[needle]

 We still have reason to believe in our run defense.

ND had three TD runs of 15+ yards. They easily could have been three TD runs of 30+ yards. StatsBroadcast tallies "Big" plays in the run and pass games, and ND has seven "Big" run plays (defined as 10 yards or more). The run defense for Stanford was horrific against Notre Dame, no two ways about it.

 Fourth and 5 from the 41 is one where generalized analytics may say go for it but no way should applying one's brain to these specific belligerents/this situation - what is likely to happen with our offense going against that defense - lead one to think we should go for that fourth down at that time in a tie game. We deserved to get sacked. Fourth and 3 from the 44 is two yards less stupid but probably still not using your brain to account for opponent and it being a one score game.

Not really trying to change anyone's mind, but I'd guess that about 70% of coaches would have gone for it on fourth down in both of these scenarios. Punting from your opponent's 40-ish often* leads to a touchback. If failing on fourth down results in +20 yards of field position for your opponent, that's rarely the thing that causes you to lose a game. Personally, I'm not going to fault TT for going with "conventional" coach-think (for once).

*Searched online for probability of touchbacks when kicking from between your opponent's 40-45 yardlines, came up empty.

[needle]

 We still have reason to believe in our run defense.

ND had three TD runs of 15+ yards. They easily could have been three TD runs of 30+ yards. StatsBroadcast tallies "Big" plays in the run and pass games, and ND has seven "Big" run plays (defined as 10 yards or more). The run defense for Stanford was horrific against Notre Dame, no two ways about it.

 Fourth and 5 from the 41 is one where generalized analytics may say go for it but no way should applying one's brain to these specific belligerents/this situation - what is likely to happen with our offense going against that defense - lead one to think we should go for that fourth down at that time in a tie game. We deserved to get sacked. Fourth and 3 from the 44 is two yards less stupid but probably still not using your brain to account for opponent and it being a one score game.

Not really trying to change anyone's mind, but I'd guess that about 70% of coaches would have gone for it on fourth down in both of these scenarios. Punting from your opponent's 40-ish often* leads to a touchback. If failing on fourth down results in +20 yards of field position for your opponent, that's rarely the thing that causes you to lose a game. Personally, I'm not going to fault TT for going with "conventional" coach-think (for once).

*Searched online for probability of touchbacks when kicking from between your opponent's 40-45 yardlines, came up empty.