Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 7, 2020 29 "Today was a day where those plays came to me," Hayes said. "I was ex- cited. The first one is the sweetest, but it's also the hardest one to get out of the way. So I'm glad I could put that behind me and keep moving forward." BALANCED ON OFFENSE Ideally, Notre Dame would score on its opening drive in less time than the 8:44 it needed to put up the first of four touchdowns against Geor- gia Tech. It probably would prefer to do it in fewer than 15 plays, too. It absolutely should want to ditch the holding penalty committed four plays into the game. Those are all nitpicks, though. In the end, the Irish marched 81 yards and averaged 5.4 per play, with no in- completions. It was representative of their overall offensive performance, which featured 42 runs and 28 passes when counting sacks as the latter. Notre Dame averaged 5.6 yards per carry, excluding sacks. Sophomore running back Kyren Williams led the way with 76 yards on 15 carries and scored his sixth and seventh rushing touchdowns of the year. The passing offense wasn't particu- larly explosive, but it was effective. Fifth-year senior quarterback Ian Book played his fifth straight turnover-less game, though a fumble was wiped out due to a Georgia Tech penalty. "Ian was pretty darn good," Kelly said. "The ball came out quick. I don't know if you say it [in previ- ous games], but there were a couple of times where he was late on some reads. He was not late today. His tim- ing was really good." Fifth-year senior wide receiver Javon McKinley was his most frequent target with five catches for 93 yards. He and Book connected for completions of 31 and 34 yards. McKinley has two games with at least 90 yards in Notre Dame's last four outings, and he leads all Irish wide receivers with 14 catches. "We're getting better every week," Book said. "We haven't peaked yet. Coach Kelly just kept talking about ascending your game. Week in and week out, just keep going up and up. He challenged us with Pitt, and we were able to do that and throw the ball around. "Guys on the perimeter made some huge plays. We were able to do that today. We took another step forward." IRISH GUILTY OF SEVERAL SLOPPY PLAYS Notre Dame had margin for error against an overmatched opponent, though head coach Brian Kelly's toler- ance of the miscues that did pop up was low. He made it clear there's zero GEORGIA TECH VS. NOTRE DAME QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Georgia Tech 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 2:41 6:59 8:05 5:32 9:40 13:37 23:17 Third-Down Conversions 1-2 3-5 0-2 1-3 4-7 1-5 5-12 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-1 0-0 0-1 0-1 0-1 0-2 Average Field Position GT-25 GT-23 GT-23 GT-33 GT-24 GT-28 GT-26 Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 12:19 8:01 6:55 9:28 20:20 16:23 36:43 Third-Down Conversions 5-5 1-3 2-3 2-4 6-8 4-7 10-15 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 Average Field Position ND-27 ND-33 ND-32 ND-33 ND-30 ND-32 ND-31 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards GT ND Nega ve 7 7 0-5 35 35 6-9 5 10 10-19 10 12 20-29 0 4 30-39 2 2 40-49 0 0 50 or more 0 0 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Georgia Tech 2 1 0 1 Notre Dame 7 4 1 2 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Georgia Tech • 2-10 GT39 Sims pass complete to Camp for 39 yards to the ND22 • 3-5 GT36 Sims pass complete to Gibbs for 34 yards to the ND30 Notre Dame • 3-5 ND30 Book pass complete to Davis for 13 yards to the ND43, PENALTY GT face mask (Swilling) 15 yards to the GT42 • 1-10 GT44 Book pass complete to McKinley for 31 yards to the GT13 • 3-8 ND28 Book pass complete to McKinley for 34 yards to the GT38 INSTANT TAKEAWAYS FROM FORMER NOTRE DAME CAPTAIN LINEBACKER MIKE GOOLSBY • "People love to beat up on Notre Dame. People don't come down as hard on Clemson, on Ohio State or Alabama when they have some close games, because it's been widely accepted that those programs have a surplus of talent. They sort of get a pass. When people think about Notre Dame, they don't think about elite athletes." • "Kyle Hamilton and Jeremiah Owusu-Kora- moah both make plays. The defensive line made plays against Georgia Tech but, through- out the previous games, Hamilton and Owusu- Koramoah are the only two guys who consis- tently flashed. They take their shots, which speaks to their confidence, their abilities and how much they know their responsibilities, so they can gamble a little bit." Join us after every game for the Live Show on YouTube! BlueandGold.com's Mike Singer and former Fighting Irish captain and linebacker Mike Goolsby will recap the game and give their instant analysis. www.youtube.com/c/bluegoldillustrated Junior wide receiver Joe Wilkins Jr. hauled in his first career scoring reception to stake the Irish to an early 7-0 lead. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS