It turns out, Brennan Armstrong was not healthy enough to play quarterback for Virginia and right from the outset the Cavaliers faced an immense uphill battle to stay competitive with their talisman signal-caller injured. The Irish strung together a few nice touchdown drives from an otherwise unmemorable offensive performance and kept the pressure on Virginia’s offensive line all game long to coast to a comfortable victory.
Notre Dame is 9-1 with the playoffs still within reach and the odds of a major bowl game increasing. They’ll face Georgia Tech for Senior Day next weekend before a regular season finale at Stanford. Those teams have combined to lose their last 9 games.
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | HOOS |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 28 | 3 |
| Plays | 61 | 64 |
| Total Yards | 423 | 278 |
| Yards Per Play | 6.93 | 4.34 |
| Conversions | 8/14 | 6/17 |
| Completions | 18 | 18 |
| Yards/Pass Attempt | 7.56 | 5.76 |
| Rushes | 38 | 30 |
| Rushing Success | 54.0% | 56.5% |
| 10+ Yds Rushes | 5 | 5 |
| 20+ Yds Passes | 1 | 1 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 18.7% | 16.6% |
Notre Dame began the game in Charlottesville with a failed 4th down conversion. However, Virginia established very early that moving the ball was going to be nearly impossible at times. Although the Hoos ended up carving out some nice things with a young quarterback it was far from enough as they couldn’t really come close to scoring a touchdown.
Offense
QB: B-
RB: B
TE: A
OL: B
WR: C+
This felt a lot like a game where the Irish offense knew Virginia wasn’t going to score very many points and played accordingly without much enthusiasm. You could see that near the end of the 1st half where against a different opponent Notre Dame very likely tries much harder to score some points. Instead, they were content with the 21-0 halftime lead.
Jack Coan played fine completing 75% of his passes with 3 touchdowns. Yet, he only mustered 132 yards on 20 attempts with an interception. The offense just could not get anything explosive going through the air with a 22-yard catch from tight end Michael Mayer being the longest reception on the night–and that was the pass from Buchner that Mayer caught behind the defenders’ back.
It was a lot of dink and dunk and without a mobile quarterback it sometimes results in these somewhat vanilla performances even if the game was never in doubt.
On the ground there was decent success bolstered by Kyren Williams doing Kyren Williams things and Logan Diggs continuing his strong backup role. In contrast to the passing game, there were some big plays on the ground aided by a 37-yard run by Lorenzo Styles and 31-yard run by Braden Lenzy.
Rushing Success
Williams – 7 of 14 (50.0%)
Coan – 0 of 3 (0.0%)
Tyree – 5 of 6 (83.3%)
Diggs – 4 of 9 (44.4%)
Buchner – 2 of 3 (66.6%)
Lenzy – 1 of 1 (100%)
Styles – 1 of 1 (100%)
The first full game without injured senior captain Avery Davis as expected brought us a rotation in the slot of running backs, tight ends, and Lorenzo Styles. As a group, the receivers combined for just 7 receptions on 12 targets, though. At least you had a couple nice touchdowns from Austin and Lenzy.
It really makes you wonder how the Notre Dame offense would adjust right now without tight end Michael Mayer. Following some quiet performances since his injury the future All-American hauls in 84 receiving yards to lead the squad. We also saw true freshman Mitchell Evans pick up his first career catch, as well.
Defense
DL: A
LB: B+
DB: B+
Oof, this Virginia offense had no shot without Brennan Armstrong and no seasoned competent backup ready to come in and get the ball to their big playmakers. I have to give quarterback Jay Woolfolk credit though, despite being battered he kept fighting and was able to move the ball just enough where Notre Dame wasn’t able to win by 40 or more points.
Eight sacks says enough, doesn’t it? And it wasn’t really like Notre Dame smoked the Virginia offensive line all night off the edge, that damage included an awful lot of Woolfolk holding on to the ball too long or being surrounded by a slowly collapsing pocket. Besides an occasional breaking of contain, the Irish front consistently strangled Virginia and especially clamped down hard once the Cavaliers started to threaten on a drive.
Like the offense, I do feel like the Notre Dame defense let up a little bit and didn’t play with great intensity after it was clear the game wouldn’t be close. For example, Virginia’s first successful run didn’t come until mid-way through the 2nd quarter and yet they ended the game with a pretty decent 56.5% overall rushing success rate–better than Notre Dame.
