With loss to Duke, Notre Dame's season is off to a disastrous start

Brian Kelly’s seat just got a whole lot hotter.

Notre Dame was a three-touchdown favorite for its home game Saturday against Duke, but allowed the Blue Devils, who have double-digit losses to Wake Forest and Northwestern, to rack up nearly 500 yards of offense in a 38-35 upset.

Notre Dame took a 35-28 lead with 7:46 to go, but Duke quickly tied the game on a 64-yard touchdown pass from redshirt freshman Daniel Jones to Anthony Nash.

Notre Dame’s offense went backwards when it regained possession. DeShone Kizer was sacked by Marquies Price on second down and Kizer threw an ill-advised interception on third down to give the Blue Devils great field position — at Notre Dame’s 45 — to take the lead with 6:47 to play.

That’s just what the Blue Devils did.

Big running back Jela Duncan, who ran for 121 yards in the win, picked up yards in chunks, quickly moving the offense deep into Irish territory while taking time off the clock. A 10-yard burst from Duncan set up first and goal for the Blue Devils. Duke wasn’t able to punch it in, but took valuable time off the clock to set up a chip shot 19-yard field goal from A.J. Reed.

Reed’s field goal, the first of his career, was right down the middle, giving Duke the lead. With 1:24 on the clock, Notre Dame still had plenty of time to tie the game or even take a lead, but the offense that picked up 534 yards on the afternoon went nowhere.

The Irish only mustered one first down before a pass from Kizer on fourth-and-three fell incomplete, sealing the upset for the Blue Devils.

The loss is especially brutal for the Irish because of the way they started the game by quickly jumping out to a 14-0 lead. But that lead evaporated in a hurry when Duke’s Shaun Wilson took a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown, cutting the lead to 14-7.

Duke scored on its next drive to tie the game and took a 21-14 lead with 6:35 left in the first half after a Kizer fumble. Notre Dame was able to tie the score on its ensuing drive, but when the Notre Dame defense needed a stop, it could not come up with one, and Duke went into the break up 28-21.

Notre Dame looked like it finally took control of the game late in third. After a Josh Adams touchdown run tied things at 28, Duke turned the ball over twice — once on a Jones interception and again on a failed fourth down in the red zone.

From then, Notre Dame finally regained the lead on a great 12-yard strike from Kizer to Equanimeous St. Brown with 7:46 remaining. Again, Notre Dame needed its defense to come up with a stop, but Brian Vangorder’s unit just couldn’t do it as Duke stormed back for the win.

Notre Dame’s season is off to a disastrous 1-3 start with the loss, and has looked helpless, giving up an average of 41.3 points per game in its three losses to Texas, Michigan State and Duke.

The Fighting Irish have won a lot of games under Kelly, but just haven’t been able to get over the hump and into the national title picture. Just four weeks into Kelly’s seventh season running the program, the Irish have already been eliminated from College Football Playoff contention and fans are clamoring for the removal of Vangorder, Kelly’s defensive coordinator.

The schedule gets easier in the coming weeks, but Saturday’s game was circled as an easy win. If the Irish don’t get things turned around, this season could turn ugly and Kelly could be looking for a new job.