Blue and Gold Illustrated

UNDER THE DOME An Automatic Reaction Outside of the center-quarterback snap exchange, there is probably no single play in football taken more for granted than a converted extra point. So when Notre Dame freshman kicker Justin Yoon barely made his first such attempt against Georgia Tech Sept. 19 by clanging the kick off the right upright, it elicited surprise. The reaction turned to near shock when his second such at- tempt in the game sailed wide right. CHARTING THE IRISH SECOND-DOWN SUCCESS RATE WAS KEY TO WIN OVER GEORGIA TECH Notre Dame held Georgia Tech to just 3 of 15 on third-down conversions in its 30-22 win over the Yel- low Jackets Sept. 19, a huge accomplishment against Paul Johnson's vaunted triple-option attack. A big part of that success was stopping the Jackets on second down. Using a pass/fail system, where second down success is considered picking up 70 percent of the yard- age needed for a first down via a pass, or 60 percent via a run, Georgia Tech only succeeded on 6 of 17 tries (35.3 percent) leading up to the 6:48 mark of the fourth quarter (when Notre Dame took a 30-7 lead). This helped put Georgia Tech into third-and-long situations – the Jackets average third-down distance from the start of the game to the 6:48 mark in the fourth quarter was third-and-eight — forcing them into must-pass situations, which is not what their offense is built for. SECOND DOWN CHART, 15:00 1Q TO 6:48 4Q — GEORGIA TECH AT NOTRE DAME Situation Outcome Result 1Q, second-and-six at GT 35 Skov, 2-yard rush Unsuccessful 1Q, second-and-seven at GT 28 Searcy, 4-yard rush Successful 1Q, second-and-two at ND 18 Skov, 1-yard rush Unsuccessful 1Q, second-and-eight at ND 11 Marshall, 2-yard loss Unsuccessful 2Q, second-and-five at GT 22 Skov, 6-yard rush Successful 2Q, second-and-10 at GT 28 Thomas, no gain Unsuccessful 2Q, second-and-five at GT 42 Snoddy, 48-yard rush Successful 2Q, second-and-10 at GT 25 Skov, 3-yard rush Unsuccessful 2Q, second-and-17 at ND 26 Thomas, incomplete pass Unsuccessful 3Q, second-and-six at GT 39 Searcy, 7-yard rush Successful 3Q, second-and-six at GT 50 Thomas, 10-yard rush Successful 3Q, second-and-one at ND 31 Skov, 5-yard rush Successful 3Q, second-and-17 at ND 33 Thomas, 1-yard rush Unsuccessful 3Q, second-and-nine at GT 29 Thomas, incomplete pass Unsuccessful 4Q, second-and-10 at GT 17 Snoddy, 3-yard rush Unsuccessful 4Q, second-and-eight at GT 39 Thomas, incomplete pass Unsuccessful 4Q, second-and-10 at GT 39 Snoddy, 1-yard rush Unsuccessful

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