Tag: Braden Lenzy

5 Stars: The best and worst of Notre Dame’s loss to Cincinnati

Who played well? Who didn’t?

It was a disastrous first half, even though the Irish looked like the better team. They went into the half down 17-0 and early in the third quarter it looked like the Bearcats were about to pull away. The Irish battled back to 17-13, but Cincinnati responded with a touchdown and that’s was the end of the Notre Dame comeback attempt. It wasn’t all bad for the Irish and here are the best, 5 stars, and worst, 1 star, performances during Notre Dame 24-13 loss to Cincinnati.

Notre Dame vs. Cincinnati: Fourth-Quarter Analysis

And that’s all she wrote.

Notre Dame had a nice run of 26 consecutive home wins, but all good things must come to an end. It happened Saturday with a 24-13 loss to Cincinnati, and the Irish’s College Football Playoff hopes likely died along with the aforementioned streak. Meanwhile, the Bearcats’ playoff hopes remain alive, and they have their revenge against Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman.

The Bearcats (4-0) looked to be in business early in the fourth quarter when Desmond Ridder completed a 44-yard pass to Alec Pierce to get to the 25-yard line of the Irish (4-1). They barely got into the red zone, prompting a call to Cole Smith to attempt a 37-yard field goal. Smith missed his second field goal of the half, and the score remained 17-7.

Drew Pyne came on to lead a drive that included completions of 14 yards to Lorenzo Styles and 20 yards to Michael Mayer. It culminated in a 32-yard touchdown pass to Braden Lenzy, putting the Irish within an extra point of a three-point deficit. Instead, Jonathan Doerer picked a bad time to miss his first extra-point kick since Oct. 2018, meaning the Irish would need another touchdown without giving one up to take the lead.

The Bearcats’ offense went right back to work. Jerome Ford ran for 16 yards on one play, and Leonard Taylor had a 36-yard reception on the other. After another Ford run that went for 11 yards, Ridder took the ball himself to earn a 6-yard touchdown run. Notre Dame Stadium was silent once again except for the large contingent of Bearcats fans in attendance.

Pyne did his best to manufacture a response with time running out, getting the offense to the Bearcats’ 41. That’s where Jabari Taylor and Malik Vann sacked Pyne on second down, and the Irish’s last flickering hopes went out with the back-to-back incomplete passes that followed. Let the party begin in Ohio for the Bearcats’ biggest win ever.

Watch: Pyne finds Lenzy as Notre Dame creeps closer to Cincinnati

The comeback continues

The Irish needed a spark to their offense after putting up a big zero in the first half. Head coach Brian Kelly and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees looked to Drew Pyne, who didn’t get a snap in the first half. The move has worked out wonderfully for the Irish.

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Pyne, like last week against Wisconsin, has sparked the whole team, giving the Irish a sense that they can win any game where he gets an opportunity. The quarterback found wide receiver Braden Lenzy for a 32-yard scoring strike to creep the Irish closer to the Bearcats 17-13. If you’re not watching this game, you’re missing out on a very entertains football game.

Notre Dame vs. Cincinnati: Third-Quarter Analysis

This one’s not over yet.

If Notre Dame is going to come back against Cincinnati, time remains for it to happen. The third quarter showed a few signs that a miracle is in the cards. We might be having a big celebration 15 minutes from now. At the moment, the Irish trail, 17-7.

Right out of halftime, the Bearcats went for the kill. On the third play of the quarter’s first drive, Desmond Ridder completed a 45-yard pass to Alec Pierce to get to the Irish’s 17-yard line. The Irish’s defense held firm on the next series, not allowing another first down. Cole Smith came on to salvage the drive with a 30-yard field goal, but it sailed left, opening the door for the Irish.

Drew Pyne came on as the Irish’s third quarterback of the afternoon. Other than a Tyler Buchner run that went nowhere, Pyne was able to navigate a drive that went down to the Bearcats’ 30. The Irish got no further as Pyne threw an incomplete pass to Braden Lenzy on fourth-and-5.

