Notre Dame’s offense was coming off of one of their best performances of the year heading into yesterday’s game against Georgia Tech in Atlanta, but they cooled off and struggled to find consistency in the Irish’s 31-13 win. Luckily for the Irish, the defense continued to be dominant, and it showed that it is a playoff-caliber unit that will have to carry Notre Dame as far as it will go this season. A few, perhaps unnecessary, trick plays also appeared throughout the day as Notre Dame improved to 6-1 on the season – their best record this late in a campaign under Marcus Freeman.
Defense was dominant after early score
The story of the game was Notre Dame’s dominating defensive performance. Georgia Tech was down its starting quarterback, and the Irish did exactly what great defenses should do in those circumstances—make life miserable for the backup. As has become almost customary, the defense did allow an early score in an easier-than-it-should-have fashion, but after that, the Yellow Jacket offense simply didn’t have much success.
Georiga Tech went eight straight drives without scoring a point after scoring the game’s first touchdown for a 7-0 lead. They ran for a season-low 64 yards on 29 attempts. They allowed Notre Dame to record two sacks after only allowing a single sack all season long. Rylie Mills continued his resurgence after a really slow start to the year by causing havoc all game. He had a season-high seven pressures in the game and graded out as Notre Dame’s 3rd best defender on the day.
It was another dominant day at the office for Al Golden’s unit that has proven, even with injuries, that it is the one legit playoff-caliber unit on the team right now.
Offense takes a step back
While the defense was dominant on the day, the offense took a step back after a strong performance against Stanford. The Irish started extremely slow on offense again – a troubling pattern this season – before a brief period of success followed by a long stretch of stagnation to end the game. Notre Dame scored touchdowns on its last two drives of the first half and its first drive of the second but failed to get anything going the rest of the way, even when the defense set up short fields.
Riley Leonard topped 200 yards again this week in what has become a relatively low barometer for success for the Irish passing game but threw an interception reminiscent of his awful pick against NIU that sealed Notre Dame’s fate that day. Beaux Collins didn’t help Leonard much by appearing to give up on the route, but Leonard forced the pass into double coverage, resulting in Notre Dame’s lone turnover in the game.
Notre Dame had decent success running the ball given Georgia Tech’s stout run defense, but if there was a a game for the passing game to really click, this was it. The Yellow Jackets have struggled to stop the pass all year long and were missing their top linebacker and leading tackler.
Did Notre Dame really need to empty the trick play bag?
It appeared that Notre Dame wanted to put a more impressive margin of victory on the board than they delivered because they emptied their bag of trick plays on special teams. While the fake punt reverse to Jeremiyah Love and the fake field goal with a cameo from Tyler Buchner were successful, it seemed like an odd time to use both. Notre Dame’s defense was dominating, and even though the score wasn’t overly impressive, it was pretty clear that Georgia Tech wouldn’t seriously challenge the Irish by the 4th quarter.
Notre Dame can burn both plays now that they have tape on them instead of using them in a situation where they could have really used them. They are cool plays, sure, but I question why they used them when they did.
Drayk Bowen continues ascending
There were plenty of defensive standouts for the Irish on Saturday – Mills, Xavier Watts, Adon Shuler, and others – but the rise of sophomore Drayk Bowen was also on full display. Bowen looked a bit hesitant early in the season, but as he’s gotten more comfortable, he’s playing fast and violent for the Irish. Bowen graded out as Notre Dame’s best player overall with a 90.5 rating from PFF and a career-high nine tackles on the afternoon.
Bowen has quickly become Notre Dame’s best linebacker and looks like the Irish’s next Butkus Award contender—three Irish backers have won the award since 2012 (Manti Te’o, Jaylon Smith, and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah).
Jeremiyah Love’s development as pass blocker on display
Jeremiyah Love struggled on the ground despite scoring a touchdown in his seventh consecutive game on Saturday, but he still shined as a pass protector – something he struggled at previously. Head coach Marcus Freeman gave Love credit in his post-game presser for his pass protection. “He’s done some great things in protection and the pass game. He’s really been a complete back,” Freeman said.
Perhaps his growth in pass protection will keep him on the field for more third downs because Notre Dame’s insistence on having a third-down specialty back confuses me. Love is their best playmaker but routinely comes off the field on third downs with players who simply are not close to his level of playmaking ability. Love is a threat to score every time he touches the ball; keep that potential on the field on third downs.
