As we expected, Notre Dame won a fairly boring and listless game against Nevada on Saturday afternoon. Following a scoreless first quarter for both sides it was a big second quarter explosion by the Irish which put this one to bed before halftime. There was some good, some bad, and a devastating injury to discuss.

Here’s my review of Notre Dame’s first win of the 2016 season…

Defense

A commendable performance from the defense who were able to bounce back and, more or less, take care of business against a below average Nevada team. The starters didn’t allow a touchdown, the Wolf Pack were limited to 3 of 12 third down conversions, and the Irish forced 7 punts.

Notre Dame did well to control the line of scrimmage and contain Nevada’s run game. There were top runs of 10, 13, and 17 yards but there were no big errors when the Wolf Pack tried to pound the ball. We’ll find out on Tuesday’s 5 Factors review but I suspect Nevada’s efficiency was really, really poor. Top running back James Butler was a complete non-factor with just 50 yards on 17 carries.

This felt like a nondescript and relatively vanilla gameplan for the Irish which was a good idea given they could contain Nevada’s run game and quarterback Tyler Stewart was dreadful throwing the ball. Stewart completed one jump-ball pass for 44 yards (aided by a slip from Nick Coleman) but otherwise put up 69 yards on only 9 more completions. Everything was completely underneath and harmless. In fact, this had the feeling of an old Bob Diaco game for the Irish defense. Additionally, Stewart tossed 13 incompletions (43.4% accuracy on the night) of which at least a half dozen were laughably overthrown and unable to be caught.

Yes, the Wolf Pack were pretty bad but don’t take away too much from Notre Dame. That 5.4 yards per play from Nevada doesn’t look great but it’s aided by the last garbage time scoring series. Nevada had 85 yards at halftime and just 4.19 YPP before that final series. It wasn’t exactly a lock down performance but it was in the neighborhood, circling the block and looking menacing.

The numbers are skewed a little bit due to the low volume of offensively plays (56 total, the fewest for a Notre Dame opponent since Navy last year) so it’s odd to see no defenders with more than 5 tackles. Nevertheless, just 4 tackles for loss for the entire Irish defense and only 0.5 TFL from the defensive line. For the first time in the BVG era the team has gone consecutive games without a sack. That hasn’t happened since the final 3 games of 2010 where the Irish gave up just 12 points per game without registering a sack.

It’s largely been the norm for years and years so it looks like it’ll be another campaign with defenders just out of reach of sacks. To be fair, the 6 quarterback hurries on Saturday were solid but the Kelly-era low in sacks was 21 back in 2013 and I’d bet the under on that number for this 2016 defense. No way this group can average 2 sacks per game the rest of the way and that’s really sad to type I’m sorry for that.

The injury to Shaun Crawford is so devastating and sad. The only positive I can take away is waiting to watch old man Crawford suiting up for Notre Dame through the 2020 season.

It’s hard to get too excited given the ineptness from Nevada’s passing game but I thought the secondary played pretty well. Half of Nevada’s yards came on two plays–including that late blown assignment from the backups–and we saw a few breakups and a very strong game from Cole Luke. It’s been about a game and a half worth of snaps so far in the career of Devin Studstill and I’ve liked what I’ve seen. He hasn’t been tested too much in the passing game but there’s a renewed sense of physicality and directness when he comes in to tackle that’s been sorely missing at free safety.

Offense

I wasn’t awfully impressed with the offense if I’m honest. Coming off the high of the fireworks at Texas watching this unit lay a goose egg in the first quarter was deflating. We’ve averaged 38 points per game in regulation play which is nice but it’s also been aided by Crawford’s returned 2-point conversion and a pair of interceptions that practically gifted touchdowns inside the opponents 5-yard line. In a weird bit of happenstance, the Irish have totaled 444 yards in each of the first two games–again, solid but not real impressive production.

Obviously, the game was completely in hand towards the end of the 3rd quarter when Kizer came out of the game. Up to that point the Irish had averaged almost 6.3 yards per play, again, solid production. Zaire was able to lead a touchdown drive on his first series but then ending the game with 4 scoreless drives left something to be desired even with a whole slew of backups on the field.

Kizer seemed a bit out of it as did the whole offense for long stretches. That was to be expected with the atmosphere surrounding the game and the opponent. There weren’t any major “wow” moments just steady production finishing with 191 total yards and 3 touchdowns in less than 3 quarters. I know Kizer would like that interception back because it should have been 6 points to Stepherson. Still, even if it wasn’t a boost to any Heisman hopeful moments it was nice to see 83.3% accuracy and feel like Kizer could still play a lot better. His ceiling is rightfully that high.

