The Notre Dame Fighting Irish improved to 6-0 on Saturday with a 31-13 road victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. For the most part, the Irish had few problems during the game, rolling up 426 yards of total offense and collecting 24 first downs on the afternoon.
With four different runners gaining more than 40 yards apiece and eight different receivers catching at least one pass, Notre Dame spread the wealth and avoided the prospect of looking ahead to their pivotal date with Clemson next Saturday night.
Below are some of the keys aspects of the Irish win:
Brief Momentum Shift
Notre Dame started the game with a 15-play drive that consumed the first 8:44 of the game and culminated with a touchdown pass from Ian Book to Joe Wilkins Jr. After stopping Georgia Tech on six plays, the Irish drove down the field and appeared ready to double their lead.
However, a cold dose of reality for Notre Dame arrived in the form of a fumble that was returned 93 yards for a touchdown and tied the game. The ensuing drive by the Irish saw then start with a five-yard loss before methodically driving down the field on the first of two scores by Kyren Williams, giving them the lead for good.
Shutdown Defense
Another strong performance by the Notre Dame defensive unit saw them allow only points and yards. The Yellow Jackets simply weren’t able to muster much offense either through their running or passing games, though they did manage to be reasonably prolific when it came to converting on third down.
Notre Dame’s pass rush was the spark for the Irish’s first score following intermission. Tech connected on a 39-yard pass play and, after getting flagged for a false start, tried to got to the air again. Except Daelin Hayes‘s sack of Yellow Jackets signal-caller Jeff Sims resulted in a fumble that was recovered by Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa and eventually turned into seven points for the Irish.
McKinely Magic
For the second time this season, wide receiver Javon McKinley grabbed five passes in a game for the Irish, collecting 93 yards and once again showing that he can be a big-play threat. He had also collected five catches in the win over Florida State on October 10.
Outside of those two contests, McKinkey hasn’t seen many throws come his way in 2020, picking up four in three other games. Yet the fact that he’s had three catches of more than 30 yards in the past two games is evidence that can be the deep threat for Book as the Irish get deeper into the season.
Fly in the Ointment
For the second straight week, the annoying issue of penalties against Notre Dame surfaced with the Irish getting flagged five times for 50 yards. On two occasions, the offensive line was guilty of holding, while a pair of personal fouls also caught officials’ attention. In one instance, an offside call on the Irish was noted.
One indication that the recent side in disciplined play can be seen when comparing the past two weeks to the first four games. Notre Dame was called for penalties 13 times for 110 yards in those other contests, while the numbers for the past two games are 12 penalties for 113 yards. There’s little margin for error in next week’s Clemson game, which will hopefully get the Irish to tidy things up in this area.
Pushing Forward
While it wasn’t a polished performance on the part of the Notre Dame offensive line, they usually offered Book enough time to complete 18 of 26 passes for 199 yards and one touchdown. In addition, they allowed the entire offense to break the 400-yard threshold for the second game in a row and fifth time this season.
Keeping Book upright and opening holes for Notre Dame runners are necessary components for success with the Irish line. One thing that’s sure is that next week’s challenge will offer this unit quite a test.
Next Up
The game that the Irish have been zeroed in on for months has them facing the Clemson Tigers. Dabo Swinney’s team has reached the national championship four times in the past five seasons and won two titles. However, the Tigers will be without their top gun, quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who had averaged over 300 yards passing in Clemson’s first six games.
Lawrence tested positive for the coronavirus and missed the Tigers’ Saturday game against Boston College. Without him, freshman quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei struggled during the first half as Clemson trailed 28-10 at the break before coming back for a 34-28 win. The Irish have caught something of a break but still face a formidable challenge.
We won, no injuries and didn’t show all of our cards.i think that’s pretty darn good. Go Irish!
What scars me is Book deciding to stay another year
Let’s check the spelling of Javon’s name. He is on our roster after all.
I ask myself that question. Would we, could we, should we. Notre Dame can. Ian Book is a winner! Don’t let the hype digest you about the big 10. The SEC is also stoppable. QBs need teams, more then teams need QBs. UND has assembled quite the team! Yet they get ZERO hype. If you have been a fan of this team for that long, you will note… ND always wins differently then FSU, MiAMI, AL, CL and OSU. We just win. Finally this year we see BK open up with Rees and Book while cementing a solid running game and rebuilding a WR core. But we expect the heavens to split. I Love the way this team performs and I agree with FITZ. I have noticed our limited playbook be effective enough. We have not showed half the deck in terms of potential. Yet, we still have a solid half a deck to use
All of us as Notredame fans and I’m 64 and been following Notredame football since Aras first year1964 all want to see Notredame return to the elite and win a national championship. However in watching Alabama,Ohio State and Clemson I just dont see Notredame this year beating those teams and barring Fields Jones Lawrence not playing I dont see Notredame scoring enough to beat those teams. Yes they maybe beat Clemson next week without Lawrence and I say maybe but cant see if Notredame wins next week and wins out beating Clemson a second time with Lawrence. Ask yourself this question right now this year does Ohio State,Alabama or Clemson win the national championship if Book is their starting quarterback. I say no. Does Notredame win the national championship with Lawrence,Fields or Mac Jones as their quarterback. I say probably yes.
Pete, you’ve mentioned the transfer portal a few times in other posts. The odds of a top tier QB who has the academic chops to transfer to ND is minuscule. Plus Kelly would never give the reins to a fresh signal caller until he becomes familiar with the Kelly/Reese offense. Our quarterbacks must be home grown, unfortunately. Which makes the botched development of Jurkovec sting all the more. Georgia must be kicking themselves over Fields behind closed doors. The difference is that Georgia typically has a 5-star or 2 waiting in the wings. ND QB development under Kelly is the great mystery of his tenure, and stands to sully his legacy unless we get a miracle out of Book.
I think yesterday’s offensive game plan was to do enough to win without showing much with Clemson up next!