Defense Leads #10 Notre Dame To Win Over #18 Virginia
So perhaps the moment beneath blue-gray skies inside Notre Dame Stadium wasn’t as picturesque as an old ‘Four Horsemen’ run.
Don’t discount the raw beauty for the No. 10 Fighting Irish in seeing Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa galloping 48 yards from his defensive tackle position to set up the go-ahead score in Saturday’s battle 35-20 win over No. 18 Virginia.
Feeding off Julian Okwara’s strip-sack of Bryce Perkins, the 285-pound Tagavailoa-Amosa snared the ball from midair and ambled inside the Cavs’ 10-yard line.
Two plays later, Tony Jones Jr.’s two-yard touchdown run lifted Notre Dame on top, 21-17 with Jonathan Doerer’s PAT, and the Fighting Irish got continued offensive production from its defense.
Once again, Okwara annihilated Perkins, whose fumble this time was scooped up by Adetokunbo Ogundeji for a 23-yard touchdown and 28-17 lead that finally allowed the Irish to briefly exhale before a crowd of 77,622.
“I mean I just picked up the ball and ran as fast as I can,” Ogundeki said on-field after the game. “(Tagavailoa-Amosa) thinks he can run faster than me. That’s a no-no.”
Jones Jr. kept the surging Irish ground game on the offensive when he gashed the Cavs’ exhausted defense for 61 yards on three carries, the last of which covered 30 yards to the end zone and gave Notre Dame an insurmountable 35-17 edge.
Despite its struggles throughout the game via the air, Notre Dame relied on Jones for its revamped ground attack. The senior finished with a season-high 131 yards and three touchdowns on just 19 carries; the Irish had entered the contest with just 144-yard-per-game average on the ground and had mustered a scant 46 yards in last week’s loss at Georgia.
C’Bo Flemister, in limited touches, nonetheless helped Notre Dame establish its tone on the ground. Flemister ran over would-be Cavs tackler De’Vante Cross and churned through another attempted arm tackle for a 14-7 Irish lead in the first half.
But the previously unbeaten Cavaliers responded with the final 10 points of the opening half. A Brian Delaney 32-yard field goal and Perkins’ perfectly placed toss to Hasise Dubois forced Notre Dame into a 17-14 halftime deficit.
It marked the first time Notre Dame had trailed at home at the break since the Pittsburgh game on Oct. 13, 2018, and also signaled just the second time since the start of the 2017 season that the Fighting Irish trailed at home by halftime.
The Irish narrowly outgained the Cavs, 343-338, for the contest but saw their guests with a commanding seven-minute edge in time of possession.
Still, Notre Dame won this contest on the back of it defense and the legs of Jones Jr. The Fighting Irish’s eight sacks threatened the program’s single-game mark of nine and helped Virginia, which entered the game with an average of 133.5 yards-per-game, to just four net yards. The Cavaliers had been charged with minus-9 rushing yards through three quarters.
Alohi Gilman and Kyle Hamilton added interceptions for the Irish, who forced a season-best five turnovers. Six different Irish defenders recorded at least a half-sack, paced by Okwara’s three and Khalid Kareem’s 2.5.
Notre Dame continues its three-game homestand next week when it hosts Bowling Green, again at 3:30 p.m. On NBC, the Fighting Irish host rival Southern Cal in two weeks beneath the lights of Notre Dame Stadium for a 7:30 p.m. kick.