Irish ‘ O’ must give ‘ D’ a hand
Kelly says offense can’t put defense in tough spots vs. FSU
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — North Carolina ran a reverse for wide receiver Quinshad Davis late in the third quarter Saturday at Notre Dame.
Quarterback Marquise Williams raced down the field and snuck behind the Irish secondary. Davis stopped and threw a pass to Williams for a 23- yard touchdown, the Tar Heels’ third time converting points off a Notre Dame turnover.
The Irish did not allow more than 17 points in any of their first five games. They surrendered 43 against North Carolina.
Now, the No. 5 Irish face a No. 2 Florida State team averaging 39 points.
“We put our defense in a situation [ against North Carolina] where they had to defend too many plays with a very thin defense as it is, a young, inexperienced group,” coach Brian Kelly said Wednesday. “Our job this year was to score more points and to protect our defense. We didn’t do a very good job of that against North Carolina.
“We learned that we’re still inexperienced and young on defense, and we’re still learning. The learning curve is still there for us on defense, and we have to protect our defense offensively and not turn the ball over.”
Notre Dame lost one of its veterans Saturday in senior safety Austin Collinsworth. He has a slight labrum tear in his left shoulder and is expected to miss four to six weeks.
Collinsworth missed the first four games because of a Grade 2 MCL sprain. Elijah Shumate has been among the players assuming a larger role on a unit that’s tied for eighth nationally in scoring defense ( 17.2 points per game).
“They have personnel groups and move people in a lot of different places to present different blitz problems, different pickup problems, coverage problems,” Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said. “You have to be very aware of personnel and where they are all the time.”
Notre Dame is allowing 348.3 yards per game. Florida State’s offense averages 462.5 yards.
“They have explosive weapons with an outstanding offensive line,’’ Kelly said. ‘‘ It’s a prolific offense. The offense is as good as there is out there. And it’s going against a defense, again, we’re starting a lot of young players on that defense. A rebuilt and really new front seven in so many ways against a veteran team that has won 22 [ in a row] and is the defending national champion.
“We can’t just sit there and say, ‘ Come on. Bring it on.’ We’ve got to be on top of things defensively. And part of that is we’ve got to do a really good job offensively of keeping the ball away from them, as well.”
That doesn’t exactly mean the Irish will install a ball- control game plan.
“I can’t characterize it as ball control,’’ Kelly said. ‘‘ We’re going to have to score points, as well. One of our concerns has been giving up the ball, self- inflicted wounds on offense. We cannot have any of those selfinflicted wounds. We have to be balanced. We have to score points. If that equals ball control, that would be great. But we have to score points [ going] against one of the best offenses that we’re going to see.”