Jaiden Ausberry’s teach-tape moment
It was just one play, but Jaiden Ausberry made one of the best open-field tackles we’ve seen from an irish defender in some time on Saturday. Facing a 2nd and 7 inside the redzone, Tech got the ball to their best playmaker, Jamal Haynes, in space. Ausberry had him in sight, but it could have been six if he missed the tackle. Ausberry delivered a textbook tackle that resulted in a loss of a yard, and a few plays later, Georgia Tech had a field goal blocked. After seeing Christian Gray miss a tackle in space on Georgia Tech’s touchdown drive, it was great to see Ausberry deliver.
Notre Dame needs Mitch Jeter back
Notre Dame was missing starting kicker Mitch Jeter for the second straight week, and while backup Zac Yoakem was solid in his place, the Irish need Jeter back for the stretch run. Yoakem has plenty of leg, but his accuracy isn’t quite like Jeter’s. He did connect on a 42-yard field, but it snuck just inside the left upright and looked like it would be wide left until right at the end. He was wide right on his other attempt, as well. It didn’t matter the last two weeks, but there will likely be a game over the season’s final six weeks that a missed field goal could haunt them.
Mike Denbrock needs to get Mitchell Evans going
Remember when Notre Dame had an All-American caliber tight end? Those were the days, weren’t they? The Irish have struggled to get Mitchell Evans back to the form he was in prior to his injury last year. It did appear they made a conscious effort to get him the ball more on Saturday, but he still registered just four catches for 26 yards. He still hasn’t had a game with more than 27 yards receiving on the season. He only had two games with less than 60 yards in seven tries last year.
The offense as a whole is still a work in progress, and it’s time we all realize that it probably won’t get a whole lot better by season’s end, but getting the tight end more involved has to be one of the areas that they do improve between now and Thanksgiving. It’s one of the few areas of low-hanging fruit left for the offense to improve. Georgia Tech was missing its top linebacker and the Irish still didn’t get that much out of Evans. Through seven games, Evans has just 14 catches for 108 yards.
Riley is the only choice right now, 7 games in & the season on the line every game is not the time. Angelini will have to learn & gain experiance by playing, but not 7 games in & 5 to go thats crazy.
Our D. can play wi/ anyone.
However:
this offense is not playoff caliber. We should not be struggling to score points against a mediocre defense like G Tech. If we go 11-1, which I doubt, this team (though I love ’em) will be one and done in the playoffs
You can’t win if you can’t score
Notre Dame is getting Bitch slapped in the polls. It seems more than ever after the last two weeks that the pollsters want to keep ND out of the playoffs. I still think if ND finishes 11-1 they will be in. Might be time to seriously consider joining a conference. Stay tuned
Riley Leonard is the right QB for an inconsistent very young OL that has lost 60% of its starters for most of the season. Leonard’s escapability and running acumen trumps his occasional inaccuracy. GT 2024 might be remembered as the “fake punt game” or Buchner’s fake FG run, or the walk-on kicker with a 42 yd. FG to extend the lead to three scores. I’ll remember it as an assertion to the incredible last two recruiting classes, with all their contributions to the team, with Shuler, Bowen, Moore, KVA, Love, Ausbery, Williams, Young et.al. all being significant complements to this season’s successes.
Having said that: 1) whatever coaches do or say at halftime, try that pre-game, 2) get the ball to playmakers in the open field (Love, Price), 3) keep Urlacher involved ( devastating KO coverage), 4) don’t waste this season’s elite D’ despite three key injury losses, 5) don’t slow or waste momentum by slowing down your O’ when its on a roll (see most of second half) 6) re: Navy, watch your knees, Irish!.
* AS for ND’s D’: What a pleasure to watch them dominate week after week . . .as when the O’ fails to take advantage of field position or turnover, special teams stop the opponent or extend the O’s opportunity, and the pass D’ even scores when the O’ stutters to a stop.
Go Irish!
I would advise the 3 current quarterbacks to tell the head coach that if ND went to the transfer portal for another QB next year that they all would transfer. Every one we have signed is better than any one we have transfered on. Period!
GREAT POINT TIM AGREE 100%
Don’t understand why they keep playing Riley. U want offense: bench him. ND’s QB’s are better than anything they’ve gotten from the transfer pool.
Overreaction of the year lol. Angeli would get killed with this horrible injury riddled offensive line. Minchey and/or Carr will get there shot next year. Angeli will hopefully stay and get his degree or hit the portal. He is not the guy.