Finding the finish line

[TerryTate]

Irish still trying to find the finish line - College Football Nation Blog - ESPN

Irish still trying to find the finish line
By Brian Bennett

When Notre Dame last played Stanford, the ending of the game pretty much summed up the state of affairs for the Irish.

Charlie Weis, in his last game at head coach, ordered the defense to let the Cardinal score a touchdown in the final minute so his offense could get the ball back with a chance to tie. You couldn't really blame Weis, since his defense couldn't do much all day against Stanford. Mostly, though, maybe he tought trying somethig new at the end of the game would shake things up.

The Irish's last eight losses have all come by a touchdown or less. The average margin of defeat in those games is a little more than four points. That also includes, of course, the first two losses of the Brian Kelly era: a 28-24 setback to Michigan and last week's 34-31 overtime heartbreaker at Michigan State.

There really haven't been a lot of common threads in how Notre Dame has failed to avoid defeat in the final minute, other than a consistently shaky defense. Let's examine the ways of woe:

2009


Michigan (38-34): Tate Forcier led a game-winning drive that ended with a touchdown pass with 11 seconds left.

USC (34-27): The Irish has three shots into the end zone to tie it but couldn't connect.

Navy (23-21): The Midshipmen ran all over the Irish defense, but Notre Dame left too many points on the board in the red zone.

Pittsburgh (27-22): Notre Dame fell behind but made a big rally that ended when Jimmy Clausen was hit and fumbled.

Connecticut (33-30, 2OT): The Irish took a 14-0 lead but then didn't score another touchdown until overtime, and they gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown.

Stanford (45-38): The defense had no answer for Toby Gerhart, and the offense couldn't produce a miracle drive.

2010

Michigan (28-24): The Dayne Crist injury hurt, but Notre Dame dominated the second half before Denard Robinson led a game-winning drive in the final minutes.

Michigan State (34-31): The Spartans pulled off a gutsy fake field-goal in overtime to win it.

Offense, defense and special teams have all contributed to the narrow losses. If a team is consistently one play short, the obvious question is why? Does Notre Dame still have to learn how to win a game in the end?

Kelly doesn't think that's the case.

"I've had teams that didn't know how to win," Kelly said. "You could just tell. That's not this group. No, this team does not have that sense, from me, that they don't know how to win."

Kelly said the way Notre Dame's defense stiffened at the end of the Michigan State game, and the way it rallied against Michigan after a disastrous first half, tells him these players know how and want to win a game. They just need to make fewer mistakes.

"When you play evenly-matched football teams and they play well, then it comes down to a couple of plays," he said. "That's what we have to get to. It's not not knowing how to win; it's playing the game at a level that you don't give up a 56-yard run or you don't fumble the ball or turn it over in the red zone like we did twice [against Michigan State]."

Quarterback Dayne Crist says he sees a fight in this team that tells him it's prepared to get over the hump. After the Michigan State loss, he said, players were disappointed and hurt but also ready to get back out on the practice field and correct mistakes.

"I think this team knows how to win and it knows how to compete," Crist said. "That's the thing I'm most proud of right now. There's no cease in any of the guys. This isn't a team that's down. We're not in the locker room hanging our heads. We're focusing on what we need to do to beat Stanford."

With the 1-2 start under Kelly, and the same types of last-minute losses, questions are already cropping up about when things are ever going to change. Kelly is an impatient type who likes to talk about "5-minute plans" in his rebuilding projects. But he says it's no time to change the plan.

"We're in the first quarter of our season, first chapter of the book," he said. "I think it's a little frustrating to read right now, but I'd stick with the book. I think it's going to be a good read."

And like with all good storytellers, Notre Dame needs to learn how to write a good ending.

 

[Irish Man3]

Great post TT. I hope all the posters that "see no change" in this team, read this. This team has changed dramatically and they will see results of their hard work soon. Kelly is a winner and he is installing that same attitude into these players and this program.

 

[IrishinSyria]

I saw the article too...but I definitely didn't interpret it the same way IM3 does. A litany of frustrations with the players saying the same "right" things they said last year. It's no secret that the Irish have been one or two plays away from being "elite" for quite some time now. All sweedish and no finish, as we would say about a player with great hands but no scoring touch in hockey.

