Rakes Report #180: She only drinks coffee at midnight when the moment is not right, her timing is quite unusual (The Virginia Review)
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~optional musical accompaniment~
1) Just before kickoff on Saturday evening, we found out that Drew White and Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa would be missing the game with the flu. When added to the injuries of Kyle Hamilton and Avery Davis, that meant the Irish were down a full quartet of their captains and three defensive starters. Following the game, Brian Kelly said that upwards of 13 players missed practice this week due to illness (non-COVID), turning the trip to Charlottesville into an all-hands-on-deck affair for those able to suit up. Notre Dame was very much aided by the absence of Cavaliers starting quarterback Brennan Armstrong and a forgiving Bronco Mendenhall defense but they did what you’re supposed to do against an overmatched open and won comfortably. That’s 40 straight wins against unranked opponents, 14 straight wins in the month of November and barring a disaster I do not want to consider it will mark the fifth consecutive season of double-digit victories. Not bad.
2) Considering it was a sleepy game, both sides of the ball had fun moments on Saturday night. Let’s start with the defense, where so many new faces stepped up but an old and reliable one made perhaps the biggest impact. In his first career start, Bo Bauer led the team in tackles with nine, deflected a pass and kicked in a sack and a half, including a casual, disrespectful, almost one-armed chucking to the ground. Rylie Mills had a career night and earned the game ball with two sacks, while Justin Ademilola, Clarence Lewis and Howard Cross also reached the quarterback over the course of the evening. (Lewis was also really close to a great forced fumble/recovery combo but was overturned by the booth.) Ramon Henderson got plenty of snaps in the first half and made the most of it, including a big tackle for loss on third down and a great interception. D.J. Brown was solid again in Hamilton’s absence, pulling in an interception. Notre Dame is going to need some reinforcements the rest of the way and they started to get some from Prince Kollie and Xavier Watts, who combined for nine tackles when things were out of hand.
Marcus Freeman dodged a bullet not having to deal with Armstrong and a fully operational Cavalier offense, but there were plenty of talented weapons in that game and the Irish kept the top on, allowing a long run of 12 and only one reception over 20. The game was surprisingly chippy at times but the defense stayed active and aggressive without committing any dumb penalties, which can be a fine line to walk. The Irish were presented with a light test and passed with flying colors, having now gone two full games without giving up a touchdown.
3) Considering they only scored four touchdowns, this was a sneaky fun day for the offense. They averaged just under seven yards per play (6.8, to be exact) and were over 50 percent on success rate. The Irish ran for 250 yards, completed 75 percent of their passes and saw a bunch of skill players show out as Tommy Rees tried to attack more with rushing plays to the receivers. Kyren Williams had a laugh-out-loud touchdown run to go with his usual magic tricks of turning two-yard losses into positive plays. Logan Diggs surpassed him with the single best highlight, hurdling a Cavalier defender — after breaking two tackles! — on his way to 67 yards rushing and making us all feel a little more accepting about life after Kyren.
Kevin Austin, efficiency maven: Three catches on third down for two conversions and a lovely touchdown in the back of the end zone. After a quiet game against Navy, Lorenzo Styles had a 37-yard run and would have had a 52-yard touchdown if not for an unnecessary hold on his fellow freshman. (A reminder, when combined with Tyler Buchner and Logan Diggs mishandling an exchange on the doorstep, that freshmen will make mistakes.) Braden Lenzy had an awesome diving touchdown to get the Irish on the board and showed off the jets on the ground as well. (Lenzy said after the game that Rees installed that delayed throw in practice last week after seeing something on the Virginia film – the mad lad.) Michael Mayer caught a touchdown plus a ball on a dude’s back and is now one of just three tight ends in school history to hit 50 catches (Tyler Eifert and Ken McAfee). With all the injury carnage you can forget that Mayer was so banged up he missed the game in Blacksburg, so having him fully healthy for the final games of the year would be nice. This is more eye test-y but it seemed like Chris Tyree had some of his burst back as he battles turf toe, so hopefully he can continue to progress.
Speaking of Buchner, he flashed a lot of the total package in limited snaps, showing off both the wheels and the cannon. Jack Coan was solid again, putting on four good drives in four first half drives, the first ending in Rees testing the limits of the quarterback sneak’s effectiveness after 12 plays and 54 yards and the last three ending in touchdowns. Deep ball issues remain but we just live with and hope the staff schemes around that as much as possible going forward. Also worth noting: No sacks, and Coan shifted in the pocket to avoid a close call…just before airmailing an interception toward Austin. Even with that, if Coan and Buchner play like they have since the bye, the Irish will get to 11-1.
