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The Notre Dame Fighting Irish dominated the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets with a final score of 55-0 on Saturday. The Irish defended their home turf on senior day against long time opponent Georgia Tech and didn’t flinch even for a second. Tech falls to 3-8 on the season while ND moved to 10-1.
The Irish were bigger, faster, and more powerful than the Jackets. A team in the state of Georgia was out-athlete’d (not a real phrase but who cares at this point?!) by a team in Indiana. I’m aware that ND recruits nationally but Atlanta is still in GA aka the top state for high school football recruits in the modern era.
On the dash
Georgia Tech once again lost the money down on both sides of the ball. On offense, the Jackets were 3-for-15 on the afternoon. On defense, Tech gave up 5-of-11 3rd downs and 1-of-1 4th downs to the Irish offense.
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Neither team was penalized very much, which was a positive sign for the Jackets. GT was penalized five times for 40 yards. The Jackets turned the ball over twice and couldn’t force a turnover on Saturday afternoon.
Georgia Tech special teams stung them in the rear bumper once again. The Jackets missed a field goal, allowed a 51 yard kick return, a 19 yard punt return, and the Irish made all nine of their kicks, including two field goals. Tech also had a few questionable punts that were possibly shanked to avoid ND returners, or maybe just bad kicks.
GT offense
Jordan Yates started in place of the injured Jeff Sims and was under fire from the ND defense from the opening play. Yates finished with 96 yards passing on only 3.4 yards per attempt. Yates turned the ball over twice, once via interception and once via the Tech QB guarantee of a fumble.
The run game never really got going for GT. Jahmyr Gibbs did rush for 4.8 yards per carry but Tech ran for only 3.7 yards per carry as a team and Gibbs fumbled once (recovered by GT). Because of the constant pressure and Yates weaker arm, the Jackets had only one explosive pass play, a 22 yarder to Dylan Leonard.
The Irish defense finished with six sacks, 10 tackles for loss, and nine hurries. They also hauled in a pick six from Jack Kiser on a Yates forced throw to avoid a sack.
Above- GT attempts to block a ND rush end with a TE, meanwhile GT QB’s have no pocket awareness or a sense of when to just eat the football. I’m not sure why a slow developing play-action was the best idea against the Irish pass rush but here it is.
Above- After a big run, oh hey, another slow developing play-action that gets blown up before it starts. And Yates once again tries to do too much on a broken play and ND scoops up the fumble.
GT defense
The Wreck defense was gashed all day long. The back seven is one of the worst I’ve ever seen in pass defense. The Jackets also missed tackles and were out of position in the run game.
Tech picked up three sacks, five TFL’s, and three hurries on the afternoon. Jordan Domineck really stood out on defense logging a sack, a TFL, a PBU and two hurries. The Lakeland, FL native is a redshirt sophomore and could return for another season for Collins on defense.
ND QB Jack Coan averaged 14.3 yards per pass attempt and threw two TD’s. The Irish averaged 6.4 yards per carry and scored three times on the ground. Six Irish receivers hit the double-digit yards per catch mark. ND was explosive on offense from the jump and GT just didn’t have the speed to keep up.
Above- The ND line dominates the Tech line. The MLB gets caught up in the wash and the safety rotates down to get stiff armed into the turf. Complete domination from the weight room to the ball field.
Above- ND picks up the pressure from GT and Coan hits his TE in stride, wide open. A familiar scene in ‘21 for the GT faithful.
Above- ND produces some amazing athletes on the offensive line. Look at the patience to wait for blocking, but also how the OL moves to get out there on the screen. Then he just destroys the GT defender. This is a spread way of bullying guys.
In the rearview
Heading into the season everyone was aware that GT was facing a top-10, if not top-5 schedule in the way of difficulty. However, some growth was necessary, even if it was in between the lines. Turnovers, penalties, poor tackling, bad performances on both sides of 3rd down and injuries plagued the Jackets for another year under Coach Collins.
Of course, the Jackets end the season with the Georgia Bulldogs coming to Bobby Dodd Stadium for Clean old-fashioned hate. The Bulldogs are 96.9% favorites to win per ESPN. Tech hosts UGA at noon on ABC on Saturday, November 27th. The Dawgs are the #1 ranked team per Bill Connelly’s SP+. UGA is also 4th on offense, 1st on defense, and 31st in the kicking game. Tech is 85th overall, including 72nd on offense, 94th on defense and 105th in the kicking game.
Prediction: UGA by 40.