Despite exhibiting poor play for a significant portion of the game, Notre Dame still handled an inferior Syracuse team on senior day and won by a 24-point margin.
For a third time in the Brian Kelly era, the Irish finished a regular season with an undefeated record and will, once again, face the Clemson Tigers in Charlotte for the ACC Championship game.
But if Notre Dame wants to beat Clemson for a second time, the team must correct many of the mistakes it made against Syracuse, especially its sloppy run fits and the high number of missed tackles on defense.
Irish Defense Plays Poorly Against Run
Prior to Dec. 5, the Notre Dame defense allowed 85.3 rushing yards per game, the fourth-best mark in the nation (and third amongst teams to have played at least four games). The Irish had also shutdown All-American-worthy backs in Clemson’s Travis Etienne and North Carolina’s Javonte Williams, limiting each to a pedestrian 28 yards and fewer than 2.6 yards per carry.
Given so much success against the nation’s premier rushers, conventional wisdom led fans to believe that Syracuse’s true freshman running back Sean Tucker, who began fall camp fifth on the depth chart, would be easy to stymie when the Orange traveled to Notre Dame Stadium.
But such assumptions were proved wrong.
On Saturday, Tucker became the first opposing running back to eclipse 70 rushing yards against Notre Dame this season, as he scampered for 113 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries, breaking a number of tackles along the way. He also hauled in two receptions for 46 yards.
“They're a good offense,” said sophomore linebacker Jack Kiser. “They have good players. They'd been hit with some injuries this year. But the defense is a little disappointed. We didn't play up to our standard.”
Later in the game, sophomore running back Cooper Lutz entered the contest and picked up where Tucker left off. While much of his production came against Notre Dame’s reserves Lutz still carried the ball six times for 102 yards, which included an 80-yard touchdown.
His production only exacerbated how poorly the Irish run defense performed. In total, Syracuse carried the ball 35 times for 229 yards (6.5 yards per attempt) and two touchdowns.
“They were able to rush a little bit on us,” Kiser said. “We've got to tighten things up next week and move on from it.”
Next Up: Charlotte
With next weekend’s game against Wake Forest already canceled, Notre Dame has finished its first regular season in the ACC with a perfect 10-0 record, earning an invitation to Charlotte for a chance at the conference crown.
“We're obviously extremely grateful for Commissioner [John] Swofford for giving us this opportunity,” said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. “Then it's like anything else, we've taken full advantage of the opportunity. We’ve played the 10 games that we have in front of us and now we're playing for an ACC Championship.”
This means the Irish will face the near-impossible task of defeating Clemson for a second time this season and replacing them as the top program in the ACC. The Tigers have won the conference in each of the previous five years.
The good news is that, even with a loss, the Irish have a shot at the College Football Playoffs, but the only guaranteed path comes from a victory.
Notre Dame will have two weeks to prepare for Clemson. This begins with a day off on Sunday, Dec. 6, where the Fighting Irish players have the opportunity to rest, visit the training room and receive treatment for bumps, bruises and other lingering physical ailments. Later that evening, the team will also meet for a victory meal.
On Monday, it will be back to work. Notre Dame will spend time in the weight room and review the film from the victory over Syracuse before another day for rest and recovery on Tuesday.
Throughout the rest of the week, the Irish will devote additional preparation to Clemson, diving into scouting reports and practicing against the Tigers’ defensive schemes and offensive playbook.
From there, Notre Dame will resume a normal week of practice.
“On Sunday, we’re off,” Kelly said. “On Monday, we'll begin the game week preparation leading into the championship game.”
----
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Blue & Gold's news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @Rivals_Singer, @PatrickEngel_, @MasonPlummer_ and @AndrewMentock.
• Like us on Facebook.
