Notre Dame Football: Quick Hitters in a 44-21 Win Over UNLV

Quick thoughts - Bleh

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish game came out hot thanks to MVPs Brian Mason and Isaiah Foskey. Foskey blocked two punts in the first quarter and the FG units went 3/3. This brought the Irish out to a commanding 30-7 first half lead. Drew Pyne and the offense didn’t do much to inspire any sort of confidence in the unit as a whole. They turned the ball over twice in the first half and missed plenty of open opportunities. While Mayer is dominant, he can’t be the only weapon of the offense. It will continue to be a growing concern moving forward.

Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

As the second half began, it was more of the same. Defense was making plays while the offense would move a bit before coming up short. A Michael Mayer drop, followed by an under throw of an open Styles, followed by a missed FG....and then UNLV drove and scored. Those types of sequences are frustrating and will quickly lose games against most remaining teams on this schedule. As stated above, this team has a lot to still figure out.

Some second half highlights...

Logan Diggs is good. He is quickly establishing himself as RB1. He is decisive about when to lower his shoulder, when to be patient behind the line, and when to fall forward for a few yards. He is peaking when ND seems to be turning HEAVILY to the running game. Speaking of that...the game ended with Notre Dame being content to play slow and run out the clock. This was the right move but boy did it make for an overall boring game. UNLV kept fighting to keep it uncomfortably kind of close for the whole game that I am glad is over. Irish 44 UNLV 21.

Freeman Quote

“We are a good team that doesn’t always play that way”

For anyone wondering....this really does sum it up. There are some things to like, but the execution just isn’t there. Onto next week where they face a Syracuse team who just took Clemson to the wire.