wildcats to move down the field in 10-to-15 yard increments.
When all the other team needs is a field goal to tie, you have to defend everything, not just the end zone.
Run Defense
There was once a time when a team—any team—would relish a lone rushing touchdown against the Fighting Irish. Those days are gone.
Northwestern hung a whopping 263 yards and three rushing touchdowns on Notre Dame. Now, Northwestern certainly has some talent, but one should never expect an offensive line out of Evanston to push around a defensive line from South Bend, injuries or not.
Certainly the late loss of defensive lineman Sheldon Day to an apparent knee injury was a major loss, but that doesn't make up for the over 200 yards the Irish gave up before Day left the game, does it?
Northwestern averaged 5.5 yards per carry on 48 attempts, and the Irish gave up runs of 45 and 44 yards to Treyvon Green and Justin Jackson, respectively.
Special Teams
If you were waiting for us to take a positional unit out to the woodshed, this one is for you.
We try to be fair each week to every grouping, giving credit where credit is due and avoiding flunking the entire class because of the misdeeds of a few. But there are so few unique pieces to a special teams unit that it's hard to find the good in tonight's performance.
What happened to Kyle Brindza? This kid used to be automatic from anything inside of around 45 yards. Now, he can't make a field goal to save his life.
What's worse, some of his opportunities are lost due to bad snaps, bad holds and absent-minded blocking.
Brindza was 0-of-2 on field goals (including one in overtime) and 4-of-5 on extra points.
Why is that missed extra point a big deal? It was thanks to a botched hold by Malik Zaire, subsequently blocked and returned for two points by Northwestern. That's a three-point swing. Take that away and this game never gets to overtime.
Or, add that missed field goal in regulation. There's six total points right there thanks to the kicking game.
But wait, there's even more! At the risk of being flagged for piling on, we have to talk about Brindza's punting. We've become accustomed to seeing punts of 45, 50 or even 60 yards from this guy. Tonight, we were treated to an average of 35—which included a 17-yard punt in the fourth quarter that set up Northwestern's last touchdown.
You know what? At this point, it's not even worth going into the return game. (For the record, Notre Dame had zero punt return yards on one attempt and averaged 19 yards on seven kick returns.) You fail. You all fail.
Coaching
Now, do we dare fail Brian Kelly for this atrocious performance?
If Kelly calls last week the "debacle in the desert," we're anxious to see how he sums this one up. What we really would like to know, truthfully, is what possible benefit there was to going for two late in the game?
Notre Dame had just scored a touchdown to go up by 11 with the extra point to come. To go up by 12 would force Northwestern to score two touchdowns to win. Going up by 13 doesn't change the arithmetic. Failing on a two-point conversion, however, would mean that the Wildcats would be a field goal plus a touchdown with two-point conversion away from tying.
Well, guess what happened.
As if to prove the old axiom "it's not over until it's over" true, Kelly gave Northwestern just the opportunity it needed to tie the game.
And with the type of kicking game Kelly has at his disposal, what did he think was going to happen in overtime? Was Brindza suddenly going to trot out and say, "Just kidding, coach. I was faking all along. This is a cinch. I'll just kick it through, no problem," or anything along those lines?
Yes, the passing game wasn't stellar. Sure, the run game coughed up the ball. Yes, the special teams bore a striking resemblance to a sub-.500 prep squad. But Kelly had his team in a position to win this game, and he gave it away.
Blame Golson or McDaniel or Brown or Brindza if you'd like, but this one, coach, has as much to do with you as it does with any of them.
The only reason—and we really mean only reason—Kelly isn't flunking is because there's still a small shred of truth to the notion that players have to execute the plays called. That didn't happen tonight.
But in the future, Mr. Kelly, we expect better from you. Better play-calling, that is.
Unless otherwise noted, quotes or references to quotes were obtained firsthand by the writer. Box score via NCAA.com.
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