College Football Playoff Data Review: Notre Dame 23, Georgia 10

Tale of the stats from Notre Dame’s dominant, 23-10 Sugar Bowl win over Georgia.

Notre Dame football extended its 2024 win streak to 12 games with it’s decisive win over the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl. There’s a ton that’s significant about this win in the big scheme of things but this 12-team Playoff format means that we don’t get a chance to dig into any of it yet. The Irish have still got one, hopefully two, games left to play in their CFP march and that’s where all of the focus turns now.

So let’s piece together the data story from this 14^th data point and going into Notre Dame’s historical 15^th game of the season.

Scoring Summary

The 2024 Sugar Bowl’s final score was 23-10, in favor of Notre Dame. I’ve watched a lot of Notre Dame football so far this season and expected a slow start. Prepping myself mentally for that didn’t help at all and the first quarter still stressed me out beyond belief. Neither team scored so it wasn’t bad in terms of what matters but my stomach was in complete knots.

Notre Dame started cooking in the 2^nd quarter, though, and outscored Georgia 13-3 going into halftime. The 3^rd quarter was a tug-of-war and the teams matched each other 7-7. I think most folks’ nerves had settled down by the 4^th quarter and the Irish recorded another three points and held the Bulldogs scoreless to end the game.

Drive Summary – Notre Dame

One of the most defining characteristics of this 2024 Notre Dame squad is their ability to make the absolute most of opportunities when they arise, even though it isn’t always hen we on the side would like or expect them to come about. It’s particularly annoying to try and put together previews but super fun to review.

The Irish did their most impactful scoring work in the second quarter, starting off with Mitch Jeter coming through in really clutch moments. He hit a 44-yard field goal to cap off an 8-play, 49-yard drive. The offense followed up with a punt drive and then Jeter knocked in a 48-yard field goal on the heels of a 10-play, 32-yard drive.

The defense forced a pivotal turnover and the Irish offense quickly capitalized on the excellent field position with a 13-yard, 1-play touchdown drive. And in a stat flashback to the Indiana game, Notre Dame pulled off a 98-yard touchdown run/drive, this time coming via a kickoff return to open the 2^nd half.

There wasn’t anything remarkable from a stats perspective that Notre Dame did with the game’s late drives but there were a lot of more granular decisions made that were essential to locking in the final outcome.

Ball Movement

It wasn’t a great third down conversion day for either team. The Bulldogs had 12 opportunities, compared with the Irish’s 14. Notre Dame finished with the stat edge by converting only 28.6% of their third down conversion attempts. But the timing of when they did find success was key.

The first came in the 10-play, 32-yard field goal drive. The second was in the 8-play, 25-yard drive that ended with a turnover on downs in the third quarter. The last two occurred in the final, substantive drive that went for 12-plays, 41-yards and ate up 7:36 of game clock.

Offensive Summary

Georgia’s offense wound up with the high-level offensive advantage in the Sugar Bowl. They accounted for 55% of the game’s total offense and Notre Dame recorded 240 yards of offensive production.

The Bulldogs did their best work though the air and tallied up 234 passing yards, compared with Notre Dame’s 90 passing yards.

Notre Dame characteristically dominated on the ground and out produced Georgia 150 rushing yards to 62 rushing yards.

Passing Summary

Although Georgia had notably more pass attempts than Notre Dame, 32-24, both teams finished with the same 62.5% passing accuracy stat. The Bulldogs got 7.3 yards per catch while the Irish had 3.8 yards. But again, the details and the timing of when Notre Dame was able to find success are the only things that mattered in this game.

Rushing

Summary

Notre Dame finished the Sugar Bowl with 35 rushing attempts and Georgia recorded 29 attempts. The efficiency stats weren’t spectacular for either team, but the Irish had the significant advantage. They got 4.3 yards per carry while the Bulldogs ended the game with only 2.1 yards per rush attempt.

Details

Riley Leonard was Notre Dame’s rushing star and finished with 51% of the team’s overall production. The quarterback recorded 14 attempts that translated into 80 yards and 5.7 yards per carry. Running back Jadarian Price tallied up 10 attempts for 37 yards and Jeremiyah Love finished Round 2 with 19 yards.

Receiving

Detail

Jordan Faison added another dominant performance to his postseason resume. The two-sport receiver was responsible for 51% of the total yards through the air and had a final stat line of 4 catches for 46 yards. Beaux Collins only had one catch for 13 yards but was responsible for Notre Dame’s only offensive touchdown against Georgia. Tight end Mitchell Evans also made an important contribution and recorded three receptions for 22 yards.

Drive Summary – Georgia

This year’s defensive unit somehow continues to get better and better. The Bulldogs played this game without Carson Beck but their offense was far from hobbled. And the Irish defense still gave one of their most dominant performances.

Georgia marched 71 yards down the field on a 13-play drive early in the game and Notre Dame killed that momentum with a forced fumble. On their next attempt, Georgia called five plays for 55 yards to earn a field goal. They weren’t able to do much else until their 5-play, 63-yard touchdown drive in the 3^rd quarter.

The Bulldogs got three additional chances to make a comeback and called 19 plays for a net 71 yards. That broke down to 8 yards on the first try, 66 yards on the second and -3 yards on the last. But the key thing is that Notre Dame’s defense forced turnover on downs in all three situations.

The safeties continue to be the backbone of Notre Dame’s defense. Adon Shuler tallied up eight total tackles (five solo) and Xavier Watts had seven total tackles (six solo).

This is all feeling in the moment. If we’re talking about consistency and the energy he brings to the unit when he’s on the field, Xavier Watts has to be college football’s most impactful defensive player of the 2024 season.

Senior Jack Kiser and sophomore Drayk Bowen were the linebacker standouts. They recorded six total tackles a-piece and all six of Kiser’s were solo. Leonard Moore led the cornerback group in stats with five total tackles (four solo).

Notre Dame maintained a lot of pressure up front and finished with a collective nine tackles for loss. Defensive lineman Junior Tuihalamaka claimed two of those. He along with other defensive linemen RJ Oben and Donovan Hinnish also accounted for three of the team’s four sacks.

The Irish defense deflected five of Georgia’s pass attempts and Leonard Moore was responsible for two of those.

Linebacker Jaiden Ausberry recovered Georgias’s first fumble. RJ Oben forced the second and fellow lineman Tuihalamaka came up with the recovery.

Final Thoughts

I’ve gone full superstitious at this point and am hesitant to say too much coming out of this victory given there’s still a lot of high-level football to be played. But some words. I didn’t really get invested in Notre Dame football until high school and my sample is definitely limited but this is the most excited I’ve ever felt about an Irish team. And the program in general.

The defense played like they were possessed the entire game and the offense responded in kind by scraping and clawing for extra yards on every play. This team demonstrated to the world that as long as they’ve got a say in it, they won’t be denied in the war of attrition that this 12-team format is turning out to be. Next up!

Cheers and Go Irish!!