Notre Dame’s 23-13 win at Texas A&M didn’t come easily but was certainly rewarding. The win makes everything Notre Dame hopes to play for in 2024 a true possibility.
Scheduling a massive Week 1 contest doesn’t come without risk, but a win in such a contest brings incredible reward and a high Notre Dame will be able to build off of.
The game finished 23-13 but was very much in doubt until the final minute. What numbers played the biggest factor in Notre Dame’s 23-13 win?
Texas A&M ran 68 plays on Saturday night for a grand total of 246 yards. That’s an average of 3.62 yards per play allowed.
Even the Texas A&M running game that felt like it was working at various times for the Aggies still only averaged 3.8 yards per rush.
Notre Dame’s defense was hyped as one of the nation’s best entering the season and Texas A&M averaged fewer yards against it per play than the national leader in that statistic allowed in 2023.
Notre Dame knew going in that getting the offense going at Texas A&M was going to be no easy task but perhaps it was even more difficult at times than expected. Notre Dame started the game converting just 1-for-10 third down attempts.
To its credit, Notre Dame converted the 11th on a 3rd-and-5 when Riley Leonard found Jaden Greathouse to kickstart the go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
Not all defenses will be Texas A&M’s this season but Notre Dame will need to get a whole lot better in that department.
To the credit of Notre Dame’s defense, Texas A&M was just 4-of-15 combined on third and fourth downs.
Aug 31, 2024; College Station, Texas, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish defensive lineman Howard Cross III (56) tackles Texas A&M Aggies quarterback Conner Weigman (15) at Kyle Field. / Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports
Back in my high school football days we would get pride stickers (skulls in our case) for different achievements. One of them was for if the defense didn’t allow a play over 25 yards long an entire game.
Notre Dame doesn’t do pride stickers but in an effort to keep everything in front of them, Texas A&M’s longest play of the entire game was just 18 yards Saturday night. That came on Texas A&M’s opening possession that ended in a field goal.
Texas A&M went its final 11 possessions of the night by having just one play that totaled 15 yards.
It’s an easy narrative but that’s because it’s true. Win the turnover battle and you’ll probably win the game. Notre Dame’s consistent pressure on Conner Weigman made an impact early and resulted in two interceptions before halftime. Going forward the points off of turnovers needs to improve but we’ll get there.
Aug 31, 2024; College Station, Texas, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Jeremiyah Love (4) breaks free and runs the ball into the end zone for a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Texas A&M Aggies at Kyle Field. / Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports
That’s the before and after of Notre Dame’s running attack on Saturday night.
Leading up to Jadarian Price’s 47-yard touchdown run to give Notre Dame a 13-6 lead, Notre Dame had run the ball 24 times for just 91 yards. That would force some young, metrics overloaded playcallers to quit trying to even do it, especially when really only the quarterback was running successfully.
Instead Mike Denbrock stuck with it, found the vulnerabilities’ in Texas A&M’s defensive line, and kept attacking. He was rewarded with touchdown runs of 47-yards and 21-yards as a result and called a game as well as Notre Dame fans have seen from an offensive coordinator in seemingly ages.
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Publish date : 2024-09-01 11:04:00
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