Instant Reaction | Notre Dame 35 Virginia 20
The first half couldn’t have ended up much worse. The second half kickoff happened and said, “Hold my beer.”
An onside kick, perfectly executed and scouted, by Virginia and then a Shaun Crawford injury that took him out of the game made it seem like it was going to be one of those games. Bryce Perkins was lights out in the first half and if he was even close to that in the second, UVa was going to win.
I guess Clark Lea coached them up after the Jekyll and Hyde performance of the first half because the defense played lights out.
They won the Irish the ball game. They scored. They forced turnovers. They got to the quarterback. They played as good of a half as I’ve seen considering how their backs were up against the wall to start it.
Virginia was inside the Notre Dame 40 yard line 7 times total in the game and only ended up with 20 points. They were inside the Irish 40 twice to start the half and it ended with Notre Dame outscoring them 7-0.
They had to pass to win the game and that is a losing recipe against Notre Dame even if a player is as hot as Perkins was. They didn’t have the line that could hold up. It was ugly at times, but the second half by the defense was beautiful. The offense even finished in a beautiful way if you enjoy smash mouth football.
The vultures were out at halftime. By the time the Irish went up 28-17, they vacated the stadium. It was a bounce back win after Georgia and a bounce back second half for the defense. And it was pretty darn exciting to watch.
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So, the first half was not good for the defense, but there were signs that Notre Dame was the much better team up front.
They gave up 2.84 YPP in the second half, Perkins YPA went down to 4.7, and the overall Havoc Rate for the game was 30.6%.
- Virginia came in with a Havoc Rate of 22.7%. They were at 10% in this game. If they were going to win this game, most would have said it would be with their defense. It never materialized for them.
- The threat of Perkins as a runner really had Notre Dame off balance early. Not that he wasn’t outstanding with some of his throws, but he sucked in Alohi Gilman and Paul Moala on plays where they left their responsibility in order to stop him as a runner.
- The false starts have to be fixed, but I thought it was a great start for the offensive line on the first drive. As the game went on they were moving people in the running game, specifically the left side. Liam Eichenberg and Aaron Banks were mauling and Cole Kmet blocked better than at any other point in his career.
You could see the holes open up and Tony Jones’ confidence grew because of that. They Irish rushed for 190 sack adjusted yards (5.8 per carry).
- Nice to see C’Bo Flemister break some tackles when given a chance in the first quarter. Keep doing that and he’ll keep seeing playing time.
- Those screen passes to Avery Davis and Tony Jones were going to go for BIG yards if Ian Book completed them. The second one to Jones was a bad throw because of pressure, but the first just wasn’t a great throw.
- It’s so heartbreaking about Crawford. I really, really hope it’s not a long term thing. Notre Dame needs him as well.
- If I’m the Notre Dame coaching staff next week, I would not play Chase Claypool and get him healthy for USC and Michigan. That didn’t look encouraging with his ankle. He’s tough, but they shouldn’t push it considering the opponent next week.
- Troy Pride had the one nice finish on the 50/50 ball, but he can’t win a back shoulder play to save his life right now. Even when he is staring at it and reads it, he still can’t seem to win. It’s been a rough start for him this season.
That pass interference call on 3rd down to keep Virginia’s drive alive (they scored) could have ended up being a huge play in the game.
- Oof, on that Chris Finke muffed punt. He had his eyes looking up trying to turn it into something rather than securing the catch.
- I know it was a mistake by DJ Brown on the onside kick, but what I don’t know is if he had been doing that for awhile and Brian Polian hadn’t noticed. If that’s the case, it’s a pretty huge miss by him.
The whole “You had one job” thing matters to me if a guy is just coaching special teams. Some guys in the NFL get fired for mistakes like that. That’s just a fact.
I know he’s not getting fired, but those mistakes happen too often and Notre Dame never has anything dialed up that works that well.
- The story on offense would have been that they can’t finish, until they did while running the football.
The runs today were downhill runs. That fit Jones and I think they might have had more success if they stuck with it sooner. It worked at the end to put the game away and that matters more, but hopefully it doesn’t take that long to get going in the future.
- Okay, enough of all of that. Let’s talk about the D-line dominating UVa’s O-line all day long.
13 tackles for loss by the team. 11 by the D-line.
Julian Okwara not only got to the quarterback, but finished with forced fumbles. Khalid Kareem was fantastic. The interior plays disrupted any time they wanted to run. Everyone was making plays. The defense won this game, but the defensive line was the biggest part of that. It was one of the best performances I have seen from them in a long time.
- Notre Dame was the more physical team and Virginia is known for being physical. That’s a pretty good sign even if this team still has a long way to go.