Instant Analysis: What We Learned From Notre Dame @ Texas A&M

[Music] we planed for a defensive struggle for the last 6 months and in the end it ended up being the host agies struggling with Notre Dame's defense for 60 minutes this is IR Illustrated instant analysis brought to you by the RV manufactured housing Hall of Fame in Elkart Indiana and Tim prer fourth quarter Notre Dame owned the fourth quarter and I looked at you during that press conference and wondered alow is my offensive MVP the Notre Dame offensive line for their second half effort we certainly didn't expect that but Notre Dame ends up with 198 yards rushing and you're right Tim I mean f 5.8 yards per carry that's the end of it that's realiz yeah I mean I realized a couple long carries ends up skewing that a little bit but I mean what a what what a performance I you know I you come in here expecting it to be difficult it was but when you add up everything like you know pre- snap issues of course there were couple fall starts but there weren't any more than what Texas A&M had and I just you know they did a tremendous job on Nick scorton uh Marcus Freeman said that there wasn't anything special planned for him they didn't have to because Anthony knap handled them yeah and he would bounce over and tried to challenge Emil Wagner a couple times but it didn't really matter he couldn't make any Headway Nord Dame had 11 tur uh 11 penalties rather but like when the game was close you know I said you can't lose this game game cuz you're up two nothing in on the turnover margin and they didn't and they were outstanding in the in the fourth quarter Riley Leonard was 18 for 30 for 158 yards rushed for 63 yards we've got a lot of stuff to talk about here but uh Marcus Freeman was aggressive early in the third quarter when you wouldn't when you thought okay it's a it's a slugfest they have to punt the football they go for it and even at the end of the game you don't want to risk a block field goal but he confidently sends out Mitch Jeter and he kicks his third field goal his second 46 y of the night joined by John Bryce from football scoop.com as well and John I had a colleague say to me when we were walking out when's the last time we were in this part of the country and you saw Notre Dame as the faster Team Notre Dame was the faster team we talked about it we talked this week that we felt very strongly I think my term was Marcus Freeman Chad Bowden and the rest of that staff have so raised the floor of Notre Dame's athleticism and we saw that on display tonight and we see that uh when a guy like Leonard Moore is on special teams or Bryce young is on special teams all night Logan Thomas Logan Thomas exactly um playing in key situations as well late in the game trust there um as much in their athleticism and talent I believe as their knowledge of the system right now um to me Notre Dame owned the fourth quarter yes 8 minutes and 46 seconds time of possession 106 of Notre Dame's 350 yards of offense came in the fourth quarter on the road mind you before 107,5 Texas A&M only had 58 yards in the fourth quarter and yes Notre Dame had 11 penalties in the game they only had three in the fourth quarter and outscored their host 17-7 in the second half um obviously 10 10 of those points coming in the fourth quarter I'll have another penalty stat in a minute that's a mindblower I'm just telling you another odd stat is that jarian price he jarian price is the one that kind of helped not open up his offense a little bit in the third quarter with a 47 yard touchdown run it sure didn't seem like jarian price finished that game with 44 yards after that 47 yard cutback touchdown run but you're looking at the running backs you knew price and love would be a one-w punch at times we thought maybe price was about to take over this game but love in the end is the one that finally inside runs he was able to break free score the touchdown where you finally felt 20-3 John Bryce's predicted score almost came true it was 20 to 13 and you felt the defense will not give this up at that point no and they did a tremendous job against Conor wigman you know you watch what Connor wigman has done in his previous eight starts and you're impressed by it he finished badly 12 of 30 with two interceptions a total of 100 yard he made a lot of very poor throws Nord Dame's defense was was I mean absolutely outstanding and you know you you look at this and you say okay uh it's Mike elko's first year it's going to take a little bit of time but you're in this environment and you realize how difficult it's going to be and Nord Dame with stod everything that was thrown at them and what I the aggression to go for it on fourth and one in the third quarter just tells you that Marcus Freeman is fearless and when he has an opportunity to to put a nail in the coffin he'll do it look I said Marcus Freeman and Nord Dame had to prove it they absolutely proved it we talk about different players that we need to see it Drake Bowen we saw it from him Jaylen Ste had a very good we're going to do we're going to do Irish illustrate overtime we'll get into more of all of this but just a a you know it's a team that we hear that they believe but you hear that from every team every year they showed it tonight a lot of confidence in themselves and what they're capable of doing two things we knew about Riley Leonard and they're they're actually related incredible amount of grit and incredible amount of toughness he is a winner and that was his best trait today he he's going to struggle with some throws although he's not going to struggle with as many throws going forward without that defensive line harassing him when I said the offensive line was the MVP it's because they made it through the game and they were at their best in the fourth quarter they really had a battle on their hands prior I'm going to share this video shortly on Twitter I'm going to go ahead and tease it now with the uh edited version Gino guli hugs Riley Leonard on the field about the last two people from the Notre Dame contingent leaving the field Gino wraps him in a be hug and says you're an effing winner you're a winner and um Riley lyard proved that tonight in the toughest environment that Notre Dame will play in all season long I want to follow up on your all's great points on the coaching and the aggression there I thought that that Notre Dame won this game on all three headsets the head coach the defensive coordinator the offensive coordinator you could throw a fourth headset in there because Marty baji had to have shown enough from his special teams unit along with his analyst Jessie Smith that they trust Jeter in all three of those situations they were big situations but especially that last situation so I thought that that was huge from the coaching staff I really think that that Marcus Freeman got in Mike elco's head because he went for those two fourth Downs near Midfield got one didn't get the second one Elco came down and went twice on fourth down like a like a third or fourth and five or six didn't get it and then a penalty still went for it I thought that was a real turning point in the game a real stand by the Notre Dame defense finally I'm going going to deliver the stat I promise I've been waiting for the stat you should have been you you should have been you should you should be listening right now this is the third time in the Marcus Freeman era and and all three have been in the last two seasons that Notre Dame has committed 10 or more penalties in a game 11 tonight all three of those contests on the road all three of those contests victories for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at North Carolina State at Duke and tonight at Texas A&M yeah you know Mitch I want to throw in one more thing about Mitch Jeter because we saw him struggle in the spring we saw him Miss some in August he's kicked in this stadium before he's familiar with he's familiar with SEC venues and and what does he do he calmly comes in here he kicks two 46 yarders a 26 y um this is really really impressive team they've got they've got stuff to do I mean they're they're they were a little bit depleted did at defensive tackle at times tonight Howard cross was they were trying to mix him in there but there were periods where he wasn't playing we saw Riley Mills on the sideline he was completely gassed you don't have Gabe Rubio we're seeing heines and on getting pushed off the ball at times but they're still resilient enough to come back and make plays and and what what they hold them to 246 yards total offense Irish Illustrated instant analysis is now brought to you by the RV manufactured housing Hall of Fame Irish Illustrated overtime is coming up if we can find a spot up in the friendly confines of the agies Press Box for Tim prer and John Bryce I'm Tim Al thanks for joining us and we'll be on our YouTube channel and Facebook page soon final score n a 23 Texas A&M 13 [Music]