Florida State 18 Notre Dame 14

That was rough. I became a fan of Notre Dame in 2002, and I think that was the hardest game to watch since then. The offense was disgusting all night, and the defense was like watching a slow speed train wreck in the second half. Turnovers again killed the Irish as well, as they had three, including two in the endzone, and each were very costly. They were penalized five time, and missed a field goal. It was the same problems they had all year- they made bad mistakes and missed opportunities to score points. Let's break down what went wrong for the Fighting Irish last night.

The offense was abysmal. Plain and simple. They only scored 7 points, and they gave away at least 9 points (assuming they only would have gotten field goals) on the two turnovers in Seminole territory and the missed Ruffer field goal. In my game preview, I said the Irish needed to protect Rees and establish the run game to be successful on offense. They did neither. Rees was sacked 3 times and had pressure in his face all night, and Cierre Wood ran for only 60 yards on 18 carries, and a quarter of those yards came on one run. Even Michael Floyd dropped what would have been a long completion in the second quarter that would have turned the field position battle around and possibly allowed the Irish to score. The Irish did appear to come out of the locker room at halftime with some swagger and confidence, driving down the field and scoring. It appeared as though Michael Floyd was ready to take over, after his two catches, including a phemonimal circus touchdown catch in which he bailed out Tommy Rees after the QB made a terrible throw on a jump ball. Floyd juggled the ball back and forth for a few moments before finally pulling it in, showing the hands, quickness, and concentration to be a star in the NFL. However, he was limited the rest of the game with an injury suffered during that drive, and the Irish offense went dormant yet again. Tommy Rees spent the entire night looking like he was waiting to be pulled by Kelly, and made some throws that made me want to scream (If Rees has ever been this bad in practice, I understand why Brian Kelly does scream like that all the time now). Hendrix was not much better in his time on the field, throwing what was possibly the worst interception I've ever seen, and for a minute I wondered if Hendrix was just really confused as to which team he played for. That interception/completion to FSU OLB Nigel Bradham set up a Seminole touchdown, thrown by EJ Manuel on the very next play, proving the turnovers to be costly yet again. Cierre Wood and his mates on the offensive line were unable to handle the load in a big game versus a top run defense. There was nothing good about this offense yesterday.

The defense played much better. They got pressure on FSU QB EJ Manuel, as Freshman DE Aaron Lynch had a monster game, and even scored the games first points on Zeke Motta's scoop and score. However, in the second half the Irish had a combination of bad field position, and getting tired, and a halt in the aggressive play that made the Irish defense so lethal in the first half led to the end of their dominance. The Irish offense got off the field too quickly, and left the FSU offense with a too short of a field for the Irish defense to hold every time. To complicate matters, ND defensive coordinator Bob Diaco seemed to dial down the pressure in the second half. Although the Irish D still shut down FSU's ground game, Manuel was able to have time to find open receivers and give his offense enough of a rhythm to rally to beat the Irish.

A game that could have given the program a lot of momentum going into a big offseason for Brian Kelly and his boys instead leaves Notre Dame with a lot of questions. This game was a perfect example of what the season was for the Irish, lots of costly turnovers and painful, close losses. Kelly will have to spend this offseason searching for the answers to these questions.