(Quick sidebar while we’re on the offense: Jamie Uyeyama of Irish Sports Daily joined me on the podcast last week to go deep on how Rees has changed things up since the slow start, in addition to discussing Freeman’s first season and big picture thoughts. If you want a better idea of what the coordinators have been calling, I think it’s worth your time.)
4) Did everyone enjoy playing on a grass field in November where people kept slipping? I certainly enjoyed whatever it was Mendenhall was doing on the early fourth and 12 attempt the Irish snuffed out. The Irish definitely made the right call in eschewing the field goal attempt after initially considering it on the first touchdown drive, calling a timeout, converting a fourth and short with Kyren, then immediately hitting Mayer.
While I would have preferred the Irish be more aggressive at the end of the half, I understand playing it safe with a 21-0 lead and the sense that Virginia wasn’t going to be able to combine enough points with enough stops to make it a game. Sometimes we concern ourselves with the process and sometimes we defer to the results and this is one of those instances where the ends justified the means. I would have preferred a slightly gaudier point total than 28 but I don’t think there will be much change to Notre Dame’s prospects because of only winning by 25 on the road against Power 5 team that will be bowling as so much is still beyond Irish control.
5) Winning Is Hard/Schadenfreude Round-Up: It was a fun weekend that could have been a little more topsy-turvy but we’ll take what we can get. The highest ranked team to fall was Oklahoma, who came off a bye with the assumption they were finally healthy and right but no, they needed a cosmetic touchdown late just to crack double digits in Waco. 260 yards of offense for Lincoln Riley is jarring. Nice win by Baylor and Dave Aranda is doing great work, but they don’t control their own destiny because they lost to TCU’s back-up quarterback and interim coach last week.
Michigan survived in Happy Valley despite a late Nittany Lion lead. James Franklin had one of the dumbest in-game calls I’ve seen in a while, faking a field goal from the two instead of just running a play with the offense that had been moving the ball well on that drive. The Nittany Lions still have Sparty to close the season (LAND-GRANT TROPHY), so it’s possible they go from No. 4 in the country to 7-5.
Georgia trailed Tennessee 10-7 and Alabama trailed New Mexico State 3-0 before both won easily. Clemson was losing to UConn for a while! Oregon was tied at the half with Washington State and Utah struggled with Arizona. Texas A&M was a slight road favorite in Oxford but fell to Ole Miss, their chances of a sneaking into the SEC title game gone. Auburn gave up 40 straight points to Mississippi State in the process of blowing a big lead. Florida gave up 42 first-half points to Samford and Dan Mullen is teetering. Miami briefly played well and was receiving the most minor of kudos so of course they lost a heartbreaker to Florida State. North Carolina lost in overtime to Pitt. Minnesota lost at Iowa. Iowa State lost at Texas Tech as a 10-point favorite and unless they upset the Sooners the playoff dark horse will finish 7-5. Oh, and Jimmy Lake was fired by Washington for reasons, per the school, “on the field and off.”
Finally: The Texas Longhorns were a 31-point home favorite against Kansas, a program that had not won a conference road game since 2008 (!) and had never won in Austin. Steve Sarkisian’s crew trailed 42-21 at the half but rallied to force overtime, where they were unable to keep the Jayhawks out of the end zone and gave up a miracle two-point conversion, losing 57-56. This is Texas’ first five-game losing streak since 1956 and unless they win at West Virginia and beat a good Kansas State team to close the season, they will not go bowling. Anyway, Tom Herman went 7-3 last year and 8-5 the year before that and 10-4 the year before that but he wasn’t supportive enough of a song so here you go I guess.
6) That isn’t a game we’ll spend much time thinking about going forward, but I’m okay with things not being all that exciting in this situation. The last two times Notre Dame played Virginia were decidedly not boring, when they needed a Will Fuller miracle in 2015 and trailed at the half in the Athens hangover game in 2019. As we saw above, a lot of teams had Saturdays that were way more interesting and I much prefer this.
If all goes well for the good guys, these next two games also won’t make much of a ripple on the national stage or stick in your memory. It’s not Notre Dame’s fault that both Georgia Tech and Stanford have wobbled to the season’s conclusion, but it will be their fault if they don’t take full advantage and close the 2021 proceedings out at 11-1. For the Irish to lose as much talent as they did in the offseason, then lose so much to injury and still be in position for the “down year” to be a New Year’s Six bowl and possible playoff consideration is an impressive feat, even if they were aided by some of the marquee opponents falling well short of their lofty preseason expectations.
There are only two full college football Saturdays featuring Notre Dame Fighting Irish football games left, which is very depressing. For we the fans, the job is to savor and cherish them because the darkness of the offseason is approaching far too fast. For the team, the job is to under no circumstances lose at home to 3-7 Georgia Tech on Senior Day. Get healthy, get right and get Win Number Ten. Go Irish, Beat Yellow Jackets.
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