Breakdown of Notre Dame's loss to BYU

By Conor Allen

Going into the game, the number two Fighting Irish were facing their first real test of the season against number eight BYU. Without their starting running back, everyone knew that BYU was going to rely heavily on their start quarterback Bear Bachmeier. He did everything for the cougars, scoring two rushing touchdowns as well as adding one passing touchdown and a receiving touchdown to his stat line. Adding to Bachmeier’s great play, BYU’s defence gave Notre Dame and their offence a whole lot of fits as they tried to settle into the game after being down after the first drive and losing by double digits at half. They Irish were able to play their way back into the second half, holding BYU to zero points and just seventy-two yards of offence before BYU’s final scoring drive near the end of the half. The offence outgained them by over one hundred and fifty yards and fourteen points before the late touchdown score. With less than two minutes left, Notre Dame was able to march down the field and to the cougar’s nine-yard line for the final play of the game. Unable to execute on the final play, the Fighting Irish were upset on the road by the cougars. Now let’s dive into to what happened during the loss.

On the final play of the game, a case could have been made for defensive passer interference as the defender has both hands around Faison, restrict him from raising his right arm to catch the ball. To go along with the questionable no call, when the ball hit the ground outside the endzone, there was still a second left on the clock, but the refs did not stop the game before the whole BYU stadium stormed the field to celebrate the upset victory. Early today, the Big 12 game out and admitted that there should have been one second put back on the clock for Notre Dame to run one last play. While many can say that cost them the game, there is much more that Notre Dame did wrong that cost them the game long before the final play. The Irish had many chances to score touchdowns, including two high percentage changes but instead settled for field goals. The first chance came of a fumbled catch of a Notre Dame punt which the special teams recovered near the cougars’ thirty-yard line. With great field position and momentum swinging in Notre Dame’s favour, a touchdown was not only needed but should have been scored. The offence was able to convert a fourth and short close to the goal line but were stopped again that brought up a fourth down and ended with a Notre Dame field goal instead of a touchdown. The next big chance came next drive when BYU faked a punt on fourth down near their own twenty-five yard line and were unable to make it back to the line of scrimmage, turning the ball over in their red zone. Again, Notre Dame was able to convert another fourth and short before falling short right after while BYU’s defence stood strong and forced the Irish to settle for another field goal. These two plays proved costly as even if one of those drives ended in a touchdown, the score would have been tied with Notre Dame at BYU’s nine-yard line on the final play of the game. With more to the game, let’s dive in.

            Obviously, the first place to start off is the beginning of the game when Boubacar Traore was ejected for targeting less than five plays in when he hit Bachmeier high, leading with the crown of his helmet. After a short review from upstairs, the ruling was upheld and Troare was ejected from the game. Although a huge player for the Irish on their defensive line, Notre Dame always has the next man up mentality as Keon Keeley stepped in and took his spot at the left edge. However, Keeley and the rest of the defensive line were unable to get any pressure on Bachmeier, recording zero sacks and just one tackle for loss. The lack of pressure gave Bachmeier lots of time to stand in the pocket and make clean throws. It was clear that the Irish missed Troare and his dynamic play at the line of scrimmage both for his pass rushing and his run stopping. However, he alone was not the only problem for Notre Dame’s defence.

            Along with the lack of pressure on Bachmieier, the Irish’s linebackers allowed Bachmeier to run down the field as he pleased, gaining multiple first downs with his legs including two touchdowns. The first thing that caught my eye and many others was the lack of blitzing by Chris Ashe and the Irish linebackers. Whether Ashe was concerned about Bachmeier’s ability to move out of the pocket with his legs or simply the Irish thought they could win the game with a four man rush, this contributed to the time his was afforded to stand in the pocket and make plays and their ability to run the ball against the front seven. Continuing with the defence, the secondary looked completely out of sorts and nothing like it usually plays. The whole secondary, including arguably the nation’s top cornerback Leonard Moore, gave the cougars wide receivers lots of space for Bachmeier to zip passes into their hands and run for yards after the catch. Communication issues were very much present between the whole Irish secondary that gave away big passing plays to the cougars. What stood out to me in the secondary was how deep Adon Shuler and Luke Talich played which contributed to allowing the big passing plays as well as free space up the middle for Bachmeier to run when the linebackers split out to the sides. Overall, this was not the same defence the Fighting Irish have played all season, even playing against No. 8 BYU and their dynamic offence. Questions will be asked to Marcus Freeman and Chris Ashe about their defensive play calling on Saturday.

