Notre Dame Overcomes Mistakes In Central Michigan Win
Notre Dame looked like the model of efficiency and discipline through its first two games of the season. The Irish committed just five penalties for a total of 46 yards in wins over Navy and Tennessee State to open the season. Those two teams also combined for just six points while big offensive plays were kept to a minimum.
Things have looked differently for the Irish in the last two games, especially in Saturday’s 41-17 win over visiting Central Michigan. The Fighting Irish committed eight penalties for 72 yards in what turned out to be a lopsided victory. Two of Saturday’s penalties were roughing the passer calls against Josh Burnham and Rylie Mills.
“I think we're a disciplined team,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman remarked after the win. “We have to continue to get better, continue to make sure that -- you know, they're an aggressive team, right? Are they disciplined? Absolutely. But they're aggressive, and sometimes you have aggressive penalties, right? So, I want to look at those two roughing the passers and say, Okay. Was this an aggressive penalty or selfish penalty and I don't know until I go back and watch the film. But what I won't do is keep them on a leash. Like, you (have) got to let these guys be aggressive. When I tell them to come out of the locker room, it's not, don't make a mistake, don't get a penalty. It's, you go attack. We're trying to win the interval in five seconds and you go as hard as you can.
“Do I like to see penalties, absolutely not,” Freeman continued. “But it's not a disciplined issue, it's an execution, fundamental issue that we have to continue to improve. So, I look to coaching. If it's a fundamental issue, you got to coach better. Holding is coaching. We (have) got to coach it better. So, I take accountability for that, not our players.”
Explosive offensive plays have been on the upswing the past two weeks as well. Central Michigan hit on four passing plays of at least 17 yards, the two longest going 31 and 37 yards. One set up a touchdown and the other a field goal.
“I know two of the plays were missed tackles,” Freeman said. “We did not tackle well in those first couple series. Then, you know, it was a little bit -- the first series were three and out. Then the next series they scored a touchdown, we got to -- first of all, kicked the ball out of bounds, roughing the passer and just missed tackles.
“So, we can't miss tackles,” he continued. “The one long pass in the second half, we're blitzing six guys and we didn't get pressure, right? So, I can't get mad at the DBs. If we're bringing six guys, man, we have to get pressure. So, we challenge those guys. If we're going to blitz you, let's get pressure so the DBs don't have to cover longer than the amount of time we need them to.”
Chalk it up to experience. The Fighting Irish are 4-0 and won by 24 points after leading just 21-14 at halftime. The faced their first true adversities in last week’s lightning delayed road win over NC State and they overcame their own self-imposed woes enroute to victory this week.
“We (have) got to continue to develop,” Freeman remarked. “This is the greatest team sport in the world, and you don't know what's going to happen. You don't control what circumstances come your way and we had some guys out, some key leaders that we have to continue to develop those guys that are the second -- the twos and the threes and so, I thought they stepped up and did a good job. We
have to continuously improve, right? That's going to be something I always say. We have to continuously improve. You know, go back and watch the film, we'll see. We'll see where those areas of improvements truly are at. But those penalties, man, we can't have them. That's not to our standard. Especially the --
uncharacteristic -- the two roughing the passers, a couple holding penalties on offense, defensive PI. I think about those penalties and great football teams don't beat themselves. We're fortunate we can learn from that and still have a good victory.
There is only one thing that matters now.
It’s Ohio State week.
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