Notre Dame earned a hard-fought come-from-behind victory towards South Carolina within the Gator Bowl. The Irish trailed the Nineteenth-ranked Gamecocks 21-7 on the finish of the primary quarter earlier than rallying for a 45-38 win.

It was an entertaining recreation that had loads of actually actually spectacular points but additionally loads of areas the place enchancment is required. The important thing was getting the win and heading into the offseason with a 9-4 document, a bowl win and victories in six of the final seven video games.

We realized so much about what the Irish offense is, and might be, from the victory. Listed here are my key takeaways from the Notre Dame offense on this recreation.

The Good, The Unhealthy And The Good Of Tyler Buchner

Notre Dame bought again quarterback Tyler Buchner, who started the 2022 season because the starter earlier than happening with a shoulder harm. Buchner got here to Notre Dame with loads of hype after being ranked as a Prime 100 recruit that was a five-star participant earlier than lacking his senior season.

Buchner struggled for a lot of the primary two video games, particularly within the loss to Marshall. Towards South Carolina we noticed the playmaking brilliance that has some followers enamored together with his potential, we noticed the inconsistency that may frustrate coaches, and we noticed the large errors that has turned some followers off of him. That final one should not be the case, however that is the character of taking part in large time faculty soccer, endurance with some followers simply is not a factor.

Buchner completed the sport with a career-high 274 passing yards, he rushed for 61 extra yards and racked up a career-high 5 touchdowns within the win. Buchner averaged 15.5 yards per completion, which was the staff’s third greatest output of the season, trailing on his 17.7 towards Ohio State and the 15.8 towards Navy./

Among the throws he made had been large. The third-down drag throw he made to Jayden Thomas was the most effective single throws an Irish quarterback has made in years, and his off his again foot bomb to Braden Lenzy was an enormous a part of the victory.

Buchner’s potential to make performs together with his legs clearly provides an excessive amount of worth to the offense, and it performed a task within the success of the bottom recreation, which struggled early as South Carolina recreation deliberate to sluggish it down.

I may write a complete article speaking in regards to the big-time throws that Buchner made, and the way his potential to throw off platform and alter arm angles brings a lot worth to the offense, however you noticed it with your individual eyes.

In fact, that is not the one story from yesterday’s recreation. Two stats that weren’t within the above reward of Buchner is 3, 2 and 54.5. Three is the variety of interceptions Buchner threw, two of these picks had been returned for touchdowns, and the final was his completion share.

Buchner a number of layups within the recreation, starting with an early miss on a third-and-8 out throw to an open Jayden Thomas.

It’s spectacular that Notre Dame was capable of rating 45 factors and rack up 558 yards of offense (7.0 YPP) whereas turning the ball over thrice and having a go assault that was inefficient. It exhibits the large play potential the offense possesses with Buchner behind middle.

In fact, the rationale it was a 45-38 win as a substitute of a 45-31 win, or a 45-24 win, or perhaps a 52-24 win, is due to these errors. Shifting ahead, if Buchner can restrict the turnovers, throw with extra consistency and will extra of the layups the Irish offense has an opportunity to be fairly dynamic with him on the helm.

Evaluating Tommy Rees

Studying by means of the Champions Lounge board and studying by means of social media posts about final night time’s recreation there’s an excessive amount of deal with the fourth quarter play name that ended with a choose six and stored Notre Dame from blowing that recreation open.

It was a foul name, plain and easy. There’s no debating that, and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees tried to do an excessive amount of, or bought too cute, choose a phrase that makes you content. There have been different go calls that will have made extra sense, and making an attempt to run the soccer into the tip zone there would have been the perfect state of affairs.

Okay, can we transfer on from that decision now?

Take that play away and the remainder of what we noticed from Rees and the Irish offensive workers was excellent in lots of, some ways.

South Carolina was loading up the field like the remainder of Notre Dame’s early season opponents, and Notre Dame didn’t try to drive the run recreation into the sport plan. Notre Dame labored early to get the ball outdoors, and if not for some unforced errors the early offense would have been extra productive.

