What they’re saying about Notre Dame’s close win over Toledo

A look at what the media is saying after Notre Dame’s 32-29 victory against Toledo on Saturday.

SOUTH BEND — Brian Kelly paused, eyebrows squeezed in tight and lips pressed together, and glanced downward at the dais in the Notre Dame Stadium media room.

It was an expression befitting of a bewildered fan after five failed attempts to sign up for Peacock Premium. Or, in his unique case, fitting for a head coach still sorting out why his Notre Dame team that has reeled off four straight 10-win seasons needed a go-ahead touchdown in the final 90 seconds to sidestep disaster against a Mid-American Conference opponent.

For nine silent seconds, he pondered the question posed to him: Has he realized there are more questions and areas to address than he imagined entering this year?

“Yes and no,” he said, breaking the pause. “Yes, in the sense that from a defensive standpoint, there is a little bit more to it than maybe I thought in figuring some things out. And offensively, I thought we would get to a run game that we felt comfortable with sooner.

“But on the other hand, I think the personnel is driving a lot of this in terms of making it difficult to settle on something. We have some guys that really can make some plays, and we are a little hesitant at times to say, ‘All right, this is who we’re going to be.’”

In a way, the latter portion — the supposed “no” — is a question itself. The stack of them to answer is indeed large.

Notre Dame is 2-0, an imperfect perfect record attained with a backdrop of nervous laughter. The Irish escaped in overtime at Florida State after blowing an 18-point second-half lead in last week’s opener. They hit unexpected tripwire Saturday in a 32-29 win over Toledo.

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There wasn’t a joke about execution from Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly, so that means the way his Fighting Irish graded out in Saturday’s three-point victory over Toledo had to have been better than the way they fared in last week’s three-point win over Florida State, right?

Well, actually, yes.

In spite of beating a Mid-American Conference opponent at home by the same margin as Notre Dame beat an ACC foe on the road in the season opener, the Irish actually did many things well in what could have easily been a huge upset loss.

Here’s how Notre Dame graded out in the 32-29 win that pushed its record to 2-0:

Notre Dame Passing Offense: A

Notre Dame is going to take 317 yards through the air on 8.8 yards per attempt every Saturday. The Irish passed for 237.4 yards per game last year. Through two games in 2021, The Irish are averaging 341.5.

It wasn’t as smooth for graduate student quarterback Jack Coan and his teammates against Toledo. But in the end, the numbers checked out. And when Coan needed to lead the Irish on a…