Notre Dame's midseason swoon continued unabated Saturday. Hosting Northwestern in South Bend, the Fighting Irish fell 43-40 in overtime. The loss dropped them to to 7-3 on the season, and just 1-3 in their last four weeks. Their aspirations for a bid in the inaugural college football playoffs' final four seems all but impossible.
Following the team's blowout loss at the hands of Arizona State the weekend before, head coach Brian Kelly decried the team's inability to hold onto possession of the football, particularly starting quarterback Everett Golson.
Coach Kelly Fed Up With Everett Golson's Turnovers
"We've been working with him," Kelly had said at the time. "Sooner or later, he's got to take it on himself to take care of the football. I don't know what else to do. We're at the point where it hurt us in the game, obviously. He knows it."
Well, the turnovers continued to plague the team despite Kelly's admonitions. ND suffered four on the day, with Golson himself contributing both an interception and a fumble. The senior quarterback now has an eye-popping 19 turnovers on the season.
To add injury to insult, Golson also suffered a sprained shoulder during Saturday's proceedings. Kelly said he was unsure if the injury had an affect on Golson's continued poor play.
"I don't know," Kelly said via teleconference. "I haven't gotten a chance to talk to him about it. There were certainly a couple of throws when he first did it where he put the ball into the ground. You could see that it affected him then. He said he was fine after that but obviously we missed some throws, especially in overtime. But he said it didn't affect him."
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