Notre Dame Football: 3 takeaways from tough Fiesta Bowl loss to OK State
By Dante Pryor
2. Notre Dame had no answer for Oklahoma State’s offensive adjustments
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish play bend, don’t break defense. Their offensive philosophy is to cause havoc and create turnovers. The Irish did a lot of that in the first half. Oklahoma State began to show signs of life offensively in the second quarter.
Oklahoma State’s two scoring drives in the first half hit chunk plays, throwing the football down the field. LD Brown had a 22-yard run on the first scoring drive. Spencer Sanders completed a 41-yard pass to Brennan Pressley on their second scoring drive.
The Irish allowed 338.8 total yards per game during the regular season; they allowed 605 in this game. A large part of that was Mike Gundy allowing quarterback Spencer Sanders to run the football more often as the game went on.
Sanders’ legs were the catalyst for the Cowboys scoring 23 second-half points in this game. The Cowboys could get Jaylen Warren loose in the running game, and Sanders’ ability to escape pressure and run for positive yards changed Notre Dame’s coverage philosophy.
Because Sanders ran the football effectively, Notre Dame had to decide whether to spy on Sanders or not. It did not matter much as the Irish had issues tackling all afternoon.