Considered one of my early points was that the run recreation was nonetheless to A Hole centric, with Duo nonetheless being the main target. We noticed another appears, however it was nonetheless a really downhill centered floor assault. At halftime, nonetheless, Rees and the offensive workers made changes and within the third and fourth quarter we noticed much more inside-out variation.

Notre Dame ran a quarterback counter trey for a landing and one other large outdoors run, we noticed them run the stretch play on a number of events within the second half, we noticed a fast pitch play and naturally there was a jet sweep early.

None of these outdoors runs had been large features, however they had been high quality features that mixed with the various perimeter go ideas to drive South Carolina to widen their alignments. Because the second half wore on Notre Dame began to put on the Gamecocks down, and the within runs began to open up.

Audric Estime bought issues going with two lengthy features, after which Logan Diggs ripped off a 39-yard landing run to offer the Irish their first lead of the sport, which got here within the fourth quarter.

Notre Dame had South Carolina on its heels all through the ultimate three quarters, and when the protection tried to regulate and discover solutions the Irish workers had solutions of their very own, typically occasions with these changes timing up with South Carolina adapting to what was already hurting them.

It was actually an excellent recreation plan, the execution was good for a lot of the sport and it allowed Notre Dame to outscore South Carolina 38-17 within the ultimate three quarters.

Irish Backfield Shines …. Once more

One of many issues I favored most in regards to the recreation plan was how successfully Rees used all three of the working backs. When Estime, Diggs and Chris Tyree are all a part of the sport plan, each within the run recreation and go recreation this season, the Irish offense has been very, very arduous to cease.

See the North Carolina recreation, see the Clemson recreation, and naturally, see final night time.

Rees used 20 personnel (2 backs, 3 receivers) for the primary time that I keep in mind this season. We noticed him hammer downhill with all three backs, however we additionally noticed Tyree and Diggs each get pictures at attacking off deal with or on the perimeter.

Estime, Diggs and Tyree mixed for 205 speeding yards (6.4 YPC) and so they hauled in seven passes for 99 yards. Diggs bought Notre Dame again within the recreation with a 75-yard catch and run on one of many many aforementioned go performs designed to get the ball to the perimeter.

Estime and Diggs mixed for a lot of that yardage, however it was Tyree that hauled within the third down reception that bought the Irish into the crimson zone on the game-winning dive.

When this backfield is getting used correctly, and all the weapons are getting used collectively, there’s little doubt that Notre Dame places one of many nation’s backfields on the sector.

They did all this with out the offensive line taking part in a classic recreation. It was good late, however the line has actually had higher video games, and the Irish nonetheless had a 5.7 yards per carry common, which was the second greatest end result of the season.

Third-Down Offense Shines

Notre Dame’s third down offense was largely ineffective for a lot of the primary half of the season. There was a recreation right here and there, however by means of six video games Notre Dame transformed simply 40% of its third down alternatives (32-80).

Notre Dame’s 11-19 efficiency towards South Carolina was indicative of an offense that was a lot, significantly better on third down following the loss to Stanford.

Notre Dame went 3-3 throughout that stretch of six video games with inconsistent, and infrequently ineffective, third down play.

Over the subsequent seven video games Notre Dame transformed 53.1% of his third down alternatives, and it went for 57.9% towards South Carolina. Notre Dame went 6-1 throughout that stretch.

Notre Dame completed the season ranked thirteenth nationally in third down offense. For context of how good Notre Dame was within the ultimate seven video games, if the offense went for 53.1% for all the 12 months Notre Dame would have completed second in third down offense.

Notre Dame transformed a pair of third downs on their first scoring drive, and the landing run by Buchner was a 3rd down name. The Irish transformed two extra third downs, together with a Third-and-12, to get a subject objective after falling behind 21-10.

Diggs’ 39-yard landing that gave Notre Dame its first lead was on a Third-and-2. On the game-winning drive Notre Dame transformed a pair of third downs earlier than Buchner hit Mitchell Evans for the rating on a Third-and-7.

Third down success was an important ingredient to Notre Dame’s Gator Bowl victory, and it was a really key ingredient to the 6-1 end.

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