Sunday Couch QB: Notre Dame

By Josh Burton

Self-inflicted mistakes kept the University of Virginia football team from being able to keep the game competitive as they lost 35-14 to #8 Notre Dame in South Bend. The Hoos now sit at 5-5 (3-3 in ACC play) and have two chances to pick up a sixth victory and earn bowl eligibility.

Special Teams

I’m going to start with special teams because special teams were where the issues began. Chris Tyree couldn’t control the opening kick and Notre Dame recovered to get an immediate turnover and start their offense on the UVA 25 yard line. This play kind of set the tone for how the day was going to go, with multiple miscues by the Hoos forcing the defense onto the field suddenly and with a very short field to defend. 

The mishandles continued as Ethan Davies also fumbled on a punt return, although he was able to recover. The mishandles spread over to Notre Dame as well, as their return man muffed a fair catch that was recovered by Jonas Sanker.

Offense

The story of this game was mistakes by the Hoos, mainly stemming from offensive issues. Give credit where due, Notre Dame has one of the best defenses in the entire country, but most of the mistakes felt more like miscues from UVA than plays made by the Irish. An inability to move downfield was the big concern, as Notre Dame started four drives on the UVA side of the field and had an additional drive start from the 50.

Three of these short field situations came due to the struggles of quarterback Anthony Colandrea. Colandrea had three interceptions on the day, all coming with under four minutes left in the second quarter that resulted in short drives doubling Notre Dame's lead from 14 to 28 and essentially sealing the contest. These mistakes probably could have been avoided, as it felt like Colandrea’s inability to see the field and desire to make a play put him in situations where he was over aggressive in trying to force the issue. Senior QB Tony Muskett replaced Colandrea for the second half and played fairly well, throwing for over 100 yards and scoring both of the Hoos touchdowns. It’ll be interesting to see which way Coach Elliott decides to go against SMU next week.

Outside of the passing game, the run game had its issues as well. The biggest impact run of the day was quickly negated as Kobe Pace fumbled at the Notre Dame 12 yard line while the score was still 7-0. Ball security should be the main focus for the Hoos offense in practice this week.

Defense

Although the score doesn’t necessarily reflect it, I thought the defense played a great game. I thought they did a good job of disguising their rush and coverages and kept the Notre Dame offense in check for much of the game.

As mentioned earlier, the short fields and quick turnarounds made it tough for them to keep up the good play. Notre Dame dominated the time of possession with 34 minutes of control and over time the defense wore down.

But even with all that in mind, the defense played well. I thought the secondary did a pretty good job of containing the Notre Dame wide receivers and the pass rush did well in keeping the passing game uncomfortable. Trey McDonald was able to snag an interception near midfield on the opening drive of the second half. The Hoos also managed to hold Notre Dame to just 1-12 on third downs, although the Irish did convert 3-4 attempts on fourth down. 

Next

Going forward, the two big storylines are who will play quarterback and how healthy are the Hoos. During yesterday's game, multiple key players had to leave with various injury issues.

Next Saturday is senior day as the Hoos host #14 SMU and look to gain bowl eligibility. Locker Room Access is honoring two local senior standouts with Malachi Fields and Jonas Sanker gear available. Every dollar goes directly to the players, if you haven’t ordered yours yet you can find it here