On Saturday, Notre Dame trotted onto the field at Bank of America Stadium excited for the challenge that lie ahead. Unfortunately, that particular afternoon, neither the Fighting Irish offense nor defense were up to the task of competing with a Clemson team at full strength.
Of course, Notre Dame went on to lose 34-10, but that was still good enough for the program to squeak into the playoffs as the No. 4 seed.
Now the Irish are faced with an equally difficult burden — defeating No. 1 Alabama in the Rose Bowl (which will be played in Arlington at AT&T Stadium).
Notre Dame has two weeks to figure out what went wrong. On offense, the problems appeared to start with the offensive line (which was named one of three finalists for the Joe Moore Award on Monday, along with Texas A&M and Alabama).
Below are offensive and defensive observations, utilizing Pro Football Focus' advanced statistics, from Notre Dame’s performance on Saturday.
Offense
Offensive Line, Running Backs Allow 12 Pressures
It's safe to say the offensive line played its worst game of the year against the Tigers, as quarterback Ian Book was under duress for much of the afternoon and was sacked six times.
