What’s going on in South Bend?
I thought Notre Dame had the program headed in the right direction after three consecutive wins over Cal, North Carolina and BYU.
But the 16-14 loss to previously winless Stanford at home in a prime time game Saturday night raises some serious questions.
This is the second embarrassing home loss for the Irish (3-3). They were beaten 26-21 by Marshall in the second game of the season, .
The Irish simply could not move the ball against a lower tier Pac 12 team that had the 111th ranked defense in the country in scoring defense, giving up 32.6 points a game..
“We weren’t running the ball effectively. We also weren’t throwing the ball as effectively as we wanted,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “It wasn’t a lack of effort. It wasn’t a lack of preparation. But it’s not coorelation over to the results you want so you have to look at what you are doing and how you are doing it and figure out a better way to do it.”
The Irish fumbled twice, did not score in the first quarter and did not have enough punch to beat one of the three worst Power Five defenses. Quarterback Drew Pyne played his worst game of the season, completing 13 of 27 passes for 151 yards and a touchdown. And while the defense to its lowest scoring of the second, it wasn’t enough. “When there are days ewhen your offense isn’t executing well, the defense, we have to play better. We have to play perfect.and we weren’t.”
The Irish defensive line has to be better.
They had obvious advanatages against a Stanford line that was allowing four sacks per game. But the Irish only sacked Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee once and allowed him to complete 68.4 percent for 288 yards, The Irish
struggled with delayed shovel passes for Stanford running back Casey Filkkins and missed several tackles. Stanford won the takeover battle 2-0 and the Irish only has two turnovers in six games.
It doesn’t get easier. Three of the irish’s final six games are against ranked teams.
