Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1526111
26 SEPT. 7, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 1. Much To Improve, But Young Offensive Line Helped Win The Game At times, sophomore left guard Sam Pendleton and freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp looked lost against Texas A&M. At other times, they were overmatched. Knapp had to face two freakish, hulking monsters at defensive end in Nic Scourton and Shemar Stew- art. They frequently undressed him, and he was sometimes slow to put his hands on run blitzers off the edge. Pendleton got senior quarterback Riley Leonard lit up once or twice, thanks to missed as- signments in pass protection. And yet. Knapp and Pendleton battled. They battled the entire night. Pendleton had the key block to spring junior running back Jadarian Price (more on him shortly) for a 47-yard touchdown, driving and wall- ing off his man for a wide-open hole up the middle. Knapp helped keep Leonard clean on Notre Dame's final drive. "I was proud of them," Irish head coach Mar- cus Freeman said. "I saw one time Sam missed a block, his guy made a play and he was able to refocus. … It was a great growing moment for this offensive line." 2. Al Golden Is A Savant On third-and-3 from the Notre Dame 17-yard line, Texas A&M had a chance to start their open- ing drive with a touchdown. Instead, Irish defen- sive coordinator Al Golden had something up his sleeve. Notre Dame showed pressure from the outside, but those prospective blitzers pulled back. In- stead, sophomore linebacker Jaiden Ausberry shot straight up the middle, completely untouched. Ausberry made Texas A&M redshirt sophomore quarterback Connor Weigman rush his throw, which fell incomplete in the direction of graduate student running back EJ Smith. That's the genius of Golden: Making one blitzer do the work of three, and making a five-man rush just as effective as a seven-man rush. It was a huge reason Notre Dame harassed Weigman on third down all night. 3. Running Back Tandem Proved Electric Junior Irish running back Jadarian Price took the ball from the 47-yard line, and he stared down sophomore Texas A&M linebacker Taurean York at the 45. York is believed to be one of the better Southeastern Conference linebackers entering this season. Price hit the jump-cut heard around the world, juking to his left. York fell to his knees. After a key block by junior wide receiver Jayden Thomas near the left sideline, Price was gone. Love followed suit a quarter later, getting skinny and bursting up the middle for a 21-yard, game- winning score. For a good amount of their runs, Price and Love had zero room to work with and were stopped for little to no gain. But when they found open space, they made Texas A&M pay. 4. Mitchell Evans Clearly Not 100 Percent Notre Dame took the "break glass if necessary" approach with senior tight end Mitchell Evans, using him exclusively on third downs. Sophomore Cooper Flanagan started at tight end, with junior Eli Raridon mixing in on early downs. Flanagan caught 2 passes for 25 yards. More importantly, he had the big block to spring Love on his game-winning touchdown run. But Notre Dame clearly needs Evans at full strength for the passing game to reach its potential — and to give senior quarterback Riley Leonard a security blan- ket underneath. Evans had taken contact in fall camp and was supposed to be at full strength for Week 1, coming off a torn ACL last October. His status will be worth monitoring going forward. 5. Not To Get Ahead Of Ourselves, But … We at Blue & Gold Illustrated believed Weigman was the best signal-caller on Notre Dame's sched- ule. His numbers against the Irish have to be seen to be believed. He connected on only 12 of 30 passes for 100 yards. That's 3.3 yards per attempt. Three. Point. Three. And 2 interceptions to boot. That was a best-pass-defense-in-the-country performance from Notre Dame. It has zero weak- nesses. And it's fair to wonder, after Saturday night, just how far it can take the Irish. All summer long, the mantra was, "Just escape Col- lege Station with a win." It did not have to be perfect, nor did it have to be pretty. It was always going to be a hard-fought, low-scoring dogfight. And the pass defense would probably have to play out of its mind. It stepped up to the challenge, and then some. No one on the remaining regular-season schedule is beating Notre Dame through the air, which means it will be awfully difficult to beat Notre Dame. FIVE THOUGHTS BY JACK SOBLE Sophomore left guard Sam Pendleton (above) and freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp had an up-and-down performance in their starting debuts, but did enough to help the Fighting Irish get the victory. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER