Instant Reaction | Notre Dame 28 BYU 20
After BYU, the emotions of Notre Dame fans have to be all over the map.
At certain points of the game, they probably felt elated. After another dominant performance during the middle eight portion of the game, they probably felt relaxed. Then they might have gotten an Apple Watch alert about a sudden rise in their heart rate as things appeared to be coming off the rails and a game that could have been a blowout was suddenly flipped to a nail-biter.
They maybe even had flashbacks of late-game collapses that happened earlier this season.
But just when it looked like the game was trending in a bad direction with BYU going to have a chance at tying it, the defense stepped up on two big short yardage plays.
And when the offense had a holding call go against them and punting the ball back to BYU seemed inevitable, Logan Diggs came through with possibly the best run of the year from a Notre Dame back. Not to be outdone, Audric Estime finished things off on a 3rd and 4 toss play to seal the win.
The Irish did more than enough to win this game. They also did some things that could have led to them losing it. They ultimately got the win because when they needed to most, they were able to finish. Notre Dame answered the call and showed they have that in them.
- Drew Pyne has surpassed all expectations with his play these last two games. It certainly doesn’t look like what he is doing is a fluke.
He completed 79% of his passes and his ball placement on many of those Michael Mayer catches was superb. He also gave his receivers opportunities to make plays after the catch and it opened up a new element of the offense.
- I know BYU doesn’t have any great pass rushers and they certainly didn’t come into this game with a stout run defense, but the offensive line controlled this game. Pyne had so much time in the pocket when his first read wasn’t there and they again opened up holes for the backs to have a shot at gaining big yards after contact.
- To say it was significant for Jayden Thomas to make the plays he did is an understatement. Notre Dame needed someone else to be an option as a playmaker in addition to Lorenzo Styles in the worst way and the fact that he made a contested catch like the one he made for a touchdown might just change the dynamic of what the offense can do in the passing game.
Someone was going to have to emerge as a threat to win a jump ball and Thomas just proved he deserves more opportunities on those types of passes.
- It was an extremely Jekyll and Hyde performance for the defense.
In the first half, the Doc was in. It was about as good as anyone could hope for.
Jaren Hall looked like a shadow of the player he has been all season and BYU averaged 3.2 yards per play. Their only points came on a short field after a long punt return. The Irish defense had six Havoc plays on the first 16 snaps.
BYU was lucky that Clarence Lewis dropped what could have been a pick-six and that two forced fumbles weren’t recovered by Notre Dame defenders.
Then that nasty old Mr. Hyde came out in the second half with a busted play in the secondary that gave BYU life and problematic run defense with the Cougars averaging 6.5 yards per carry after halftime.
I’m officially concerned about the run defense if Howard Cross is going to be out for a long period of time. They desperately missed his presence in this game and if TaRiq Bracy is out for any period of time, then that’s two of the three best players on the defense this season.
I think you have to look at the totality of the game and see that Hall only threw for 120 yards, Gunner Romney and Puka Nacua combining for one catch on six targets for 8 yards, and them being 3 of 9 on 3rd down matters in the grand scheme of it all.
If I gave you those numbers before the game and said BYU would be held to 20 points, anyone would have taken it.
They came through when it mattered, but I’m starting to wonder how much better they can be. They haven’t played four great quarters in a game yet.
- What more can be said about Mayer other than he somehow manages to continue to amaze us even though we’ve all seen him do amazing things for three years. What an absolute baller.
- In a strange way, I think it might have been good for Notre Dame to not convert so many opportunities to make this game a three touchdown win. If they were better in the red zone, if Lewis get his pick-six, if they score even one more time than three or four times they should have, then they don’t have to work through the adversity and prove to themselves that they can win a game like this when everything is tilting in the other direction.
This team has surprised me in many ways in the last few weeks and they still have plenty of room to get better. Everyone prefers the easy wins, but this team might be better off in the long run by having to win it how they did.
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