Grades for the Notre Dame offense from its 23-17 loss at Georgia.
OFFENSE
The Notre Dame offense had some good moments in the road matchup against Georgia. The main being that from a physicality standpoint, the unit never backed down from the Bulldogs, even when the Irish fell behind 23-10 in the fourth quarter. They competed until the very end, and for that the unit deserves credit.
But moral victories aren’t why you come to Notre Dame, you come to Notre Dame to win these games, and the execution for the offense wasn’t nearly where it needed to be. Notre Dame is capable of playing much better against a team like Georgia than what we saw on Saturday night.
Notre Dame produced just 14 first downs in the game, totaled just 321 yards of offense and 5.3 yards per play. The offense was flagged for six penalties in the game.
The Irish ground game wasn’t used much, and when it was it didn’t produce much, with Notre Dame rushing for just 46 yards on 14 attempts. The pass game was the driving force in the game, and while it churned out 275 yards and generated a few big plays, the Irish averaged just 5.9 yards per attempt and 9.5 yards per completion. Both of those numbers are below average, as is the 4-13 on third-down that we saw from the offense.
Notre Dame went 3-3 in the red zone, but it was unable to turn a late second quarter 1st-and-10 from the 12-yard line into a touchdown due to a false start penalty, poor clock management and forcing a fade throw into double coverage.
You cannot make the number of mistakes that the Irish offense did when you play on the road against a team like Georgia and expect to win.
Grade: C
QUARTERBACK
Ian Book – Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book did a lot of good things against the Bulldogs. From the outset of the game it was obvious that the loud environment and massive nature of the game were not going to phase the Irish quarterback, who went 7-11 for 65 yards in the first half. Book completed his first three passes, and his only first drive miss was a poorly thrown go route.
