It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t very exciting. Notre Dame did not take advantage of plenty of opportunities to blow UNLV out of South Bend on Saturday afternoon in a solid but unspectacular 44-21 win. The Irish now move to 4-3 on the season with a crucial trip coming up to Syracuse who just suffered their first defeat of the season at Clemson.
Was there enough to build upon for Notre Dame coming out of this win?
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | UNLV |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 21 |
| Plays | 75 | 61 |
| Total Yards | 428 | 299 |
| Yards Per Play | 5.70 | 4.90 |
| Conversions | 9/18 | 2/15 |
| Completions | 14 | 17 |
| Yards/Pass Attempt | 7.32 | 4.63 |
| Rushes | 47 | 28 |
| Rushing Success | 67.3% | 41.6% |
| 10+ Yds Rushes | 6 | 4 |
| 20+ Yds Passes | 5 | 3 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 27.8% | 13.5% |
It doesn’t seem likely. The defense–outside of a few mistakes–put in more than enough work on their end while the offense squandered massive opportunities settling for just 12 points on 6 separate trips inside the UNLV 30-yard line. In total, 12 trips inside UNLV territory only to score a total of 44 points leaves a lot to be desired.
Offense
QB:Â C
RB: B-
TE:Â A
OL:Â B
WR: C+
Everything about this offensive performance was just okay, at best. Drew Pyne was able to find Michael Mayer and Jayden Thomas early on for some somewhat explosive plays (for this offense’s history at least) while quickly scoring 10 points. From there, the game really turned into a slog.
Take for example, Notre Dame only throwing 8 passes in the 2nd half with Pyne finishing 5 of 8 for 41 yards on those throws. Mayer would only be targeted twice in the 2nd half and did not record a catch while still putting up 115 receiving yards and a touchdown. This, plus backup Mitchell Evans rushing successfully twice from under center and scoring a touchdown gives the tight ends the best grades of the day by far.
Lorenzo Styles had another bad drop and struggled again with just 2 catches for 12 yards. That’s just 7 catches over the last 3 games as the speedy wideout continues to sputter in a larger role within the offense. On the other side, Braden Lenzy had himself a nice day with 4 receptions for 38 yards and a score. Those are all season-highs for the Oregonian and his first touchdown since the Stanford game to conclude last year’s regular season.
Rushing Success
Diggs – 18 of 28 (64.2%)
Estime – 1 of 3 (33.3%)
Pyne – 2 of 3 (66.6%)
Tyree – 8 of 10 (80.0%)
Evans – 2 of 2 (100%)
The running game looked pretty mediocre for large stretches of the 1st half but no doubt started to grind down an overmatched UNLV defense in the 2nd half. After rumbling for 12 yards on the first series to score the opening touchdown it’s disheartening to see Audric Estime lose yet another fumble later in the game.
Reverse that fumble (plus Pyne’s interception, he also should’ve been picked off on the opening series yikes) and this game should’ve gone into halftime with the Irish leading by north of 35 points.
Defense
DL: B+
LB: B
DB:Â B
I’m not going to make things too complicated for the defense in this game. The pass rush finally woke up and while Isaiah Foskey put in some work with 3 sacks it was just UNLV, after all. Although, if he’s not going to be a 1st round pick as an edge rusher we know he’s a first round punt blocking specialist. Draft value!
This continues to look like a good but far from dominant defense. The UNLV passing game really struggled, even when their quarterbacks had time in the pocket, and this was the perfect opportunity to completely shut down a Mountain West offense.
Although, thinking of all the opportunities given to the offense you wonder how much more frustrating things would’ve been with 2 to 3 more drives for points!
Stuffs vs. UNLV
Foskey – 4
Liufau – 3.5
Bertrand – 3
Bracy – 2
Griffith – 2
Smith – 1
Cross – 1
Mills – 0.5
The 3 series leading to touchdowns for the Rebels did contribute to the game feeling not quite put to bed enough, even as Notre Dame switched into this-is-a-G5-team-we-are-simply-running-the-ball-to-get-out-of-here mode.
On those touchdown drives, Notre Dame gave up long plays of 74, 47, and 26 yards. Dear friends, UNLV only totaled 299 yards so you can do the quick math on that. On all other plays, UNLV averaged just 2.62 yards.