The Bearcats chose to run to get into Irish territory, and Ridder’s 24-yard completion to Michael Young set them up at the 24. That’s when Isaiah Foskey sacked Ridder to force a fumble and allow Drew White to scoop it up for a 28-yard gain. Yet another opening for the Irish, and with excellent field position to boot this time.

Pyne needed only four plays and just over two minutes to get the Irish their first points. A 16-yard completion to Michael Mayer and an 11-yard of his own gave the Irish a first-and-goal. Pyne handed the ball off to Kyren Williams, who leaped into the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown. Hope indeed is alive at Notre Dame Stadium.

Five Stars: The best and worst of Notre Dame’s win against Purdue

The good and bad of Notre Dame’s win over Purdue

An instate rivalry game against a Big Ten team is never an easy task and that’s exactly what happened today. The Irish took Purdue’s best punches and responded for the majority of the afternoon. It obviously wasn’t a blowout, but for the first time this season, it was a solid win with no drama big drama at the end of the game. There still were some good and bad performances today and here they are; the best (5 stars) and worst (1 star) of the Irish’s win over the Boilermakers.

Notre Dame vs. Purdue: Fourth Quarter Analysis

The Irish improve to 3-0 with a very solid fourth quarter

Geoffrey Clark has tapped out, so I’ll be taking us home on the quarter analysis. I’m going to do it a bit differently, just going to take you through my thought’s drive by dive. So here we go.

Finally a little bit of Chris Tyree as Jack Coan finds him on the left sideline for a nice 19-yard gain. Tommy Rees tries to say with the “hot hand” and Tyree gains just 5-yards on his next two carries. Coan finds Avery Davis on 3rd and 5 for 11-yards and a first down. They’ve had a great connection today, unfortunately the only one for the Irish offense. Coan takes a sack on second down, then after a timeout and bad throw to no one on 3rd down. Two trips to the redzone and no touchdowns but Jonathan Doerer barely makes a 30-yard field goal to extend the lead to 20-13. The Irish need to be better inside the 20, field goals don’t win you games.

Special teams has been solid today, the Irish stop the Purdue kick returner Marcellus Mooreat the 20-yard line. It’s been a bad go for the Boilers in the second half on special teams. Time for the defense to step up, the defensive line needs to get pressure on Jack Plummer. Now. Back-to-back incompletions bring up third down and the line gives me what I asked for. Isaiah Foskey and Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa sack Plummer on 3rd down. Massive series for the Irish then you add on a bad punt and great field position for the Irish on Purdue’s 39-yard line.

Need a score here, not a field goal, but to find the endzone. Coan goes deep to Braden Lenzy for the jugular, and it bounces off Lenzy’s hands. The Irish needed that, then on second down Coan is sacked. The Lenzy drop is looming larger now. Coan gets a few yards back on a check down to Williams that sets up a 4th and 9. I hate the punt there but Doerer barely made the last kick and it’s a once score game late. Kyle Hamilton with a huge play grabbing the ball at the 1-yard line after a great Jay Bramblett punt.

Odd move for Purdue as they bring in another quarterback Aiden O’Connell for his first snaps of the game. I don’t know about this move by Jeff Brohm on the 1-yard line. The gamble pays off as O’Connell finds Mershawn Rice for a 27-yard gain. Why Brohm did’t make this change earlier confuses me. Cam Hart makes a great play on the ball, setting up a 3rd and 5. O’Connell tests Hart against David Bell and it’s an incomplete pass. Very well could have seen a pass interference call there. Kyren Williams once again shows why he’s back returning punts, another good one for 23-yards sets up the next Irish drive almost at midfield. Great field position, and it’s clear the Irish are winning the special teams portion of the game.

So, Williams just took over. A fantastic 51-yard run where it looked like he was bottled up, broke a few tackles and was off to paydirt. Huge play as it gives the Irish some breathing room. Massive.

