Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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murphy's Law dan murphy tween a group that was starting to whis‑ per about perfection a year ago at this time and a group that's now murmuring about making the best of an imperfect situation. In the 12 games they played in 2012, the Irish didn't allow a touch‑ down (and only nine total points) in the first quarter. In 2013, which includes the BCS National Championship Game loss, they have allowed 45 points. One team was 12-0. The other is 3-3. "It's definitely been one of our main points," senior captain Zack Martin said. "We have to come out and start fast, and we haven't been able to do that yet. It'll be another key emphasis this week. It's on all of us. It's not on one person." True. The mistakes have varied from turnovers to poor tackling to underes‑ timating their opponents. And for Kelly that mean's there is no easy solution. "If I knew what that was, I would not be standing here right now," Kelly said. "You never expect those things, but they happen. That's why we have ulcers in this business." Notre Dame provided some silverlined antacids against Oklahoma, living up to the last three checklist items and in doing so flashing a glimpse of what made last year's team so hard to beat. The rushing game returned from the dead against the Sooners with junior George Atkinson III running like the feature back Kelly hoped he would become. The defense held its ground against the 6-6, 252-pound quarterback behemoth Blake Bell on three short yardage situations. Other than the 21 points that came from turnovers, the defense allowed only one other touch‑ down against a powerful Big 12 offense. Notre Dame slowly built scabs over the gashes Oklahoma opened in the first three minutes, but that only made the crucial early mistakes all the more pain‑ ful for the Irish. Martin said he couldn't yet put his finger on the root of the problem these past few weeks. Kelly has been a head coach since the year Martin was born, and he too is struggling to find an an‑ swer. Somewhere in the pages of the off-the-field playbook he's filled during the past 23 years must be a remedy for speeding up a slow starter. "Ultimately, it falls on me," Kelly said. "We lost today, so that goes in the ledger as a loss. We've got to go back and com‑ municate better. We didn't do a good enough job communicating. We've got to coach better. We have to do a bet‑ ter job in making sure that those things don't happen again." Zoom out to the season-wide view and apply the same checklist now. In that picture, the 3-2 Irish have missed their chance at a fast start. But atten‑ tion to detail, energy and enthusiasm and a strong finish can still salvage a year much like they kept Saturday's loss from spiraling entirely out of control. A season-long victory — a return to national title contention — is gone as September comes to a close. How they keep their focus with that picture behind them will determine if the Irish can claw back from another slow start and play for at least an interesting finish. ✦ Dan Murphy has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2011. He can be reached at dmurphy@blueandgold.com