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BYU falls to Notre Dame, 23-13

Continued red zone woes doom BYU to disappointing loss at cold, windy Notre Dame.

In 2012 it was ineffectual quarterback play; in 2013 it was inefficient red zone scoring. The BYU Cougars were defeated by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 23-13, on a cold, blustery evening in South Bend, Indiana. The score differential was the same as BYU’s loss to Wisconsin a few weeks ago, but will be all the more bitter for the Cougars who failed to capitalize on yet another opportunity to make a statement on the road against a quality opponent.

It did not begin well for the BYU defense. Not yet five minutes into the contest, Tommy Rees found DaVaris Daniels for a 61 yard touchdown pass and the Irish took an early 7-0 lead. BYU answered back with a terrific drive of its own, capped by a JD Falslev 7-yard touchdown reception from Taysom Hill. Unfortunately for the Cougars, it would be the last time they would see the end zone all evening. But it was not for a lack of opportunity.

Notre Dame took a 17-7 lead into the locker room, and extended to 20-7 after scoring a field goal on its first drive of the second half. Give the BYU offense credit for fighting back and making enough plays to make the game competitive in the second half. Were it not for the redzone miscues, the Cougars may very well have put themselves in a position to win the contest.

Trailing the entire second half, the BYU offense drove inside the Notre Dame 20 on three of its first four drives. The Cougars came away with just six points. The final redzone sting of the evening came with BYU having a field goal blocked with 4:15 left in the fourth quarter and trailing by ten points. It was the end of the line for BYU’s chances of a comeback victory.

BYU ran the ball for nearly 250 yards and had 415 yards of total offense, but those yards felt awfully hollow given the inefficiency of the offense in the red zone. Tommy Rees threw for 235 yards and a touchdown, and Notre Dame halfback Cam McDaniel rushed for 117 yards as the Fighting Irish were perfectly balanced on offense with 235 yards both rushing and passing. Notre Dame moved to 8-3 on the season.

BYU is 7-4 and finishes the regular season next week in Reno against Nevada.

3 Comments

  1. Jeff

    November 23, 2013 at 8:34 pm

    BYU goes to all the trouble to have greater exposure and they have had much success with that.

    To bad they don’t give the same attention to detail in other areas; spending so much time to develop a great infrastructure to the program, but when they get on the big stage where there performance really counts they fall flat on their face.

    So much effort into exposure and yet when it comes to coaching they choose the cheap route.

    Instead of getting high quality proven coaches, they try to do everything on the cheap thinking they can just get Joe Shmo from the elders quorum to be a coach and in many cases having little to no experience.

    Coaches DO make all the difference, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and the like, these are coaches on the cutting edge of their trade and their teams are on top because of them.

    If BYU wants to dabble in hiring brother so and so from in house, that’s fine if you are willing to settle for mediocrity; but please dispense with the elite and national championship caliber talk because it just isn’t going to happen.

    If BYU wants to be elite and win championships then it is going to require an equal commitment in all areas. … especially coaching.

    • Wahului

      November 25, 2013 at 1:14 pm

      Seems it’s come to that. I can’t come up with a better idea of why the team is moving backward as the season goes on. Five games of progress, now three of regress; there’s just no excuse for it. Lots of comments about red (blue) zone perfirmance…it all comes down to O-line play. The coaching doesn’t seem to be able to affect improved performance; still jumping, missing blocks and assignment confusion. No holes for RB’s, poor pass protection for QB. Blitzing defenses seem to be more in danger of being slowed by stepping in a hole in the turf than by a BYU O-lineman. Yes that’s a wiseass comment, but it’s so aggravating for our linemen, often on both sides, to be looking and performing like the slower and weaker players. Almost all elements of lineplay are massively deficient on this team right now…both players and coaches.

  2. Gary

    November 24, 2013 at 4:29 am

    They spent too much time talking about getting revenge for last years game. They were soooo confident they would win. Just keep your big mouth shut.