Instant Reaction | Notre Dame 31 Georgia Tech 13
Outgaining the opponent by over two yards per play, rushing for 227 yards (5.6 yards per carry adjusted for sack yardage), and only six points given up by the defense. This performance by Notre Dame was the Milky Way of Halloween candy. Pretty good and you wouldn’t discard it, but not exactly something you’d be excited about when it got thrown into your bag.
Brian Kelly admitted they were looking ahead to Clemson and it didn’t matter. His team was professional. As my friend Chris Wilson put it, they showed workmanlike dominance over an inferior Georgia Tech team.
31-13 and it wasn’t even that close. Onto Clemson next week, who squeaked by Boston College in a much tighter game at home.
That puts things into greater perspective with this game as both teams clearly had more on their minds than the opponent in front of them.
- After starting 7 for 7, Ian Book settled in with a pretty average day after that. A ho-hum 7.7 yards per attempt, but 46 yards rushing were big against a defense that wanted to play man coverage for most of the day.
He was 6 for 8 on 3rd down, though, with five of those resulting in 1st downs. Notre Dame finished 10 of 15 on the money down and continued to run the ball extremely well in short yardage situations.
The Irish will need him to be as good on 3rd down when things will get a lot more heated against a great defense.
- This was another game where we saw some good production after the catch from Avery Davis and Javon McKinley. It might be the biggest development of the last couple of weeks.
- Notre Dame could have scored more points on Georgia Tech. They could have been sharper. There is no doubt about that.
They also could have been a lot less vanilla if they wanted to, but why would they? They ran a ton of outside zone in this game and were clearly doing it for a reason. There weren’t those shot plays that Tommy Rees dialed up last week on the call sheet. I’m sure those are being saved for Clemson when they’ll need them.
- Georgia Tech does one thing on defense well and that is force fumbles. They forced their ninth of the season in this game are were second in the country in forced fumbles coming into the game.
Knowing that, Kyren Williams should have protected the ball better on that scoop and score. But you live and learn and fortunately it didn’t come back to haunt Notre Dame.
- The clock management by Geoff Collins at the end of the half was horrendous, especially when you consider they needed to score a touchdown because they couldn’t count a kicker.
- The Irish defense did what they normally do. They rarely make mistakes and when they do, they usually respond well to adversity. They did that again in this game and even on the touchdown drive they gave up, it was bolstered by a terrible missed call with a block in the back. It was blatant and put Georgia Tech in a “and goal” situation.
- A key to this game was Notre Dame’s linebackers versus running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and Jordan Mason in coverage. The Irish won this matchup all day minus one play where there was a bust with a blitz (this will be in Film Don’t Lie this week).
Kelly was right after the game. If that’s Clemson and Travis Etienne, it’s a touchdown. It was 34-yards and still a big play for Gibbs.
Aside from that, Gibbs’ other four catches went for 14 yards. Mason caught one ball for -2.
- It was pointed out by Mike Golic during the game and deserves to be mentioned again: Georgia Tech had not given up a lot of sacks this year. They only had 10 against them in total.
Notre Dame had five today, led by Daelin Hayes who had been coming on the last few weeks with pressures, but not finishing. He finished today and it was exactly what the Irish needed.
22% Havoc Rate on the day with Hayes (four) and Kyle Hamilton (three) leading the way. This defense has dominated average to below average competition. They held an explosive offense in Louisville to seven points. They get to face the best offense they’ve seen next Saturday even withTrevor Lawrence not playng.
- If you’re disappointed with an 18-point win the same day Clemson almost lost at home, have a nice night.
If you’re disappointed in only 227 yards rushing and the offensive line generally bullying the Tech defense, then cool.
If you’re disappointed with Notre Dame dominating a game, but giving up a scoop and score and an onside kick to make it appear that the game was closer than it actually was, hope your Sunday is great.
Enjoy a win before things get really serious. Then have at it with the biggest home game for the Irish since 2005.