Griffiths: Notre Dame wasn’t perfect vs. BYU, may need to be vs. OU
By DOUG GRIFFITHS
ISL Correspondent
We’re about to find out if Notre Dame is worthy of its top-five national ranking.
So far it has taken care of business, beating every team on its schedule to date, and that’s all anyone could ask.
Entering the season, we thought the Irish schedule was one of the nation’s most grueling. However, things haven’t exactly panned out that way.
Only two of the seven teams Notre Dame has defeated are currently ranked – No. 19 Stanford and No. 20 Michigan – and none of them have had a quarterback like the team they’re about to face.
Now, though, the Irish are about to embark on their final five regular-season games. If they are to finish undefeated for the first time since 1988, they’ll have to beat a pair of top-10 teams in eighth-ranked Oklahoma and No. 10 USC. Making matters even tougher for Notre Dame will be the fact that both those games are on the road.
As the Irish are about to find out, the Sooners are an entirely different animal than any team they’ve encountered this season. It goes without saying Notre Dame will have to be at its best on Saturday night if it is to remain perfect in 2012.
The Irish were far from perfect this past Saturday against BYU, but they were good enough to rally against the Cougars for a 17-14 victory.
It wasn’t pretty, but Notre Dame will certainly take it.
Following, IndySportsLegends.com hands out its weekly grades for the Irish’s performance against the Cougars.
QUARTERBACKS – D
Everett Golson didn’t play after enduring concussion-like symptoms against Stanford and Brian Kelly opted to do the safe thing and that was to sit him against BYU.
Tommy Rees got his first start this season. He started off hot, connecting on 6 of his first 7 passes in the first quarter, including 4 to Tyler Eifert, but it was downhill after that.
Rees completed just 1 of his final 9 passes.
Andrew Hendrix came on briefly in the first half and completed his only attempt – a 2-yard pass.
What’s amazing is Notre Dame completed just 1-of-3 passes in the entire second half yet still won the game.
It goes without saying the Irish will have to do a much better job through the air against the Sooners or they could be in for a very long evening in Norman.
RUNNING BACKS – A
When you’re not throwing the ball much, it must be because you’re having success via the ground. That was exactly the case with the Irish as Theo Riddick and Cierre Wood proved to be a two-headed monster that one of the nation’s best run defenses couldn’t stop.
The Notre Dame duo combined for 257 yards rushing on 33 carries, averaging 7.8 yards per carry.
Riddick and Wood were as good as they’ve been all season. Riddick ran possessed as just about everyone of his runs resulted in more yards after contact. The Cougars needed a host of tacklers to get him to the ground. Wood showed off some of his array of moves and once again showed a good burst time and time again.
RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS – D
A troubling trend is developing here, Notre Dame’s pass catchers seem to be having difficulty getting open and the rare times they do, the quarterbacks aren’t getting them the ball.
Even when they are open, it seems Eifert is having to make highlight reel catches on balls that appear to be overthrown.
Notre Dame’s receiving corps finished with eight receptions for 119 yards, including Eifert’s 4-yard first-quarter touchdown grab.
If you thought that production was low, just wait until the Irish face the best secondary they’ve seen all season in Oklahoma’s, which features a trio of players who are NFL caliber.
OFFENSIVE LINE – A
The o-line has to get an exceptional grade. After all, it paved the way for Riddick and Wood.
Thanks to the line’s blocking, Notre Dame gained 6.3 yards per carry on the day. Plus, they allowed just one sack. It was a good bounce-back game after Stanford had four sacks.
The Irish have strung together three straight games where they have gained 150 yards or more rushing. Similar production will be a must against the Sooners if Notre Dame is to remain unbeaten.
DEFENSIVE LINE – A-
It’s hard to drop the d-line down to the B level when you considerĀ it sacked BYU quarterback Riley Nelson four times and limited the Cougars to just 2.6 yards rushing per carry.
Kapron Lewis-Moore, Louis Nix and Stephon Tuitt continue to win the battle up front in the trenches, making life very difficult on opponents. They fill what few running lanes there are and occupy offensive line blocks so the linebackers can do their thing and get ball carriers to the ground.
The triplets, who all tip the scales at over 300 pounds, are proving to be the best defensive line college football has to offer.
LINEBACKERS – A
It was business as usual for Manti Te’o and Co.
They held BYU to 66 yards rushing and made yet another opponent pretty much one dimensional, particularly after halftime. The Cougars managed just 28 yards on the ground in 11 rushes in the final 30 minutes.
For the fifth game this season and third in a row, Te’o recorded at least 10 tackles.
SECONDARY – C-
The Irish secondary was tested a lot in this one because BYU couldn’t rely a whole lot on its ground game.
Both the Cougars’ touchdowns came on pass plays as Notre Dame’s defense gave up a TD for the first time since the Purdue game Sept. 8.
Nelson completed 23-of-36 passes for 177 yards with the two touchdowns.
Even with BYU’s success, it wasn’t like it got large chunks of yardage thanks to the pass. The Cougars’ longest pass play went for just 20 yards and that came in the opening half.
Notre Dame’s secondary will face a gigantic test in a few days when it goes against easily the best passing quarterback it has faced this season in OU’s Landry Jones.
SPECIAL TEAMS – C
Prior to the BYU game, Kyle Brindza had missed only two field goals this season, but he missed a 40- and 28-yarder against the Cougars. Fortunately for the Irish, those two misses didn’t prove costly. They might, however, not be so lucky the next time around.
It was good to see punter Ben Turk bounce back after a sub-par performance against Stanford. This time out, he averaged 43.8 yards per boot and had a long of 52 yards. He continues to be a consistent weapon for the Irish in the battle of field position.
Notre Dame coverage teams continue to be solid, too. BYU’s longest return was 16 yards.
COACHING – A
You’ve got to appreciate how well Kelly can read this team. He realized the passing game was not on so he relied pretty much solely on the running game in the second half.
Surprisingly after the game he told the media that he felt going into the contest that BYU was a team that Notre Dame could control both lines of scrimmage against. That was somewhat shocking when you considered how well the Cougars had played defense this season. Kelly was right on though as the Irish did exactly like. Look at their rushing numbers and the job they did against BYU’s running game as well as pressuring Nelson.
Kelly also gets high marks for being cautious with Golson. He was cleared, but Kelly didn’t think it was in the best interest of his team to send Golson out there in this one and that was the right call. After all, Golson hadn’t practiced much leading into the game and Rees probably deserved to get the call all things considered.
Without question, Kelly continues to make a strong case for himself for National Coach-of-the-Year honors.
OVERALL – A
There was quite a bit of talk about the BYU game being that so-called trapĀ game on Notre Dame’s schedule since it came after a dramatic overtime win over Stanford and prior to the big showdown against Oklahoma.
The Irish may have been looking ahead to their date with the Sooners as they trailed BYU 14-7 at the break, but they dominated the second half, limiting the Cougars to just 115 yards of offense.
So after seven games, Notre Dame remains perfect and for the 25th time in school history is 7-0 to start a season.
Perfection deserves a perfect grade, right?
Follow Doug Griffiths on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ISLgriffiths.
