Rakes Report #252: I'm going back to New Orleans, my race is almost run (The Georgia Review)

With one foot on the platform and the other on the train, the Irish win a Sugar Bowl brawl to punch through to the playoff semifinals.

~mandatory musical accompaniment~

1) We are going to spend a great deal of time talking about how Notre Dame made big plays in all three phases of the game to defeat the SEC champion Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl and advance to the semifinals of the inaugural 12-team playoff. It was a monster win for many: Marcus Freeman, Riley Leonard, Narratives, Irish fans. A special game to celebrate that affirms the program’s place in the upper echelon of the sport.

But first we should acknowledge the tragic circumstances under which the game was played, postponed a day due to a horrific attack on New Year’s morning. It is never a competition when it comes to sickening instances of mass death but they tend to hit me with a little extra oomph when it’s a moment of pure joy turned to terror, such as Bourbon Street revelry a few hours after the ball drops. Deepest condolences to those who lost someone and gratitude for those who are safe.

I was having difficulty getting locked in for this game after the stream of bad news on Wednesday — including the initial delay, the murkiness in the rescheduling and then uncertainty about whether the Thursday afternoon start would hold — but once things kicked off in front of a mostly full Superdome there was a sense of normalcy. This was a playoff game against Kirby Smart and a Bulldogs team that had escaped Notre Dame twice in recent years, coming back from halftime deficits in both 2017 and 2019. This was not the same Georgia team that won consecutive national titles nor even the one that went 13-1 last year but it was still the high stakes of facing the SEC champion in a win-or-go-home situation.

Notre Dame was ready for the moment and they delivered. It was never easy and it was often ugly but when the dust settled the Irish had advanced with a school record 13th win and Smart was left complaining about the officiating and his own team’s mistakes. Monster victory but we certainly aren’t done yet.

(Before we move on, wanted to note Jess and I recorded a podcast Thursday evening after the game concluded you can listen to on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.)

2) This will not go down as one of the prettier offensive games in Notre Dame history, but there was beauty in the muck. Against a Georgia defense that sported three likely first-round picks and a bunch of other guys who will hear their name called later in the weekend, the offense eked out just enough. Four yards per snap, a 19th percentile success rate and a long drive of 41 yards isn’t going to win you many games but they limited mistakes and did just enough.

Mike Denbrock kept things conservative in a game very reminiscent of the season’s previous SEC opponent. Lots of runs up the middle and short passes that eventually sprinkled in some Riley Leonard legs and Jadarian Price forays to the outside. Tip the hat to Leonard and the offensive line: Scratched out over four yards per carry and allowed just a single sack, which was also the Bulldogs’ only tackle for loss. Despite this, Notre Dame still found themselves in a bunch of third-and-longs due to other missteps, but it paid off late when the Irish were able to essentially end the game by grinding out nearly eight minutes of clock, highlighted by Leonard outrunning the Dawgs to the sideline before a leaping, twirling third-down conversion that will go on his Jackass audition tape¹. Yes, there were some silly penalties but most importantly (and in stark contrast to the opponent) zero turnovers.

There’s a world where the Dawg defense rallies at the end of the second quarter after the strip sack and it’s a 9-3 halftime deficit for them at worst, but Leonard struck immediately: One RPO and one great pass to Beaux Collins who made an equally great contested catch. (That was one of Notre Dame’s two red zone visits for the game, the second coming with 55 seconds left after the final fourth-down stop.) Jordan Faison’s postseason dominance continued but unfortunately Jeremiyah Love was banged up again*, making Notre Dame’s 14th game his first of the season without a rushing score. Cannot say enough about Leonard’s toughness and sack avoidance, two traits he’s been consistent with during his time in blue and gold.

* Freeman said Saturday that everyone would be available for the Orange Bowl save for tight end Cooper Flanagan, who is done for the remainder of the postseason.

