Author: Leprechaun Express - Steve Welsh

http://stream1.skyviewnetworks.com:8010/NDWBB

Notre Dame has cycled through various positives and negatives, mostly positives, throughout the Brian Kelly era.  Yet one of the UFO-like curiosities has been — The Flat Game.

There is a quote that sounds like it belongs with Mark Twain, yet in reality was from Oliver Wendell Holmes, about how a sleeping dog knows whether somebody tripped over him or kicked him.  Similarly, there might an instinctive feel that a Notre Dame fan has for The Flat Game — when a Brian Kelly team, almost inexplicably, just simply comes out flat — and stays flat.

Now, even under ordinary circumstances, there is, of course, an ebb and a flow to football generally, with better days and worse days; and players being healthy or not; the weather; even how the ball bounces; and so on.  With college football, there is the fact that younger players are in development, and face varying academic demands, and so forth. And championship football teams have the capacity to weather all elements, such as by winning ugly, or winning ugly against a weaker team playing the game of its life.

Among Notre Dame’s pantheon of excuses is that everybody seems to bring their “A-Game” against the Irish, especially if it is a rare chance for national television coverage.

Yet the BK Flat Game goes beyond all that.

Like the Supreme Court justice who said of obscenity, I might not know how to define it but I know it when I see it, an Irish fan knows The Flat Game when they see it, or at least they should.

Early on, Brian Kelly was blown out by Navy.  A bit later in his tenure, there was the memorable game against a Southern Cal program that was supposed to be decimated by sanctions, when Notre Dame agreed, presumably at the behest of NBC, to take advantage of the permanent lights in the reconfigured stadium by hosting night games again.  Amidst the primetime hoopla, Notre Dame came out flat and the depleted Trojans had a heyday.

Notre Dame’s last bowl game against Alabama, unmistakably, was another Flat Game, as noted by commentators who realized that, as good as Alabama was, Notre Dame might not have been up to their usual level of play.  (Now, there were other excuses, too, of course.  For example, there was the weird psychological warfare by third parties against Notre Dame’s Heisman runner-up, pretending that fictitious girl was in love with him from afar, then killing her off, then bringing her back to life.  And Alabama, admittedly, was a perennial championship winner, also having mastered the art of the long layoff.  Yet that same Alabama team also had lost at mid-season to a Texas A&M team with multiple losses and barely in the top-15 at the time.)

Most notably, it was just last year that Notre Dame got humiliated by a Michigan team that finished below Notre Dame in the rankings and finished with four losses.  Let that sink in.  Later, some Notre Dame fans complained about Notre Dame’s bowl destination.  Yet at mid-season, Notre Dame lost 45-14 to an opponent that ended up below Notre Dame in the final rankings, a worse defeat than Notre Dame’s last defeat to Alabama.

Three years ago in 2017, Notre Dame lost by 38 points to a Miami (Fla.) team,  41-8, in similar circumstances, where Miami also finished below Notre Dame in the final rankings.

A previously undefeated Notre Dame’s loss to Clemson in the playoff two years ago also, likewise, felt a bit like The Flat Game du jour, regardless of how good Clemson was.

When Brian Kelly got blown out by Navy early on in his time at Notre Dame, losing 35-17, Kelly later tried to set aside memory of that game as a kind of aberration.

Perhaps aberration is the best way to think about The Flat Games.

And perhaps that is what happened when Notre Dame played Clemson the second time this year.  Leading up to the ACC Championship in Charlotte, the author of this article recalled The Flat Game phenomenon, wondered if Notre Dame had outgrown it, and wondered if, Heaven forbid, they were due for one.

Then it came, in the ACC title game.

It certainly felt like The Flat Game, in addition to all the other factors. Everybody knew Clemson would have some key players back. Everybody knew Clemson would want payback.  Everybody knew Clemson was an elite squad.

Yet it still seemed like The Flat Game.  Like a sleeping dog knowing if somebody tripped over him or kicked him.

So maybe Notre Dame got it out of their system, and will at least play their best and peak against an Alabama team that does not have a long layoff this time.  Maybe Notre Dame will do to Alabama, after a mere glorified bye week, what teams like Auburn have sometimes done to Alabama late in the regular season.

And perhaps there is something to what Brian Kelly sometimes seems to suggest about Notre Dame focusing on their own process and execution and what they, themselves, can control.

One recalls a radio discussion once, by a commentator who probably was a former assistant coach to Ara Parseghian, talking about how, in his coaching career, he had seen two games that exhibited another kind of phenomenon, where one team seemingly can do no wrong, and the other team simply cannot “do anything.”  One of those games, for that coach, might have been Notre Dame’s blowout loss to Nebraska in a major bowl, the last bowl Notre Dame was in before beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to win a national championship.

In those cases, that coach said there was no explaining it.

In the case of The Flat Game phenomenon, however, Kelly might have something when he talks about focusing on what Notre Dame has under their own control, and carrying out their own processes and executing.

The most important threshold for Notre Dame to cross playing Alabama in 2020 is simply to show up and do their best. If that happens, and if they can avoid turnovers, Alabama will find themseles in a dogfight, and Notre Dame likely will slip out with a win.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish take on Alabama in the Rose Bowl CFP National Semifinal

Brian Kelly talks with reporters as Notre Dame readies for Rose Bowl CFP National Semifinal and Alabama