3 keys for Notre Dame to beat Ohio State for the National Championship

Three phases of the game and a way to win each one

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have (almost) completely changed the narrative of the program over the last month. Besides getting that first playoff win, the Irish are now the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl champions. The demons of the past 30 years are all but vanquished.

There’s only one demon left, and it’s the biggest demon of all — a national championship. To do that, the Irish have to take down one of its biggest nemeses’ of the past 20 years, the Ohio State Buckeyes.

The task at hand is incredibly hard, and if the Irish are to eventually win the game and take home the crown, they’ll need these three keys to victory (you might notice a common theme):

KEY 1 — OFFENSE

Attack. One of the great misunderstandings of a power-running team is that they are conservative on the offensive side of the ball. While it can definitely play out that way throughout the course of the game, a team can be very aggressive and attack the defense by flipping down and distance tendencies and more. Notre Dame needs to pull out more play-action on first down, and look to make Ohio State respect the speed of Jordan Faison and the playmaking of Jaden Greathouse. Open the field up by being aggressive — and then body blow them with Riley Leonard (right, left, middle) and Jeremiyah Love on the ground. This should also create more favorable matchups for Mitchell Evans as well. I don’t think Notre Dame can win by playing bully ball alone. They need to break out the arsenal and get to work.

KEY 2 — DEFENSE

Attack. Notre Dame’s defense has been brutalized with injuries this season. As a result, this is a unit full of backups and backups to backups that have to go out there and deliver. One of the more alarming things from the Penn State game was how PSU gashed the Irish up and down the field in the first half. While I don’t think Ohio State has as good of an offensive line as the Nittany Lions, Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson are every bit as good. NOW ENTER Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Ebuka, and Carnell Tate split out at wide receiver. I know it goes against the normal grain of thought — but the Irish have to go blitz wild. The Irish are one of the best in the nation to play man, and play it more than any other team. While they will cough up a big play or two (or three), being anything less than what they were this season as far as finding different ways to create pressure on Will Howard, would just hand Ohio State the game over 60 minutes.

KEY 3 — SPECIAL TEAMS

Attack. Notre Dame has shown time and time again this season that they have the players and the playcalls to be aggressive on special teams. Whether it’s on punt block, or a fake punt, or whatever — anyway to make special teams bigger than a third of this game would likely tip this game into Notre Dame’s favor. Also… having Mitch Jeter aggressively knock in key field goal after key field goal is pretty big too.