Notre Dame Football: 3 takeaways from win over Ball State

3. Notre Dame’s special teams play has been concerning

The Irish’s Week 2 win over Michigan was impressive, but the magnitude of the win masked some poor play, especially on special teams. Polian’s unit was fairly quiet in 2017, doing enough to make sure they neither won nor lost the game. However, they didn’t play up to this level against the Wolverines, allowing a kick return touchdown while booting a kickoff out of bounds, among other things.

There was a hope that things would turn around against the Cardinals, but the special teams unit got out to a disappointing start nonetheless. Freshman C’Bo Flemister did impress on kick returns, but there wasn’t much to speak of outside of that.

Senior Justin Yoon uncharacteristically missed a 43-yard field goal, kickoff specialist Jonathan Doerer sent yet another kick out of bounds, and the usually sure-handed Chris Finke was inches away from fumbling away a return at a critical point in the game. Needless to say, the Irish special teams didn’t come to play over the course of a frustrating game.

Special teams miscues are always frustrating, but can often be the difference between a win or a loss against tougher competition. Should the Irish offense continue to struggle in the future, the last thing Brian Kelly and his Notre Dame team needs is to be concerned about the performance of their special teams.