How third down woes loomed large in Notre Dame loss to Louisville

Notre Dame junior left tackle Joe Alt said the Fighting Irish lost a little bit of confidence throughout their loss to Louisville. Never was that more evident than when the offense was on the field for third down.

Notre Dame only converted 3 of its 13 third down attempts. The Irish were 0-for-3 when needing three yards or less.

Alt is one of the best tackles in the country. Junior tailback Audric Estimé is one of the nation’s most bruising, punishing running backs. And yet, the first time Notre Dame only needed one yard on third, the Irish tried a fake toss counter to senior wide receiver Chris Tyree. Graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman fumbled the exchange with Tyree. Louisville recovered.

In his postgame press conference, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman made it sound like Notre Dame was treating the situation as four-down territory. If that’s true, then imagine facing third and one and thinking about fourth down.

Yikes. Painfully appropriate.

Notre Dame only needed one yard on third down a little earlier, but junior right tackle Blake Fisher was flagged for a false start. On third and six, an end-around to freshman running back Jeremiyah Love only gained three yard. That forced Notre Dame to line up in put formation.

Nothing was pretty for the Irish on third down outside of a zone beater for 12 yards to freshman walk-on receiver Jordan Faison on third and eight, a stare down and threading of the needle for 24 yards to junior tight end Mitchell Evans on third and 13 and a garbage time touchdown to Evans on third and five.

Louisville owned the line of scrimmage on the money down at all other times.

“We have to come back as an offensive line and realize that’s the down we have to get,” Alt said. “Third and one, that’s on our shoulders. We got to look back and see where we’re falling short.”

It’s everywhere. All over the place.

Hartman was sacked on his first two third-down drop backs. Then there was another third down, with just six yards to go, when Hartman looked for Tyree deep toward the goal line but Tyree was unable to adjust to the ball and he dropped what would have been a touchdown.

Louisville was only a tad better than Notre Dame on third down in going 5-for-13, but the Cardinals made the short attempts count. They were 4-for-5 when they only needed four yards or less. Short yardage conversions keep stress away and keep punt teams off the field.

Notre Dame ended up going for it on fourth down two times. The Irish didn’t convert either attempt. Louisville did not go for it on fourth down at all. That’s what an extra couple of third down chain movers will do for ya.

In their last two games, the Irish are 6-of-28 (21.4 percent) on third down. For reference, the team with the worst season-long third down conversion percentage through Week 6, Charlotte, had a mark of 25.0.

The Irish are as bad as it gets on third down at the moment. Maybe it can’t get any worse. But it certainly seems like a longshot for it to get much better overnight.

“A lot of self-reflection we’re going to have to do,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. “A deep dive into exactly where these shortcomings happened.”

The post How third down woes loomed large in Notre Dame loss to Louisville appeared first on On3.