It didn’t need to be close but it was far too close for comfort on Saturday afternoon as Notre Dame escaped an upset attempt from Virginia Tech. With just a few minutes remaining, the Irish drove 18 plays for a game-winning touchdown in a matchup that featured several patented upset-special check marks along the way. Was it a gutty victory or a sign of a remaining season that will be filled with continued frustration?

Let’s recap Notre Dame’s 16th straight home win.

Stats Package

STAT IRISH VT
Score 21 20
Plays 91 64
Total Yards 447 240
Yards Per Play 4.91 3.75
Conversions 11/23 5/17
Completions 29 9
Yards/Pass Attempt 6.43 4.96
Rushes 38 36
Rushing Success 38.8% 31.4%
10+ Yds Rushing 3 3
Defense Stuff Rate 26.5% 17.5%

Offense

QB: C+
RB: F
TE: B
OL: C-
WR: C+

I’m probably going to be a little more rosy on Book than most. He did account for 391 total yards which is a big stat and he finally put together a bunch of completions to carry the team–29 passes in total tied for the most of his career with the Georgia game earlier this year. Among that mix, there were several big throws and at times this looked like the most comfortable Ian Book of the season (against a real opponent) with confident passes down field, no sacks, and a game-winning rushing score.

He did that with virtually no help from the run game.

Book’s two interceptions were very poor, the first (right to a sinking linebacker in coverage) much worse than a slightly under-thrown deep ball later to Claypool. In both cases, it took points off the board as the Irish were driving before each turnover. Additionally, we continue to see a lot of wasted plays as Book finished with a career-high 53 attempts (he only had one 40+ attempt game in his career up until Saturday) which didn’t feel quite as pass-happy because Book threw numerous balls away as he continues to move outside of the pocket with little success.

It remains a struggle to really do explosive things through the air, though. Claypool (30 yards), McKinley (26), Armstrong (26), and Finke (20) had medium-length receptions but it’s still a bit of a slog. Credit to Book for completing 16 passes for first down, though, including 4 times on the game-winning drive.

Make no mistake, this was one of the worst rushing performances in the Kelly era where the team mustered at least 100 yards. Book accounted for 50 of the 106 yards which says enough.

Rushing Success

Armstrong – 6 of 19 (31.5%)
Book – 6 of 13 (46.1%)
Smith – 1 of 3 (33.3%)
Davis – 1 of 1 (100%)

Jafar Armstrong had a decent day catching the ball (a screen worked!) but finished with just 86 yards on 23 touches, for 3.7 yards per touch. Take away his screen pass and he had 2.7 yards per touch! He was frankly abysmal running the ball, coughed the rock up at the goal line, and somehow wasn’t benched. To use a soccer term, I don’t know if Armstrong is truly fit at the moment but besides trucking a guy he was really poor, doesn’t look fast, and struggles mightily running up the middle in traffic.

I’m not sure what to take away from this game. With a couple different decisions or better ball protection the offense was in position to have 7 scoring drives (crossed mid-field 7 times at least) but barely overcame three turnovers and a missed field goal.

Robert Hainsey appears to have broken his ankle and Josh Lugg performed admirably in his place at right tackle. It will be nice to get Lugg some seasoning finally but a combo of him and Ruhland on the right side could be a problem for the remainder of the games. The line protected well but can’t get much going on the ground–makes sense to me because right now the Irish are ridiculously easy to defend when the running backs have the ball.

Defense

DL: C-
LB: B
DB: D

Virginia Tech had 7 drives end after 3 plays, punted 8 times, and had one drive over 50 yards. The Irish defense did more than enough to comfortably cruise in this game.

However, this Hokies offense with third-string Quincy Patterson at quarterback was really anemic and completely non-threatening. The 3.75 yards per play allowed trails only the Bowling Green game this year but this truly could’ve been a game that was far worse for Virginia Tech’s offense.

Patterson completed only 9 passes yet several were big completions, including a 50-yarder. The defensive backs really should’ve stopped a few of the throws and dominated the game even more.

Stuffs vs. Virginia Tech

(season stuffs in parentheses)

Bilal – 4.5 (16)
Kareem – 2.5 (14)
White – 2 (19)
JOK – 1 (10)
Hinish – 1 (7.5)
MTA – 1 (9)
Okwara – 1 (8)
Jamir – 1 (7.5)
Vaughn – 1 (1)
Ademilola, Jay. – 0.5 (7.5)
Gilman – 0.5 (8)

The run defense did their job soundly. Again, the Hokies were so one-dimensional for long stretches of this game that it felt like they should’ve been stopped for about 50 rushing yards. Patterson rumbled and stumbled his way to 77 yards while the other Virginia Tech runners combined for 40 yards on 17 carries, just 2.35 per rush.

Final Thoughts

There was a frustrating sequence prior to Notre Dame’s missed field goal late in the game. After a specious holding call on Virginia Tech brought the ball to the Hokie 3-yard line we saw an illegal block by Armstrong, a drilled incompletion to a covered Finke on a shallow crossing route, then a screen pass to Finke that went nowhere on third down. This, plus running Armstrong three straight times up the middle prior to his disastrous fumble were not Chip Long’s finest moments.

Notre Dame missed their first 3rd/4th and short running opportunity, but finished the game converting their final 3 attempts. That’s probably not something people would remember from an overall poor rushing performance.

Where has Jalen Elliott gone? Just one assisted tackle on the afternoon!

Claypool seems super-human along the sidelines and very mortal anywhere else on the field. It’s weird.

One thing I just couldn’t wrap my head around in the pre-season was the belief that this would be Kelly’s best offense and/or the highest scoring Irish offense of all-time. Notre Dame is now down 33.7 points per game and 25.3 points per game against Power 5 opponents.

I thought I’d never, ever say this: The offense missed Tony Jones, Jr. deeply on Saturday.

I wonder how prepared Notre Dame is at the next man in on the offensive line with Kraemer and Hainsey now out with long-term injuries? Very rarely have they had to rely on an 8th lineman for more than mop-up duty and it’s a real threat right now.

While re-reading this post and making edits I realize it seems a lot more pro-Book than most might’ve felt while watching the game, myself included! Something that I think may be important to ponder: When Wimbush was having his struggles there were more than whispers that Book was performing well in practice and when he was named starter there seemed to be a sense of relief around the program. By all accounts, the reports from practice are that Jurkovec is not seriously challenging Book. That, plus the players really seem to like/respect/rally around Book and it feels like it’s not a real easy decision to sit the current captain when the team would know how deflating that could be using someone who isn’t “better.”

I know Duke is up next but this team at present looks especially susceptible to a loss from Navy. Something that’s been lingering for me is how not-physical the Irish are in the back five, especially corner. The entire secondary has just 18 stuffs on the season, nearly half coming from Gilman who is as prone as anyone to being boom or bust in his tackling ability. Vaughn just picked up his first stuff of the season, Pride picked up his first 0.5 stuff last week, Elliott hasn’t had one since game two, and Hamilton hasn’t had any over the last 3 games. This group better get ready to tackle the Middies.

Was this a game that felt like a loss? This is Notre Dame, we know this feeling well. Some might say well by the numbers this probably should’ve been an Irish cover or close to it and a win is a win anyway. But I don’t blame anyone for feeling bad about the situation. Until they lose again and the hope for a major bowl game is still alive the players will march on I suppose. Nevertheless, so many signs are pointing to at least one more loss for this team.