There have been a lot of debate since the end of the game vs. Virginia on Brian Kelly being too conservative. Notre Dame had possession of the football eleven times. The four touchdown drives covered 43, 60, 80, and 61 yards. Three drives ended in Virginia territory starting with the opening drive ending on the Virginia 21 yard line, the Tyler Buchner fumble inside the 10 yard line after a 85 yard drive, and another drive by Buchner ended on a loss of 2 run on 4th and 1 run by Logan Diggs. The 2 drives to start the 2nd half were an interception on a 1st down deep pass and a 3 plays and a punt. The drive before halftime they chose to run the clock instead of attempting to reach the end zone 85 yards away. The 11th drive was the kneel down to end the game and this should not be counted as a drive.
The opening drive of the game the 3rd play Jack Coan hits Kevin Austin for a 1st down on a quick slant in the boundary. Austin is a shoestring tackle away from breaking this for a 68 yard touchdown. 3 plays later Coach Rees calls a play action pass to Lorenzo Styles, who is playing slot receiver, runs across the field and looks to have his defender beaten but he does not make the catch. In re-watching this play I do not understand how Styles does not catch this pass for a touchdown. To make matters worse for Styles he has an easy 1st down on the 3rd and 4 quick out but he slips causing a 4th and 1. The next play Rees calls a QB sneak which is stuffed and Notre Dame ends what looked like an opening game scoring drive. The drive ends in no points but this was far from a conservative play calling drive. The end of this 1st drive is why Kelly called timeout on the 2nd drive to not settle for a field goal. Instead of settling he went for the 1st down which resulted in the drive ending in a touchdown. I am not sure how Kelly can be looked at as not being aggressive in this game.
The opening two drives of the 2nd half went 2 plays and the deep pass interception and a 3 and out series which ended in a punt. Notre Dame is being aggressive on the 2nd play of the drive throwing a deep ball down the field after Notre Dame picks up a 1st down on the opening play of the drive only to have it called back from a Michael Mayer holding penalty. On the 3 and out punt drive Notre Dame picks up 6 yards on the 1st down run then Coach Rees calls back to back pass plays that do not produce a 1st down. As a coach that is being aggressive with the ball in your possession up 21-0. Notre Dame gets the ball back and marches on a 61 yard touchdown drive and follow that up with a beautiful 85 yard drive from Tyler Buchner. The Buchner drive is filled with RPO's with a couple passes for 1st downs to Mayer. Miscommunication between freshman Buchner and Diggs on the ball exchange takes away a golden opportunity to go up 35-3.
The drive in question and rightfully so is with 1:16 left to go in the 1st half with 2 time outs remaining why didn't Coach Kelly attempt to score points before halftime? This is a honest question to ask as I did during our live You Tube post game show. I instantly thought of the end of 1st half touchdown drive by Cincinnati going 80 yards in 5 plays using 1:08 of clock. Notre Dame had scored on the previous 3 drives vs. Virginia and with the athletes ND has I expected a few deep shots or a running back screen to try and produce a big play. Looking back on the game and hearing what Kelly had to say about that situation he does make sense. They were 85 yards away and they were in control of the game. As a coach I understand he did not want to risk anything and give hope to Virginia right before halftime especially when they have the ball to start the 3rd quarter. When coaching all of these situations are racing in your head, but at the same time no one would have faulted him for getting aggressive with the ball.
Notre Dame was aggressive on offense and they did not sit back and run the ball all night long. They got stuck on 4 touchdowns and missed out on a couple more. A hidden statistic in this game is the fact that Virginia did run a couple more plays than Notre Dame giving them the time of possession lead for the game. For as good as the defense played holding Virginia to 3 points it is surprising Notre Dame did not own a sizable lead in this category. In the end Notre Dame won by 25 points in a game they dominated from start to finish.
The opening drive of the game the 3rd play Jack Coan hits Kevin Austin for a 1st down on a quick slant in the boundary. Austin is a shoestring tackle away from breaking this for a 68 yard touchdown. 3 plays later Coach Rees calls a play action pass to Lorenzo Styles, who is playing slot receiver, runs across the field and looks to have his defender beaten but he does not make the catch. In re-watching this play I do not understand how Styles does not catch this pass for a touchdown. To make matters worse for Styles he has an easy 1st down on the 3rd and 4 quick out but he slips causing a 4th and 1. The next play Rees calls a QB sneak which is stuffed and Notre Dame ends what looked like an opening game scoring drive. The drive ends in no points but this was far from a conservative play calling drive. The end of this 1st drive is why Kelly called timeout on the 2nd drive to not settle for a field goal. Instead of settling he went for the 1st down which resulted in the drive ending in a touchdown. I am not sure how Kelly can be looked at as not being aggressive in this game.
The opening two drives of the 2nd half went 2 plays and the deep pass interception and a 3 and out series which ended in a punt. Notre Dame is being aggressive on the 2nd play of the drive throwing a deep ball down the field after Notre Dame picks up a 1st down on the opening play of the drive only to have it called back from a Michael Mayer holding penalty. On the 3 and out punt drive Notre Dame picks up 6 yards on the 1st down run then Coach Rees calls back to back pass plays that do not produce a 1st down. As a coach that is being aggressive with the ball in your possession up 21-0. Notre Dame gets the ball back and marches on a 61 yard touchdown drive and follow that up with a beautiful 85 yard drive from Tyler Buchner. The Buchner drive is filled with RPO's with a couple passes for 1st downs to Mayer. Miscommunication between freshman Buchner and Diggs on the ball exchange takes away a golden opportunity to go up 35-3.
The drive in question and rightfully so is with 1:16 left to go in the 1st half with 2 time outs remaining why didn't Coach Kelly attempt to score points before halftime? This is a honest question to ask as I did during our live You Tube post game show. I instantly thought of the end of 1st half touchdown drive by Cincinnati going 80 yards in 5 plays using 1:08 of clock. Notre Dame had scored on the previous 3 drives vs. Virginia and with the athletes ND has I expected a few deep shots or a running back screen to try and produce a big play. Looking back on the game and hearing what Kelly had to say about that situation he does make sense. They were 85 yards away and they were in control of the game. As a coach I understand he did not want to risk anything and give hope to Virginia right before halftime especially when they have the ball to start the 3rd quarter. When coaching all of these situations are racing in your head, but at the same time no one would have faulted him for getting aggressive with the ball.
Notre Dame was aggressive on offense and they did not sit back and run the ball all night long. They got stuck on 4 touchdowns and missed out on a couple more. A hidden statistic in this game is the fact that Virginia did run a couple more plays than Notre Dame giving them the time of possession lead for the game. For as good as the defense played holding Virginia to 3 points it is surprising Notre Dame did not own a sizable lead in this category. In the end Notre Dame won by 25 points in a game they dominated from start to finish.
