Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 26, 2018 25 0 Points scored by Notre Dame's opponents in the first quarter of the past four games. The Irish outscored Navy (13-0), Northwestern (7-0), Florida State (17-0) and Syracuse (13-0) by a com- bined 50-0 in the first 15 minutes of the contest. Taking it a step farther, the Irish outscored those four teams 86-13 in the first half. This is not includ- ing holding Pitt to seven first-half points Oct. 13 while trailing 7-6 at halftime, or the week prior tak- ing a 10-3 first-quarter advantage at Virginia Tech. 3 Interceptions combined by Notre Dame junior safeties Alohi Gilman (two) and Jalen Elliott (one) that also resulted in 78 return yards. The duo now has six for the season in addition to nine passes broken up. Last year, the safety position had zero interceptions — a first at the school since two- platoon football became the norm in 1964 — and five passes broken up. 11-0 Notre Dame has reached this record for only the fifth time in its history, with the first occurring during the 1973 national title campaign when only 10 regular season games were still played. The others came in 1988 (12-0 finish), 1989 (12-1), 2012 (12-1) and now. The 1988 and 2012 units were the only ones to reach 12-0. 12 Consecutive victories by Notre Dame, be- ginning with the Citrus Bowl triumph last Jan. 1 versus LSU. Since 1950, that is tied for the fourth longest by the football program. The school- record 23 in a row was achieved in 1988-89 with head coach Lou Holtz, and then 17 straight were won in 1992-93. In third place is the 13 in 1973-74 under head coach Ara Parseghian — which can be tied next week with a victory at USC. The current streak is tied with the 12-0 start in 2012 under head coach Brian Kelly. 33 Point victory by Notre Dame against a team that entered the contest No. 12 in both the College Football Playoff rankings and the Associated Press poll. That is the highest margin of victory by the Fighting Irish against a ranked team since a 54-20 romp versus No. 16 Washington on Oct. 12, 1996, Lou Holtz's final season as the head coach at Notre Dame. The last team ranked higher than Syracuse that lost by a greater margin to the Irish was No. 9 Boston College on Nov. 7, 1992 — a 54-7 trouncing by Notre Dame. 35.4-12.7 Average margin of vic- tory by Notre Dame in its nine Shamrock Series football games (9-0) that first began in 2009. This was the second in Yankee Stadium, with the initial one coming in 2010 with a 27-3 victory versus Army. The only two close calls were three-point victories against No. 22 Arizona State in 2013 (37-34) and Boston College in 2015 (19-16). 234 Total yards produced by Syracuse, or less than half of its 482.2 average (14th in the country) entering this game with an 8-2 record. Almost half of the offense (112 yards) against Notre Dame was produced in the fourth quarter when the 36-3 outcome had long been determined. BY THE NUMBERS BY LOU SOMOGYI 57 Career field goals by senior kicker J U ST I N YO O N after going 3 of 3 versus Syracuse. That ties him with 2011-14 kicker Kyle Brindza for the most in school history. Brindza did it in 81 attempts for a .704 percent- age, while Yoon has achieved it in 71 attempts for a .803 percentage — easily the best in school history with at least 50 attempts. His numbers are almost identical each of his four years: 15 of 17 as a freshman, 13 of 17 as a sopho- more, 14 of 18 as a junior and 15 of 19 through 11 games this year. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA