Notre Dame vs. Syracuse: Game Grades, Analysis for Irish

A win is a win, and when you enter Week 5 as a 1-3 team, a win is almost a must if you hope to reach a bowl game.  A win is what Notre Dame got on Saturday, even if it wasn't pretty.

There were plenty of bright spots for the Irish, and we're more than willing to give credit where it's due.  But as expected, there was plenty of bad and even a bit of ugly.  We're going to pick that apart, too.

The good news: Notre Dame's Week 5 report card will improve over last week's marks.  But these grades will still leave plenty of room for improvement.  Let's get right to it.

Pass Offense

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It's hard to look at a quarterback who finishes a game with 471 passing yards and three touchdowns and find a lot wrong.  While we're certainly not going to be overly harsh, there were a few errors that deserve mentioning.

First, in the waning moments of the first half, Notre Dame had the opportunity to extend a halftime lead and make it next to impossible for Syracuse to crawl back into the football game.  Instead, DeShone Kizer dropped back and threw the ball over the middle to no one in particular—or, more accurately, to everyone in the middle of the field.

Unsurprisingly, it was the Orange who came down with the football.  Syracuse wasn't able to convert, thanks to a missed field goal, but it was still a worrying decision from Kizer.

Kizer also missed a few wide-open receivers deep down the sidelines, where a little more touch on the football would have resulted in six points.

Yeah, that's a little nit-picky, but it's looking more and more like Notre Dame is going to need every single point it can get its hands on this season to earn a bowl trip in December.  Missing open receivers is annoying against Syracuse.  It will be maddening—and disastrous—against teams like Stanford.

Equanimeous St. Brown continues to impress, finishing the day with a whopping 182 receiving yards on just four catches, two for touchdowns.  He was one of four receivers with over 50 yards on the day, yet no single receiver caught the ball more than four times.

Pass Offense: A-

Run Offense

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Josh Adams and Dexter Williams were really the only players to carry the football against the Orange, but the two still combined for 182 yards.

Adams finished with 102 yards while Williams and Kizer each added a touchdown on the day (Kizer added one additional rushing yard on nine credited carries).

While Adams and Williams did a fine job, we were expecting to see a little more—or any—of Tarean Folston.  He didn't see any action today, and we're not entirely sure why.  Sure, Adams is emerging as the go-to back, but has the guy who was the starter in Week 1 in 2015 (before his injury) really fallen that far?

Run Offense: B+

Pass Defense

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

There was only one thing that stopped Syracuse's passing attack today: Syracuse.

The Orange were quite simply lacking some talent and execution to keep pace with Notre Dame's offensive output, and the Orange's lack of defense meant that the 363 passing yards put up by Eric Dungey weren't enough.

But true to form, the Notre Dame secondary did next to nothing to slow down the opposition's passing attack.  The Irish have only been operating under Greg Hudson's simplified defense for a week, so it's probably way too soon to expect miraculous leaps in efficiency.  But an incremental improvement from atrocious is still pretty darn bad.

Pass Defense: F

Run Defense

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

The run defense isn't much better than the pass defense.  Sure, you might look at the box score and say to yourself, "Hey, giving up 127 rushing yards isn't too shabby."

But you might be fooling yourself.

Keep in mind that Syracuse threw the ball 51 times, so running wasn't the foremost thought in the minds of the Orange.  The Irish also managed to give up three rushing touchdowns on the day, all to Dungey.

If we were absolutely forced to pick, we'd probably give the edge to Notre Dame's ability to limit the run versus the pass—but it's clear at this point that Notre Dame is utterly incapable of stopping anyone.

If the Irish can't manage to make tackles against Syracuse, what's going to happen when Christian McCaffrey comes calling?

Run Defense: D

Special Teams

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

It's hard to know exactly how to grade the Irish special teams.

On one hand, Justin Yoon missed a late field goal, finishing 2-for-3.  Then again, he connected on six extra points.  C.J. Sanders averaged an impressive 35.8 yards on his four returns, thanks in large part to his 93-yard score in the first quarter.  But then, the Irish returned just a single punt on the day (Chris Finke) for a net of zero yards.

Tyler Newsome was perfectly average with a 39.2-yard average on his five punts.

But then, as if to make our job really difficult, the Irish blocked Syracuse's first PAT and returned it for two points.

Compared to Syracuse's special teams, the Irish's mixed bag looks pretty good.  But when you have a defense incapable of making plays, the special teams can really make a difference in the game's outcome.  We just don't have confidence that special teams can be leaned on to reliably come up with game-changing plays on a weekly basis.

Special Teams: B-

Coaching

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We let loose on the coaching staff after last week's loss to Duke.  We had plenty of good reasons.  So how did the coaching staff respond to that gut-check loss to the Blue Devils?

Well, it wasn't great.  But then again, were we expecting a magical change just because Brian VanGorder had been fired?  It is the same group of players taking the field, isn't it?

We expect some improvements, sure, but instant improvements usually don't happen under the best of conditions—and absolutely no one is saying these conditions are in any way favorable for the Irish.

It's far too early to write the final chapter on Brian Kelly's successes or failures at Notre Dame, and it's even too early to turn the page on the 2016 season.  While we do want to see some positive movement from Notre Dame as the year progresses, it's probably unfair to expect a sea change after just a week or two.

So, to be fair, we'll withhold judgement.  For now.

Coaching: Incomplete

All recruiting information via Scout.  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.