Notre Dame 28, BYU 20: OVERREACTIONS

Ok, Vegas. Vegas, Ok.

On Saturday night, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish went to work and got a MUCH needed victory against BYU. That would now be an 11-0 record in Shamrock Series games, and Marcus Freeman’s first win over a ranked team in three attempts. There were stressful times, but overall I actually enjoyed watching this game, something that doesn’t happen with every game.

Throughout the course of the games, we (especially me) might overreact to some things that happen in the games. That still happened on Saturday.

ND vs. BYU Overreactions

A lot of us said this or something similar in the second quarter. The Irish had 4th and 1 inside the 5, and ran a play from shotgun. It seemed insane, and many of us were questioning it. This could not have actually been the plan, but it did set it up nicely for the defense IMMEDIATELY to force a safety and get the ball back. It’s still a questionable offensive play call, but the overall outcome helped.

For context, this was in reference to the Irish kicking the FG after getting stopped on third down inside the 5 late into the 4th quarter. Blake Grupe hit a chip FG to make the lead 8 points. I understand the frustration, but the Irish were giving up big drives. If you go for it and miss, the touchdown could give BYU the game. It’s kinda splitting hairs, but all in all it ended up being the right move after the defense stepped up massively on BYU’s final drive.

For this overreaction, we are taking it back a few weeks. We were all really getting used to Pyne needing to be the QB. This was before the “DO YOUR FUCKING JOB” call, but we were all thinking this could be tough if Drew Pyne keeps playing like he did at the end of the Marshall game and the beginning of the Cal game. But, Pyne is now 3-0 as a starter, and he was looking really comfortable on Saturday night, getting Mayer and Thomas some great passes to go along with their awesome catches. Seems like we have a great competitor and overall good talent at QB.