 

[NDOM]

Yeah these are all the same excuses during the Weis regime or shall I say disaster? But at the end of the day...............WERE STILL LOSING! Until then we as fans dont have **** to brag about.

 

[Irish Man3]

How are they all the same excuses? When in Charlie Weis' era didnt we hear about intense practices? Im just as tired of losing as any other real Irish fan but lets not compare Charlie Weis and what he did to Brian Kelly and what he's done. Charlie Weis had no head coaching experiance and went about changing the direction of this team all wrong. Brian Kelly is going about it the right way. Just becuase Chuck couldnt do it, has no bearing on what BK can do.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Thanks Terry for the interesting read. As usual, I'll take Kelly's word for what the real situation is over other people's opinions. One of the things that Kelly is doubtless trying to learn about his players is what in fact they can and can't do in the heat of real action. Here is one such possibility which may be wrong but serves as an example: Dayne Crist is an athlete. He is obviously capable of a CERTAIN kind of running. But are there types of running that he is [at least currently] not capable of executing? As I've watched the early games, Dayne looks too slow to decide when to commit to a hole to trust with certain of our plays. Scrambles? Yes. Moving the pocket? Yes. QB sneak if he's ordered to just get low and follow Cave? Yes. But a play with a genuine run with an option? I don't think so. And this has cost us already. Dayne seems to defeat his athleticism by hesitation and perhaps fear-of-failure. I can easily be wrong about this, but if correct, this would be the type of thing that no coach could predict would happen by watching the practice field. Kelly's going to be "surprised" by things like this until he sees the players more under real conditions. Until then, he assumes that they're going to execute the play correctly. It's not, therefore, that he and they "don't know how to win", it is just that they have to, in a few areas, find out by trial-and-error just what their arsenal is. He hasn't had time yet to establish a set of "money" plays that we know are going to work 95% of the time.

 

[phork]

Take a breath guys. We are 3 games into a new system. And when I say new system I mean everything from training to eating and offense to defense. Change is not coming over night, but if you cannot see a change in this team then I think you are looking past the rainbow for your pot of gold.

We lost to a UM team that scored with 27 seconds left to win it. We lost to an MSU team that got lucky on a fake field goal in OT. By everyones predictions we are going to get pounded this weekend. I will be disappointed if that comes true, because as with the other games I believe that ND will be competitive, win or lose. The end is not that far away kids, stop looking through the rainbow and start looking at the rainbow.

 

[IrishinSyria]

Alright, I can only speak for myself. I did not mean that we aren't on the right track/ Kelly can't turn it around/ whatever else negative you can imagine... All I meant was that this article doesn't prove anything. We lost close games last year. We've lost close games so far this year. The players and the coaches say the same things they said last year. Which, by the way, are the right things. But they're only words.

We all can see that there are things that look good, and things that still need a little polish. I have no doubt that Kelly knows which is which. I just fail to see how this article tells us anything but how close we are, and have been. Which is something we all knew.

 

[Jerry]

"When you play evenly-matched football teams and they play well, then it comes down to a couple of plays," he said. "That's what we have to get to. It's not not knowing how to win; it's playing the game at a level that you don't give up a 56-yard run or you don't fumble the ball or turn it over in the red zone like we did twice [against Michigan State]."

This quote says it all for me about the problems facing the team so far this season. You can break down play calling, decision making, officiating, ect. But really if this team just limits turnovers and doesn't give up easy scores they will start winning.

 

[WaveDomer]

What gives me confidence is that when asked about switching stuff up or sticking with the plan, Kelly says he is sticking with the plan. That is someone who knows what works and isn't someone just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. He knows what works. It's proven to work for him. It will work again.

 

[jason_h537]

Yeah these are all the same excuses during the Weis regime or shall I say disaster? But at the end of the day...............WERE STILL LOSING! Until then we as fans dont have **** to brag about.

DUDE. When there is a new coach everything goes back to square 1. It doesnt just magically get better and usually when it does reality hits in year 2. Every hire is a 5 year commitment. 3 bad hires = 15 years of struggling. What part of that dont you get? All you can hope for is improvements in year 1 and we have them. You can say we are still losing, but even if we won, we would not be a better team. We would instead be in denial of our faults and need top correct them. Better to go through that now than later.