Instant Reaction | Notre Dame 31 Georgia Tech 13

Under Brent Key, Georgia Tech has taken a lot of pride in being a physical football team. They have shown that again and again while he’s been in charge of the program. They’ve beaten more talented teams because of it during the last two seasons.

They weren’t the more physical team today. Georgia Tech didn’t back down, but they got taught a lesson in physicality and couldn’t impose their will against Notre Dame’s defense.

An offense that rushed for a combined 616 yards against two ACC opponents the previous two weeks managed to only rush for 64 against the Irish. Even with a backup quarterback who started out hot and played tough throughout the game, Georgia Tech couldn’t score points on offense after they took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

They had eight scoreless drives after that and when they finally hit a big play to reach the red zone, Notre Dame’s defense stifled them with a clinic worthy tackle for loss by Jaiden Ausberry, a sack after nasty tackle-tackle stunt by Rylie Mills, and then a blocked field goal by Bryce Young.

Things stalled for the Notre Dame offense after three lights out scoring drives, but it didn’t matter because those three touchdowns were all that were needed to win the game comfortably.

- Not having QB Haynes King was big for Georgia Tech, but holding RB Jamal Haynes to 15 yards on 8 carries is impressive no matter what the circumstances were. Georgia Tech came into this game with 17 runs of 20+ yards, which was sixth in the country.

Notre Dame allowed one of those today, a scramble by QB Zach Pyron. They didn’t allow a single other rushing play that was longer than nine yards.

The front six played great in this game and Drayk Bowen continued to take his game to a higher level. On a defense that is playing a lot of young players who continue to impress, he is a tone setter.

- There were some uncharacteristic things from the secondary today early on, but I also thought Pyron had some breaks go his way as well. He started the game 11 of 12. He went 5 for his next 20 and was lucky to only have two interceptions.

- That interception from Riley Leonard on the second drive was definitely one he’d like to have back. He also didn’t get any help from Beaux Collins on that play either.

Leonard was dealing right after that, though. I thought him and Mike Denbrock were completely in sync and took full advantage of Georgia Tech’s poor tackling from their secondary. Notre Dame had 102 yards after the catch in the first half as they found extra yards on slants, screens, and check downs to Jeremiyah Love.

I thought Denbrock did a fantastic job of spreading the defense out and really had things humming until they got a bit too conservative in the second half. That led to too many 3rd and long situations and that’s an area where Georgia Tech’s defense has been great this season.

- While the incessant mentions of Notre Dame’s playoff odds was an annoying decision by the people producing the game, they kept doing it for a reason. Notre Dame wasn’t in danger of losing the game when they went up two scores unless the Irish gave Georgia Tech the football with a turnover.

That stymied the offense more than anything . They wanted to add points, as the two special teams fakes clearly showed, but they also wanted to make sure they didn’t do anything stupid to give Georgia Tech a short field. That made for a second half that had to be frustrating for Key as he knew Marcus Freeman wanted to put the game away, but Key’s team wasn’t good enough to do anything about it.

That’s surely why he kept his Pyron in the game while he was getting lit up again and again on the final drive with the game out of reach. Key was embarrassed, so he risked his quarterback’s health to prove a point.

I don’t know if King will be back next week or not, but I know Pyron won’t be in a better spot to help them win next week because he was getting folded like a lawn chair a few extra times after already being hit a lot during the game.

I respect what Key has done with his program to make them competitive after the bleak times of the Geoff Collins era, but man, this sure seemed like a dumb decision.

- I know how many Notre Dame fans think. When they saw a backup quarterback having early success, they were anticipating the worst.

But Notre Dame took care of business on the road against an offense that many people would have said was built to have success against the Irish. One of the best rushing attacks in the country wasn’t just contained. It was completely shut down.

That forced Georgia Tech to play a game they didn’t want to play. It wasn’t the prettiest win, but when we’re talking about game control, the Irish were in control of this one for the entire second half. Everyone should take that and hope for a similar outcome when they play an undefeated Navy next week.

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