Real solid foundational work from the Irish but still these brainfarts are really coloring an otherwise good day in the office.
Final Thoughts
This is now 2 home wins for Marcus Freeman, let’s start piling them up again! Next up in a couple weeks, undefeated Clemson coming off a bye. Allow yourselves to imagine a win over Syracuse and then Clemson. How does that change the perception of Freeman’s first year? What about losing both games?
Pyne threw short of the sticks to Mayer on 3rd down to conclude the second series of the game. The offense is doing that for too often.
Were you aware that UNLV head coach Marcus Arroyo is building a culture in Las Vegas?
Just based off this hat would you say NOB or NNOB for UNLV jerseys?
I didn’t write this weekend’s game preview and therefore did zero research on this UNLV team. I knew their starting quarterback was unlikely to play and he did not. I thought it was strange they went to the 3rd string quarterback immediately after scoring a touchdown. Given the way the game played out that seemed planned in advance, but still. It was a weird choice in the moment and seemed to stall the momentum the Rebels had built.
UNLV also passed on all 3 downs after making that quarterback switch and quickly had the punt blocked. Just a weird decision, IMO.
I am going to tell my grandkids that I once saw Marist Liufau break through the line on a blitz, not get blocked, and make a great play on the ball! He finished with 2 tackles for loss, even! It’s his first multi-TFL game in his Irish career.
I was holding my breath when Prince Kollie went down with an injury during one of the blocked punts and briefly left the field. We definitely cannot handle more injuries at linebacker. Thank goodness he returned and was fine.
Notre Dame got lucky on the offensive pass interference call early in the 2nd quarter. The score was only 23-7 at the time and a 23-14 score really changes the shape of this game.
The only UNLV conversions came on 4th down, they didn’t convert any on 3rd down.
Peanut Butter Angeli looks like Tommy Rees with his helmet on, what does it mean?? I was disappointed that since Angeli came in briefly to spell Pyne after a nasty hit that they didn’t re-insert the freshman late to throw a few passes. Notre Dame has never been that type of program, though.
How many more times will we see the tight end sneak this season? I’m setting the over/under at 9.5 over the next 5 regular season games. Watch Evans throw a fade out of that look.
You almost wish that Mayer tough catch that was ruled incomplete could’ve counted just because it looked cool coming off the second blocked punt. Later, Mayer made one of the most disgusting catches in Notre Dame history. What an absolute freak. Of course, zero points on that drive, what a shame.
Michael Mayer had a GIF-worthy catch as the Irish beat UNLV 44-21. Full #NDInsider coverage here: https://t.co/hOViVd2gQL @SBTribune @SBTsports pic.twitter.com/2uVCjWmdbg
— Michael Caterina (@MLCaterina) October 22, 2022
It hasn’t been a season that has lived up to the hype but in the stat box Foskey now has 6 sacks in 7 games. He needs 4.5 sacks to finish this 2022 season in order to pass Justin Tuck’s career record at Notre Dame.
Notre Dame had an absolute massive advantage in rushing success in this game but you can see how explosiveness from UNLV really helped to keep things more even. Drew Pyne’s 21-yard scamper was the longest of the game for the Irish. That makes it only 7 runs of 20+yards on the season, tied for 89th nationally. For a program sitting 27th in rushes per game that explosiveness needs to be higher.
Diggs started the game being successful on just 1 of his first 7 runs. Which means, he finished the game with successful carries on 17 out of his final 21 runs. He just has to break one soon!
I’ve been searching for a way to describe my frustration with how this season has been going my frustration with Freeman. I think you just summed it up. I was hoping that ND hiring a young, aggressive coach who was a player at an elite program and who’s coach/mentor was someone who played talented underclassmen all the time we would see ND become this type of program.
I’m not in a camp of Freeman is toast and still have full faith in him coming out on top. Heck, Dabo took awhile to come into his own and this was his first staff at Clemson. I just want Freeman and staff to start building to 2023 and getting these young guys reps. I’m not calling for the freshman defensive class & Merriweather to start getting 80% of reps, but would like to see them getting closer to 35-40% of snaps. I know we’re doing it at corner and TE, but would like to see the LB’s, Tyson Ford, Merriweather get more live bullets.
