Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1528160
22 OCT. 26, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED TURNING POINT Trailing 7-0 in the second quarter and with Georgia Tech holding all game momentum, Notre Dame calmly orchestrated a 14-play, 75- yard touchdown drive that tied the game 7-7, and launched a 31-0 scoring run for the Irish. Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard was the catalyst to this turning-point drive. The Irish senior completed all six of his passes on the scoring march for 58 yards, and capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown plunge, his ninth rushing score of the season. The game-changing drive demonstrated how dominant and explosive Notre Dame can be, and it conjured memories of the previous Irish game against Stanford when Notre Dame fell behind 7-0 then cruised to a 49-7 victory. STATS OF THE GAME A balanced and complementary perfor- mance from Notre Dame provided plenty of choices for this category. On offense, the Fighting Irish scored 3 touch- downs and 1 field goal on its four red-zone possessions. On defense, Notre Dame held the Yellow Jackets to only 2.2 yards per rush, and sopho- more safety Adon Shuler returned an intercep- tion 36 yards for a touchdown. On special teams, the Irish blocked their third field goal of the season, it got good work in the return games, and it picked up first downs on a fake punt and a fake field goal to secure its fifth straight victory. Also of note, Irish sophomore tailback Jer- emiyah Love scored on a 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter put Notre Dame ahead 21-7. Love now has a rushing touchdown in each of Notre Dame's first seven games. UPWARD TRAJECTORY According to ESPN projections, the Irish vic- tory over Georgia Tech moved Notre Dame's odds of making the postseason playoffs to 63 percent. These latest numbers mark a dramatic improvement from when the odds dropped to 23 percent following the 16-14 upset loss to Northern Illinois in Week 2. Had Notre Dame lost to the Yellow Jackets, ESPN projected the Irish playoff odds to plummet to 20 percent. When Notre Dame beat Texas A&M in the season opener Aug. 31, its playoff odds sky- rocketed to 71 percent. As mentioned above, following the NIU loss freefall to 23 percent, the Irish odds of making the playoff climbed to 38 percent after the Purdue win, 46 per- cent following the victory over Louisville, 57 percent after the Stanford blowout, and now 63 percent post Georgia Tech — with a game against a ranked and undefeated Navy (6-0) team up next. THREE OBSERVATIONS BY TODD D. BURLAGE QB RILEY LEONARD The Irish senior showcased his dual-threat abilities against Georgia Tech with 20-of-29 passing for 203 yards plus 51 yards rushing with 2 touchdowns, bringing his season total to 10. It marked the third time this season that Leonard has multiple touchdown rushes. Leonard was especially effective in the first half when he connected on 12 of 14 passes for 127 yards, and added 29 yards and both of his touchdowns on the ground to stake Notre Dame to a 14-7 lead at the break that it never relinquished. Through parts of the second and third quarters, he completed 12 consecutive passes for 162 yards. CB LEONARD MOORE Starting in place of Irish All-American cornerback Benjamin Morrison — who was the lost for the season after suffering a hip injury against Stanford Oct. 12 — the Irish true freshman wasted no time proving him- self as a valuable fill-in, recording 7 tackles (5 solo) with 1 tackle for loss — the first of his career — and 2 passes broken up in the rout of Georgia Tech. The 7 tackles for Moore tied a career high and gave him 15 stops (11 solo) in the last three games. RB JADARIAN PRICE The Irish sophomore led all Irish rushers with 69 yards on 8 carries for a yards per carry average of 8.6. It was the third time of his career that he averaged more than 8.0 yards a carry in a game, and it marked the third-most rushing yards in a single game that he's posted in 20 career outings. After getting benched against Louisville following an ill-timed fumble, the Irish reserve has responded the last two games against Stanford and Georgia Tech with 20 carries for 118 yards (5.9 yards per carry) and 1 touchdown in an increased role in the Irish offense. GAME BALLS BY TODD D. BURLAGE Freshman cornerback Leonard Moore matched his career high with 7 tackles against the Yellow Jackets. PHOTO BY MATT RUDOLPH