Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1418303
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 23, 2021 21 NOTRE DAME PASSING OFFENSE: C+ A little late game magic sure makes up for a lot, doesn't it? Notre Dame basically abandoned the passing game while true freshman quarterback Tyler Buchner was in the middle of his relief ap- pearance, but had to come quickly crawling back to it when graduate student Jack Coan came back into the game in the final four minutes. In the end, Notre Dame passed for 221 yards and two touchdowns on 26 attempts. Buchner threw two interceptions, but without those Notre Dame quietly had a nice night through the air. You can't tell the whole story without them, though, and the second one nearly cost Notre Dame the game. NOTRE DAME RUSHING OFFENSE: B- Any time Notre Dame runs for 180 yards behind this offensive line, it's worth celebrating and prais- ing. Junior running back Kyren Williams averaged 4.3 yards per carry and the Irish averaged 4.2 as a team, but they never had to get away from the ground game like they have in prior games this season. Buchner ran for 67 yards on 12 carries, which was a huge boost. True freshman running back Logan Diggs got his first six carries of the season and produced 29 yards. It actually looked like the Notre Dame offensive line had some push on run- ning plays, which was a huge step forward from the first five games of the year. NOTRE DAME PASSING DEFENSE: B Virginia Tech quarterback Braxton Burmeister isn't a gunslinger by any means, but he still pro- duced six passing plays of 15 or more yards. That matched Notre Dame's total. Senior cornerback TaRiq Bracy's interception was a big play in the game, though, and the Irish sec- ondary — for all of its struggles — never got beat deep downfield for a long touchdown. The longest passing play it allowed was 23 yards, in fact. Notre Dame gave up 187 yards through the air on 34 Virginia Tech passing plays. Again, the Hokies don't have the most formidable passing attack. But the Irish didn't let an opposing team's weakness beat them, and that usually bodes well in close contests. NOTRE DAME RUSHING DEFENSE: B+ Notre Dame knew Virginia Tech was going to try to run, and that's what the Hokies did — 37 times. The Irish held them to 3.6 yards per carry. No Virginia Tech player ran for 50 or more yards. Burmeister led the way with 49 yards on 10 car- ries. He scored one of Virginia Tech's two rushing touchdowns. Running back Raheem Blackshear had the other. Blackshear only carried the ball eight times for 35 yards. The two longest rushing plays of the game for Virginia Tech came from quarterbacks. Burmeister scored on a 19-yard scamper that would have held up as the game-winner if not for the Coan-led comeback, and Connor Blumrick ran for 16 yards in the first quarter. Only one rushing play of 10 or more yards came from a player other than a quarterback, and it was wide receiver Tré Turner on an end-around. Notre Dame kept the Hokies' running backs in check. NOTRE DAME SPECIAL TEAMS: A Notre Dame didn't have a kick return and only recorded one punt return for zero yards — but it didn't matter. Graduate student kicker Jona- than Doerer won the game with his 48-yard field goal with 17 seconds left. He made all of his extra points. Junior punter Jay Bramblett also had a sneaky average of 48.8 yards per punt on six attempts. He booted a long of 55 yards, one of two punts he recorded over 50 yards. He also downed half of his punts inside the 20-yard line. Any time the game is won on the leg of a kicker, that team is bound to get a satisfactory grade in the special teams department. Doerer delivered. NOTRE DAME COACHING: B+ This is tricky. Some fans will argue starting Coan was the wrong move, but that argument lost a bit of its weight when Coan came back into the game and saved the day for the Irish. Kelly clearly trusts that Coan is the best quarterback on the team, and he sent him out to start the game. He also put him in when it was on the line. Buchner was also more than serviceable for stretches of his appearance, too. Did Kelly perfectly pull the strings? No, but he pulled them anyway, and it resulted in a Notre Dame victory. Sticking to the running game in spite of everything that has occurred this season was also a gutsy move that paid off. Notre Dame doesn't win if it didn't run the ball the way it did. REPORT CARD BY TYLER HORKA Graduate student wide receiver Avery Davis made a pair of big catches, including a four-yard touchdown grab, on the Irish scoring drive that tied the score at 29-29 with 2:26 remaining in the game. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN