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NCAA Football Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Assessing Blame For Notre Dame’s Turnovers vs. Arizona State: Part 1

By @MattHeinz_Rant

Everett Golson Notre Dame

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

A lot of overreaction was done by Notre Dame fans when discussing “the debacle in the desert” as Brian Kelly has called Notre Dame’s 55-31 loss to Arizona State. A large contingent expressed their frustrations toward the loss by quickly blaming quarterback Everett Golson and berating Kelly for not putting in backup redshirt freshman Malik Zaire. No, I am not joking; some fans who have only seen Golson for 3-4 hours a week think they know more about the Irish quarterback position than Kelly, who spends 20 hours a week with both Zaire and Golson in practice and countless hours analyzing them on film.

When analyzing tape, coaches will pick out the smallest details and always find ways for their team to perform better regardless of the outcome. A perfect example was when the Irish shut out Michigan 31-0 this season, Kelly had this to say about his defense that allowed zero points: “There’s still a lot of room for improvement. We made some mistakes out there that didn’t get exposed.” Even in victory, individual mistakes pop up throughout the game.

In a game in which Notre Dame was down 34-3 in the second quarter, there were plenty of mistakes to go around, but the story of Saturday’s game according to Kelly was turnovers. Let’s first breakdown Golson’s first fumble that he recovered before delving into each turnover.

The first play in the video wasn’t a turnover on the stat sheet but certainly portrayed the real theme of the game, which was Notre Dame’s inability to handle Arizona State’s pressure. Ben Koyack released on a seam route and running back Tarean Folston sprinted out to the flats on a route which left five Irish linemen to block the five defenders ASU sent.

Numbers wise Notre Dame was prepared for the pressure, but Todd Graham came up with a great game plan of how he was going to bring exotic blitzes. Notice how at the top of the screen defensive end Marcus Hardison (1) runs with Folston in pass coverage, leaving right tackle Christian Lombard with nobody to block. At the bottom of the screen, cornerback Lloyd Carrington (8) blitzes but he comes late. Outside linebacker Anotonio Longino (32) also came off the Irish left side and was picked up by left tackle Ronnie Stanley. Carrington is unblocked and Lombard is helping double team the defensive tackle with right guard Steve Elmer. It’s five on five, but Notre Dame has five blocking four.

With Carrington coming off the edge that Koyack vacated so late, it is noticeable that Golson didn’t see Carrington until he was breathing down his neck. Corey Robinson tried pointing at the blitzing corner but did so as the ball was snapped. The offensive line never accounted for Carrington and he came untouched barreling towards the Irish quarterback. Golson attempted what quarterback coaches call escaping the pocket as opposed to stepping up in it. “Escaping” is when an outside rusher comes from behind, the quarterback jab steps up and spins outside. What happened on this play is Carrington grabbed Golson’s right arm as he was trying to complete the escape move. The ball came free and Golson sprang on it. After being sacked the next play, the Irish had to settle for an opening drive field goal.

Conclusion:

Once a defender is within grasp of the quarterback, it is on the quarterback to take care of the ball. However, the real problem is allowing a cornerback to come off the edge untouched while the quarterback and offensive line are totally unaware. It is the coach’s job to make sure the offense is prepared for a late corner blitz, especially against a team like Arizona State that runs it so frequently. How Kelly taught his offense in practice we may never know, but we do know it didn’t work on this play. If the protection was slid to the left, Golson doesn’t fumble. Do fans really think Zaire would have slid the protection correctly in his first ever meaningful action in a hostile environment? Graham’s defense executed while Kelly’s offense couldn’t communicate a late corner blitz. Graham outcoached Kelly on this play because Golson and the linemen didn’t react how Kelly wished.

Matt Heinz is a college football writer for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattHeinz_Rant

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