Notre Dame Safety Xavier Watts Keeping Playoffs Simple
The biggest play from Notre Dame’s 27-17 victory over Indiana in the College Football Playoff on Friday night came one play before the game’s longest play.
Irish running back Jeremiyah Love once again provided the fireworks with a 98-yard touchdown run to open the scoring in the first quarter. Notre Dame held the lead for the rest of the game.
But Love wouldn’t have been in the position to explode and the Irish likely would have found themselves trailing early had it not been for Xavier Watts’ interception of Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke on the Irish’s two-yard line.
After the game, Watts made his 13th career interception - and his sixth this season - sound simple.
“Just Cover One,” Watts said. “I’m just over the top reading the quarterback. I just ended up being there.”
Watts’ simplistic view of the game’s most important play is in line with the way he’s viewing these Playoffs.
“At the end of the day, it's just regular football,” he said. “Obviously, it's got the playoff tag with it, but it's just a regular football game to me.
“I go out there with the utmost confidence in myself and my teammates that we're going to go out there and do our jobs, and like I said, it's just regular football to me.”
Still, his play, coupled with Love’s game-breaking run reinforced the homefield advantage the Irish earned this season.
“It's important just to start fast,” Watts said. “It just sets the tone for the rest of the game. It gives the defense momentum and the offense momentum, so just starting fast is a big factor.
“The fans were great tonight. They were really loud. I think the towels were a good addition, pumping up the cloud. Every defensive drive was really fun. The crowd played a good part in tonight's win.”
Watts could have left for the NFL Draft after last season, but decided to come back to improve his game and raise his stock. At this point, it seems like he’s doing both on a weekly basis.
“Everyone knows my story,” he said. “I've bounced back and forth between receiver and DB, and I just feel like I have so much more room to grow, just continuing to improve. So just coming into the season, I just really wanted to improve in all aspects of my game.
“I just feel like I have a lot more room to grow, so I was just excited to continue growing.”
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