Five of those successful runs came from Woolfolk, too. Like most defenses, the Irish will likely be in trouble during the post-season if they face a mobile quarterback who can throw pretty well.
Stuffs vs. Virginia
Bauer – 3
Mills – 2.5
Ademilola, Jay – 1.5
Cross – 1
Lewis – 1
Griffith – 0.5
Bertrand – 0.5
Henderson – 0.5
Ademilola, Jus – 0.5
NaNa – 0.5
Foskey – 0.5
I’m sure Virginia will be kicking themselves for entering Notre Dame territory 6 times–including on 4 straight possessions–and not being able to muster more than 3 points nor score any touchdowns.
According to Brian Kelly, it definitely seemed like the flu or some bug hit the Irish defense pretty bad (keeping starters MTA and Drew White out) so I won’t criticize too much. With a more healthy roster this probably could’ve or should’ve been the type of game where Virginia was kept under 200 yards and around 10 first downs.
Final Thoughts
The failed 4th down quarterback sneak really altered the perception of the game. Imagine starting the game with 4 straight touchdowns! I typically love QB sneaks, unless they don’t work of course.
Virginia came out with some wildcat to start and quickly abandoned that approach, which was smart.
Why do the Cavaliers have so many weird player numbers from offensive players? I think the broadcast mentioned something about it but I didn’t catch it.
A 14-yard punt from Virginia after their first drive, not ideal!
It truly feels like Bo Bauer leads the entire team in good plays relatively to his total amount of playing time, outside of Kyren Williams maybe. With Drew White out the Erie product led the team in tackles and stuffs with 1.5 sacks and a pass break-up. I’m always surprised at how much athleticism he brings to the defense. His short area burst is really good.
Logan Diggs 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/qRk4L7zeMT
— NCAAF Nation (@NCAAFNation247) November 14, 2021
Logan Diggs learned it’s always awesome to give the world a highlight play for Sportscenter and TikTok. I do want to point out that Chris Tyree had a decent game from a success standpoint and that’s good too. This was the most action (6 carries) Tyree has seen since week 3.
This was the most snaps on defense we’ve seen from Prince Kollie all season and he finished with 4 tackles.
Positive vibes at safety!?? What is this now?? We saw Xavier Watts flash once again and Ramon Henderson moved from corner earlier this week in an attempt to find something that’s been missing back there. Henderson certainly took advantage with an interception and 0.5 tackle for loss.
Is the staff ready to move on from Houston Griffith? His playing time was curtailed and yet he had the opportunity to pick up a fumble at his feet and lost it. I thought it was interesting on a recent Irish Illustrated podcast that the future at safety in 2022 was brought up and Griffith’s name wasn’t even mentioned. He does have an extra year with the Covid year, if he wants it. It certainly feels like Griffith and maybe K.J. Wallace (who has been MIA for a while) may not be on the roster next year.
You always hate to see those late holding penalties on receivers way down field. Styles got a big run on the stat sheet anyway but a 52-yard touchdown is way cooler.
This was a poor Virginia defense, for sure. Not allowing a sack and giving up only 3 tackles for loss is another positive indicator for the Notre Dame offensive line.
Good Lord this team is deep and mean and nasty. Armstrong should be very glad he didn’t play because that would have gone poorly for him.
Quite possible we just nearly skunked the ACC champion at home without breaking a sweat.
lol who on earth is mad about this comment
how DARE you sir
we all know wake forest will be acc champions
and face us in atlanta
for the ultimate culmination of the rivalry
THROW OUT THE RECORD BOOKS WHEN THESE TWO GET TOGETHER
EVER SINCE THAT ONE TIME IN TWO THOUSAND AND ELEVEN THESE TWO TEAMS HAVE CERTAINLY PLAYED FOOTBALL AGAINST ONE ANOTHER FOLKS
It shouldn’t be anonymous, everyone should be able to see downvotes. Reveal yourself, cowards!
i demand a full audit
we will examine the downvotes for traces of backer sludge
I can see downvotes…but I think it’s because I bought the five star executive 18 stripes membership package
I, for one, appreciate downvoting agents of chaos
At the start of the year the consensus seemed to be 3-10 on the roster maybe wasn’t quite as high as years past but 11-40 was way higher and with this schedule and the injuries this team had maximized this. No armstrong was obviously huge but the D was missing hamilton, liafau, drew white and MTA and was still really good.
