Notre Dame gets the fast start they’ve been looking for, but did a victory over UNLV address deeper concerns?

This has been quite an odd game for me to assess. First off yesterday was the first time I had been to South Bend since 2019, against Virginia Tech. Being back, and being able to take in all the sights and sounds again (especially after COVID) was very enjoyable for me. I do have some opinions on the gameday atmosphere that I will get to but, I had a great time and it made trying to evaluate everything slightly more difficult than it usually is from my couch. All in all Notre Dame came out and mostly handled business. As we all know with this team it was not perfect. There are things I see that continue to drive me insane that seemingly have gone unaddressed and/or unfixed. But as with the games against UNC and BYU, you never felt Notre Dame was truly being threatened. We’ve said it before, you can never 100% know what you will get from this team. I’m glad they were able to get the win at home, especially since I was there. I’m just not sure about what we can take away from this game that gives us any sort of valuable insight.

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I’ll begin with the offense since they for once got off to a decent start. This is the one clear thing from this game that I can point to and say there were steps taken toward improvement. It was also very odd because it made this first half (and the whole game) go by extremely slowly. I’m not sure if it felt that way at home but everyone in our section felt like this game was going at a snail’s pace. While I do give credit for starting faster, the defense/special teams gifted this offense short field on almost every single possession outside of the first drive of the game. Notre Dame’s scoring drives consisted of drives of 6 plays 75 yds, 5 plays 18 yds (FG), 2 plays 20 yds (TD), 4 plays 5 yds (FG), 4 plays 4 yds (FG), 6 plays 46 yds (TD), 13 plays 62 yds (TD), and 9 plays 46 yds (TD). That’s an average drive of 34.5 yds. On top of that Pyne still has eyes only for his one and only #87. It would be romantic if it weren’t so maddening. Then we have Styles who seems to have adopted Kevin Austin’s ghost when he put #4 on. Does he exist? The backs continue to carry their weight for the most part but the running back of the week approach is driving me nuts. So while we did “start fast” everything I just outlined is why I feel I learned absolutely nothing about this unit yesterday. It’s the reason I don’t feel much if any improvement.

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I was wrong about both sides of the ball this week. I thought the offense would struggle to put more than 24 on the board but I thought the defense would do their job. 21 points against this UNLV team with the injuries they’ve had is way too many points. I said they would allow 10 and I was hoping that was going to be high. While the DBs and D-line have been anything but world breakers, I would say that by the end of the day they mostly do their job. There may not be crazy numbers but they hold up their end of the bargain majority of the time. The issue is the linebacking group. This has happened in almost every game this year if the opponent’s back can get 2-3 yds beyond the line without one of our linemen hitting him. He’s going for 20+ almost every time. It was harder for me to see in person but our backers seem to disappear within the crowd of players on every run. I’m not sure if it’s over pursuit, bad reads, back block shedding, ill-timed blitzes, or a combination of multiple things but it’s bad. The fact it’s still hurting us this far into the season is worrisome. If you are looking to compete at an elite level, teams like Marshall, Stanford, and UNLV gashing you for 20+ on runs multiple plays every game is not going to get it done. Next week I’m going to be laser-focused on the linebackers because I’m at a loss as to what the core of the issue is for this unit. I also think this is the root problem for the defense as a whole.

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Since I think this game was a big nothing-burger in regards to what we learned or any improvements that were made, I’m going to address some observations/opinions I have after my first game in almost 3 years. First, I’ll say anytime I’m able to attend a game I am internally grateful. Going to Notre Dame will always be a special place for me and I know that I am lucky to have been able to attend not even just one game but the amount I have. I attended the Monogram Club’s tailgate they had an amazing set up and I was able to talk with some very kind interesting people. Being able to discuss the program with people who are so deeply intertwined with this team and University was a truly treat. In addition to that, the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Title IX added some much-needed juice to this game. This is where my negativity is going to come out a bit. Something NEEDS to change with the gameday environment in South Bend. I know it was a game against UNLV but if we want this team at the level we want them at, we as fans need to pull our weight. I use to think it was due to all the old rich people (flashbacks of being yelled at by old dudes attending games as a kid) but I’m not sure that’s the issue. I think the fanbase is experiening an identity crisis. Like I said I had not been up in 3 years but I did not think too much would’ve changed. But it seems like there’s been a problem meshing old traditions with new things. I don’t think the University is at fault for this necessarrily. I think there is a split between older and younger fans on what Notre Dame is and should be. I think it leads to a lackuster environment where the crowd as a whole has no idea how to be in sync. Yes it got loud of 3rd and 4th downs and there were some pops. I just think that we are lacking an edge as a home crowd. When I say edge I don’t mean being awful to visiting fans. I mean shaking the UNLV fan’s hand next to you and saying “Welcome to Notre Dame, I hope you enjoyed the visit I really do. But now you’re team is about to experience hell”. Just saying, A National Championship calibar team deserves a National Championship calibar crowd.

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