I just don’t see anyone excited about yesterday’s win knowing that Mayer, Lenzy, Foskey, Bertrand, Marist may not be at ND next year or getting passed over in the spring only for ND to be 4-3 and only winning this game 44-21.
“someone who played talented underclassmen all the time we would see ND become this type of program.”
I think it would happen if the player inputs are there. Like you mentioned, they’re taking all they can get from Morrison. If they had a freshman class full of guys like that or 5-star impact players, those guys would see the field. They probably just don’t have enough of those young players are ready like that.
I suppose it’s also a function that fans will always want the younger players to get the chance and never be satisfied, regardless of what happens. I’m pretty sure one of the players had to grab Merriweather and direct him to the left side of the formation pre-play again. If he can’t grasp concepts like that, it’s tough to advocate that he should be on the field more at the moment.
No reason to believe anything other than Freeman is playing the players he think will best position them to win, regardless of experience. I’m sure some fans would fire Bertrand into the sun and play Kollie or even Sneed for the rest of the year, but that’s just not how it works for a reason. Don’t think many if any coach would do something like that.
Freeman’s thought process might be skewed, but I suspect he will get 2022 and 2023 (aka his recruits) into playing time as rapidly as humanly possible.
(That said, I do wish they let Angeli sling it, especially late in the game, but given how ND could never pull away, I can also see why they didn’t want to put the ball in his inexperienced hands, risk a mistake and then somehow shift momentum or cost them points and make it more of a nervy finish than it needed to be).
I do remember the Merriweather play. Feels like it was either Tyree or Lenzy that had to send him to the other side of the formation.
And by the way, his job on that play was to run across the formation and fake taking a jet sweep. Kind of important to the entire set up of the play if you are running the wrong way!
Merriweather played 23 snaps against UNLV and something like half of them were consecutive plays where he was already on the field, and on pretty much all of them there was a pre-snap adventure getting Merriweather lined up involving other skilled position players.
Watching this over and over again gave me some sympathy for the position that he wasn’t ready to get on the field earlier, but this is definitely a better overall solution to get him on the field for a meaningful number of snaps.
I know you’re right and as others below pointed out Merriweather didn’t know where he was supposed to be a lot. I know it’s not apples to apples because the 07 team was really bad, but Golden Tate didn’t know what he was doing besides running fly routes and as I type this I know that what feels like yearning for anything from 2007 is making me nauseous.
ND just feels boring. The wins have been boring and even the upset losses have been boring. Heck Ohio State was pretty boring. It just seems counter to having a young energetic head coach and a 30 year old OC.
It’s pretty consistent with having a former DC as a head coach and an OC who really shouldn’t be in this job. Even Kirby Smart’s offenses at UGA were boring as hell before he brought in Todd Monken.
I don’t disagree with much of that. On the flipside, down to an inexperienced QB2 isn’t necessarily going to pack a lot of excitement. Ever since really Price went down (then Davis, then Buchner) the offense got dinged with losing a few players they couldn’t afford to lose to try and reach their ceiling or be the idealized version of themselves. Which, yes, also points out a problem when losing an Avery Davis is so insurmountable.
It has been disappointing how boring they’ve been. More punt blocks than turnovers forced by the defense too. Does seem like they have some mental block where they’re not playing free and loose, which like you said, would make sense under a taskmaster like Kelly but not for the young, cool coach around now.
Freeman will have to make some tough decisions this off-season about where to take it. DC is probably a spot where it would be nice to get some continuity for a change, but can they do that? Can you find a soft landing spot for Rees and convince Hartline to come over as OC? That probably is the one move to re-start if not the honeymoon, then at least give some energy and hope for the future.
Man I know Hartline is the best recruiter in the country, but can this team really afford an OC with no play-calling experience? I don’t think you can do that with a defensive HC.
Sure, if you have an experienced offensive analyst or two that are helping out in regards to game planning, data analysis, and giving playcalling advice then I think you could roll with it.
Yeah, I would think there’s a path for it. If Hartline is the rising star in the industry he’s thought to be, I don’t see why he can’t call a game, it’s not like he hasn’t coached and played high level offensive football for like 20+ years.
