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Notre Dame Football: Irish Nearly Sunk by Special Teams Play

By Michael Collins

Oct 29, 2016; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish react to winning against the Miami Hurricanes at Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame defeats Miami 30-27. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 29, 2016; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish react to winning against the Miami Hurricanes at Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame defeats Miami 30-27. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /
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Notre Dame football fans haven’t had a lot to cheer about in South Bend recently, and the close win over Miami shouldn’t have been that close.

Notre Dame finally got some breaks and managed to win a close game, and fans at Notre Dame stadium did get to see a much-improved defense over what pitiful showings there had been thus far in 2016.

But the 30-27 score comes far from telling the story of this game, and it’s a horror story only suitable for Halloween weekend. The Irish special teams were wearing the masks of college football players, when underneath they were clearly frat boys used to playing backyard football.

How bad were special teams? Allow us to count the ways.

Two muffed punts by freshman Troy Pride Jr. (one resulting in a Miami touchdown).

One Irish punt tipped away and nearly completely blocked.

One blown onside kick defense.

And a partridge in a pear tree. (You had to know that was coming)

These were simply mental mistakes, lack of focus and unpreparedness on the part of the players. And special teams is the one area where mental mistakes can end up costing you a football game.

All of these special teams mistakes led to Miami points in one way or another, and it was only fitting that it would come down to a field goal opportunity as time was running out in the game to put Notre Dame in the lead for good.

It was also fitting that the game’s final play would be a sack of Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya, who was knocked down and battered all day by the resurgent Irish defense. Kaaya was sacked a total of five times by a defense who only had six sacks all season coming into this game.

But whatever Brian Kelly did to help regroup the defense, he needs to repeat with his special teams coaches. Play like what was seen today won’t win games against teams like Navy, Virginia Tech and USC – who won’t need that many extra chances to score.

It was great to see the defense playing with some fire and emotion, but the special teams need to drop the zombie act for the next four games.

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