Take Five: Tackling Issues, Quarterback Play, Oklahoma State Loss

My latest take five looks at the loss to Oklahoma State, quarterback play and the running back performance

My latest take five looks at the loss to Oklahoma State, quarterback play and the running back performance.

1. To a player, the Notre Dame defense said it wasn’t tired in its loss 37-35 loss to Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl. That even though there was missed tackle after missed tackle in the second half when OSU scored 30 straight points. The definition of tired for a sure tackling team, which Notre Dame was in the second half of the season aside from its game against North Carolina, is missing tackles. Don’t believe that storyline. Players are trained not to make excuses. While the Fighting Irish said they expected OSU to go into its up-tempo offense, they certainly didn’t look prepared to deal with it. That’s what was most disappointing. It’s one of those moments where it looked like Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy out-coached Marcus Freeman.

2. One final word on Notre Dame quarterback. We got the full Jack Coan spectrum. He was spectacular for five drives. That included five touchdown passes. Throw in a drive that ended with a missed field goal and make it six drives that he was good on. Coan completed 38 of 68 passes for 509 yards with one touchdown and one interception. And yet while it might seem counterintuitive to say the offense lost this game for the Fighting Irish, an argument could be made that it bears some responsibility for the defeat. Five of them only used a little over six minutes of clock. Notre Dame desperately needed to run the football, which it couldn’t do with its running backs or have the quarterback who could run it. It needed to use the clock. This loss was a version of the Florida State win without the happy finish.

3. This brings me to Tyler Buchner. Freeman said that he “didn’t think” that Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees “wanted to make a change” for Buchner and that Coan had played well when the offense was sputtering. And that he wanted “to ride it out” with Coan. Full-stop right there. Freeman makes it sound like he didn’t have a conversation about switching to Buchner with Rees during the game. If true, that’s a fail. Ultimately, that is something the head coach should consider. It was an obvious move to try to switch the rhythm — one that has worked all season — by putting Buchner in the game. I’m not saying that Freeman should’ve put Buchner in the game. I’m just saying that Freeman needed to consider doing it in a conversation with Rees.

4. This game was a head-scratcher for everyone, and it proves how having a month of bowl preparation can upend the statistical curve for one game. Oklahoma State gave up 551 yards of offense and Notre Dame yielded 605 yards. OSU was averaging over 4.5 sacks per game. It had two. The Fighting Irish averaged over three per game. It had one. OSU was ranked third in team defense, giving up 278 yards per game. The offensive wrinkles each team put in changed the complexion of the game. Just hope you didn’t take the under.

5. Ultimately, it’s one or two plays or one or two players that made the difference. For OSU, it was the combination of running back Jaylen Warren and quarterback Spencer Sanders running the football that gave them the edge. Warren finished with 82 yards on 19 carries and Sanders had 125 yards on 17 carries. Logan Diggs, who finished 29 yards on nine carries, looked very much like a freshman. He took too much time to find the holes when they were there. Chris Tyree had 18 yards on six carries. This is a long way of saying that Notre Dame could’ve used Kyren Williams.

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