Notre Dame Offense Must Learn How To Finish

There are many issues plaguing the Notre Dame offense this season, and much of the self-reflection will need to happen this offseason. There are some things, however, that can be corrected this season, or at least they need to be.

At the heart of this is the team's inability to finish in the big games. When playing lesser opponents, the Notre Dame offense has been lights out. This gets overlooked in conversations about the offense, a group that has scored 41.5 points in wins over Navy, Tennessee State, NC State, Central Michigan, USC and Pitt.

I'm not talking about team points, that would be 48.3, I'm talking just points on offense. When the offense is good it has been really good, but the issue is against the best defenses on the schedule the offense has looked nothing like the unit that has scored all those points.

With the exception of the NC State game, the Irish offense has been poor against Top 40 scoring defenses. The Wolfpack, Ohio State, Duke, Louisville and Clemson are the only Top 40 scoring defenses the Irish have faced this season. In those games, Notre Dame has scored just 24.6 offensive points per game. The Irish scored 45 in an early September win over NC State, but in the four games since then the offense scored just 19.5 points per game.

That lack of success against good defenses rightly overrides the success against inferior opponents.

When you study those games they all look different. But one thing that was true in each of those games was the inability to finish, and if that is the only thing that changed the Irish would have a good chance to be undefeated right now. The worst case scenario is a 9-1 record and a Top 10 ranking, but that is not where we are.

Against Ohio State, the Irish offense drove into Buckeye territory on each of its first two drives, but it was stopped on fourth down on drive one and missed a field goal on the second drive. If you simply get field goals on both drives the Irish win that game. That wasn't the end of it, Notre Dame again turned it over on downs in Buckeye territory, this time on their first possession of the second half.

Three drives into Ohio State territory ended with zero points, in a game the Irish lost 17-14. Fail to finish, fail to win.

Against Duke, the Irish offense got into Blue Devil territory on six of its first seven possessions but scored just 13 points. Notre Dame punted at the Duke 40 on their second possession, punted in Duke territory two series later and missed a field goal. Notre Dame settled for field goals on two of the other three drives.

The inability to finish early is why the Irish needed the miracle finish at the end of the game to win. Notre Dame had plenty of chances to put that game away early, but a failure to execute on third down and an overall lack of aggressiveness following early shots and an early fake punt plagued the offense all game long.

Against Louisville, the Irish turned the ball over in Cardinal territory on two possessions in the first half, a game that was 7-7 at the break. Coming out of halftime, the Irish defense got the offense the ball at the Louisville 39-yard line. Sam Hartman was off-target on a third-down throw to Chris Tyree, who dropped the pass on what would have been an easy touchdown, forcing the Irish to settle for a field goal.

Failure to finish, and that was a momentum changing drive.

Notre Dame was stuffed on 3rd-and-1 on its next possession, and the ensuing drive a 30-yard gain that got the Irish deep in Louisville territory was negated by a silly penalty. Notre Dame still drove into Louisville territory but was stopped on a 3rd-and-3 and had to settle for a field goal.

Two potential touchdown drives ended with field goals, more failures to finish. That allowed Louisville to finally pull away in that game, but the reality is the Irish should have had a comfortable lead before that even happened.

It was more of the same against Clemson. A strong opening drive stalled in Clemson territory, forcing a field goal. Notre Dame had two more first half drives that got deep into Clemson territory, with one ended at the 5-yard line and another at the 12-yard line, but in both instances the offense settled for field goals.

In a game you lose 31-23, setting for field goals on three straight drives into opponent territory is going to get you beat, especially when you play on the road. Those mistakes were exacerbated by a pick six and a muffed punt to create a recipe for defeat.

Sometimes you have to credit the defense for making stops, but in almost each instance you can point to mistakes make by Notre Dame, either at the player level or coach level, that led to the failures to finish more than those defenses making big plays.

There are a lot of reasons why the offense has struggled to finish, and that is what Gerad Parker and the staff have to figure out. But if Notre Dame is going to finish off the 2023 season with any kind of momentum this will need to be addressed, and fixed. If they can make that happen the team can run the table in the regular season, still get a decent bowl game and then win that. It will not take away the "what could have been" questions, but it will give the program some much needed momentum heading into the offseason.

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