Irish Survive...Again
For the third straight week, Notre Dame was unable to put an opponent away when it had a chance, but for the third straight week, the Irish were able to put an opponent away in the end.
The Notre Dame defense held strong once again in South Bend on Saturday with a fourth down stop deep in its territory with less than 90 seconds to play to escape with the 22-17 win over Vanderbilt.
"Really proud of my football team and the way they competed today," said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. "You know, challenged after last week's performance in their preparation and then how they compete. Compete every play, play physical, and they did that today. So, yeah, there's things we've got to work on. It's the third game of the season.
"But proud of their effort, proud of the way they competed. They played Notre Dame football. We're still evolving. I mean, I'd like to say we're a finished product, we're just not. I mean, we're trying to find our identity on offense. I think we're a good defense. We're not a great defense yet. We've got some things to clean up, but, boy, I really, really like our football team and the way they competed today."
On 4th-and-four at the Irish 31-yard line, Vanderbilt quarterback Kyle Shurmur dropped back and launched a ball to Kalija Lipscomb, who couldn’t maintain a tough catch to the ground with Jalen Elliott in tight coverage.
"We lost to a good football team today," Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason stated. "For us it's another slow start. A game of missed opportunities. As you look at our football team, we lost the turnover margin. You can't go on the road and lose the turnover margin. We had our fair share of opportunities to score points by either putting the ball in the end zone or kicking it through the uprights. We failed to do that."
Irish took over possession and although they were unable to completely ice the clock with a first down, captain punter Tyler Newsome sent a 63-yard punt to the Vanderbilt 10-yard line with five seconds left in regulation to do so.
Irish quarterback Brandon Wimbush ended the game 13-for-23 for 122 yards through the air and also ran the ball 19 times for 84 yards and a score. Tony Jones Jr. had a career day for the Irish, carrying the ball 17 times for 118 yards and also caught two passes for 56 yards. Drue Tranquill led the Irish defense with nine solo tackles. Troy Pride Jr. tallied seven total tackles and an interception.
"It's much better than it was last week," Wimbush said of the offense. "I think as an offense we really fought play-in and play-out. So I guess we executed how we wanted to execute today, and we feel good coming away from it. And there is so much more to learn, so we're excited for that."
Shurmur threw for 328 yards on 26-for-43 passing with a touchdown and an interception to lead Vanderbilt. Lipscomb caught a game-high 11 passes for 89 yards and tight end Jared Pinkney caught five passes for 11 yards and a touchdown. Ke’Shawn Vaughn added 54 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
After the Commodores cut the lead to 16-10 at the end of the third quarter, Notre Dame countered with its best drive of the game.
Wimbush was 4-for-4 on the drive for 59 yards and also converted a 4th-and-inches with a gutsy quarterback sneak to extend the scoring drive. Ian Book capped the march with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Nic Weishar for the deciding touchdown to make it 22-10 with 11:04 left in the fourth quarter.
"They're an SEC defense, and they have personnel that is going to match up with a lot of offenses," explained Wimbush. "Those guys are on scholarship too, and they prepare. They practice all week, they watch film.
"But for the most part I think we did what we wanted to do. Maybe not execute, but I think we came out and we fought hard. We started strong. We started fast, and I think we finished strong. So that's been an emphasis this week, and I think we did that."
But Vanderbilt countered. The Commodores drove 75 yards on nine plays and capped the long drive with a 18-yard touchdown pass from Shurmur to Pinkney to make it 22-17 with just 7:22 left. The drive was extended by Julian Love pass interference on third down.
Notre Dame had the lead 13-0 with seven and a half minutes left in the half as Vanderbilt tried cut into the lead. On the seventh play of the drive for the Commodores, Shurmur hit a Rondale Haynes for a 20-yard strike down to the Notre Dame one-yard line. Safety Alohi Gilman stuck Haynes and ripped at the ball to force a fumble and Love recovered the fumble to force a touchback.
:I will say this, we got caught behind the widened post, where, from a technical standpoint, inside the 20 we have to play over the top," explained Kelly. "But what I was pleased with is that it's a drill we work on, is that we come up through the receiver try to strip. So we stayed with the play right through the whistle and got the ball out.
"The ball got, as you saw, it was a rugby scrum in the end zone, and we were able to get on it. We had a play like that last year against Michigan State as well. We stayed with the play. I think that's the key."
The Irish offense countered with a score of its own, going 51 yards on nine plays and for 46-yard field goal by Justin Yoon. Yoon was 3-for- 3 in the first half, the senior hit field goals from 26, 33, and 46 yards.
Jones Jr. was a bright spot for the Irish offense in the first half. He carried the ball 11 times for 91 yards and also caught a pass for 24 yards. Wimbush was 8-for-18 passing with 75 yards through the air, and also ran 10 times for 50 yards and touchdown. Tranquill led the Irish defense with five solo tackles on defense in the first half.
Shurmur went 12-for-20 with 153 yards in the first half. He was most impressive on their final drive of the half when he went 3-for-6 for 65 yards to set up a 21-yard field goal by Ryley Guay to cut the lead to 16-3. Pinkney caught two passes for 52 yards on the drive and ended the half with 69 yards in three catches. Lipscomb also caught five passes for 47 yards for Vanderbilt.