This game was entirely backwards, and I do not just mean NBC’s suspect camera angles. With many questions surrounding both teams after this I just had one, Hoos Your Daddy, Virginia?
The head coach of Notre Dame, Brian Kelly, had a clear message for us during his pre-game interview.
He was ready to “turn the page” on the loss to Georgia. When asked what he thought they needed to do to get a win he said the team to “play fast, play physical, much more attention to detail”
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Kelly was his emphasis to “find the running game.”
Run the dang ball!
The past few weeks the Fighting Irish have struggled to get the ground game going. Run the ball they did to the tune of a 15 point victory, Notre Dame 35 Virginia 20.
Tony Jones Jr.finished the day with 18 carries for 131 yards and three scores. C’bo Flemister added another six carries for 27 yards and a touchdown as well.
Most impressive were the runs Notre Dame strung together in the fourth quarter. This put-away drive had two long runs by Jones Jr including a 28-yard run followed by a 30-yard touchdown run.
Hoos your Daddy?
For some reason the Twittersphere enlightened us to the nickname for the UVA Caviliers, the Wahoo’s, or Hoos for short.
Naturally, when you rack up eight team sacks and force five turnovers, it begs the question, Hoos your daddy.
Notre Dame was lead defensively by Julian Okwara. Okwara had three of the eight sacks and went Khalil Mack on UVA QB Bryce Perkins with a strip sack + recovery. He finished with two forced fumbles and was a nightmare for Perkins blindside.
Tale of Two Halves
Notre Dame has started very slow in three of our four contests. It is hard to believe this was the first game the Irish trailed at halftime but everything was clicking for Perkins and standout wide receiver Joe Reed. In the first half, Reed had nearly 100 yards and a touchdown.
Perkins, known for his running ability looked as if he was going to gun sling the Cavaliers to victory over a discombobulated Irish secondary.
Notre Dame looked like a boxer on the ropes, but Kelly must have given one hell of a half time pep talk to the defense.
Surprise Onside!
It was clear in the first half UVA was not here to play; they were here to win. To open the second half the Cavaliers surprised the Irish return team with an onside kick. UVA recovered with ease and things looked as if they would go from bad, to worse.
Opposite Day
Remember when I said the game was entirely backwards?
- Perkins, a run first quarterback stood in the pocket and hung 200 in the first half
- Veteran secondary of Notre Dame was shredded early by Perkins
- Notre Dame’s awful rush defense allowed four total yards.
- Irish quarterback Ian Book finished with only 165 passing yards
- Notre Dame was able to run the ball.
D-Heavy
I do not have the wherewithal yet to digest Book’s lackluster performance but the defense appears to have taken a major stride forward for the Fighting Irish.
After four games, we can start to see the identity of a team and this team, at this stage is reliant on the play of its defense.
It was good to see the Irish come out and get back to the basics against the 18th ranked team in the nation to prove that they are elite and are looking to finish what they started.