I know it’s not a fair situation anymore and I know it’s a small sample size. However, Zaire just doesn’t look right, especially athletically. In 8 offensive series he has 5 yards on 8 carries and it’s not like he’s taking a bunch of sacks to drag those numbers down. With his passing thus far (6 of 14 for 72 yards in 2016) he appears really uncomfortable going through his progressions and settling down in the pocket when the bullets are flying around him. Again, not fair for this game as he was playing with a bunch of backups but for me the notions that Zaire is the ultimate “gamer” and someone who can create offense on his own out of nothing don’t seem quite as true right now. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because he’s not starting, yet I wouldn’t entertain any notions of getting a package ready for him to keep playing each week. He’s not likely to improve his weaknesses in erratic spot duty and he’s not bringing as much to the table as Kizer.

The highlights on offense came from Josh Adams, C.J. Sanders, Equanimeous St. Brown, and Dexter Williams. Throw in Kizer and that’s a really encouraging collection of sophomores in terms of eligibility. If only they could stay together through the 2018 season!

Don’t get it twisted, the 239 rushing yards is pretty disappointing against a defense like Nevada. This should have easily been a game where Notre Dame rushed for over 300 yards with two mobile quarterbacks at their disposal and one of the better lines in the country.

Through two games here are the rushing stats for Folston and Adams:

Folston- 28 carries, 115 yards, 4.10 average
Adams- 21 carries, 149 yards, 7.09 average

It’s a virtual certainty that Adams is going to be the more explosive player so the big question moving forward is how efficient Folston can be when he gets carries–and in a more frustrating sense for fans–how well he does the little things that coaches like, mostly related to pass protection. In my opinion, Folston is not passing the eye test because his lack of speed is always going to be a crutch compared to most of the other playmakers on offense.

More damning, is that Folston only has a 35.7% run success on his carries thus far this year–including a stretch from the middle of the Texas game through the beginning of the Nevada game where 13 out of his 14 carries had a negative run success. Whether Folston needs to build confidence coming back from his knee injury and/or work his way into a better groove this type of production is not sustainable if the Irish want to rely on its ground game.

In contrast, Adams has a 61.9% run success rate so far this year. If this continues, Adams should demand at least a 2:1 carry ratio and maybe even a 3:1 ratio. We’re already seeing grumbling that Dexter needs more carries, too. On Saturday he had a run success rate of 87.5% with 7 out of 8 successful carries.

Final Thoughts

I’m not concerned one iota about the penalties (9 for 94 yards) in this game. The Irish have been one of the least penalized teams among the Power 5 year in and year out during Kelly’s tenure. One game means nothing.

So far, the red zone offense has been modestly successful, right? Notre Dame has scored 8 touchdowns on 11 opportunities with a 72.7% success which is right where the best in the country reside. Probably even better–because realistically that touchdown percentage is coming down–is the lack of turnovers so far. The only red zone drive without points in 2016 was Yoon’s blocked field goal against Texas.

This was quietly the best all-around performance from the Irish linebackers in quite some time. Onwualu (team-high 5 solo tackles, 2 TFL) put together one of his best games and the duo of Morgan/Coney in the middle just feels so much different from a physicality standpoint. Against an over-matched opponent their athleticism was able to shine, too. Lots of efficient cleaning up of garbage in the middle with some major pop on their tackles.

This might be the best year of the slot man in Kelly’s offense since he got here and it’s exciting to think about how it will change things. It’s always felt like Notre Dame has avoided check down throws in the middle of the field like the plague but so far this year there’s been no problem finding Sanders on a 7-yard pass that he’s able to turn into 15 yards. And how about former walk-on Chris Finke coming through with 2 receptions for 19 yards, plus 15 more yards on a punt return!

Each of Claypool, Finke, Holmes, and Stepherson picked up their first career receptions against Nevada, with the latter freshman grabbing his first career touchdown pass and taking a big shot in the end zone to boot! The Canadian in Claypool flashed his athletic instincts with 2 special teams tackles, as well. He also had a pretty bad drop, too.

Going back to the slot receivers for a second it’ll be interesting to see how the emergence of Sanders affects the tight ends because right now there is nothing from that unit in the passing game. No catches against Nevada and just one reception through 2 games.

Obviously, the season-ending injury to Crawford is a blow to the secondary. Against Nevada we saw true freshman Donte Vaughn get his first snaps of the season (1 solo tackle) and safety Drue Tranquill missed time with some sort of stinger in his neck. On Sunday during his teleconference with the media Brian Kelly mentioned they might use a medical redshirt with Nick Watkins if his bone growth examination isn’t positive in a couple weeks. Has a team ever started an entire secondary full of true freshmen?