This drive could end the game here and after two incomplete passes it looked like it. O’Connell finds Bell on 3rd down for the first, but Hamilton hits him hard and he’s down. The game has stopped and a somber mood has entered this game. Head and neck injuries are scary, you hate to see this and hopefully Bell is fine. Tough to watch these kind of injuries. They review the play and call it incomplete, tough to get your mind back onto the game after that. Fourth-and-eight and O’Connell slowly scrambles and barely get the 8-yards. Finds Jackson Anthrop to move the chains again, why didn’t Purdue make this change earlier? Thank you Jeff Brohm. Purdue keeps driving and not giving up. Hat’s off to them for not folding late in this one but Hamilton comes up in the clutch once again, picking off O’Connell in the end zone. That should be game.

Kyren Williams and Kyle Hamilton stepped up when the Irish needed them to. The two best players on the team did what they do, make plays. Williams didn’t quite make it over the 100-yard mark for the first time this year, but he had over 130-yards from scrimmage along with two scores. Hamilton had the game-sealing pick, a few tackles for loss and an overall dominant game again. They’re both so damn impressive. Solid win for the Irish today, 1-0 every week so far.

Notre Dame vs. Purdue: Third Quarter Analysis

A back and forth quarter in South Bend

Geoffrey Clark has tapped out, so I’ll be taking us home on the quarter analysis. I’m going to do it a bit differently, just going to take you through my thought’s drive by dive. So here we go.

Adjustments out of the half are always a chess match and Purdue had a check on their first drive. The first play was a run, then every other single play on their scoring drive was a pass. Fortunately for the Irish, they held in the redzone, allowing a 34-yard field goal on the first drive. Purdue had the exact outcome on their first drive of the game as well, so even though the Irish gave up points, this is a win for the defense.

Jack Coan’s accuracy continues to be a concern for the Irish offense, as he leaves a pass too high for Michael Mayer who gets crushed. I will give him some credit however, as the next play Coan found Avery Davis in stride for a bomb, a 62-yard scoring strike.

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Unfortunately for the Irish, the 11-point lead was short lived, as Purdue marched right down the field and scored a touchdown of their own. It was helped by a Clarence Lewis pass interference on 3rd down inside the 10-yard lane. It looks like both teams have made good adjustments during the half.

Finally establishing the run with Kyren Williams, it’s nice to see the offensive line get a push. The run game opens up the offense and takes pressure off whoever is at quarterback. It ends up not mattering as Coan looks Kevin Austin’s way and he can’t come down with the catch. He’s having a rough day today. Not official numbers but I have him with 8 targets and no catches. Ouch.

The Boilers do give the Irish some life as their punt returner TJ Sheffield fields the punt around the 2 yard line and gets back to the 4. Bad idea on that one and a boost for the Irish. The bad field position does seem to bother the Boiler as they quickly get out from operating in their endzone. Back to back plays by Justin Ademilola, sack, and Kyle Hamilton, tackle for no gain, forces a 3-and-14 which goes incomplete and gets the Irish the ball back. Would have been nice to get a quick 3-and-out but this will do.

Penalties again, a very good Kyren Williams punt return is called back due to a Bo Bauer holding call. On first down another false start by Tosh Baker, his second one of the game, puts the Irish behind the chains again. They’re shooting themselves in the foot. It doesn’t matter much as Coan finds Braden Lenzy, but again the accuracy, Lenzy had to go down to catch the ball, no chance of gaining any yards after catch.

And that was it, on to the fourth quarter. Yet another tight game for the Irish, so hold on for another exciting finish.

Notre Dame vs. Toledo: Second-Quarter Analysis

Well, this isn’t going as planned.

It looked like the Notre Dame offense found the spark it needed. With the running game practically nonexistent for the first five regulation quarters of the season, there suddenly was reason think that would be the unit snap the Irish of of their funk. However, it took one bad play in the final minute to cancel that progress out, and the Irish trail Toledo, 16-14, at halftime.

The Rockets, looking for a field goal to give them their first lead of the game, came close to that possibility. However, Isaiah Foskey sacked Carter Bradley for a 10-yard loss, though it ultimately set up a Bailey Flint punt that pinned the Irish at their own 4-yard line. If the offense was going to snap out of it now, it would have to do so with almost the whole field ahead. Enter Tyler Buchner, who was inserted at quarterback for his first game action since his junior year of high school in 2019.