Think the injuries, especially at wideout, contributed to the conservative game plan at end of half and in the second half. Kind of have to limit plays when only have 4 healthy playable wideouts.
Coan has been really solid for this team, and overall guiding the team to an 11-1 regular season in a transition year would be huge but his immobility is a huge limitation in todays football. Offense seems to come so easy to many teams but man it feels like ND had to be damn near perfect for every drive.
Diggs has to be the feature back next year, tyree would have never converted that 3rd and 2. just love diggs vision and elusiveness. Tyree just never seems to make guys miss or really pick up any YAC
Tyree can be an outstanding change of pace back, but I agree, he can’t be a feature back. I’d love to see him get more snaps in the slot though.
Get Tyree 6-7 touches in a game and he’s bound to have a big play or two if you do it right.
Yep, that’s about the number of touches I would target for him most games, plus about 4 to Lenzy. Get the 2 of them to a combined 10 touches and that puts a ton of pressure on the defense to play extremely disciplined on the outside, which should open up more space for Diggs and Mayer to work inside the hashes.
No, no it doesn’t make me wonder that at all.
Bronco Mendenhall has a bizarre, old-school, #bluecollar way of giving out jersey numbers based on “earning it” in practice. As in the harder the coach thinks that you tried, the earlier you get to pick your number. I guess that WR who wears #99 and made a few plays on the field must not have been trying so hard in the off-season, unless he actually wanted that number. Possibly a big Gretzky guy?
Anyways, glad to see Tyree get more action and recovering from the turf toe. It is quietly satisfying his rush success was like double that of Diggs, who will (understandably) get all the attention for that awesome hurdle play. RB is in good shape!
I thought the announcer said that #99 has a unique role on the offense and so he got a unique number.
That sounds about right, I had a few screens going and wasn’t too tuned into the broadcast, but I know the majority of the players get to pick their numbers via priority of off-season coaching rankings.
Messing with player numbers in a way few people can understand, well alright.
Henderson was the highest graded defensive player by PFF (on 47 snaps) and it’s not very close.
Who needs Kyle Hamilton?
haha right. well part of his not being close is that most of everyone else was just not that great.
but I was thought it was an interesting tidbit to how well he played (for one game).
So – Cain Madden, Rt Guard and sideways karate chop extraordinaire
I get that the QB raises his knee to signify that he is ready for the snap.
Is Madden then doing the final line protection call? It seems his swipe left tells the Patterson to snap the ball. I though the center called the line protection.
And how is that not some form of false start? His arm motion isnt new, but I finally associated it with the actual snap.
Madden is signaling the start of the snap count to Patterson in a silent count. Madden turns away from the D line to communicate with Coan, which you can see in the play starting at 23 seconds here: https://youtu.be/ZgBC2vuHSDY?t=22
The movement isn’t a false start because it doesn’t simulate the start of a play. From the rulebook:
False Start. Each of the following is a false start by Team A if it occurs prior to the snap after the ball is ready for play and all players are in scrimmage formation:
Very interesting, thanks for sharing the detail.
I was wondering about this action as well, don’t know if it’s new or not but I only picked up on it last night. It seems like he triggers the center in obvious way (unless silent count varies but it seemed pretty consistent), just begged the question of “why” the defensive line couldn’t tee off on it.
That kind of motion seems to be the way to combat crowd noise if you’re the visiting team. I’ve seen a number of teams do that in order to give a visual cue as opposed to something that could be lost in crowd noise..
Yep, this is extremely common in the NFL as well. ND has done this in the past too, although I don’t know if they’ve done it this year. The last time we played at Michigan we definitely were doing it.
Not sure UVAs DL could tee off on anyone/thing. Honestly, ND may just not have cared if they knew the snap count. They aren’t particularly good.
I’d go a bit lower on the OL grade considering how bad this defense is. At one point they showed that Williams had 70 rushing yards, 67 of which were after contact.
Overall, I am not convinced our OL has actually gotten much better than earlier in the season, and think they are probably benefitting from playing worse teams. Both benefitting in that these defenses are easier to block, but also that these teams are hilariously bad at tackling Kyren (not that anyone is particularly good at it), making yards and success rate look pretty good.
It’s an interesting topic. Surely you’re right that the opponents lately are not as good. Looking back on the Wisconsin-Cincinnati stretch is like two top-5 defenses in a row, total buzzsaw at the absolute worst time, and def made the situation look really, really dire. But luckily not every defense is that level.