That said, it was more a tongue in cheek suggestion too about bringing excitement and fresh ideas to the offense. Experienced and credible OC’s are boring. That might be what they ultimately need or go with, but if we’re going to shoot for the moon for young coaches with upside, I don’t see why to have re-tread coordinators. Might as well try for younger guys on the rise.
Which is also just easy to spitball an idea on the internet.
I really really really do not want to go down this path again, please.
Ehh, the only way to hit on a potential transformative young coach is to keep hiring potentially transformative young coaches.
Ideally one capable of recruiting very high-end QB and WR better to break the mold of the issue. Hartline might not be a better OC than Rees, but I wouldn’t swear off hiring coaches whose star is on the rise instead of getting a seasoned OC in his 40’s or 50’s that probably is still a coordinator for a reason..
I would like to at least try hiring an OC based on his resume and on-the-field achievements rather than the hope that he’s a “rising star.” If that doesn’t work, we can always go back to the rising star types.
But maybe let’s just give it a shot this one time.
Maybe, maybe not. I wouldn’t be so automatically dismissive that Hartline’s coaching based on his WR’s on field performance hasn’t done enough to merit a promotion to be a coordinator somewhere. Assuming he even wants to leave Columbus to pursue career progression. It’s not just the hope that he’s a good coach, by all accounts he understands offensive football incredibly well. With the added bonus of doing a very, very good job to identify and develop talent.
An experienced coach with an impressive resume doesn’t necessarily guarantee an instantly great product either (as the current Notre Dame DC might show..)
I think a better way to emulate Ohio State would be to do what they did by hiring Jim Knowles, just on the offensive side of the ball.
“Understands offensive football” according to “accounts” does not fill me with confidence.
I think it’s pretty likely that Kevin Wilson gets a head coaching job this offseason anyway. At that point, I would assume Ryan Day will promote Hartline if he’s a worthwhile candidate.
We’re gonna end up going the complete opposite direction and hire Mark Whipple, and I’ll be bummed out by that choice too. Oh well!
I do not think we can afford that. We need a very experienced and instantly credible OC and QB coach, preferably as separate positions.
I didn’t think Pyne was as accurate in the second half as the stats say. He seemed noticeably off after taking the shot to the head. Plus, every sideline shot of him, he looked very uncomfortable.
He has had 2.5 bad games (first half Cal, Stanford and UNLV) and 2.5 good games. My fear is there is enough tape on him that people know how to stop him. Cover Mayer, where he will force it anyway and put 7 in the box. You probably don’t even need to cover all the WRs because he doesn’t look for them anyway. On every third down throw, you knew where he was going. He started his reads there and basically rarely looked away.
Meriweather was open on the pass in the end zone, Tyree on the seam, Styles on the out. He needs to visit the WR room and talk with them. All bad throws, and several more. Styles dropped one, Mayer dropped one.
The same effort the rest of the way probably gets us to 6-6 and the Pinstripe Bowl.
Yep, I don’t know if the defense even needs to play on third down and long except everyone cover Mayer. Pyne needs to go through his progressions on every play. Telecasting his throws is not ideal and will hurt us in all the upcoming games, except for Navy (maybe).
I think if you left one of the WRs uncovered, there is a 50% chance he wouldn’t even notice. Especially on 3rd down.
2008 ND vs. 2022 ND, who wins
That’s funny; I was thinking about that exact comparison earlier today. I’d give a slight edge to 2022 because I think this team’s defense is better and would be well-suited to shut down the 2008 offense. But it that would be an ugly, ugly football game.
That just makes me want the 2022 team that also somehow has Clausen, Tate and Floyd on it. Then we might actually be getting somewhere..
Oh yeah.
And, to be clear, 2009 ND *definitely* wins against 2022 ND. I think it’s a legit tossup between this team and 2008 for the worst ND team since 2007. (Yes yes, 2016 was bad, but SP+ implies the 2016 team would be 10 point favorites against this team. This year is Weisian.)
Honestly, I get a weird sense of nostalgia watching this team. It feels so much like a bad Willingham/Weis team that it’s like being transported to the 2000s.
Well, aren’t you guys a bunch of handwringers. Having said that, I flew in from Paris for the game (45 yard line seats for me and three of my cousins, actually very nice and the weather was damn good). And I mostly have to agree with you all, damn it, and I was thinking 6-6, depending on which team shows up in the Carrier Dome…but…
in contrast to ’07, MF to me shows signs of clearly seeing what is going down — and owning the inconsistency. And maybe even better, knowing he needs to direct how to coach to consistency. The jury is way out on whether he will be able to do that.