All Buchner did was roll out to the right for a 26-yard gain on his first play. He then ran for an additional 11 yards, then hit Braden Lenzy for a 15-yard completion a couple of plays later. The drive concluded on the next play when Kyren Williams busted through traffic on the right side for a 43-yard touchdown. It was nice teamwork led by a unlikely duo.

When the Irish took the ball back after a Rockets three-and-out, Jack Coan returned to action. After he threw an incomplete pass on third-and-1, the offense stayed on the field to go for it despite being on its own 40-yard line. Chris Tyree got stuffed, and the Rockets got the ball back with terrific field position.

The ensuing defensive possession started out disastrous for the Irish. A couple of penalties first kept the drive going, then gave the Rockets a first-and-goal at the 2. Things looked better when Kyle Hamilton tackled Bryant Koback for a 3-yard loss. The Irish then caught a break when a Bradley pass went through Bryce Mitchell’s hands in the end zone, and Thomas Cluckey came out to kick his third field goal.

With the Irish hoping to get points before halftime, the worst possible thing happened. Coan was intercepted by Chris McDonald, who returned the ball 27 yards to the house with nobody in front of him, and the Rockets had the lead. What a momentum shift in South Bend. The Irish had one last possession to try and score before the clock hit zero, but nothing came of it.

Not much you can say right now. Here’s hoping the second half goes much better.

 

Watch: Kyren Williams breaks a big run and score for Notre Dame

Williams shows off his home run ability

The offense needed some energy after stalling for a few series. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees made a quarterback change, in came freshman Tyler Buchner to spell Jack Coan. Buckner’s running ability immediately paid off, ripping runs off of 26-yards and 12-yards.

Buchner then got the opportunity to put the ball in the air completing a pass to Braden Lenzy for 15-yards. That action made the defense spy Buchner as a threat to run, then boom, a handoff to to Kyren Williams and 43-yards later, the running back was in the endzone.

It was a much needed score, as Toledo had made two field goals to trip the lead to 7-6 before Williams long run. Take a look at the explosive jaunt by Williams to extend the Irish lead to 14-6 midway through the second quarter.

And another view here.

Notre Dame at Florida State: Third-Quarter Analysis

That’s more like it.

If Notre Dame’s season opener against Florida State has proven anything thus far, it’s that this team can respond to adversity. Every time the Seminoles have done something impressive, the Irish have responded. The reward for that persistence is a 38-20 Notre Dame lead after three quarters.

After a fumble recovered by the Irish on the second-half kickoff was overturned by replay, the second such instance of the game, the Seminoles took advantage of their good fortune when Jordan Travis threw a long pass that Ja’Khi Douglas caught. With nothing but open field in front of him, Douglas outran Houston Griffith to score a 60-yard touchdown that gave the Seminoles a 20-17 lead. Only three plays, and the Irish suddenly were behind, though they caught a break when the snap was mishandled on the extra-point kick.

The sudden deficit was no problem for Jack Coan, who responded almost as quickly. A 29-yard pass to Kevin Austin set the Irish up nicely in Seminole territory. Two plays later, Coan found Austin again, this time, on a nice catch for a 37-yard touchdown.

Florida State’s next possession lasted only two plays as Kyle Hamilton snuffed it out by intercepting Travis for the second time in as many quarters. The Irish moved backwards but converted on third-and-17 when Coan hit Kyren Williams for a short completion, then watched Williams zigzag his way through the Seminoles’ defense on a 55-yard gain. After Coan found Austin again on a 17-yard pass to set up first-and-goal, Williams eventually caught another pass on third down and was able to cross the pylon with defenders surrounding him, giving him a 6-yard touchdown and Coan his fourth touchdown pass.

The Seminoles went four-and-out when they took the ball back, and a Clarence Lewis interception on the final play gave the Irish the ball on the Seminoles’ 33-yard line. Braden Lenzy had a 24-yard completion on the first play of the possession, which ended on a 1-yard touchdown run from Chris Tyree. Florida State got all the way to the Irish’s 1-yard line on their next possession before the third quarter ended.