But how much has ND improved? Fair to wonder. No sacks against UVA, it’s a quick passing game, but that’s impressive. Honestly, I think it has improved, just because like Baker was really, really bad and getting turnstiled constantly, Carmody was injured and not much better. And Correll doesn’t have the weight and heft to be a guard, but was playing guard.
So, by some standard I do think the line has improved above being a total gongshow like it was after Fisher got hurt. Alt+Kristofic are pretty clearly better than Baker+Correll on the left side. Otherwise, it’s still a below average ND line. Maybe average overall for a normal college team? Hard to tell, Kyren does mask a lot of problems by being awesome. I don’t think this line is particularly good, but their level of play IMO is def better than it was in September.
I do believe that Alt + Kristofic are better than Baker + Correll. But I think a lot is smoke, mirrors and G5 level DLs. The fact it took however many games to find them, means they clearly weren’t much better in practice, and they likely started looking the best by A. being healthy and B. playing the #55, #99, #91, #71, and #105 FEI defenses. It would not surprise me at all if Baker played just as well as Alt against these teams had we stuck with him longer.
0 sacks against UVA is not anything special. They have recorded 0 sacks in 4 games and 1 sack in 3 games. Their defense is truly terrible. Granted we really didn’t try, but we scored as much against them as Miami, and less than UNC, Wake, Louisville, Georgia Tech, and BYU. We scored more than Duke (0 burger lolz), Illinois, William & Mary, and whoever ACU is.
But I will say. We have depth! Can’t imagine many teams finding quality starters in their opening day 3rd/4th stringers.
“It would not surprise me at all if Baker played just as well as Alt against these teams had we stuck with him longer.”
I can appreciate that opinion, but I don’t agree.
UVA defense is bad but let’s not forget Kyren ran for 2.3 yards per carry against Florida State, and they sacked Coan a million times. And the FSU defense isn’t good either.
Even allowing for competition it in differences and the caliber of defense ND is seeing now, I don’t see how one wouldn’t see a large jump in o-line play now compared to early weeks of the season.
Kyren rushed for about that average before contact against UVA as well, and FSU has a top 40 defense per FEI. The OL isn’t actually doing anything impressive. It’s probably slightly better because of experience together, but it mostly looks better because of the quality of opposing Ds.
I’m not saying it deserves an F. They are like me at ND. A solid C+/B- student in my major, but all As in my electives. And they saved all their electives for SR year (shout out to music through technology!) and look like they are better students.
FSU is 57th nationally at 3.74 yards allowed per carry, so that probably means they’re near 4 against for everyone else and only 2.3 for Kyren.
Not saying the ND line is impressive now, just that the performance has improved this season as a group beyond the truth that opponents have also gotten easier. Even against easier competition that September line likely would have continued to struggle since they struggled at the very basics early on.
My unexpert opinion is that it’s about 70/30 quality of opponent vs actual improvement. And some of that improvement is scheming around weaknesses, while some is actual gelling of the line/finding the right combination
I’m probably pretty close to this. I do think they have improved and found the right 5. I just don’t think it is all that much. And don’t think they are actually playing all that well considering the defenses we’ve been playing since the bye.
I really cannot believe how well this season has gone. Before Wisconsin I was fully prepared to stare down the barrel of 7-5, and instead we might sneak our way into the playoff. Remarkable roster depth right now, and (notwithstanding the bummer Sonny Styles news this weekend) things are looking even better on the ‘crootin front.
Speaking of playoff, ESPN predictor says we have a 60% chance of making the CFP. That seems high to me, but there will definitely be a couple teams in front of us making way in the next few weeks, so who knows?
I, for one, would rather see a NY6 win, even against a weaker opponent, than another drubbing in the first round of the playoffs. Lots of other teams have Orange/Sugar/Rose/Fiesta trophys in their cases because they got a nice matchup against a G5 team or a weak ACC/PAC champ. We, meanwhile, seem to consistently get matched up with the best non-national champion available (or sometimes the eventual champ). We’re due for an easy major bowl matchup.
538 has us at 23%
I think they essentially have the big12 champ with 1 OR 2 losses as being essentially ahead of ND.
