Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1481361
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 15, 2022 21 NOTRE DAME PASSING OFFENSE: A Take away a tipped interception and this is an A+. Junior quarterback Drew Pyne was nearly per- fect. He completed 22 of 28 passes for 262 yards with 3 touchdowns and the 1 interception. What more could you ask of him? His only mistake was the pass that was deflected at the line of scrim- mage and then intercepted. The best thing Pyne has going for him is junior tight end Michael Mayer, who caught 11 passes for 118 yards and 2 touchdowns. The more he looks to No. 87, the better. Sophomore wide receiver Jayden Thomas had the best game of his career with 3 catches for 74 yards and a touchdown. Notre Dame now has back-to-back stout per- formances in the passing game. It started with impressive cohesion in the second half against California in Week 3. This facet of Notre Dame's game is rolling. NOTRE DAME RUSHING OFFENSE: A Speaking of rolling: The Notre Dame running game. Sophomores Logan Diggs and Audric Estime iced the game away on the final possession with 46 combined yards rushing. Had Notre Dame not picked up a couple first downs, it would have given the ball back to BYU with plenty of time left in a one-score game. That duo did not allow that to happen. Diggs scampered for 33 yards on one electrifying run. Es- time picked up the final first down of the game on third-and-4. Estime rushed 14 times for 97 yards. Diggs carried 17 times for a career-best 93 yards. In total, Notre Dame had 45 rushing attempts for 234 yards. That's 5.2 yards per carry. That'll do. And that'll garner an "A." NOTRE DAME PASSING DEFENSE: B The Notre Dame secondary wasn't tested as much as many thought it would be. BYU quarter- back Jaren Hall went into the game averaging 34.2 passing attempts per game. He only attempted 17 against Notre Dame. The Irish held him to 9-of-17 passing for 120 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Hall did not look right; his interception came on his first pass attempt of the night. It was a flared out pass to nobody but Irish graduate student cornerback TaRiq Bracy. Hall made some throws as the game went on, including a 53-yard catch and run to Kody Epps that freshman corner Jaden Mickey will want back for a lapse in coverage. One hundred of Hall's 120 yards went to Kody Epps. The Irish did a good job of taking away BYU's plethora of other weapons, but something was clearly up with Hall. Or it was a faulty game plan. The Cougars simply did not go after Notre Dame with Hall's arm. NOTRE DAME RUSHING DEFENSE: C+ This might be a little harsh considering a crucial fourth-and-1 stop on a BYU running play late in the fourth quarter was a major reason Notre Dame won, but lapses in the rushing defense prior to that were why the game was so close at that stage anyway. Notre Dame let BYU pick up a first down on third- and-18 from the Cougars' own 5-yard line. BYU gained 49 more yards on the ground on that drive, 28 of which came on a touchdown that pulled the Cougars to within 25-20 early in the fourth quarter. BYU ran 29 times for 156 yards. That's 5.4 yards per carry, more than Notre Dame's 5.2. If Notre Dame didn't possess the ball for 40:55, who knows what BYU would have run for. Or who knows if Hall would have used his arm a bit more. Notre Dame's offense was definitely better than its defense out- side of having to settle for two field goals of less than 30 yards and failing on a fourth-and-short near the goal line. NOTRE DAME SPECIAL TEAMS: B- A 42-yard punt return set up BYU's first touch- down. BYU missed the ensuing extra point, though. And those were really the only special teams played that impacted the game. There were only 5 combined punts. Notre Dame's Jon Sot had 2 of them and averaged 56.5 yards per boot. He outkicked his coverage on the 42-yard return. BYU did not record a kickoff return, while Notre Dame had one. The Irish also only had one punt return. Blake Grupe made both of his chip-shot field goals. It was a quiet special teams game outside of the lengthy Cougars return, which drags this grade down a bit. NOTRE DAME COACHING: B+ The Irish showed up early in coming away with an interception on the first play of the game and driving down inside the 10 immediately thereafter. But red zone failures often fall on the shoulders of play calling and coaching. As aforementioned in the rushing defense grade, Notre Dame settled for field goals of 20 and 26 yards and failed to convert on fourth-and-1 from the BYU 4. Head coach Marcus Freeman said he sensed panic when BYU came within 5 points of his Irish, but it seems he did enough on the sidelines to calm his players and get them over the finish line. This could have been a more comfortable win for Notre Dame. If that had been the case, the coach- ing would have received an A. REPORT CARD BY TYLER HORKA Sophomore running back Logan Diggs ran 17 times for a career-high 93 yards. PHOTO BY DAVID BECKER