Notre Dame begins path to self discovery in win over No. 16 BYU

I want to start by saying regardless of what we as Notre Dame fans think about BYU, this was the 16th-ranked team in the nation. Based on a lot of predictions coming in (mine included) a lot of us thought the Irish would handle their business pretty well against the Cougars. In a lot of ways, I’d argue they did that. But based on those predictions coming in, I believe it set us up to look at a 28-20 victory and pick it apart. I do not think BYU is the No. 16th team in the nation. But based on how good I think Notre dame is, I would make the argument they are still a top-25 team. And Notre Dame for the most part dominated. That may sound like a bit of an exaggeration, but if you take away the self-inflicted mistakes (something we still have to work on) this is a blowout. I can hear everyone now “Well you can say that in any game’. Yes, I know. My point is, I did not once in this game feel like Notre Dame was overmatched. I felt it was a lack of execution that made this game as close as it was.

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Most deservedly (in my opinion), I’ll start with THE DUDE, Drew Pyne. He deserves a lot of praise coming out of this game for his performance. Give credit to the offensive line as well but his comfort and awareness in the pocket last night were dare I say, immaculate. It’s probably because it has been a long time since we have been able to watch a Notre Dame QB be able to sit and make decisions but regardless, it was fun to watch. The side shuffle under the defensive lineman into the shovel pass to Esteme had me geeking out. I know the limits we have with him under center but he showed us last night he has an X-factor that he can pull out. I can’t say exactly what it is, but we’d seen glimpses of it before and now he seems to be hitting his stride while getting to 3-0 as a starter.

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I will not go without mentioning the rest of the offense. While it wasn’t by any means a firework show, I believe there were flashes of some pretty great stuff. First off Michael Mayer did his thing, it still doesn’t take away from how fun he is to watch. The line stepped up and gave Pyne time to find open receivers and the receivers stepped up and made plays. Jayden Thomas’ Mossing of Jakob Robinson is the exact kind of playmaking I mentioned previously was missing with this unit. On top of all that the backs continued to pull their weight while seeing a bit of a breakout from Logan Diggs. Maybe we will start to see what this offense looks like with a true three-headed monster of Tyree, Esteme, and Diggs. The playcalling and execution in the red zone need to be cleaned up, but like I said there’s a lot to like here.

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The defense was a little bit of a mixed bag. I’ve said before this defense can lock down for long periods, they control the game, and look like no one will be able to do anything against them. Then they inexplicably break down and give up one or two key plays that allow the opponent to gain hope and momentum. That happened again last night and I was worried it would bite us against a superior opponent than previously. The other complaint I had though was when faced with an opportunity to lock down and close out a game, the defense had failed so far this year. Last night they did not, when faced with a 3rd and 2 and 4th and 1 this unit stood firm and closed out the game on BYU’s final drive. As with the offense, it was not perfect, but this team showed things that show they are growing each week and that is the biggest thing for this team now.

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I understand people are going to pick a lot of this game apart. I understand that I may be coming off as slightly more positive than others. I believed coming off the Kelly regime there was some deep rot within this team and program. Not detrimental but enough to be the reason we could never make the final step. When Freeman took over, in a sense that rot was cut out. The thing is when you cut those things out it can take some time for healthy regrowth to occur. I think we are seeing that now. I’ve said it a million times but no it is not perfect, there are things to work on and gaps to fill with recruiting and coaching. That is normal for a new coaching staff and there may be growing pains. The Marshall game was the culmination of a lot of those issues, but looking back that is not where the concern would lie. If we did not see any growth from that point, that would be the concern. This team has answered and continued to improve each week. These next two weeks are going to be a key ramp-up into what could be huge back-to-back games against Syracuse and Clemson. I think we will continue to see growth and I’m excited to see where they go from here.

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