My playoff teams, in order of percentage chance of making it:
1. 13-0 UGA
2. 12-1 UGA
3. 12-1 Bama
4. 1-loss B1G champ
5. 1-loss Oregon
6. 1-loss XII champ
7. Unbeaten Cincy
8. 11-2 Bama
9. ND
So there are realistic scenarios where we could make it in. But I’m not rooting for them to happen.
What about a 2 loss B1G champ? I wonder if they’d sneak in over 1 loss ND. The committee seems really into the B1G this year for some reason.
Maybe if it was Ohio St and there were some extenuating circumstances to their lost, like a QB goes out against Michigan but would be again available for playoffs
If the 1-loss team is Michigan, I’d have to think that hurts Oregon’s chances.
I don’t know how high I am on either OkSt or Oklahoma – both have had 5+ 1 possession games against not the toughest schedules in the world.
I think the 11-2 Bama depends on how it happens. If they lose to Georgia, they’re not going to set up an immediate rematch in the playoff, even if nobody thinks they are worse than ND.
They’ve also got Bama #2 with one loss to a team that isn’t in the mix, and Bama has looked less than dominant at times on the field as well. That’s ranked Bama above 0 or 1 loss P5 leaders..
If the UGA game is close (and the Alabama/Georgia games always are) and, say UGA wins 31-28 on a last second FG. Not sure if Bama gets in over 1-loss conference champs, but I wouldn’t be shocked.
And maybe no rematch, but maybe then you’ve got:
1 Georgia vs 4 Cincy
2 Ohio St vs 3 Bama (11-2)
I still am convinced Oregon will be exposed, and even if they don’t, it’s possible the Big10 doesn’t produce a 12-1 champion to take the spot either, and I think an 11-2 Alabama team is a possibility. I def agree I don’t think Notre Dame will be ranked much higher than about 6th by the committee because ND doesn’t really have a super-quality win AND has committed the sin of losing to a Gof5 team at home, which the committee will not forgive.
Just think the committee is too enamored by believing the Bama is clearly one of the four best teams, almost not caring or needing to see them prove it on the field.
IMO, it would take a ton of chaos still for ND to get into the playoff. Like talking levels of crazy where Wisconsin wins the Big 10 title game, Cincy loses badly to further clear the runway, and maybe Oregon and/or Oklahoma St also losing one more game.
Yeah. The committee seems really lazy this year.
I’m guessing this is the conversation during their meeting. Bama’s #1! What’s that? There’s another SEC team that is far and away the best team in the country AND Bama lost? Bama’s #2!
What’s that, there are other teams and conferences that play football? Oh, how much money do they make us? Bama’s #2! Let’s make sure we set the B1G up so they can get the #2 seed so they don’t get embarrassed by UGA!
Everyone was talking about Meatchicken being ranked ahead of MI St, speculating it was a setup for the committee to put tOSU ahead of Oregon, but I think it is setup to put ND ahead of the Bearcats if they lose. It is unlikely a G5 team gets invited to the playoff.
Perhaps, I don’t think they have that much foresight in mind, but who knows. I def do agree if Cincy loses to SMU or ECU or some random AAC team, they will drop like a rock and the committee will have no qualms about rating Notre Dame higher than Cincy.
And I’m fine with that too. The game was in September, stuff has changed since then. There are data points where ND clobbered Navy and Cincy struggled with Navy. That to me would be a fairly justifiable situation if Cincy loses, with a weak schedule, stick a fork in them, they’re finished.
That’s different than disregarding a game from 2 weeks earlier where MSU beat Michigan. IMO, it’s only logical you gotta use the fresh head-to-head as the tiebreaker for the time being.
Lots of conspiracy theories here
Yes, funny thing, over the last few years, what I believe to be rational thought has turned into conspiracies. As far as foresight, I think they do, why else have all these big 10 teams in the rankings, and have Alabama at #2 when they have clearly struggled at times this year.
I believe that Oregon and the XII will take care of themselves by losing. In other words, in my list above, I don’t think a 1-loss Oregon or 1-loss XII champ will exist by season’s end. I think a 1-loss B1G champ is likely, and an unbeaten Georgia. That really does leave 11-2 Bama (loss to UGA, not too ugly) in a good position.
Big props to both ND’s defense and Ed Sheeran for somehow balancing being a D1 college QB and a career as a pop star. It is amazing the extent of drop off with him on the bench.
Also, I have been pretty open about ND’s DBs not playing well, even considering the competition. But even taking the a backup QB into account, I thought they played great top to bottom against easily the deepest pass catching group on the schedule.