FINAL SCORE: Notre Dame 38 – Texas 3
First half: Notre Dame 17 – Texas 0
Second half: Notre Dame 21 – Texas 3
First half observations
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[*]After an easy 3rd down conversion to Chris Brown, the Irish came up one foot shy on their second third down and paid for it by jumping offside on 4th down.
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[*]Johnathan Gray and Marcus Johnson both expressed their frustration with how long the sideline took to get the 3rd down call to the field on Texas’ first drive.
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[*]On the Irish’s first touchdown and their first down (on the first drive), Jason Hall and Dylan Haines both dropped back into such a deep zone that Zaire had a 5-yard cushion to complete a 15-yard throw. The same soft zone also allowed an easy conversion on ND’s third drive.
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[*]Despite two three and outs to start, Dickson bailed out the offense with a 52-yard punt that rolled dead at the Notre Dame 5-yard line.
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[*]At 14-0, the Irish are sealing the edges so well that end-around and off-tackle runs are into the defensive secondary before a Texas player has a chance at making a play.
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[*]Jerrod Heard saw his first action on the team’s third drive, but was taken out after a solid hit on a rush. The drive started well, but was undone by a holding penalty.
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[*]Heard was self-sacked twice (with an assist from porous OL play), then Dickson punted it for 28-yards. There are plenty of folks to blame for the first half performance. (The result was a ND field goal.)
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[*]Midway through the 2nd quarter, Daje Johnson seemed like the only offensive player that wanted to win.
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[*]In the first half, Malik Zaire let the Texas D-Line rush converge, then broke the pocket by running straight upfield. There was never a ‘backer at home to stop him.
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[*]On the final drive of the half, the third down screen called to Daje Johnson was excellent. Unfortunately it was an outlier in the first half. Then, Armanti Foreman and the offense were bailed out by a facemask penalty.
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[*]I refuse to acknowledge Brian Kelly burning timeouts at the end of the half.
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Second half observations
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[*]The offense and defense opened the second half the same way they played the first. Special teams was a bright spot though when Kris Boyd leveled the returner after Dickson crushed a punt (plus the missed FG attempt by the Irish).
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[*]The long completion to John Burt was a beautiful throw by Swoopes. Credit the O-Line for giving him time.
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[*]In the 3rd quarter, Texas was only down 14 points and needed a game-changing play from the defense with ND starting on their own 10-yard line. Instead they allowed a Zaire-to-Fuller game-killer.
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[*]The lone bright spot on offense tonight was Daje Johnson’s effort and the number of touches he received.
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[*]Notre Dame’s OL play + Texas’ DB play = Malik Zaire, Heisman contender
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[*]In the first half, DB’s had to run up 5 yards to tackle a receiver in front of them. In the second half, DB’s let receivers run 5 yards past them before they reacted to the ball.
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[*]3rd down defense was stressed in the offseason. Early in the 4th quarter, Notre Dame was 5-10 on third down conversions (and they had more than 20 other first downs converted before 3rd down).
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[*]Whereas the first half score felt like Texas was losing (more than Notre Dame winning), at 38-3, Notre Dame has established that this result is about them too.
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Top takeaways‘”
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[*]Texas looked like they played the game at practice speed while Notre Dame played at game speed.
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[*]It’s a mistake to make the offensive ineptitude a Swoopes vs Heard debate. The failures on offense belong to everyone (including coaches), not just #18. That’s not excusing him because he didn’t make a difference either.
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Notable Stat’s‘”
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[*]Texas had 4 first downs and 75 total yards at halftime. Notre Dame had 17 points.
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[*]Tyrone Swoopes had a 33.5 passer rating in the first half, and finished at 67.3.
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[*]Notre Dame had 30 first downs, 214 net yards rushing, and 313 yards passing.
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[*]Total TOP: Irish – 39:10, Longhorns – 20:50
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[*]Malik Jefferson finished with 9 tackles, including 2.5 TFL’s.
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[*]Malik Zaire finished 19-22 for a 86% completion ratio and a 250.9 rating.
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