Michael Mayer’s post game comments on Drew and his tendency to get down were revealing. But I think we as fans should show Drew as much love as we can, actually it must be tough as hell to be thrust into a situation where you have no choice but to confront your own lacks (height among others).
I am more distressed actually by the defense. Maybe if this game allows Foskey to wake up, that could be a help.
I’d take 2022 over 2016 if 2016 still had BVG on the sidelines. 2016 had more talent, but were sloppy and would have probably found a way to lose like they did so frequently.
Unlike this team?
Ha, true, assuming 2022 isn’t going to lose 8 times (including to Navy, Duke and a 3-9 Michigan State team!)
For as boring as 2022 has been, at least there’s no split locker-room on a QB controversy and giving up 200 yards a game on the ground with BVG.
We don’t have enough QBs to split the locker room.
But if we did, I’d be rooting for Ron Powlus.
WHY WON’T FREEMAN START DAYNE CRIST
I’m going 2022 solely because the 08 team was a borderline-miraculous David Bruton forced fumble at the goal line away from probably losing to San Diego State, who finished 2-10 that year and had lost to Cal Poly the week prior.
On the other hand… 2008 ND had David Bruton.
Two most physically impressive players IRL in the Weis era were Bruton and Victor Abiamiri. Not sure there is a close third.
Can anybody explain (in Xs and Os) what could possibly be the reasoning behind Rees’s play calling at this point? I hear a lot about how he’s not using RPO, play action, and 21 personnel enough and how he’s not using the players correctly and is too vanilla and unimaginative etc. And I’m sure that is all true (I don’t know football strategy enough to say whether it is or it isn’t, but it seems like the arguments make sense). But it feels like if the internet can figure all this out, then so can Rees…..and likely he already has. I mean, nobody really thinks that “we” have somehow discovered some strategy flaw that Rees and his hours of film analysis and team of coaches/analysists/whatever hasn’t discovered, right?
Assuming Rees doesn’t live in a coconut and is well-aware of how bad the offense has been, I have to believe that there are some reasons why he’s chosen to stick with what he’s been doing and hasn’t gone the route of the suggestions I keep reading on the internet. Can anyone describe what those might possibly be?
I’m not looking for someone to say Rees is “good.” I’m lookin for Devil’s advocate-type analysis. Just someone to say “this MAY be why he’s doing what he’s doing instead of what everyone keeps saying he SHOULD be doing.” Is it possible, for example, that other teams know that we’re most dangerous out of 21 personnel, play action, and RPO and are doing something to make it difficult for Rees to call those plays? I don’t know. I’m making shit up. I barely know what those terms even mean. I’m just sayin. There’s gotta be something. And I feel like there has to be SOMEONE out there – a coach, a former player – who has watched the games, heard the criticism of Rees’s play calling and said “well yeah, he needs more play action etc., but it’s not as easy as people are making it sound, because the X and O and the X and O and stack the box of the cover 2 and spy the QB out of a tech 1 ……..” All that good foozballin stuff.
I guess, at bottom, my point is just that it’s hard for me to believe that the OC at Notre Dame – a guy who has won at this level as recently as last year – is so terrible that even everyone at home sitting on their respective couches knows what plays should be called but he doesn’t. Feels like it HAS to be more complicated than that. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe he’s just an idiot. Maybe it’s just “execution.” Sure feels like being executed.
It feels like the lack of consistent 2-back sets and very little screen passes or short passes to receivers are the 2 things jumping out as head scratchers.
The former issue is probably a combination of wanting to keep their cards close to the vest (especially against UNLV) and the Rees offense has always seemed to develop gameplans where “good stuff” is set aside while they work on other things against weaker competition.
The latter, it seems they don’t trust the receivers. I’d at least try more often. But, I get it. That group doesn’t have a ton of speed or wiggle in the open field.
This is where I mention again that Rees criticism is heavily tilted toward development and recruiting and not play-calling or gameplanning.
Thank you, Eric! I know you guys spend a ton of time writing analyses and such for all of us out here, so I really appreciate you taking the time to respond.