            Moving on to the offence, yesterday saw a very up and down game for everyone on this side of the ball. C.J. Carr looked shaky and rattled while the run game was inconsistent at times and the offensive line had problems stopping the pass rush. With the run game, Nolan James Jr saw most of the action yesterday and while he had a strong game with seventy-seven rushing yards on sixteen carries, his runs were inconsistent. There were times when he would be able to rush for five plus yards including a run of twenty-six yards and then be stuffed at the line of scrimmage for no gain. Adding to the run game, Jonaz Walton saw very little of the field, carrying the ball just five time and many do not know why. Since gaining a spot in the three running back rotation, he has been electric making huge run plays as well as bodying through defensive lineman and heavy-set linebackers playing behind them. Questions will be asked about why he saw so little of the field and how it affected Notre Dame’s play calling.

            Next is the offensive line who had a very up and down game as well. Like mentioned above, the run game was inconsistent as the o-line were unable to push their way through BYU’s defensive line as they have done against every other team this season. What is worse was their pass block game. Just like the secondary, the offensive line had loads of communication issues that allowed players to rush Carr without being touched. This cannot be attributed to one person alone as all five of the offensive linemen at one point in the game missed a block that allowed a free rusher in and forced Carr out of the pocket to try and make a play or simply force him to throw the ball away and avoid a sack. Notre Dame has a history of great offensive lines, and this year is no different however yesterday showed that there is still improvement to be seen against big time defensive teams.

            Finally, we reach C.J. Carr. Coming into the game, Carr has been amazing completing sixty-seven percent of his passes for 1639 yards with sixteen touchdowns to just one interception. He has since climbed the Heisman leaderboards and was considered a top five contender entering the game. However, the C.J. Carr we saw yesterday was not the same person. From the moment he stepped foot onto the field and stepped back into the pocket for his first pass, he looked nothing like what he was and has done all season. He finished the game twenty-seven of forty-seven for two hundred and sixty-one yards with zero touchdowns. Carr threw many errant passes, including two balls that he overthrew to wide open receivers that should have been touchdowns. To add to that, he got lucky that a few of his passes were not picked off by the cougars’ strong secondary. Many could argue that not only was this his worst game of the season but maybe the worst game of his career. Carr is known for his poise and winning ability which he did not show that in yesterday’s game. The worst mistake he made yesterday was fumbling the ball while trying to spike it to stop the clock at BYU’s four-yard line. The cougars’ defence noticed this and jumped on the ball, recovering the fumble, and not allowing Notre Dame to put points on the board before half time. This proved costly as the extra three points from a field goal could have completely changed the outlook of the game as the Irish would not have needed a touchdown to win the game. However, the blame does not fall on Carr alone.

            With arguably the best coaching staff in the country, Marcus Freeman, Chris Ashe and Mike Denbrock had a rough game coaching and play calling. Mike Denbrock is in his second stint with the Irish and has been Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator and play caller Carr’s whole career but he and Freeman both struggled to find a way to dial up plays to beat the BYU’s stifling defence. Bad playing call and the inability to adjust to the cougar’s defence the way they have done with other teams this season, specifically Wisconsin and North Carolina, lead to stalled drives and settling for field goals instead of touchdowns as mentioned above. There will be a lot of discussion between the coaching staff the next two weeks as the Irish have a bye week upcoming before they face off against their long time rivals Navy. This late into the season and with Miami coming up on the schedule after Navy, the whole team needs to buckle down and learn from the mistakes they made if they want to have any chance to beat the Hurricanes in three weeks and make the college football playoffs.