Notre Dame and Logan Diggs Run Past UNLV 44-21
Notre Dame (4-3) started fast and the Irish beat UNLV (4-4) 44-21 on a sunny afternoon in South Bend.
Yet Saturday was a mixture of good, bad and everything in-between for Marcus Freeman’s squad. The Irish took care of business, but also showed a lack of growth on the offensive side of the ball against a bad UNLV defense.
Example: Notre Dame’s first quarter ended in 23 points with two blocked punts from Isaiah Foskey, which is what the staff wanted. The bad was the next 18 plays for a measly 51 yards (punt, TD, FG, FG) and while the end result was good, it still left much to be desired as Tommy Rees’ offense left points on the board.
The red zone offense needs to get better, especially when you get two blocked punts in one quarter. Freeman admitted he had been a little aggressive over the last few games in going for it on fourth down, but on Saturday, it was a point to take points when given the chance.
“I told Coach (Tommy) Rees if it’s a 4th-and-2, I’m going to kick it,” said Freeman. “We really wanted to try to get some points on the board and momentum for our team. I told them, great job taking care of the ball. If we get three points here, it’s good momentum for our team.”
The good was Notre Dame running back Logan Diggs as the sophomore carried 28 times for 130 yards on the day, but the Louisiana native was quick to give credit to those around him.
“We just have a lot of confidence going around,” explained Diggs. “It's very contagious. The O-line, the tight ends, everybody is just feeding off of each other. If one person has success, the whole team has success. If one person gets going, everybody feels it.
“I feel like Coach Freeman has been instilling unit strength in us and we've been taking advantage of the opportunity and getting to know each other and building an actual bond.”
The offense did feed off Diggs as he raised his level of play as Audric Estime fumbled for the second straight game and the Irish staff made the move to No. 3.
“Audric's been running the ball extremely well,” stated Freeman. “Unfortunately, he's fumbled the ball each of the last two games. I heard Coach Rees and Coach McCullough kind of say, ‘hey, put Logan in the game right now. Let's go with Logan.’”
And yes, Freeman appreciated Diggs’ efforts in the second half as the workhorse, but also the entire offense as they were able to grind out yards when it mattered the most and when UNLV knew it was coming.
“I think the best part about it is when UNLV knows you're going to run the ball, the ability to still run the ball and I don't think we threw it that last series,” said Freeman. “That's big. That's something I believe in. We have to find ways to get positive yardage and we were able to do that late in the game.”
Overall, Notre Dame’s offense left a lot to be desired outside of the run game as Drew Pyne finished just 14-of-28 for 205 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Michael Mayer once again led the way with six catches for 115 yards and one touchdown.
There is enough to build on heading into a big road trip to Syracuse and Freeman knows his team has work to do, but he’ll be able to coach his team coming off a win at home.
“Listen, it wasn't perfect,” Freeman said. “We know that. That's the reality of football. It's never perfect. There's a lot of things that you're going to look and want to correct, but overall they played a really good game. To be able to -- on all three phases. There was work to do on all three phases, but there was really big highs today on all three phases, and that was good to see, from special teams to offense to defense. They all played at points really, really well, and they all played at points not so well that we have to improve.
“That's the reality of football. That's where we are as a team. We have to continue to get better, right? You're talking about the ebbs and flows of a season to get us to this point where you see it in a game. You see it within a series. For them to get a victory like this is really pleasing for them, for me, and for this program.”
DEFENSE
Defensively, the first half was very good with one minor mistake as UNLV running back Courtney Reese got loose for a 77-yard run that closed the Notre Dame lead to 10-7 after the Rebels second drive.
Al Golden’s defense responded by forcing six consecutive 3-and-outs before Clarence Lewis forced and recovered a fumble after two plays on the following drive. Isaiah Foskey ended the first half with his second sack of quarterback Cameron Friel.
Foskey ended the game with the two blocks, five tackles and three sacks, which was easily the best game of the season and potentially his career.
“That's what you expect out of Isaiah Foskey,” said Freeman. “He can be a dominant football player, and we're going to need him to be, especially in these upcoming weeks.”
The first big run by Reese, Freeman saw why it hit as it was a play the Rebels hadn’t put on film, but Reese’s 47-yard run in the second half got the attention of the head coach as it was due to a lack of execution.
“They hadn't shown the run scheme where they pulled the center because I watched it on the replay and they pulled center,” Freeman explained of the first run. “The middle backer didn't get over the top of the block. It was one that you got to get drawn up. We were in base defense.
“The second one was just a miss-execution, and ultimately, it’s on us, but we can't have them. Our field end's got to leverage the ball and keep it inside of him. Those are critical errors we can’t make if you want to be a championship team.”
Notre Dame’s red zone defense has lacked for most of the year and it was no different on Saturday as UNLV went 3-for-3 on touchdowns.
“You obviously don't want them to score,” explained Freeman. “There are some things we have to get fixed and i”m sure we’ll go back and review it to see what the issues were.”
Foskey echoed his head coach as he believes there was enough positives to build on from Saturday to gain momentum, but the Irish have to continue to want to be more consistent across the board.
“We need to be more consistent on offense and defense,” Foskey stated. “You see on defense let a couple big runs, but that's something we need to be intentional with the little things. That's what we're going to head into Syracuse with.”
SPECiAL TEAMS
Notre Dame’s special teams came up big when the Irish needed it the most. Foskey had his two punt blocks in the first quarter, Brandon Joseph returned three punts for 42 yards, Jon Sot averaged 43.5 yards per punt and Blake Grupe finished 3-for-4 on his field goals.
Freeman was very pleased with his special teams units led by coordinator Brian Mason. Notre Dame now has four punt blocks on the year and applying pressure on the punter will continue moving forward.
“Coach Mason has done a great job with all our phases of special teams. Every week, we’ve been aggressive on block units. We’ve gotten two before this game. We just got home. It wasn’t that they had some, in particular, we were going to exploit. Every week, we feel we can take advantage of a punt team. Coach Mason does a great job of executing the game plan and today we were able to get two.
“Those are game-changers, momentum shifts and to capitalize and to get points - I don’t think both times we got touchdowns, but to get points, it’s huge. Last week, we didn’t. That’s part of making sure we’re able to execute.”
HIGHLIGHT
Michael Mayer has made plenty of SCTop10 catches over his career, but Saturday’s might have been the top one. A UNLV defender was called for pass inference on a deep ball down the middle, yet Mayer was able to stick a hand out and somehow reel it in for one of the most ridiculous catches you’ll ever see.
“I got to watch it first,” Mayer said. “I mean, I was kind of all over the place out there. Sometimes I just don't really remember things. There's some catches and stuff. So I've got to watch it. I'll get an answer for you later on, but it's up there for sure. There's no doubt”
And yes, Mayer also added he didn’t even see the ball coming in, which adds another layer to the player.
“I don't think I saw the ball to be honest,” laughed Mayer. “I kind of stuck out my hand and hoped for the best. That's a route me and Drew practiced a lot, we've repped a lot in practice. It's just one of those things where it's kind of just like, all right, it's me against the linebacker. Drew knows there's a pretty good chance, if he kind of throws that thing up, I'm going to catch it.
“He believed in me and he threw it up there, and I found a way to catch it. It was a cool play. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm pumped to watch it.”
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