3) Georgia was a flawed offense all season, plagued by inconsistencies with their offensive line, rushing attack and receivers actually being able to catch the ball. I thought there was a chance having more of a dual threat who didn’t have a bunch of multi-interception games this season could help the Bulldogs in a low-scoring affair but Gunner Stockton never got anything going on the ground and Georgia’s top two tailbacks had fewer yards than Leonard. (Take away Nate Frazier’s 28-yard run in the second half and he combined with Trevor Etienne for 14 carries for 47 yards and the red zone fumble.)

The speed, physicality, discipline and violence of Al Golden’s unit was on display from the start, eventually totaling four sacks, nine tackles for loss and five pass breakups in a dominant display of havoc. Without Rylie Mills there was going to need to be a repeat of the team effort that suffocated Indiana and that success materialized again, with the defensive backs crashing to join the linebackers in totally wiping out any Bulldog attempts to get to the edge. (15 total tackles for Xavier Watts and Adon Shuler, the latter also with the giant hit to spring the Etienne fumble. Leonard Moore had a late sequence where he sniffed out a screen on one snap and then nearly pulled off an interception dozens of yards down the field on the next.) How fun to see guys like Jaylen Sneed, Junior Tuihalamaka and Donovan Hinish who were on the fringes of the rotation at points in the season come through with such big plays. Special acknowledgement of Gabe Rubio stepping up as a force in the middle with Mills absent and Drayk Bowen for leading the linebackers in snaps.

And man, R.J Oben. A consistent pass rush threat while at Duke, the transfer hadn’t done a whole lot this season but he came through with the key play of the game, strip-sacking Stockton to set up the Irish’s lone offensive score. To my untrained eye it seemed like he had a number of other quality reps where Stockton barely avoided a similar fate, and that’s how it was processed by the folks at PFF as well, who graded Oben higher than every single quarterfinal participant not named Jeremiah Smith.

Timely plays all around from the defense. Georgia got traction on their second drive and went 13 plays and 71 yards down to the Irish doorstep before Shuler forced the fumble. On the following possession, Golden’s crew locked in after the bomb to Arian Smith (and sideline interference penalty) to limit the damage to a field goal. After a troublesome touchdown drive where the Dawgs had guys running open all over the place, the defense closed the game with three consecutive fourth-down stops (once at midfield after the Irish were stopped themselves, once down in the red zone after a quality Georgia drive*, once on the four-and-out that ended the game).

* Technically stopped them twice on fourth down on that drive, as a questionable flag on Jack Kiser bailed them out on the first attempt.

4) A very early sign that things might go Notre Dame’s way was Mitch Jeter booming the opening kickoff through the endzone. Finally healthy, Jeter was a touchback machine all night and connected on all three field goal attempts from outside 40 yards. He was not the only transfer to shine on special teams, as Jayden Harrison — an All-American kick returner for the Thundering Herd last season — essentially buried the Bulldogs with the badass touchdown to open the second half. The number of guys who have stepped up all season in every phase of the game, it’s remarkable stuff. Another solid effort from James Rendell and a pretty great bit from Bryce Young getting flagged on consecutive snaps for punter abuse.

Kirby Smart is the current gold standard among active head coaches and Freeman dominated him just as he did Curt Cignetti in the prior round. It was Smart who mismanaged the end of the first half and gave Notre Dame the bonus touchdown, and it was Freeman who deployed the punt-into-going-for-it-into-offsides-drawn at a critical point in the fourth quarter. The Irish would have been happy to force Georgia into wasting a timeout like Indiana on the fake field goal — Denbrock called Smart “Mr. Timeout Guy” after the game — but an even better result.

I want to underline and bold a very correct decision by Freeman that didn’t work out. With six minutes left in the third quarter and a 10-point lead, Notre Dame went for it on fourth-and-short at midfield. A block was missed and the Irish didn’t convert, but you cannot play a certain style for 13.5 games then shrink because the lights are bright. One of the reasons you can feel comfortable going for it in that position is your defense is there to bail you out if need be, and that’s exactly what they did, forcing a four-and-out to get the ball right back. You have to dance with who brung ya.

(A somewhat strange thing: Notre Dame has been incredibly good at converting third/fourth-and-shorts this season, usually with Leonard taking a shotgun snap and bullying his way to paydirt. Despite this high success rate, there’s a sense people would prefer the Irish operate from under center in those situations because…it feels like that will be more successful? Or aesthetics? Not sure, but I’m a fan of plays that work at a high rate.)

Freeman would go for it again on fourth-and-one from the Georgia 24 up 10 in the fourth quarter, but the completion to Faison was taken off the board by a very sketchy flag. Then, of course, there was the aforementioned punt team fire drill that worked to perfection in drawing the offsides deep in Irish territory. The in-game decision making by Freeman over this lengthy winning streak has been almost spotless.

Tremendous work across-the-board from transfers, who were responsible for all 23 points in addition to Oben and the continued consistency from Jordan Clark and Rod Heard.

Fun fact from the game notes: “On 177 previous occasions to today’s Sugar Bowl, a Notre Dame player has started 13 games in a season. Today, Riley Leonard, Jeremiyah Love, Beaux Collins, Anthonie Knapp, Aamil Wagner, Jack Kiser, Drayk Bowen, Adon Shuler and Xavier Watts became the first Notre Dame football players to start 14 games in a season.” Kiser will be playing his 69th game in a Notre Dame uniform in a few days.

5) I am very happy for and proud of this team and their head coach. It’s nice and in no way a hindrance that the public at-large thinks Freeman is cool and is warming to this Notre Dame squad but I can genuinely say I do not care in the least beyond any positive effect it might have on recruiting or NIL deals. This has always been and will always be about us and how we feel about this team. If others are jealous or showing begrudging respect, great, but my primary concern will always be us getting to enjoy a great group of dudes doing the work well. When outside opinion inevitably shifts, we will still have each other and we will still have this program. Most importantly for the short term, we still have at least one more game with this team this season.

Because it seems like Penn State has been overranked a smidge all season, many observers have extrapolated that to “The Nittany Lions are frauds,” and I’m not sure there is much evidence of that. They have limitations — the wide receiver room is reminiscent of the one in South Bend, Drew Allar has had some very pedestrian days mixed in with better efforts — but they play great defense plus have two talented tailbacks and an elite tight end. They are in many ways a mirror of so many Notre Dame teams of recent vintage. A lot of advanced rating systems have them equal to and in some instances superior to Georgia, although it’s undeniable they’ve faced a charmed path to the semifinals with the Group of 5 champ and another team that was Group of 5 last season.

Penn State has had some duds with their rushing attack but they’ve excelled at times as well, going over 200 yards against 10-3 Citrus Bowl champ Illinois and nearly hitting 300 yards in the Big Ten title game. Is this where the absences along Al Washington’s defensive line finally catch up? Perhaps. The dark path looks something like the Lions keeping the Irish offense in check long enough to wear down Golden’s defense and spring a winner late via Nick Singleton and/or Tyler Warren. But the path to righteousness is clear: Limit explosive runs, bother Warren as much as you can, harass Allar into a bunch of sacks if not a turnover or two, let Leonard make some plays with his legs and hope James Franklin does some James Franklin things. Vegas projecting this game to be a disgusting knife fight in a phone booth sounds correct to me.

The Fighting Irish have made it this far, so hey why not win another one? Take care of business in a building that’s been a house of horrors and you get to play for the championship, and once you’re in a one-game winner-take-all situation anything can happen. This season has long been an official success and this team is officially a special one we will remember for a long, long time, but there’s still so much more that can be achieved. Keep going. Go Irish, Beat Lions.

1. Freeman on Leonard’s bowl performance: ”It just again confirms what we’ve all learned about him. He is an ultra-competitive individual that finds ways to get his job done. It’s never perfect but in the most crucial moments he’s gonna find a way. That’s through decision making, that’s through his legs, that’s through having to jump over somebody and flip on his head to get a first down. He's doing exactly what we asked him to do and he’s the first one, just like I would tell you about myself once more, he has more. I have more and we’ve got to find a way to get more. But he has done a job and he just finds a way.”